Introduction

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Econ talk is part of the library of economics and liberty. To day we're going to be talking about a recent of his co-thered with rupert reed. We'll also look back at our archives, where you can listen to every episode since two thousand and six. And i want to remind listeners please go to econ talk o org in the upper left hand corner wil find a link to a survey where you can vote for your favorite episodes of two thousand and 14.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of Antifragile, Black Swan, and Fooled by Randomness, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about a recent co-authored paper on the risks of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and the use of the Precautionary Principle. Taleb contrasts harm with ruin and explains how the differences imply different rules of behavior when dealing with the risk of each. Taleb argues that when considering the riskiness of GMOs, the right understanding of statistics is more valuable than expertise in biology or genetics. The central issue that pervades the conversation is how to cope with a small non-negligible risk of catastrophe.