Sociologist and author Mark Rank talks about his book, Poorly Understood, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Rank looks at a wide variety of aspects of poverty. He argues that many widely-held views on poverty are inaccurate, and in particular he argues that most Americans will be poor at some point in their lives. Thi...

By Amy Willis

How can you tell if you're really happy? What makes other people happy? Are these empirical questions that can be answered? In this episode, EconTalk host Russ Roberts continues his exploration of happiness studies with psychologist Emiliana Simon-Thomas of UC Berkeley. From our many previous episodes on happiness, we ...

Psychologist Emiliana Simon-Thomas of the University of California, Berkeley talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the science of happiness--what research can teach us about happiness.

By Amy Willis

If you're like me, it seems surreal that we entered the pandemic over one year ago.  One year ago, we were scared and uncertain. Today, many of us are starting to re-emerge. What did we learn from this experience? Are there any silver linings? What of the vagary of predictions put forth early in the pandemic? How many...

Blogger, author, podcaster, economist Tyler Cowen of George Mason University discusses the lessons learned from the pandemic with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Appearing roughly one year after his first conversation on the pandemic, Cowen revisits the predictions he made then and what he has learned for the next time.

Max Kenner, founder and executive director of the Bard Prison Initiative--which offers college degrees to prisoners--talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the program, which replicates the coursework of students at Bard College. The Bard Prison Initiative was profiled in a four-part PBS documentary, College Behin...

By Amy Willis

Megan McArdle, Washington Post columnist and previous EconTalk guest, joined host Russ Roberts in this episode to discuss the "dazzling hindsight" with which we view recent crises. Why can't we seem to get it right in crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent Texas energy crisis? And why don't we seem to learn f...

Whether it's a pandemic or a Texas-sized ice storm that leaves millions of people without power, we'd like to avoid a repetition. Megan McArdle of the Washington Post talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the challenge of learning the right lessons from the current crisis in order to prevent the next one. McArdle...

Psychologist and author Sherry Turkle of MIT talks about her book, The Empathy Diaries, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. The Empathy Diaries is a memoir about Turkle's secretive family and how that secrecy turned Turkle into an acute observer, skilled at revealing the story behind the story. She also chronicles the ear...

By Amy Willis

What does it mean to really be happy- to experience what the Greeks called eudaimonia? And how can a centuries old text help you achieve it? In this episode, EconTalk host Russ Roberts welcomed a long-time teacher-and reader- of classic works, Leon Kass, to explore this question. The conversation revolves a grea...

Leon Kass, long-time teacher of classic works at the University of Chicago and now Dean of Faculty at Shalem College in Jerusalem, talks about human flourishing with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Drawing on an essay from his book, Leading a Worthy Life, Kass gives a broad overview of Aristotle's ideas on how to live. Th...

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

Does poetry matter less than it once did? Poet and author Dana Gioia says America is living a cultural paradox: "There has never been a country in the history of the world that has paid more people to profess poetry." Yet, it seems we've missed the mark. In this episode, EconTalk host Russ Roberts welcomes Gioia to ...

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.

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...