Pod Paper Scissors
Pod Paper Scissors considers the glitches in our society due to the hidden games in everyday human interactions. Each week, hosts Ben Klemens and Liz Landau discuss a different topic relating to social interaction including markets, politics, trends, and other core facets of our society, in a causal conversation format with original songs and interviews with knowledgeable guests.
- Update frequency
- every 27 days
- Average duration
- 18 minutes
- Episodes
- 20
- Years Active
- 2020 - 2021
The Centipede Made Me Do It
When your interaction with another person has an end date, like moving out of a shared apartment, do you still do the dishes? In this episode we talk about repeated prisoner's dilemmas when and end i…
Who does the dishes?
The real world is full of "repeated prisoners' dilemmas" in which we face the same situations over and over with the same people. In this episode we discuss the optimal solutions, going all the way b…
Home Buyin' Blues
Buying a house isn't as straightforward as offering a price. Contracts are malleable and buyer and seller are also negotiating who will bear the risks. Learn how game theory underlies this process.
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The Bidding Bug
We discuss a different kind of auction: the second price auction. It resolves many of the problems of the usual auctions, but the game is played a little differently.
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Pants on Sale
Sometimes winners feel like losers. In this episode we talk about auctions, including the concept of the winner's curse and Memorial Day sales.
<a href="https://podpaperscissors.com/transcripts/16-pa…
I Want What You Want
Why does money have value? Why did every child want a Furby for one holiday season? On this episode, we explore how people's preferences are shaped by what they think other people want.
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A Ticket to the Eiffel Tower
Journalist and author Elizabeth Becker is our guest as we contemplate how to use game theory to think about travel.
<a href="https://podpaperscissors.com/transcripts/14-travel.html">Full transcript on…
It's Getting Crowded
In the Before Times (and in the Future Times), there were a lot of different kinds of travel experiences you could choose, and the ones you went for might have said a lot about your "crowding type." …
Why Should Anyone Be Nice?
After a musical interlude about data loss, we invite Kevin Zollman back to discuss evolutionary game theory and delve into the origins of altruism.
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Sending Out a Signal
We all send signals to other people to present ourselves in certain ways -- the clothes we wear, the drinks we order, the concert seats we book (in pre-COVID times). Animals do it too. Learn how game…
Parenting Tips From Game Theory
Parents are having a tough time in the COVID-19 era. But you can use the tools of game theory to negotiate with your kids and work toward peace in your household. Kevin Zollman from Carnegie Mellon U…
Mixed Feelings, Mixed Strategies
If it rains on your picnic but you knew there was a 10% chance of showers, should you regret your decision to eat outside? Let's explore what it means to regret when you made a decision based on info…
A Beautiful Equilibrium
In this episode, we discuss the concept of a Nash Equilibrium by inventing dating apps that cater to people with different relationship goals. Is there room in the world for "Stars and Swipes," "L-ai…
Flirting: The Perils of Play
In this episode, we take the activity of flirting apart using the tools of game theory. What are the incentives? Should you keep your intentions secret? Liz shares some dating horror stories and Ben …
The Illusion of Play
What do we mean by "play" anyway? Historian Johan Huizinga wrote all about this in the 1930s. Let's take a look at his theory of play and how we can apply it to everyday situations. We end with a new…
Putting a Price on Pollution
Climate change is one of the most important issues of our time. Two solutions have been proposed to reduce emissions: taxes and a cap-and-trade system. We discuss the benefits and failings of each sc…
The Tragedy of "The Tragedy of the Commons"
Do you remember the idea of the "tragedy of the commons" from school? You probably heard it in the context of people taking too many resources for themselves or polluting a shared space. But original…
Meet Dr Pigou
One shot at the Prisoner's Dilemma