By Amy Willis

Have you ever been on a roll- like a Steph Curry at Madison Square Garden roll? If so, you may have experienced the "hot hand." Or maybe you played roulette at a casino, and you just knew which color would come up next. Are those "rolls" the same? Are they even real? In this episode, host Russ Roberts welcomes B...

How much has racism held back the U.S. economy? What would the country look like today if Black entrepreneurs and inventors had been welcomed and encouraged over the past century and a half? Economist Lisa Cook of Michigan State University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about her research into the impact of raci...

By Amy Willis

This episode is all about personal and intellectual journeys. Host Russ Roberts welcomes Bob Chitester, the man behind Milton Friedman's legendary Free to Choose PBS television series. Chitester describes how that project came to be, and both he and Roberts share many memories of Friedman and his compatriots. It's a lo...

Once upon a time, a man had an idea for a documentary on free-market ideas. Then that man was introduced to Milton Friedman. The result of their collaboration was a wildly successful book and PBS series, Free to Choose, capturing Friedman's view of the world, how markets work, and the role of individual liberty in free...

By Alice Temnick

Matt Asher, host of the podcast “The Filter”, is a self-proclaimed fan of the long-running podcast, Econtalk, and of its host, Russ Roberts. Asher’s primary goal in this multi-faceted discussion was to reveal the epistemology of Russ Roberts and what has shaped, changed, and encouraged the world view that he shar...

How do we prepare for a future that is unpredictable? That's the question at the heart of Margaret Heffernan's new book, Uncharted: How to Navigate the Future. Heffernan is a professor at the University of Bath, but she is also a serial entrepreneur, a former CEO, and the author of five books on leadership, innovation,...

By Amy Willis

What's the difference between invention and innovation, and which conributes more to our everyday lives? In this episode, EconTalk host Russ Roberts welcomes back Matt Ridley to discuss his newest book, How Innovation Works. Ridley's book vividly illustrates that "innovation is the child of freedom and the paren...

What's the difference between invention and innovation? Could it be that innovation--the process of making a breakthrough invention available, affordable, and reliable--is actually the hard part? In this week's EconTalk episode, author Matt Ridley talks about his book How Innovation Works with EconTalk host Russ Robert...

By Amy Willis

Over 1,000 people are killed by police in America each year. While some (increasingly) make headlines, most of these deaths go generally unknown. In this episode, criminologist Franklin Zimring joins host Russ Roberts to dig into this uniquely American phenomenon. Zimring begins by noting there are two ways the ...

Franklin Zimring's 2017 book, When Police Kill, starts with an alarming statistic: Roughly 1,000 Americans die each year at the hands of police. Zimring, criminologist and law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, talks about his book with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Zimring argues that better policing...

By Amy Willis

What are the essential features of the university? What features should survive and what might not in the wake of COVID? In this, our 750th (!) episode, EconTalk host Russ Roberts welcomes back "the Cy Young of EconTalk guests," Mike Munger to discuss the future of higher education. Munger believes "top" schools can...

In this 750th (!) episode, Duke University's Michael Munger talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about whether the pandemic might create an opportunity for colleges and universities to experiment and innovate. Munger is Professor of Political Science, Economics and Public Policy at Duke. He believes "top" schools can ...

By Amy Willis

How are we to distinguish whether government or the market is a better solution to a particular problem? In this episode, EconTalk host Russ Roberts takes on a listener's question with his colleague Don Boudreaux. Boudreaux criticizes the mainstream economics approach, charging that it's looking for market failures whe...

Journalist and author Ben Cohen talks about his book, The Hot Hand, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. At times in sports and elsewhere in life, a person seems to be "on fire," playing at an unusually high level. Is this real or an illusion? Cohen takes the listener through the scientific literature on this question and ...

By Alice Temnick

This episode of The Jolly Swagman Podcast, hosted by Joseph Noel Walker took place on April 3, 2020, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts as guest.  Though recorded early into the pandemic, their conversation remains relevant today. Walker and Roberts converse freely, often about what constitutes meaningful conversation an...

By Amy Willis

EconTalk host Russ Roberts has long been sharing his skepticism of economics' growing empiricism with listeners. In this episode, the conversation turns radical. Roberts welcomes economists John Kay and Mervyn King to talk about their book, Radical Uncertainty. So what does radical uncertainty mean? Rationality is d...