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Big Ideas
World Affairs May 25, 2022

Tomorrow's People

The Future of Humanity in Ten Numbers

Paul Morland

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
The great forces of population change – the balance of births, deaths and migrations – have made the world what it is today. They have determined which countries are superpowers …

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Interviews with scholars promoting big ideas.

Economics May 18, 2022

Streets of Gold

America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success

Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
Immigration is one of the most fraught, and possibly most misunderstood, topics in American social discourse—yet, in most cases, the things we believe about immigration are based largely on myth …
The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones May 17, 2022

The Future of Human Fertility

A Conversation with R. John Aitken

R. John Aitken

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
Human fertility rates are declining fast and in twenty years or so the global population will go down fast – not just in affluent countries but in the world as …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast May 17, 2022

When Animals Dream

The Hidden World of Animal Consciousness

David M. Peña-Guzmán

Hosted by Mark Klobas
Are humans the only dreamers on Earth? What goes on in the minds of animals when they sleep? When Animals Dream: The Hidden World of Animal Consciousness (Princeton UP, 2022) …
Physics and Chemistry May 16, 2022

An Infinity of Worlds

Cosmic Inflation and the Beginning of the Universe

Will Kinney

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
In the beginning was the Big Bang: an unimaginably hot fire almost fourteen billion years ago in which the first elements were forged. The physical theory of the hot nascent …
Business, Management, and Marketing May 11, 2022

Evolutionary Ideas

Unlocking Ancient Innovation to Solve Tomorrow's Challenges

Sam Tatam

Hosted by John Emrich
When faced with new challenges, it’s easy to feel our solutions need to be equally unprecedented. We think we need a revolution. But what if this is a big mistake …
Psychology May 6, 2022

No Bad Parts

How the Internal Family Systems Model Changes Everything

Richard Schwartz

Hosted by Eric LeMay
Today I interview Richard Schwartz. His friends know him as Dick. And while this is my first time speaking with him, I can’t help but feel friendly toward him. Dick …
Economics April 26, 2022

The Parent Trap

How to Stop Overloading Parents and Fix Our Inequality Crisis

Nate G. Hilger

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
Few people realize that raising children is the single largest industry in the United States. Yet this vital work receives little political support, and its primary workers—parents—labor in isolation. If …
Intellectual History April 21, 2022

Freedom, Resentment, and the Metaphysics of Morals

Pamela Hieronymi

Hosted by August Baker
An innovative reassessment of philosopher P. F. Strawson's influential "Freedom and Resentment" P. F. Strawson was one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century, and his 1962 paper …
Economics April 14, 2022

The Voltage Effect

How to Make Good Ideas Great and Great Ideas Scale

John A. List

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
Most economists would argue that policies and business strategies are most likely to succeed if they are evidence-based, with their efficacy demonstrated empirically by randomized controlled trials before they are …
Finance April 5, 2022

Restarting the Future

How to Fix the Intangible Economy

Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake

Hosted by John Emrich
The past two decades have witnessed sluggish economic growth, mounting inequality, dysfunctional competition, and a host of other ills that have left people wondering what has happened to the future …
Education April 4, 2022

The Wolf at the Door

The Menace of Economic Insecurity and How to Fight It

Michael J. Graetz and Ian Shapiro

Hosted by Thomas Discenna
This is an age of crisis. That much we can agree on. But a crisis of what? And how do we get out of it? Many on the right call …
Systems and Cybernetics April 1, 2022

Metamodernity

Meaning and Hope in a Complex World

Lene Andersen

Hosted by Kevin Lindsay
So what is metamodernity you may ask, and what does it have to do with systems thinking and cybernetics? Well, I recently had a chance to find out for …
Politics & Polemics April 1, 2022

Tractatus Politico-Philosophicus

New Directions for the Future Development of Humankind

W. Julian Korab-Karpowicz

Hosted by Stephen Satkiewicz
"Our time is the age of postmodernity and of the clash of epochs. But a new age of humanity is rising. It is evolutionity or the evolutionary epoch which replaces …
The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones March 29, 2022

The Future of Rational Decision Making

A Discussion with Olivier Sibony

Olivier Sibony

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
In this podcast Owen Bennett-Jones discusses the future of rational decision making with Professor Olivier Sibony who after 25 years with McKinsey & Company in France, is now at HEC …
Language March 23, 2022

Language Vs. Reality

Why Language Is Good for Lawyers and Bad for Scientists

N. J. Enfield

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
Nick Enfield’s book, Language vs. Reality: Why Language is Good for Lawyers and Bad for Scientists (MIT Press, 2022), argues that language is primarily for social coordination, not precisely transferring …
Economic and Business History March 22, 2022

The Journey of Humanity

The Origins of Wealth and Inequality

Oded Galor

Hosted by Javier Mejia
Nothing has had a more profound impact on the lives of humans than economic growth. Thus, understanding economic growth is, on its own, understanding the essence of humanity. This is …
Science, Technology, and Society March 21, 2022

The Atlas of AI

Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence

Kate Crawford

Hosted by Matthew Jordan
What happens when artificial intelligence saturates political life and depletes the planet? How is AI shaping our understanding of ourselves and our societies? In The Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and …
The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones March 8, 2022

The Future of Consciousness

A Discussion with Eva Jablonka

Eva Jablonka

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
What makes a living body conscious? What is consciousness and are there different types of it? These questions have been studied by Professor Eva Jablonka from the Cohn Institute for …
General History March 7, 2022

You Say You Want a Revolution?

Radical Idealism and Its Tragic Consequences

Daniel Chirot

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin
Why have so many of the iconic revolutions of modern times ended in bloody tragedies? And what lessons can be drawn from these failures today, in a world where political …