Tag: The Jordan Harbinger Show

Vince Beiser | Why Sand Is More Important Than You Think It Is

The Jordan Harbinger Show | 20 September 2018 | 1h 02m | Listen Later | Spotify
Interview with Vince Beiser about his book The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization. Argues that without sand civilization as we know it could not exist. Explains that sand is used to make concrete, glass, asphalt, silicon chips, and smartphones; usable sand is finite; there’s a black market for sand, sand pirates; and more.

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Tom Wainwright | How to Run a Drug Cartel

The Jordan Harbinger Show | 6 August 2020 | 1h 10m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Tom Wainwright about the harrowing and sometimes grisly experiences he endured while writing Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel. Discusses the parallels between the drug trade and regular businesses; how ideas of economics and business apply to any entrepreneurial or business venture; how drug cartels engage in corporate social responsibility, branding, and even PR campaigns; why drug cartels franchise, regulate labour, branch out online, and diversify into legal (and ubiquitous) industries; how an economist gets discovered wearing a GPS device to a meeting with a drug lord and lives to tell the tale; and more.

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Ozan Varol | How to Think Like a Rocket Scientist

The Jordan Harbinger Show | 14 April 2020 | 0h 50m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Ozan Varol about his book Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life. Discusses how to apply first-principles thinking in your life; how to reverse your own processes to find the holes in your logic; the benefits of bringing in outside expertise that has seemingly nothing to do with the problem you’re trying to solve; why brainstorming all the reasons your idea might fail may just ensure its long-term success; how to reframe questions and generate insights you may have missed; and more.

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Jamie Metzl | Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity

The Jordan Harbinger Show | 19 September 2019 | 1h 02m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Jamie Metzl about his book Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity. Discusses genetic engineering’s rapid progress, why today’s beneficial genetic traits that may turn out to be ephemeral, the dangers of selectively editing out genes that cause disorders, why China is poised to excel in the application of genetic science, why equity and diversity remain important, and more.

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John Tierney | Harnessing the Power of Bad

The Jordan Harbinger Show | 13 February 2020 | 1h 25m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with John Tierney about his book The Power of Bad: How the Negativity Effect Rules Us and How We Can Rule It. Discusses our negativity bias, how we can overcome it, a low-bad media diet to avoid succumbing to despair, why the worst person at your workplace has the power to passively drag the whole team down beyond the abilities of the best person to bring it up, the negative golden rule, and more.

(This is the book recommended by Matt Ridley in his interview on the Five Good Questions podcast)

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