Podcasts · Education · Society & Culture

Conversations with Tyler

Mercatus Center at George Mason University

300 episodes

Tyler Cowen engages today's deepest thinkers in wide-ranging explorations of their work, the world, and everything in between. New conversations every other Wednesday. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Episodes page 2 of 6

  1. John Arnold on Trading, Energy, and Evidence-Based Philanthropy

    · 1 h 05 min · Episode 244

    John Arnold built his fortune in energy trading by surrounding himself with smart people, maintaining emotional detachment, sensing market imbalances through first-principles analysis, and focusing with laser intensity…

  2. Theodore Schwartz on Neurosurgery, Consciousness, and Brain-Computer Interfaces

    · 58 min · Episode 243

    Get tickets to the CWT live show at 92NY with David Brooks! Theodore Schwartz stands at the pinnacle of neurosurgical expertise. With over 500 published articles, 200 pieces of commentary, and 5 patents to his…

  3. Jack Clark on AI's Uneven Impact

    · 1 h 03 min · Episode 242 · Explicit

    Few understand both the promise and limitations of artificial general intelligence better than Jack Clark, co-founder of Anthropic. With a background in journalism and the humanities that sets him apart in Silicon…

  4. Kenneth Rogoff on Monetary Moves, Fiscal Gambits, and Classical Chess

    · 1 h 01 min · Episode 241

    Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff approaches global finance with the same strategic foresight that made him a chess grandmaster. Author of the new book Our Dollar, Your Problem, Rogoff doesn't sugarcoat America's…

  5. Chris Dixon on Blockchains, AI, and the Future of the Internet

    · 1 h 03 min · Episode 240

    Chris Dixon believes we're at a pivotal inflection point in the internet's evolution. As a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and author of Read Write Own, Chris believes the current internet, dominated by large…

  6. Ian Leslie on McCartney, Lennon, and the Greatest Creative Partnership of All Time

    · 59 min · Episode 239 · Explicit

    It's Beatles day! In this deep dive into one of music's most legendary partnerships, Ian Leslie and Tyler unpack the complex relationship between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Leslie, whose book John & Paul: A Love…

  7. Jennifer Pahlka on Reforming Government

    · 54 min · Episode 238

    Jennifer Pahlka believes America's bureaucratic dysfunction is deeply rooted in outdated processes and misaligned incentives. As the founder of Code for America and co-founder of the United States Digital Service, she…

  8. Sheilagh Ogilvie on Epidemics, Guilds, and the Persistence of Bad Institutions

    · 59 min · Episode 237

    Sheilagh Ogilvie has spent decades examining the institutional structures that shaped European economic history, challenging conventional wisdom about everything from guilds to marriage patterns. In her conversation…

  9. Ezra Klein on the Abundance Agenda

    · 1 h 09 min · Episode 236

    What happens when a liberal thinker shifts his attention from polarization to economic abundance? Ezra Klein's new book with Derek Thompson, Abundance, argues for an agenda of increased housing, infrastructure, clean…

  10. Carl Zimmer on the Hidden Life in the Air We Breathe

    · 52 min · Episode 235

    Carl Zimmer is one of the finest science communicators of our time, having spent decades writing about biology, evolution, and heredity. His latest (and 16th) book, Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe,…

  11. Gregory Clark on Social Mobility, Migration, and Assortative Mating (Live at Mercatus)

    · 1 h 23 min · Episode 234

    How much of your life's trajectory was set in motion centuries ago? Gregory Clark has spent decades studying social mobility, and his findings suggest that where you land in society is far more predictable than we like…

  12. Ross Douthat on Why Religion Makes More Sense Than You Think

    · 1 h 14 min · Episode 233 · Explicit

    Sign Up for the Boston Listener Meet Up For Ross Douthat, phenomena like UFO sightings and the simulation hypothesis don't challenge religious belief—they demonstrate how difficult it is to escape religious questions…

  13. Joe Boyd on the Birth of Rock, World Music, and Being There for Everything

    · 1 h 01 min · Episode 232

    Sign Up for the Boston Listener Meet Up Joe Boyd was there when Dylan went electric, when Pink Floyd was born, and when Paul Simon brought Graceland to the world. But far from being just another music industry…

  14. Scott Sumner on Monetary Rules, Blooming Late, and the Death of Cinema

    · 1 h 08 min · Episode 231

    Scott Sumner didn't follow the typical path to economic influence. He nearly lost his teaching job before tenure, did his best research after most academics slow down, and found his largest audience through blogging in…

  15. Conversations with Tyler 2024 Retrospective

    · 58 min · Episode 230

    Donate to Conversations with Tyler Give Crypto Other Ways to Give On this special year-in-review episode, Tyler and producer Jeff Holmes look back on the past year in the show and more, including covering the most…

  16. Paula Byrne on Thomas Hardy's Women, Jane Austen's Humor, and Evelyn Waugh's Warmth

    · 55 min · Episode 229 · Explicit

    Donate to Conversations with Tyler Give Crypto Other Ways to Give What can Thomas Hardy's tortured marriages teach us about love, obsession, and second chances? In this episode, biographer, novelist, and therapist…

  17. Stephen Kotkin on Stalin, Power, and the Art of Biography

    · 1 h 26 min · Episode 228

    Donate to Conversations with Tyler Give Crypto Other Ways to Give In his landmark multi-volume biography of Stalin, Stephen Kotkin shows how totalitarian power worked not just through terror from above, but through…

  18. Russ Roberts on Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate

    · 1 h 02 min · Episode 227

    In this crossover episode with EconTalk, Tyler joins Russ Roberts for an in-depth exploration of Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate, a monumental novel often described as the 20th-century answer to Tolstoy's War and…

  19. Neal Stephenson on History, Spycraft, and American-Soviet Parallels

    · 47 min · Episode 226

    Neal Stephenson's ability to illuminate complex, future-focused ideas in ways that both provoke thought and spark wonder has established him as one of the most innovative thinkers in literature today. Yet his new…

  20. Christopher Kirchhoff on Military Innovation and the Future of War

    · 57 min · Episode 225

    Christopher Kirchhoff is an expert in emerging technology who founded the Pentagon's Silicon Valley office. He's led teams for President Obama, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and CEO of Google. He's worked…

  21. Musa al-Gharbi on Elite Wokeness, Islam, and Social Movements

    · 49 min · Episode 224

    Subscribe to Pluralist Points on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts Musa al-Gharbi is a sociologist and assistant professor at Stony Brook University whose research explores how people think about, talk about, and…

  22. Tom Tugendhat on Modernizing the UK and Political Reform

    · 50 min · Episode 223

    Tom Tugendhat has served as a Member of Parliament since 2015, holding roles such as Security Minister and chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. Before entering Parliament, Tom served in in Iraq and…

  23. Kyla Scanlon on Communicating Economic Ideas through Social Media

    · 1 h 05 min · Episode 222

    Kyla Scanlon has made it her personal mission to bring economics education to a larger audience through social media. She publishes daily content across TikTok, YouTube, Substack, LinkedIn and more, explaining what is…

  24. Tobi Lütke on Creating Shopify for Americans as a German in Canada

    · 54 min · Episode 221

    Tobi Lütke is the CEO and co-founder of Shopify. 20 years ago, he was just a German coder who emigrated to Canada to launch some ecommerce platform with another German. Now he's the world-renowned thought and tech…

  25. Philip Ball on the Interplay of Science, Society, and the Quest for Understanding

    · 1 h 12 min · Episode 220

    Register for our LA Listener Meetup Philip Ball is an award-winning science writer who has penned over 30 books on a dizzying variety of subjects. Holding degrees in chemistry from Oxford and physics from the…

  26. Nate Silver on Risk-takers, Politicians, and Poker Players

    · 1 h 00 min · Episode 219

    In his second appearance, Nate Silver joins the show to cover the intersections of predictions, politics, and poker with Tyler. They tackle how coin flips solve status quo bias, gambling's origins in divination, what…

  27. Paul Bloom on the Psychology of Children, and the Morality of Empathy and Disgust

    · 59 min · Episode 218

    Paul Bloom is a renowned psychologist and writer specializing in moral psychology, particularly how moral thoughts and actions develop in children. But his interests and books explore a wide range of topics, including…

  28. Alan Taylor on Revolutionary Ironies and the Continental Civil War

    · 57 min · Episode 217

    Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Alan Taylor is Tyler's pick for one of the greatest living historians. His many books cover the early American Republic, American westward expansion, the War of 1812, Virginian slavery,…

  29. Brian Winter on Brazil, Argentina, and the Future of Latin America

    · 58 min · Episode 216

    Register for the DC Listener Meetup It's not just the churrasco that made him fall in love with Brazil. Brian Winter has been studying and writing about Latin America for over 20 years. He's been tracking the…

  30. Joseph Stiglitz on Pioneering Economic Theories, Policy Challenges, and His Intellectual Legacy

    · 50 min · Episode 215

    Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz joined Tyler for a discussion that weaves through Joe's career and key contributions, including what he learned from giving an 8-lecture in Japan, how being a debater…

  31. Velina Tchakarova on China, Russia, and the Future of Geopolitics

    · 52 min · Episode 214

    Take our Listener Survey You could try playing out the four-dimensional chess game of how the global order will shift in the next 10-15 years for yourself, or you could hire Velina Tchakarova. Founder of the…

  32. Michael Nielsen on Collaboration, Quantum Computing, and Civilization's Fragility

    · 1 h 02 min · Episode 213

    Take our Listener Survey Michael Nielsen is a scientist who helped pioneer quantum computing and the modern open science movement. He's worked at Y Combinator, co-authored on scientific progress with Patrick Collison,…

  33. Benjamin Moser on the Dutch Masters, Brazil, and Cultural Icons

    · 1 h 06 min · Episode 212 · Explicit

    Take our Listener Survey Benjamin Moser is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer celebrated for his in-depth studies of literary and cultural figures such as Susan Sontag and Clarice Lispector. His latest book, which…

  34. Coleman Hughes on Colorblindness, Jazz, and Identity

    · 57 min · Episode 211

    Coleman Hughes believes we should strive to ignore race both in public policy and in our private lives. But when it comes to personal identity and expression, how feasible is this to achieve? And are there any other…

  35. Peter Thiel on Political Theology

    · 1 h 15 min · Episode 210

    In this conversation recorded live in Miami, Tyler and Peter Thiel dive deep into the complexities of political theology, including why it's a concept we still need today, why Peter's against Calvinism (and…

  36. Jonathan Haidt on Adjusting to Smartphones and Social Media

    · 1 h 00 min · Episode 209

    In The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt explores the simultaneous rise in teen mental illness across various countries, attributing it to a seismic shift from a "play-based childhood" to a "phone-based childhood"…

  37. Fareed Zakaria on the Age of Revolutions, the Power of Ideas, and the Rewards of Intellectual Curiosity

    · 1 h 07 min · Episode 208

    Those who know Fareed Zakaria through his weekly column or CNN show may be surprised to learn he considers books the important way he can put new ideas in the world. But Fareed's original aspiration was to be an…

  38. Marilynne Robinson on Biblical Interpretation, Calvinist Thought, and Religion in America

    · 49 min · Episode 207

    Marilynne Robinson is one of America's best and best-known novelists and essayists, whose award-winning works like Housekeeping and Gilead explore themes of faith, grace, and the intricacies of human nature. Beyond her…

  39. Marc Andreessen on AI and Dynamism

    · 28 min · Episode 206

    In this interview, recorded at a16z's 2024 American Dynamism Summit, Tyler and Marc Andreessen engage in a rapid-fire dialogue about the future of AI, including the biggest change we'll see in the next five years, who…

  40. Marc Rowan on Financial Market Evolution and University Governance

    · 56 min · Episode 205

    Marc Rowan, co-founder and CEO of Apollo Global Management, joined Tyler to discuss why rising interest rates won't hurt Apollo's profitability, why liabilities have traditionally been the weak spot in insurance, why…

  41. Masaaki Suzuki on Interpreting Bach

    · 57 min · Episode 204

    A conductor, harpsichordist, and organist, Masaaki Suzuki stands as a towering figure in Baroque music, renowned for his comprehensive and top-tier recordings of Bach's works, including all of Bach's sacred and secular…

  42. Ami Vitale on Photojournalism and Wildlife Conservation

    · 54 min · Episode 203

    Ami Vitale is a renowned National Geographic photographer and documentarian with a deep commitment to wildlife conservation and environmental education. Her work, spanning over a hundred countries, includes spending a…

  43. Rebecca F. Kuang on National Literatures, Book Publishing, and History in Fiction

    · 1 h 04 min · Episode 202

    Rebecca F. Kuang just might change the way you think about fantasy and science fiction. Known for her best-selling books Babel and The Poppy War trilogy, Kuang combines a unique blend of historical richness and…

  44. Patrick McKenzie on Navigating Complex Systems

    · 54 min · Episode 201

    Few can measure the impact of a blog post they wrote, in the millions of dollars a year, but Patrick McKenzie has the receipts. His 2012 post on salary negotiation is read hundreds of thousands of times each year, and…

  45. Conversations with Tyler 2023 Retrospective

    · 1 h 08 min · Episode 200

    On this special year-in-review episode, Tyler and producer Jeff Holmes look back on the past year in the show and more, including the most popular and underrated episodes, the origins of the show as an occasional event…

  46. Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food

    · 1 h 42 min · Episode 199

    In her third appearance on the show, Chinese food expert Fuchsia Dunlop joins Tyler and a group of special guests to celebrate the release of Invitation to a Banquet, her new book exploring the history, philosophy, and…

  47. John Gray on Pessimism, Liberalism, and Theism

    · 1 h 02 min · Episode 198

    John Gray is a philosopher and writer renowned for his critical examination of liberalism, atheism, and the human condition. His unique perspective is shaped over a decades-long career, during which he has authored…

  48. Jennifer Burns on Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand

    · 1 h 00 min · Episode 197

    Jennifer Burns is a professor of history at Stanford who works at the intersection of intellectual, political, and cultural history. She's written two biographies Tyler highly recommends: her 2009 book, Goddess of the…

  49. Brian Koppelman on TV, Movies, and Appreciating Art

    · 1 h 01 min · Episode 196

    Brian Koppelman is a writer, director, and producer known for his work on films like Rounders and Solitary Man, the hit TV show Billions, and his podcast The Moment, which explores pivotal moments in creative careers.…

  50. Githae Githinji on Life in Kenya

    · 45 min · Episode 195 · Bonus

    As a follow-up to the episode featuring Stephen Jennings, we're releasing two bonus conversations showing the daily life, culture, and politics of Nairobi and Kenya at large. This second installment features Githae…

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