Esther Duflo, an MIT economist, won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for her experimental approach to alleviating global poverty. Duflo’s early life working at a non-governmental organization in Madagascar and volunteering in soup kitchens in her native France inspired her to study economics and research the root causes of poverty. With her fellow N ... Show More
Oct 7
The Trouble with Tech Companies (and Their Strategies)
Cory Doctorow, author and digital rights advocate, argues that big tech companies from Facebook to Google and beyond have evolved - or devolved - in a disappointing way. He says that many large tech companies begin with a good product, but that over time they prioritize first bus ... Show More
26m 30s
Sep 30
How to Lead with Courage in Chaotic Times
Courage involves taking bold action despite uncertainty and fear. In a volatile business environment, it's hard to be brave. But Ranjay Gulati, a professor at Harvard Business School, says that there are strategies any of us can use to get improve our ability to make smart bets o ... Show More
32m 9s
Sep 23
Steven Pinker on Speculation Bubbles, Super Bowl Ads, and What Leaders Need to Know About Group Psychology
As a leader, psychology is fundamental to your success - whether that means understanding consumer behavior, team dynamics, or even your own biases and blind spots. Harvard professor Steven Pinker says that an important phenomena to understand is that of common knowledge and its ... Show More
27m 29s
Nov 2021
Esther Duflo wants you to think like a plumber
When Esther Duflo took her first economics class, she hated it. In 2019, she won a Nobel Prize in economics. Esther talks with Adam about her groundbreaking experiments to fight poverty, busts myths about what motivates people, and reveals how to make meaningful progress toward s ... Show More
57m 1s
Dec 2017
Dr. Auma Obama on Dispelling Victim Mentality and Redefining Poverty
Dr. Obama is also a published author, having released her memoir “And Then Life Happens” in both German and English. We talked about sustainable economic growth, supporting children holistically from the age of 4 to 25, dispelling the victim mentality and redefining the notion ... Show More
47m 54s
Oct 2023
Angus Deaton: An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality
Economics Nobel laureate Sir Angus Deaton discusses his latest book, Economics in America, which takes an autobiographical approach to how the field of economics addresses the most pressing issues of our time—from poverty, retirement, and the minimum wage to the ravages of the na ... Show More
1h 7m
May 2021
To end poverty, cultivate innovation | Efosa Ojomo
What turns a developing country into a prosperous one? For years, Efosa Ojomo has been trying to answer this question. And what he has found – through starting his own nonprofit in Nigeria, doing research at Harvard Business School and writing a book called The Prosperity Paradox ... Show More
26m 37s
Mar 2023
Mark Robert Rank, "The Poverty Paradox: Understanding Economic Hardship Amid American Prosperity" (Oxford UP, 2023)
The paradox of poverty amidst plenty has plagued the United States throughout the 21st century--why should the wealthiest country in the world also have the highest rates of poverty among the industrialized nations? Based on his decades-long research and scholarship, one of the n ... Show More
31m 42s
Mar 2023
Mark Robert Rank, "The Poverty Paradox: Understanding Economic Hardship Amid American Prosperity" (Oxford UP, 2023)
The paradox of poverty amidst plenty has plagued the United States throughout the 21st century--why should the wealthiest country in the world also have the highest rates of poverty among the industrialized nations? Based on his decades-long research and scholarship, one of the n ... Show More
33m 27s
Jun 2023
The town that changed economics
In the early 90s, when a young economist named Michael Kremer finished his PhD, there had been a few economic studies based on randomized trials. But they were rare. In part because randomized trials – in which you recruit two statistically identical groups, choose one of them to ... Show More
24m 43s
Jul 2021
The dirty secret of capitalism | Nick Hanauer
Rising inequality and growing political instability are the direct result of decades of bad economic theory, says entrepreneur Nick Hanauer. In a visionary talk, he dismantles the mantra that "greed is good"—an idea he describes as not only morally corrosive, but also scientifica ... Show More
16m 35s
Aug 2018
Annie Lowrey, “Give People Money: How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World” (Crown, 2018)
How can we end the scourge of poverty? How we can sustain ourselves once robots eliminate the need for many jobs? Annie Lowrey offers an answer in the title of her book, Give People Money: How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World (C ... Show More
36m 58s