Author and professor Janine Barchas of the University of Texas talks about her book, The Lost Books of Jane Austen, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. The conversation explores Austen's enduring reputation, how the cheap reprints of her work allowed that reputation to thrive, the links between Shakespeare and Austen, how...

By Amy Willis

Have you "gone Kondo" on your home yet? Have you embraced a minimalist aesthetic? What happens to all the "stuff" that no longer sparks joy in our lives? That's the subject of this week's episode. EconTalk host Russ Roberts welcomes author Adam Minter to talk about his new book, Secondhand: Travels in the New Global ...

[Listener Survey of 2019: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/9Q97F9V. Vote for your favorites!] Journalist and author Adam Minter talks about his book Secondhand with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Minter explores the strange and fascinating world of secondhand stuff--the downsizing that the elderly do when they move to small...

By Amy Willis

Are you ready for the robots?!?!?   This week, EconTalk host Russ Roberts returned to the topic of artificial intelligence (AI), welcoming computer scientist Melanie Mitchell to talk about her new book, Artificial Intelligence:  A Guide for Thinking Humans. So what should  thinking humans such as yourselv...

Computer Scientist and author Melanie Mitchell of Portland State University and the Santa Fe Institute talks about her book Artificial Intelligence with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Mitchell explains where we are today in the world of artificial intelligence (AI) and where we might be going. Despite the hype and excitem...

By Alice Temnick

In this week's episode, Kimberly Clausing discusses Open: The Progressive Case for Free Trade, Immigration, and Global Capital with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Clausing identifies geographic regions in the United States where large groups of people struggle from the job displacement consequences of trade for long perio...

Economist and author Kimberly Clausing of Reed College talks about her book Open with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Clausing, a self-described progressive, argues that the United States should continue to embrace free trade but she argues for other interventions to soften the impact of trade on workers and communities.

Journalist and author Joe Posnanski talks about his book, The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Posnanski explores the enduring fame of Houdini who remains an iconic cultural figure almost a century after his death. Topics discussed include the nature of celebrity, the nature of ambi...

By Amy Willis

In his recent book, The Economist's Hour, New York Times columnist Binyamin Appelbaum argues that free-market ideology has triumphed... unfortunately. In this week's episode, EconTalk host Russ Roberts welcomes Appelbaum to discuss whether faith in free markets has indeed gone too far.   Appelbaum casts Milt...

Journalist and author Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times talks about his book, The Economists' Hour, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Appelbaum blames the triumph of free-market ideology for the rise in inequality and the decline in growth rates over the last half-century. The result is a lively, civil conversati...

By Amy Willis

In this week's episode, EconTalk host Russ Roberts welcomed back Stanford University political scientist Terry Moe to talk about his new book,  The Politics of Institutional Reform. Much of the conversation focuses on the after-effects of Hurricane Katrina on the New Orleans school system, but along the way, Moe's g...

Political Scientist and author Terry Moe of Stanford University talks about his book, The Politics of Institutional Reform with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Moe explores the politics and effectiveness of educational reform in the New Orleans public school system in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Moe finds that poli...

Psychologist and author Gerd Gigerenzer of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development talks about his book Gut Feelings with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Gigerenzer argues for the power of simple heuristics--rules of thumb--over more complex models when making real-world decisions. He argues that many results in beh...

Sociologist Susan Mayer of the University of Chicago talks about her book What Money Can't Buy with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Mayer reports on her research which found that giving poor parents money had little measured effect on improving the lives of their children. She emphasizes the importance of accurately unders...

By Amy Willis

Can you imagine a surgeon who tells a patient they don't need surgery to ameliorate their condition? According to doctor-entrepreneur Keith Smith, this often happens at the Surgery Center of Oklahoma, of which he is a founder. In this week's episode, EconTalk host Russ Roberts invited Dr. Smith to describe how this co...

Entrepreneur and Anesthesiologist Keith Smith of the Surgery Center of Oklahoma talks with host Russ Roberts about what it's like to run a surgery center that posts prices on the internet and that does not take insurance. Along the way, he discusses the distortions in the market for health care and how a real market fo...