Tag: Sociology

Thomas Sowell on Social Justice Fallacies

Uncommon Knowledge | 15 September 2023 | 0h 42m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Thomas Sowell about his book Social Justice Fallacies. Discusses the consequences of our society’s quest for equality at the expense of merit. Criticizes the concept of systemic racism, arguing that even if every group in society is given an equal chance, groups will still end up with disparate income and education levels.

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Tibor Rutar: The Rise, Benefits, and Challenges of Liberal Democracies

The Dissenter | 7 August 2023 | 1h 39m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Tibor Rutar about his book Rational Choice and Democratic Government: A Sociological Approach. Discusses the rise and spread of democracy, the recent “democratic recession”, the 2008 economic crisis; rational choice theory, self-interest, and incentives; how much we should worry about average voters being uninformed; how market failure and government failure occur; where public choice analyses fail; whether democracy contributes to peace; and whether we should expect liberal-democratic capitalist societies to be more successful than authoritarian state-capitalist societies.

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The Future of Inequality: A Discussion with Mike Savage

The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones | 13 January 2023 | 0h 42m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Mike Savage about his book The Return of Inequality: Social Change and the Weight of the Past. Backgrounds the challenge that inequality poses to liberal democracy, arguing that inequality is returning us to a past dominated by empires, dynastic elites, and ethnic divisions.

I was prompted to look for this after reading David Brooks’ excellent article What if We’re the Bad Guys Here?

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Abolish Poverty: Matthew Desmond on How We Can Do It

The Next Big Idea | 23 March 2023 | 1h 02m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Matthew Desmond about his book Poverty, by America. Argues that affluent Americans are complicit in keeping poor people poor – prioritising the subsidisation of the middle class over alleviating poverty. Sets out a programme to end poverty in America.

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Alexandra Kalev – Getting to Diversity: What Works and What Doesn’t

The Dissenter | 13 March 2023 | 1h 06m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Alexandra Kalev about her book Getting to Diversity: What Works and What Doesn’t, co-authored with Frank Dobbin. Discusses an evidence-based approach to managing diversity. Argues that programmes targeting systemic discrimination work, but programmes seeking to change individual bias do not, and are unhelpful.

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Carolyn Chen on Work Pray Code

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast | 3 March 2022 | 0h 37m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Carolyn Chen about her book Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley. Explores how tech companies are bringing religion into the workplace in ways that are replacing traditional places of worship, blurring the line between work and religion and transforming the very nature of spiritual experience in modern life.

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Herbert Gintis on Game Theory, Evolution, and Social Rationality

Sean Carroll’s Mindscape | 13 September 2021 | 1h 29m | Listen Later | iTunes | Spotify
Interview with Herbert Gintis arguing that game theory, together with an expanded model of rational behaviour (that includes social as well as personally selfish interests) provides an understanding of human behaviour that integrates ideas from biology, economics, psychology, and sociology.

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Ashley Mears on Status and Beauty

Conversations with Tyler | 3 June 2020 | 1h 01m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Ashley Mears about her book Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit. Describes how young women exchange “bodily capital” for free drinks and access to glamorous events, boosting the status of the big-spending men they accompany. Discusses modelling, the economics of bottle service, which kinds of men seek the club experience (and which can’t get in), why to be suspicious of restaurants filled with beautiful women, why club music is so loud, why party girls don’t want to be paid, what it’s like to be scouted, why fashion models don’t smile, how her own beauty and glamour have influenced her academic career, and more.

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