The moral limits of markets / The problem with meritocracy (Michael Sandel)
Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel argues with Julia about human dignity, consensual cannibalism, and the case in his new book, The Tyranny of Merit, that meritocracy is to blame for recent populist b...
8 Des 202059min
Deaths of despair / Effective altruism (Angus Deaton)
Economist and Nobel Laureate Angus Deaton discusses the rise in "deaths of despair" in the U.S. – deaths from drugs, alcohol or suicide. What's causing it, and how do we know? Also, Julia and Angus de...
24 Nov 20201h 4min
Are Boomers to blame for Millennials' struggles?
Rationally Speaking returns from hiatus with a look at a clash between two generations: Millennials, and their parents' generation, the Baby Boomers. Faced with stagnant wages and rising costs of educ...
9 Nov 202059min
Rationally Speaking #244 - Stephanie Lepp and Buster Benson on "Seeing other perspectives, with compassion"
This episode features a pair of interviews on a similar topic: First, Stephanie Lepp (host of the Reckonings podcast) discusses what she's learned from interviewing people who had a serious change of ...
30 Nov 201942min
Rationally Speaking #243 - Bryan Caplan on "The Case for Open Borders"
The idea of open borders -- letting people move freely between countries, taking a job wherever they can find a job they want -- is still a pretty fringe position, politically speaking. But economist ...
12 Nov 201949min
Rationally Speaking #242 - Keith Frankish on "Why consciousness is an illusion"
Philosopher of mind Keith Frankish is one of the leading proponents of "illusionism," the theory that argues that your subjective experience -- i.e., the "what it is like" to be you -- is a trick of t...
29 Okt 201943min
Rationally Speaking #241 - Thibault Le Texier on "Debunking the Stanford Prison Experiment"
The Stanford Prison Experiment is one of the most famous psychology experiments in history. For decades, we've been told that it proves how regular people easily turn sadistic when they are asked to r...
15 Okt 201954min
Rationally Speaking #240 - David Manheim on "Goodhart's Law and why metrics fail"
If you want to understand why things go wrong in business, government, education, psychology, AI, and more, you need to know Goodhart's Law: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to become a goo...
17 Sep 201959min
