EconTalk
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Marc Andreessen on Venture Capital and the Digital Future
Marc Andreessen, venture capitalist and co-creator of the early web ...
Marc Andreessen, venture capitalist and co-creator of the early web browser Mosaic, talks with host Russ Roberts about how success in venture capital is more about winners you missed than losers you backed. Topics include the rise of the developing world and the smartphone revolution, why Bitcoin is paving the way for innovative uses of the internet, an optimistic view of the future of journalism, changes in the healthcare system, and the future of education around the world.
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Charles Marohn on Strong Towns, Urban Development, and the Future of American Cities
Charles Marohn talks with host Russ Roberts urban development and ...
Charles Marohn talks with host Russ Roberts urban development and what makes a strong town. They discuss how the post-WWII approach to town and city planning has led to debt problems and wasteful infrastructure investments, and how changes as small as the width of roads make cities more vibrant. Other topics discussed include central Detroit today as a model of city growth, the incentive problems associated with how state and federal infrastructure funds are distributed, and Marohn's efforts to change civil engineers' perspective on growth.
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Gavin Andresen on the Present and Future of Bitcoin
Gavin Andresen talks with host Russ Roberts about where Bitcoin ...
Gavin Andresen talks with host Russ Roberts about where Bitcoin has been and where it might be headed in the future. Topics discussed include competing cryptocurrencies such as Dogecoin, the role of the Bitcoin Foundation, the challenges Bitcoin faces going forward, and the mystery of Satoshi Nakamoto.
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Diane Coyle on GDP
Diane Coyle, author of GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History, ...
Diane Coyle, author of GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History, talks with host Russ Roberts about the history of GDP, its uses, and its abuses. Topics discussed include the origins of GDP in the developed countries, the challenges of measuring the service sector, of dealing with innovation and product diversity, whether GDP should be supplemented with other measures of human well-being, and the challenges of dealing with internet-based goods that produce a great deal of satisfaction but make a much smaller impact on measured economic activity.
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McArdle on Failure, Success, and the Up Side of Down
Megan McArdle talks with host Russ Roberts about her book, ...
Megan McArdle talks with host Russ Roberts about her book, The Up Side of Down. McArdle argues that failure is a crucial part of success in personal life and in the large economy. Topics covered include the psychology of failure, unemployment, and bankruptcy and parole.
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Steven Teles on Kludgeocracy
Steven Teles talks with host Russ Roberts about kludgeocracy, a ...
Steven Teles talks with host Russ Roberts about kludgeocracy, a term Teles coined in a National Affairs article to describe what he sees as the complex and unproductive state of political governance in the U.S., particularly at the federal level. Teles argues that various rules and procedures in the Senate and the House allow politicians to slow down legislation in return for favors. Teles argues that both liberals and conservatives have an incentive to favor more transparency and a more streamlined governing process that would get things done.
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Bryan Caplan on College, Signaling and Human Capital
Bryan Caplan talks to host Russ Roberts about the value ...
Bryan Caplan talks to host Russ Roberts about the value of a college education. Caplan argues that the extra amount that college graduates earn relative to high school graduates is misleading as a guide for attending college--it ignores the fact that a sizable number of students don't graduate and never earn that extra money. Caplan argues that the monetary benefits of a college education have a large signaling component rather than representing the value of the knowledge that's learned. Caplan closes by arguing that the subsidies to education should be reduced rather than increased.
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Cochrane on Education and MOOCs
John Cochrane talks to host Russ Roberts about the experience ...
John Cochrane talks to host Russ Roberts about the experience of teaching a massive open online course (MOOC)--a class delivered over the internet available to anyone around the world. Cochrane contrasts the mechanics of preparing the class, his perception of the advantages and disadvantages of a MOOC relative to a standard in-person classroom, and the potential for MOOCs to disrupt traditional education.
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John Christy and Kerry Emanuel on Climate Change
John Christy and Kerry Emanuel talk with host Russ Roberts ...
John Christy and Kerry Emanuel talk with host Russ Roberts about climate change. Topics include what we know and don't know about global warming, trends in extreme weather such as hurricanes, rising sea level, the likely change in temperature in the next hundred years. Both scientists also give their perspective on what policies might be put in place to reduce risk from climate change. This episode was recorded before a live audience at the College of Business Administration at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
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Jeffrey Sachs on the Millennium Villages Project
Jeffrey Sachs talks with host about poverty in Africa and ...
Jeffrey Sachs talks with host about poverty in Africa and the efforts of the Millennium Villages Project to fight hunger, disease, and illiteracy. The project tries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in a set of poor African villages using an integrated strategy fighting hunger, poverty, and disease. In this lively conversation, Sachs argues that this approach has achieved great success so far and responds to criticisms from development economists and Nina Munk in her recent EconTalk interview.
