[Listener Survey of 2018: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TCWSC3J. Vote for your favorites!] This week, historian and author Stephen Kotkin of Princeton University and Stanford University's Hoover Institution talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the historical significance of the life and work of Aleksandr Solzhe...

By Amy Willis

Where does your health insurance come from? If you're an American, odds are you get it through your employer. But that's a relatively unique circumstance compared to the rest of the world. Why are Americans so much more likely to be insured through their employers? And is this a good way to insure people's health? In t...

[Listener Survey of 2018: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TCWSC3J. Vote for your favorites!] This week, economist Ed Dolan of the Niskanen Center talks about employer-based health insurance with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Dolan discusses how unusual it is relative to other countries that so many Americans get their hea...

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By Amy Willis

Is tribalism an unalloyed "bad?" Do we need to be a part of a tribe? The standard of living nearly all of us enjoy today far surpasses that of royalty from only a few generations ago. How should we understand the pitfalls of modernity and wealth, and what should we do about them? This week's episode was a powerful w...

Journalist and author Sebastian Junger talks about his book Tribe with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Junger explores the human need to be needed and the challenges facing many individuals in modern society who struggle to connect with others. His studies of communal connection include soldiers in a small combat unit and ...

Economist and author Mariana Mazzucato talks about her book The Value of Everything with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Mazzucato argues that economists have mismeasured value and have failed to appreciate the role of government as innovator. She argues for a more active role for government in the innovation process and f...

By Amy Willis

What are mind-body problems? Are they problems of science? Philosophy? Economics? Theology? The latest EconTalk guest, science writer John Horgan, calls them the problem of who we are, the very problems posed by human nature. This week's conversation explores these questions and more, getting to heart of what it reall...

Science journalist and author John Horgan talks about his book, Mind-Body Problems, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Horgan interviewed an array of scientists, philosophers, and others who have worked on consciousness, free-will, and what it means to be human. Horgan argues that no single solution to the problems in th...

By Amy Willis

In this week's episode, host Russ Roberts returns to the question of the Enlightenment- and the extent to which we have lost its legacy. Continuing with a theme started on EconTalk by Patrick Deneen, continued by Richard Reinsch, and then Yoram Hazony. So much how progress have we made in the enterprise of Enlightenmen...

Peter Berkowitz of Stanford University's Hoover Institution talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the origins of liberalism and the importance of John Locke. Berkowitz defends the liberal project of individual rights and liberty and argues that critics of Locke mischaracterize his thought. The conversation closes...

By Amy Willis

What's wrong with economic education today? That's the question at the heart of this week's EconTalk, in which host Russ Roberts welcomes Maeve Cohen, Co-director of Rethinking Economics to the show. Cohen argues for a more "human-centered" approach to economics, and she and Roberts find much to agree about. Both worry...

Maeve Cohen, Co-director of Rethinking Economics, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about her organization and its efforts to change economics education. Cohen, who co-founded the Post-Crash Economics Society, argues for a more human-centered approach to economics that would be less confident in its policy prescrip...

By Amy Willis

2018 marks ten years since the advent of the 2008 Financial Crisis, an event to which all of Econlib, including EconTalk, devoted a great deal of space. In this week's episode, host Russ Roberts welcomes back Stanford University professor of finance and economics Anat Admati to revisit the Crisis. Of this seminal event...

Anat Admati of Stanford's Graduate School of Business talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the financial crisis of 2008, the lessons she has learned, and how it has changed her view of economics, finance, and her career.

By Amy Willis

In this week's perfectly timed (for American Thanksgiving) episode, EconTalk host Russ Roberts welcomes author A.J. Jacobs to talk about his latest book, Thanks a Thousand. Jacobs describes an inspiring journey of gratitude, in which he sought to thank ALL the people who contributed to his enjoyment of his daily coffee...