Economist and author Michael Munger of Duke University talks about human wants and desires with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Human beings have desires about our desires. Can we change what we want? And how should economists and normal human beings think about doing the right thing, what we often call morality? Is acting...

Would the impact of the pandemic have been different if government and policymakers had been more open to more market-based responses and less committed to a top-down approach? Economist John Cochrane of Stanford University's Hoover Institution talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the pandemic and the policy res...

By Amy Willis

What's the best way to really learn about life in another community? Is it ever possible for industry to really connect with a community? In this episode, author Lamorna Ash describes her experiences in a Cornish fishing villages- and time spent working on a trawler- to EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Ash first vis...

Poet and author Dana Gioia talks about his book Studying with Miss Bishop with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. They talk about the craft of being a poet, the business world, mentorship, loss, why poetry no longer seems to matter, and how it might begin to matter again.

Lamorna Ash talks about her book Dark, Salt, Clear with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Ash leaves London and moves to the small fishing village of Newlyn, near where her mother grew up on the Cornish coast. In Newlyn, everything revolves around fishing. Ash gets herself a bunk on a trawler and quickly learns how to gut fi...

By Amy Willis

Why do we help strangers? Is there a genetic basis for compassion? Or does evolutionary biology tell us a just-so story about why we care for others? These questions lie at the heart of this conversation between EconTalk Russ Roberts and Michael McCullough, who joined Russ to talk about his new book, The Kindness of S...

Author and psychologist Michael McCullough of the University of California, San Diego talks about his book The Kindness of Strangers with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. McCullough traces the history of human empathy and tries to explain why we care about the welfare of people we don't even know.

By Amy Willis

How deep has your experience with reading William Shakespeare been? Is that experience tied to your formal education, the theater or movies, or your own personal reading? Do you prefer the comedies to the tragedies, or vice versa? Perhaps you love his sonnets best? In this episode, EconTalk host Russ Roberts wel...

Author Scott Newstok of Rhodes College talks about his book, How to Think Like Shakespeare, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Newstok draws on Shakespeare and other great writers and thinkers to explore the nature of education and the life well-lived.

By Amy Willis

If we want to combat violence in the world, what's the best way to go about it? Perhaps thinking of people like Pablo Escobar, Joseph Kony, and Osama Bin Laden as criminals is insufficient. What if we were to think of them instead as entrepreneurs? What if we assessed their actions and organization as a venture capital...

Economist and author Gary Shiffman of Georgetown University talks about his book, The Economics of Violence, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Shiffman argues that we should view terrorism, insurgency, and crime as being less about ideology and more about personal expression and entrepreneurship. He argues that approach...

By Amy Willis

What does it mean to think about politics realistically rather than romantically? What should economists really do? And is what they do (too) wrapped up in the materialistic pursuit of utility maximization? These  are just some of the questions that Nobel laureate James M. Buchanan tried to answer in his life's work. ...

Economist and author Don Boudreaux of George Mason University discusses the life and work of the economist James Buchanan with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Buchanan received the Nobel Prize in 1986 for his work creating and developing public choice--the field which applies the tools of economics to politicians and polit...

By Amy Willis

Have you been dreaming of driverless cars like EconTalk host Russ Roberts? Well, author Matthew Crawford might turn your dreams into nightmares. Crawford joins Roberts in this episode to discuss his book, Why We Drive: Toward a Philosophy of the Open Road. Crawford is a devotee of serendipity, and finds the open road- ...

Author Matthew Crawford talks about his book Why We Drive with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. The conversation is about driving but also much more: how human beings interact with technology and what we gain and give up when we embrace technology driven by corporate profit-seeking.

Author Michael Blastland talks about his book The Hidden Half with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Blastland argues that the deeper you delve into science, medicine, astrophysics--pick a topic--the more you realize there is a lot we don't understand. Things we can't explain. Blastland believes we would all do well to admit...