Yale University psychologist Paul Bloom talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about cruelty--what motivates cruelty, the cruelty of small acts that accumulate into something monstrous, and the question of whether the abuse of a robot is a form of cruelty.

By Amy Willis

In this week's special episode of EconTalk, host Russ Roberts welcomed first-time guest and professor of Russian language and literature Kevin McKenna, of the University of Vermont. In what will be the first of a series on Solzhenitsyn's novel, In the First Circle, the two discuss Solzhenitsyn's life and times, and pa...

Russian Literature Professor Kevin McKenna of the University of Vermont talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the life and times of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. This is the opening episode of the EconTalk Book Club for Solzhenitsyn's masterpiece In the First Circle: The First Uncensored Edition. A subsequent episode t...

By Amy Willis

Is nationalism, for all its flaws, to preferred over a system of global governance? This week's EconTalk guest, Yoram Hazony, thinks the answer is "yes." He argues that the nation-state cannot be justified on individualist grounds; the much lauded Enlightenment trinity of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau only leads us astra...

Yoram Hazony discusses his book, The Virtue of Nationalism, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Hazony argues that nationalism, for all its flaws, is a better system than a global system of governance. He argues that while the competition between nationalist states can lead to violence, the opportunity for each nation to ...

By Amy Willis

Psychologist and author Charlan Nemeth joined EconTalk host Russ Roberts this week to talk about her new book, In Defense of Troublemakers, which explores the power of groupthink as well as that of the persistent dissenter. Lack of authentic conversation and civility in our discourse has been a frequent topic here of ...

Psychologist Charlan Nemeth of the University of California, Berkeley and author of In Defense of Troublemakers talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas in the book--the power of groupthink, the power of conviction, and the opportunity for an authentic, persistent dissenter to have an impact on a group's d...

By Amy Willis

Should Democrats go to more NASCAR races? How can we connect with others who don't share our political views in non-political settings? This question is explored toward the very end of this week's conversation between EconTalk host Russ Roberts and University of Maryland political scientist Lilliana Mason. Mason's new...

Political scientist Lilliana Mason of the University Maryland and author of Uncivil Agreement talks about the book with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Mason argues that political partisanship has become stronger in America in recent years because it aligns with other forms of community and identity. People are associating...

By Amy Willis

If there was a simple health care intervention that could decrease the likelihood of hospitalization, improve your mental health, and cost less, it would a be a no-brainer, right? Well that's exactly what physician and economist David Meltzer thinks he has uncovered. In this week's episode, EconTalk host Russ Roberts s...

Physician David Meltzer of the University of Chicago talks about the power of the doctor-patient relationship with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Meltzer, who also has a Ph.D. in economics, discusses a controlled experiment he has been running to measure the importance of maintaining the continuity of doctor-patient relat...

By Amy Willis

The subtitle of the book which is the focus of this week's conversation is, appropriately, "The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe." It's a tough listen, but also I think an important one. Host Russ Roberts talks with the author, Frank Dikotter, an historian from the University of Hong Kong, who has done e...

Historian Frank Dikötter of the University of Hong Kong and author of Mao's Great Famine talks about the book with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Dikötter chronicles the strategies Mao and the Chinese leadership implemented to increase grain and steel production in the late 1950s leading to a collapse in agricultural ou...

By Amy Willis

Immigration is a topic still dominating the news. How people feel about the characteristics of immigrants in heir home countries, and how these characteristics lead them to feel about providing welfare benefits to them, was the topic of this week's episode with Alberto Alesina of Harvard University. Alesina and his col...

Alberto Alesina of Harvard University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about how people in the US and five European countries perceive the population and characteristics of legal immigrants. Reporting on research with Armando Miano and Stefanie Stantcheva, Alesina finds that individuals systematically overestimate...

Teppo Felin of the University of Oxford talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about perception, cognition, and rationality. Felin argues that some of the standard experimental critiques of human rationality assume an omniscience that misleads us in thinking about social science and human capability. The conversation in...