Hollis Robbins on 19th Century Life and Literature
As a graduate student, Hollis Robbins helped Henry Louis Gates, Jr. unravel a mystery about the provenance of a mid-19th century book. Robbins helped date the book by discovering allusions to popular ...
28 Aug 201950min
M. Gessen on the Ins and Outs of Russia
What sort of country would compel you to flee it, draw you back ten years later, then force you away yet again after two decades? M. Gessen knows the answer all too well, having dedicated their career...
14 Aug 20191h 8min
Kwame Anthony Appiah on Pictures of the World
Born to a Ghanaian father and British mother, Kwame Anthony Appiah grew up splitting time between both countries — and lecturing in many more — before eventually settling in America, where he now teac...
31 Jul 20191h 1min
Neal Stephenson on Depictions of Reality
If you want to speculate on the development of tech, no one has a better brain to pick than Neal Stephenson. Across more than a dozen books, he's created vast story worlds driven by futuristic technol...
17 Jul 201954min
Eric Kaufmann on Immigration, Identity, and the Limits of Individualism
Going back and forth between Canada and Japan during his childhood sparked Eric Kaufmann's interest in the question of identity. As a foreigner in an international school, he encountered young individ...
3 Jul 201956min
Hal Varian on Taking the Academic Approach to Business
Before he became the Adam Smith of Googlenomics, Hal Varian spent decades as an academic economist, writing influential papers, a popular book about the information economy, and several textbooks tha...
19 Jun 201956min
Russ Roberts on Life as an Economics Educator
What are the virtues of forgiveness? Are we subject to being manipulated by data? Why do people struggle with prayer? What really motivates us? How has the volunteer army system changed the incentives...
5 Jun 20191h 1min
Ezekiel Emanuel on the Practice of Medicine, Policy, and Life
Ezekiel Emanuel is a reflection of his upbringing: a doctor for a father who loved to travel, a mother interested in policy and community activism, and all the competition and friendship that comes wi...
22 Mai 20191h 2min
