Finance

Finance

episodes

An interview with scholars of finance about their new books.

Timothy Fort and Suneal Bedi, "The Vision of the Firm" (West Academic Publishing, 2025)

June 3, 2026

The Vision of the Firm

Timothy Fort and Suneal Bedi
Hosted by Alfred Marcus

The Vision of the Firm (West Academic Publishing, 2025) provides a complete summary of the leading theories of business ethics today. It aims to clari…

Geraldine Fela, "Critical Care: Nurses on the Frontline of Australia's AIDS Crisis" (UNSW Press, 2024)

June 3, 2026

Critical Care

Geraldine Fela
Hosted by Hannah Forsyth

The claim that real change is enabled by grassroots, community-based movements might seem a distant ideal, but Dr Geraldine Fela shows such assertions…

Max Krahé and Sara Schulte, "Housing Policy At An Expensive Dead End" (Dezernat Zukunft, 2026)

June 3, 2026

Housing Policy At An Expensive Dead End

Max Krahé and Sara Schulte

If governments provide financial support for affordable housing, should they provide support for inhabitants directly, or rather for the construction …

Helen Veit, "Picky: How American Children Became the Fussiest Eaters in History" (St Martin's Press, 2026)

June 1, 2026

Picky

Helen Zoe Veit
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Are children naturally picky? It sure seems that way. Yet, amazingly, pickiness used to be almost nonexistent. Well into the 20th century, Americans s…

Kevin Warsh: "What did you have to say in order to get this job?"

May 30, 2026

Kevin Warsh: "What did you have to say in order to get this job?"

Claire Jones, Michael Redmond and Catarina Saraiva
Hosted by Tim Jones

More than any single institution, the US Federal Reserve drives global financial markets with its decisions and communications. While its interest rat…

Richard Elwes, "Huge Numbers: A Story of Counting Ambitiously, from 4 1/2 to Fish 7" (Basic Books, 2026)

May 22, 2026

Huge Numbers

Richard Elwes
Hosted by Gregory McNiff

What if, every time you wanted to write down 1,000,000, you had to draw a picture of a god? And what if that number were the biggest you had a symbol …

Jesper Rangvid, "How Low Interest Rates Change the World: Global Trends Caused by Low Rates and Emerging Factors Shaping the Future of Rates" (Oxford UP, 2025)

May 16, 2026

How Low Interest Rates Change the World

Jesper Rangvid

How Low Interest Rates Change the World: Global Trends Caused by Low Rates and Emerging Factors Shaping the Future of Rates (Oxford UP, 2025) explore…

Tara Mulder, "A Womb of One's Own: Lost Histories of Childbirth in Ancient Rome" (U California Press, 2026)

May 16, 2026

A Womb of One's Own

Tara Mulder
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In the well-trod history of the Roman Empire, a pivotal moment has long gone unnoticed: It was in ancient Rome that medical men first set their sights…

Paul Stob, "Empire of Skulls: Phrenology, the Fowler Family, and a New Nation's Quest to Unlock the Secrets of the Mind" (Counterpoint Publishing, 2026)

May 15, 2026

Empire of Skulls

Paul Stob
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In Empire of Skulls: Phrenology, the Fowler Family, and a New Nation's Quest to Unlock the Secrets of the Mind (Counterpoint Publishing, 2026), Dr. Pa…

Rina Bliss, "What's Real About Race: Untangling Science, Genetics, and Society" (W.W. Norton, 2025)

May 13, 2026

What's Real about Race?

Rina Bliss
Hosted by Grace Smith

Professor Rina Bliss teaches in the sociology department at Rutgers University, and has written on the social significance of genetic studies on intel…

Photis Lysandrou, "Dollar Dominance: Why It Rules the Global Economy and How to Challenge It" (Policy Press, 2025)

May 12, 2026

Dollar Dominance

Photis Lysandrou

In a world shaken by crises, why does the dollar continue to dominate? In Dollar Dominance: Why It Rules the Global Economy and How to Challenge It (P…

Angus Burgin on the Rise of the Internet

May 11, 2026

The Rise of the Internet

Angus Burgin

We were joined by Angus Burgin, Associate Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University, and talked about how the arrival of the Internet remade li…

Stephen B. Young, "Adam Smith and Modern Economics: Reclaiming the Moral High Ground" (de Gruyter, 2026)

May 3, 2026

Adam Smith and Modern Economics

Stephen B. Young
Hosted by Alfred Marcus

For more than two centuries, economists and researchers have struggled with the conundrum of reconciling Adam Smith’s views on economics and ethics. W…

Paul Blustein, "King Dollar: The Past and Future of the World's Dominant Currency" (Yale UP, 2025)

April 30, 2026

King Dollar

Paul Blustein
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

The U.S. dollar is the world’s most important currency. Trade is priced in dollars, the world’s central banks keep U.S. dollars in reserve, some place…

Deirdre Loughridge & Thomas Patteson, "The Museum of Imaginary Musical Instruments" (Reaktion, 2026)

April 30, 2026

The Museum of Imaginary Musical Instruments

Deirdre Loughridge and Thomas Patteson
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

The Museum of Imaginary Musical Instruments (Reaktion, 2026) by Dr. Deirdre Loughridge & Dr. Thomas Patteson is a guided tour through centuries of ins…

Empathy Takes Action: An Autistic Therapist on the Radical Work of Connection

April 30, 2026

Empathy Takes Action

Aimee Cliff

Mainstream psychology has long accepted that some people (like those with autism) are naturally more logical and unemotional, while others (like so-ca…

Trevor Jackson, "The Insatiable Machine: How Capitalism Conquered the World" (Norton, 2026)

April 28, 2026

The Insatiable Machine

Trevor Jackson
Hosted by Steven Rodriguez

How did an economic system that was the result of largely uncoordinated and unplanned individual decisions come to dominate our modern world? This is …

Raffaele Danna, "The Craft of Indo-Arabic Numerals: How Practical Arithmetic Shaped Commerce and Mathematics in Western Europe, 1200–1600" (Harvard UP, 2026)

April 28, 2026

The Craft of Indo-Arabic Numerals

Raffaele Danna
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In the thirteenth-century Mediterranean, commerce transformed as merchants shifted from Roman to Indo-Arabic numerals—an alternative that better facil…

Karen Hao, "Empire of AI: Inside the Race for Total Domination" (Allan Lane, 2025)

April 27, 2026

Empire of AI

Karen Hao
Hosted by Joe Williams

In this episode, host Joe Williams talks to tech journalist Karen Hao, whose recent book Empire of AI sheds light on the inner workings of AI giants t…

Vin Nardizzi, "Marvellous Vegetables in the English Renaissance" (U Toronto Press, 2025)

April 24, 2026

Marvellous Vegetables in the English Renaissance

Vin Nardizzi
Hosted by John Yargo

Today, I interview Vin Nardizzi, Professor of English at the University of British Columbia, about his new monograph Marvellous Vegetables in the Engl…