People I (Mostly) Admire

The economist Joseph Stiglitz has devoted his life to exposing the limits of markets. He tells Steve about winning an argument with fellow Nobel laureate Milton Friedman, why small governments don’t lead to more freedom, and why he’s not afraid to be an advocate.

• SOURCE:
  • Joseph Stiglitz, professor at Columbia University and chief economist at the Roosevelt Institute.

• RESOURCES:
  • The Road to Freedom: Economics...

Monica Bertagnolli went from a childhood on a cattle ranch to a career as a surgeon to a top post in the Biden administration. As director of the National Institutes of Health, she’s working to improve the way we find new treatments — despite regulatory constraints and tight budgets.

• SOURCE:
  • Monica Bertagnolli, director of the National Institutes of Health.

• RESOURCES:
  • "Steven Levitt and John Donohue Defend a...

Nobel laureate, bestselling author, and groundbreaking psychologist Daniel Kahneman died in March. In 2021 he talked with Steve Levitt — his friend and former business partner — about his book Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment (cowritten with Olivier Sibony and Cass Sunstein) and much more.

• SOURCES:
  • Daniel Kahneman, professor emeritus of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University.

• RESOURCES:
  • Noise: ...

Google researcher Blaise Agüera y Arcas spends his work days developing artificial intelligence models and his free time conducting surveys for fun. He tells Steve how he designed an algorithm for the U.S. Navy at 14, how he discovered the truth about printing-press pioneer Johannes Gutenberg, and when A.I. first blew his mind.

• SOURCE:
  • Blaise Agüera y Arcas, fellow at Google Research.

• RESOURCES:
  • Who Are We N...

After Haiti’s devastating earthquake, Rajiv Shah headed the largest humanitarian effort in U.S. history. As chief economist of the Gates Foundation he tried to immunize almost a billion children. He tells Steve why it’s important to take big gambles, follow the data, and own up to your mistakes.

• SOURCE:
  • Rajiv Shah, president of the Rockefeller Foundation.

• RESOURCES:
  • Big Bets: How Large-Scale Change Really Hap...

The Power of Habit author Charles Duhigg wrote his new book in an attempt to learn how to communicate better. Steve shares how the book helped him understand his own conversational weaknesses.

• SOURCES:
  • Charles Duhigg, journalist and author.

• RESOURCES:
  • Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection, by Charles Duhigg (2024).
  • "2023 Word of the Year Is 'Enshittification,'" by the American Di...

Cat Bohannon’s new book puts female anatomy at the center of human evolution. She tells Steve why it takes us so long to give birth, what breast milk is really for, and why the human reproductive system is a flaming pile of garbage.

• SOURCE:
  • Cat Bohannon, researcher and author.

• RESOURCES:
  • Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution, by Cat Bohannon (2023).
  • “Genomic Inference of a Severe...

Economist Daron Acemoglu likes to tackle big questions. He tells Steve how colonialism still affects us today, who benefits from new technology, and why democracy wasn’t always a sure thing.

• SOURCE:
  • Daron Acemoglu, professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

• RESOURCES:
  • Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity, by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson (...

Journalist Walt Hickey uses data to understand how culture works. He and Steve talk about why China hasn’t produced any hit movies yet and how he got his own avatar in the Madden NFL video game. 

• SOURCE:
  • Walter Hickey, author, journalist, and data expert.

• RESOURCES:
  • You Are What You Watch: How Movies and TV Affect Everything, by Walter Hickey (2023).
  • "France Gave Teenagers $350 for Culture. They’re Buying Com...

Arnold Schwarzenegger has been a bodybuilder, an actor, a governor, and, now, an author. He tells Steve how he’s managed to succeed in so many fields — and what to do when people throw eggs at you.

• SOURCE:
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger, professional bodybuilder, actor, and former governor of California.

• RESOURCES:
  • Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life, by Arnold Schwarzenegger (2023).
  • "Arnold Schwarzenegger: Environmentali...

Physicist Helen Czerski loves to explain how the world works. She talks with Steve about studying bubbles, setting off explosives, and how ocean waves have changed the course of history.

• SOURCE:
  • Helen Czerski, physicist and oceanographer at University College London.

• RESOURCES:
  • The Blue Machine: How the Ocean Works, by Helen Czerski (2023).
  • "Ocean Bubbles Under High Wind Conditions – Part 1: Bubble Distributi...

The filmmaker doesn’t want to be known only for his movies. He tells Steve why he considers himself a writer first, how it feels to be recognized for his role in The Mandalorian, and why he once worked as a rodeo clown.

• SOURCE:
  • Werner Herzog, filmmaker, author, and actor.

• RESOURCES:
  • Every Man for Himself and God Against All, by Werner Herzog (2023).
  • The Mandalorian, TV show (2019-2023).
  • The Twilight World, by ...

Economist Michael D. Smith says universities are scrambling to protect a status quo that deserves to die. He tells Steve why the current system is unsustainable, and what’s at stake if nothing changes.

RESOURCES:

• The Abundant University: Remaking Higher Education for a Digital World, by Michael D. Smith (2023).
• "Diversifying Society’s Leaders? The Determinants and Causal Effects of Admission to Highly Selective Private Colleges,"...

Computer scientist Fei-Fei Li had a wild idea: download one billion images from the internet and teach a computer to recognize them. She ended up advancing the state of artificial intelligence — and she hopes that will turn out to be a good thing for humanity. 

RESOURCES:

• The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of A.I., by Fei-Fei Li (2023).
• "Fei-Fei Li's Quest to Make AI Better for Humanity," by Jessi...

Data scientist Nate Silver gained attention for his election predictions. But even the best prognosticators get it wrong sometimes. He talks to Steve about making good decisions with data, why he’d rather write a newsletter than an academic paper, and how online poker led him to the world of politics. 

RESOURCES

• "Not Everyone Who Disagrees With You Is a Closet Right-Winger," by Nate Silver (Silver Bulletin, 2023).
• "The 2 Key Fact...

Abraham Verghese is a physician and a best-selling author — in that order, he says. He explains the difference between curing and healing, and tells Steve why doctors should spend more time with patients and less with electronic health records.

RESOURCES:

• The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese (2023).
• "Abraham Verghese’s Sweeping New Fable of Family and Medicine,” by Andrew Solomon (The New York Times, 2023).
• “Watch Oprah’s Em...

For 37 years, Rick Doblin has been pushing the F.D.A. to approve treating post-traumatic stress disorder with MDMA, better known as Ecstasy. He tells Steve why he persisted for so long, why he doesn’t like calling drug use “recreational,” and what he learned from his pet wolf. 

RESOURCES:

• "MDMA-Assisted Therapy for Moderate to Severe PTSD: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Phase 3 Trial," by Jennifer M. Mitchell, Marcela Ot’alora...