Can Musk use DOGE to reduce the size and power of the bureaucracy and big government? Michael Munger of Duke University thinks... more

Under settler colonialism, you're either a settler or indigenous and the sin of the founding of America, Australia, and Israel,... more

Public health officials should tell the truth, even when it's complicated. Even when some people might misunderstand. Otherwise, says economist... more

Why are European cities charming and American cities often so charmless? Simple, says urbanist Alain Bertaud: most American cities are... more

Is Israel's war with Lebanon going to end differently from past attempts to secure Israel's northern border? Journalist Matti Friedman,... more

Tariffs are in the air. Will they help or hurt Americans? Listen as economist Scott Sumner makes the case against... more

What does it take to translate a 900-page Russian novel written before the fall of the Soviet Union? For Robert... more

Life and Fate might be the greatest novel of the 20th century or maybe ever. Tyler Cowen talks about this... more

Over the last 30 years, the Israeli public has moved to the right on the question of how to deal... more

How can we cultivate a sense of awe in our lives? Easy, says physicist and author Alan Lightman: Pay more... more

After filmmaker Penny Lane decided to donate a kidney to a stranger, it took three years and a complex, often... more

Why do we like sad music or that poignant feeling that comes from attending a funeral? Author Susan Cain talks... more

Housing is artificially expensive. Bryan Caplan of George Mason University and the author of Build, Baby, Build talks with EconTalk's Russ... more

How big a problem is misinformation for a democracy? How do we arrive at the truth? Listen as economist and... more

Is tribalism destroying democracy? According to cultural psychologist Michael Morris of Columbia University, just the opposite may be the case.... more

Friedrich Hayek credited Bruno Leoni with shaping his ideas on laws and legislation. James Buchanan said that Leoni identified problems... more

An owl will eat a rabbit whole, but owls can't digest the fur or the bones. So how do they... more

Johns Hopkins surgeon Dr. Marty Makary talks about his book Blind Spots with EconTalk's Russ Roberts. Makary argues that the... more

British Army major and Sandhurst lecturer Andrew Fox recently spent a week with the Israel Defense Forces including a day... more

Many boys and men in America are doing worse than girls and women in education while struggling with a culture... more

Physicist J. Doyne Farmer wants a new kind of economics that takes account of what we've learned from chaos theory... more

Physician Adam Cifu keeps a binder of every patient of his who has passed away. Every once in a while,... more

A soldier goes off to war. Damaged in combat, he returns home, forever changed. Master sculptor Sabin Howard captures this... more

The universe, points out economist Noah Smith, is always trying to kill us, whether through asteroids hurtling through space or... more

Neuroscientist and author Sam Harris of the podcast Making Sense talks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about rising Jew-hatred in the... more

Does parenting make you a better person? Can it improve your life? Neuroscientist Erik Hoel makes the self-interested case for... more

What lessons can we take from the speeches of Abraham Lincoln for today's turbulent times? How did those speeches move... more

For many men, surviving the test of battle intensifies the joy of being alive. A provocative claim, perhaps, but to... more

To international law expert Eugene Kontorovich of George Mason University, all the arguments that make Israel out to be an... more

If you're always imitating others or aspiring to be something else, what's left of the "authentic" you? According to the... more

Economics students are often taught that government should intervene when there is market failure. But what about government failure? Should... more

Can a document unify a nation? Yuval Levin of the American Enterprise Institute and author of American Covenant argues that... more

When poet, lawyer, and MacArthur Fellow Dwayne Betts was imprisoned for nine years at the age of 16 for carjacking,... more

The Covid vaccine saved many lives but so many mistakes were made in how public health officials discussed it, implemented... more

If you didn't have to work to enjoy material abundance, would you do it anyway? If an algorithm or a... more

Economist and social critic Glenn Loury talks about his memoir, Late Admissions, with EconTalk's Russ Roberts. In a wide-ranging and... more

What does it mean to live Constitutionally in the year 2024? For a start, it means getting off social media.... more

The favorite EconTalk episodes for host Russ Roberts are when he and his guest have an unusually powerful connection such... more

Would an AI simulation of your dead loved one be a blessing or an abomination? And if you knew that after your own death, your loved ones... more

If the Wright Brothers could have used AI to guide their decision making, it's almost certain they would never have gotten... more

While religion may play less of a role in many people's lives, rituals--the lifeblood of religion--remain central to the human... more

Can you be too happy? Psychologist Adam Mastroianni talks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about our emotional control systems, which seem... more

Listen as Megan McArdle and EconTalk's Russ Roberts use Google's new AI entrant Gemini as the starting point for a... more

Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib spent much of his childhood in Gaza before becoming an American citizen. He has lost dozens of family... more

The world of today would seem alien to someone living 30 years ago: people seduced by their screens in private... more

There's often a gap between the textbook treatment of statistics and the cookbook treatment--how to cook up the numbers when... more

When EconTalk's Russ Roberts sat down with Charles Duhigg to talk about his new book on the art of conversation,... more

Journalist and author Robert Wright invited EconTalk's Russ Roberts to his podcast, NonZero, to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, knowing that... more

How far back should you go to understand the current moment in the relationship between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors... more

For decades, American aid to Israel has sent a strategic message: the greatest superpower in the world stands behind the... more

Pollster and political scientist Dahlia Scheindlin has worked extensively with public opinion polls of both Palestinians and Israelis. Listen as she... more

How did a husband-and-wife vacation end up saving a city from the atomic bomb while destroying another? And how did a... more

Did nations get rich on the backs of other nations? Did the West get rich from imperialism? Noah Smith says... more

Journalist Matti Friedman worked for the Jerusalem Bureau of the Associated Press from 2006 to 2011. Looking back at that experience, Friedman argues... more

Over the 25 years he's lived in Israel, author Daniel Gordis of Shalem College has seen many chapters of the... more

It seems obvious that moral artificial intelligence would be better than the alternative. But psychologist Paul Bloom of the University... more

Israeli journalist Haviv Rettig Gur takes us on a deep dive into the origins of Israel--how European Jew-hatred gave birth... more

How can we create a radically different atmosphere at American universities? Easy, says historian Niall Ferguson of Stanford University's Hoover... more

In 2018, author Yossi Klein Halevi wanted Palestinians to understand his story of how Israel came into existence. At the... more

Who is the greatest economist of all time? In Tyler Cowen's eclectic view, you need both breadth and depth, macro... more

What's different about companies that accomplish amazing things? Perhaps surprisingly, says Andrew McAfee of MIT, it has nothing to do... more

Who was Milton Friedman? Jennifer Burns of Stanford University finds in her biography of Friedman that the answer to that... more

Loss of taste for most foods, vision problems, loss of muscle mass and bone density. In light of these and... more

Slot machines, social media, and potato chips: we humans seem to find a lot of things hard to consume in... more

Your mother's socio-economic status at the time of your birth. Whether your ancestors raised crops or led camels through the... more

When Alexandra Hudson arrived in Washington, DC, she discovered that outward behavior is not always a reflection of a person's character.... more

How much do we remember of what we learn in school or from conversation? Psychologist Adam Mastroianni says: from little... more

When then-hedge fund manager Elie Hassenfeld began his philanthropic journey in 2006, he knew that he wanted to get the... more

We spend too much of our health care focus on lifespan and not enough on healthspan--the quality of our life... more

In the original version of a now classic thought experiment, five people are about to be killed by a runaway trolley.... more

Do marathons kill people who aren't in the race? Does when you're born make you more likely to get the... more

Can economics and better measurement help us understand racial disparities and suggest how to reduce or eliminate them? Economist Roland Fryer... more

Early detection of cancer seems like a very good idea. But it's a lot more complicated than it seems. Oncologist... more

Historian and author Walter Russell Mead of Bard College and the Hudson Institute talks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about how... more

Psychologist and writer Adam Mastroianni says our minds are like the keep of a castle protecting our deepest held values and... more

The future of AI keeps Zvi Mowshowitz up at night. He also wonders why so many smart people seem to think... more

Economist and author Daron Acemoglu of MIT discusses his book Power and Progress with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Acemoglu argues that the... more

Neuroscientist and author Erik Hoel talks about his book, The World Behind the World, with EconTalk's Russ Roberts. Is it... more

Physician and author Lydia Dugdale wants to teach us a better way to die. She argues that this will help... more

Marc Andreessen thinks AI will make everything better--if only we get out of the way. He argues that in every... more

James Rebanks's family has raised sheep in the same small English village for at least four centuries. There are records... more

In the early 1900s, the philosopher Henry Adams expressed concern about the rapid rate of social change ushered in by... more

Civilization and the pleasantness of everyday life depend on unwritten rules. Early in the 20th century, an English mathematician and... more

Called "a poem in clockwork," the self-winding Breguet watch made for Marie Antoinette was meant to be the most beautiful... more

After nearly 12 years as general manager for the L.A. Rams, Les Snead has learned the power of humility when... more

Author and consultant Luca Dellanna talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the importance of avoiding ruin when facing risk.... more

When there's no vaccine on the market, people will look for other ways to be safe, including school closures and... more

Economist Tyler Cowen of George Mason University talks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about the benefits and dangers of artificial intelligence.... more

Eliezer Yudkowsky insists that once artificial intelligence becomes smarter than people, everyone on earth will die. Listen as Yudkowsky speaks... more

While operating on a 16-year-old girl who suffered from severe seizures, neurosurgeon Itzhak Fried stumbled on the region of the brain... more

Is the perfect really the enemy of the good? Or is it the other way around? In 2008, Duke University... more

When he was a child, poet Dana Gioia's mother would come home from a long day of work and recite... more

As Israel turns 75, has it fulfilled the promise of its founders? Daniel Gordis of Shalem College talks about his... more

They operate according to rules we can never fully understand. They can be unreliable, uncontrollable, and misaligned with human values. They're... more

Photographer, author, and visionary Kevin Kelly talks about his book Excellent Advice for Living with EconTalk's Russ Roberts. His advice includes how... more

When physician Walter Freeman died in 1972, he still believed that lobotomies were the best treatment for mental illness. A... more

Tolkien read it as a tale about mortality. The poet David Whyte said it was a metaphor for the psychological... more

Since at least Adam Smith, the common wisdom has been that the transition from hunter-gathering to farming allowed the creation... more

Do psychologists know anything? Psychologist Paul Bloom says yes--but not the things that you might think. Bloom discusses his book... more

When psychiatrist Marco Ramos of Yale University prescribes antidepressants to patients in distress and they ask him how they work,... more