Science writer Julia Belluz of Vox.com talks to EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the state of epidemiology, nutrition, and the relationship between obesity and metabolism.

Author and Physicist Alan Lightman talks about his book Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. This is a wide-ranging conversation on religion, science, transcendence, consciousness, impermanence, and whether matter is all that matters.

By Alice Temnick

What do ancient bazaars, the now defunct Sears catalogue,  and amazon.com have in common?  Which future platforms will enable us to share, charge for, or rent using our smartphones?  In this week's episode, frequent EconTalker Michael Munger and Russ Roberts cover many examples of the benefits we gain as transaction...

Economist and author Michael Munger of Duke University talks about his book, Tomorrow 3.0, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Munger analyzes the rise of companies like Uber and AirBnB as an example of how technology lowers transactions costs. Users and providers can find each other more easily through their smartphones,...

By Amy Willis

In this week's episode, EconTalk host Russ Roberts and Stanford University economist Ran Abramitzky explore the economic mystery of kibbutzim, communities in Israel that for many years were based on full equality in income. The greatest mystery of the kibbutz, according to Roberts, is just why that have lasted as long ...

Economist and author Ran Abramitzky of Stanford University talks about his book, The Mystery of the Kibbutz, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Abramitzky traces the evolution of the kibbutz movement in Israel and how the kibbutz structure changed to cope with the modernization and development of the Israeli economy. The...

Russian Literature Professor Kevin McKenna of the University of Vermont talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the characters, plot, and themes of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's masterpiece, In the First Circle. This is the second episode of the EconTalk book club discussing the book. The first episode--a discussion of ...

Philosopher and author John Gray talks about his latest book, Seven Types of Atheism, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Gray argues that progress is an illusion and that most atheisms inherit, unknowingly, a religious belief in progress that is not justified. While Gray concedes that technological know-how and scientifi...

Neil Monnery, author of Architect of Prosperity, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his book--a biography of John Cowperthwaite, the man often credited with the economic success of Hong Kong. Monnery describes the policies that Cowperthwaite championed and the role they played in the evolution of Hong Kong's e...

By Alice Temnick

Is there a role for government in “nudging” a more equal distribution of profits in the form of increased compensation to workers for their value-added activities? What is the truth about wage stagnation or slowing rates of wage growth in the U.S.? In this week's episode, journalist Noah Smith and EconTalk host...

Bloomberg Opinion columnist and economist Noah Smith talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about corporate control, wages, and monopoly power. Smith discusses the costs and benefits of co-determination--the idea of putting workers on corporate boards. The conversation then moves to a lively discussion of wages and mono...

Rodney Brooks, emeritus professor of robotics at MIT, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the future of robots and artificial intelligence. Brooks argues that we both under-appreciate and over-appreciate the impact of innovation. He applies this insight to the current state of driverless cars and other changes ...

By Amy Willis

This week, EconTalk host Russ Roberts welcomed back Yale University psychologist Paul Bloom to talk about a recent series of articles he wrote on the subject of cruelty. Over the course of their conversation, Roberts and Bloom explored the nature and roots of cruelty and applied their thoughts on cruelty to a wide arra...

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...