EconTalk
EconTalk: Conversations for the Curious is an award-winning weekly podcast hosted by Russ Roberts of Shalem College in Jerusalem and Stanford's Hoover Institution. The eclectic guest list includes authors, doctors, psychologists, historians, philosophers, economists, and more. Learn how the health care system really works, the serenity that comes from humility, the challenge of interpreting data, how potato chips are made, what it's like to run an upscale Manhattan restaurant, what caused the 2008 financial crisis, the nature of consciousness, and more. EconTalk has been taking the Monday out of Mondays since 2006. All 900+ episodes are available in the archive. Go to EconTalk.org for transcripts, related resources, and comments.
- Update frequency
- every 7 days
- Average duration
- 68 minutes
- Episodes
- 1014
- Years Active
- 2006 - 2025
Translating Life and Fate (with Robert Chandler)
What does it take to translate a 900-page Russian novel written before the fall of the Soviet Union? For Robert Chandler it meant living in a seaside cottage for four months to immerse himself comple…
Tyler Cowen on Life and Fate
Life and Fate might be the greatest novel of the 20th century or maybe ever. Tyler Cowen talks about this sprawling masterpiece and its author, Vasily Grossman, with EconTalk's Russ Roberts.
Terrorism, Israel, and Dreams of Peace (with Haviv Rettig Gur)
Over the last 30 years, the Israeli public has moved to the right on the question of how to deal with the Palestinians. Why did this happen? How has this changed Israeli politics and the strategy of …
Who Needs Miracles? On Nature and the Miraculous (with Alan Lightman)
How can we cultivate a sense of awe in our lives? Easy, says physicist and author Alan Lightman: Pay more attention. When we take the time to examine the world around us, from shooting stars to soap …
Give Away a Kidney? Are You Crazy? (with filmmaker Penny Lane)
After filmmaker Penny Lane decided to donate a kidney to a stranger, it took three years and a complex, often infuriating, sometimes terrifying process to make it happen. Along the way, being a filmm…
Susan Cain on Bittersweet and the Happiness of Melancholy
Why do we like sad music or that poignant feeling that comes from attending a funeral? Author Susan Cain talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about her book Bittersweet and the seductive and sometim…
Why Housing Is Artificially Expensive and What Can Be Done About It (with Bryan Caplan)
Housing is artificially expensive. Bryan Caplan of George Mason University and the author of Build, Baby, Build talks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about the causes behind high housing prices and what…
Misinformation and the Three Languages of Politics (with Arnold Kling)
How big a problem is misinformation for a democracy? How do we arrive at the truth? Listen as economist and author Arnold Kling talks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about how we should think about trut…
Reclaiming Tribalism (with Michael Morris)
Is tribalism destroying democracy? According to cultural psychologist Michael Morris of Columbia University, just the opposite may be the case. As he explains in his new book, Tribal, our tribal inst…
The Underrated Bruno Leoni (with Michael Munger)
Friedrich Hayek credited Bruno Leoni with shaping his ideas on laws and legislation. James Buchanan said that Leoni identified problems that led to his own work on public choice. How is it possible, …
The Mysterious World of Owls (with Jennifer Ackerman)
An owl will eat a rabbit whole, but owls can't digest the fur or the bones. So how do they survive? Why do their eyes face forward rather than to the side? Long-eared Owls don't have ears, so what's …
What Modern Medicine Gets Wrong (with Marty Makary)
Johns Hopkins surgeon Dr. Marty Makary talks about his book Blind Spots with EconTalk's Russ Roberts. Makary argues that the medical establishment too often makes unsupported recommendations for trea…
Is Israel Winning the War in Gaza? (with Andrew Fox)
British Army major and Sandhurst lecturer Andrew Fox recently spent a week with the Israel Defense Forces including a day inside Gaza. He was struck by the IDF's control of Gazan territory and shocke…
The Problems of Boys and Men in Today's America (with Richard Reeves)
Many boys and men in America are doing worse than girls and women in education while struggling with a culture that struggles to define what masculinity is in the 21st century. Is this a problem? Ric…
Chaos and Complexity Economics (with J. Doyne Farmer)
Physicist J. Doyne Farmer wants a new kind of economics that takes account of what we've learned from chaos theory and that builds more accurate models of how humans actually behave. Listen as he mak…
What's Happening Inside Your Doctor's Head and Heart (with Adam Cifu)
Physician Adam Cifu keeps a binder of every patient of his who has passed away. Every once in a while, he opens it and remembers the lives of his past patients. Morbid? Maybe a little. But it's just …
How Do You Capture the Tragedy of War? (with Sabin Howard)
A soldier goes off to war. Damaged in combat, he returns home, forever changed. Master sculptor Sabin Howard captures this tragic and powerful journey in bronze, for the new World War I Memorial that…
The Ever-Present Challenge of Escaping Poverty (with Noah Smith)
The universe, points out economist Noah Smith, is always trying to kill us, whether through asteroids hurtling through space or our every-few-hours hunger pains. Why, then, should we expect anything …
Sam Harris on Jew-Hatred, Radical Islam, and the West
Neuroscientist and author Sam Harris of the podcast Making Sense talks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about rising Jew-hatred in the West and what Harris sees as the dangers of radical Islam and Jihadi…
Does Parenting Make You a Better Person? (with Erik Hoel)
Does parenting make you a better person? Can it improve your life? Neuroscientist Erik Hoel makes the self-interested case for parenting arguing that it makes you less jaded and more heartbroken (in …