Emily St. John Mandel on Fact, Fiction, and the Familiar
When Tyler requested an interview with novelist Emily St. John Mandel, he didn't expect that reality would have in some ways become an eerie mirror of her latest books. And Emily didn't expect that it...
8 Apr 202055min
Ross Douthat on Decadence and Dynamism
For Ross Douthat, decadence isn't necessarily a moral judgement, but a technical label for a state that societies tend to enter—and one that is perhaps much more normal than the dynamism Americans hav...
25 Mar 20201h 7min
Russ Roberts and Tyler on COVID-19
Tyler and Russ Roberts joined forces for a special livestreamed conversation on COVID-19, including how both are adjusting to social isolation, private versus public responses to the pandemic, the cha...
19 Mar 20201h 19min
John McWhorter on Linguistics, Music, and Race (Live at Mason)
Who can you ask about the Great American Songbook, the finer Jell-O flavors, and peculiar languages like Saramaccan all while expecting the same kind of fast, thoughtful, and energetic response? Liste...
11 Mar 20201h 18min
Garett Jones on Democracy (More or Less)
Why is Garett Jones willing to write books about risky topics like the case for reducing democratic accountability? Is it the iconoclastic Mason econ culture? Supportive colleagues like Tyler? Those h...
26 Feb 202056min
Tim Harford on Persuasion and Popular Economics
To Tim Harford, mistakes are fascinating. "We often only understand how something works when it breaks," he says, explaining why there's such an emphasis on errors throughout his work. They also tend ...
12 Feb 202059min
Ezra Klein on Why We're Polarized
In his new book, Ezra Klein argues that polarization in America has become centered on partisan political identities, which has subsumed virtually every form of identity, be it where we live, what tea...
29 Jan 20201h 10min
Reid Hoffman on Systems, Levers, and Quixotic Quests
When Reid Hoffman creates a handle for some new network or system, his usual choice is "Quixotic." At an early age, his love of tabletop games inspired him to think of life as a heroic journey, where ...
15 Jan 20201h
