What do hip hop and economics have in common? Well, until host John Papola and Russ Roberts met following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, there was very little overlap between those two topics.

John learned of Russ after listening to his popular podcast, EconTalk, which sent John down the economics rabbit-hole. This led to an unlikely collaboration between John, a filmmaker, and Russ, economist. In 2010, “Fear the Boom and Bust: Keynes vs. Hayek” debuted on YouTube and became an internet sensation, practically overnight. It was the first viral rap battle of its kind, predating the popular “Epic Rap Battles Of History” by over 8 months. This project ended up changing the course of John’s career, eventually leading to Dad Saves America.

In this episode of Dad Saves America, these two friends discuss their shared passions of economics, storytelling, Adam Smith, and emergent order. Russ recently published a book about thinking through the big questions in life called Wild Problems: A Guide to the Decisions That Define Us.

Subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss a single episode, and feel free to leave a rating or review!

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Purchase a copy of his book, Wild Problems: https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Problems-Guide-Decisions-Define/dp/0593418255

Listen to EconTalk: https://www.econtalk.org/

Russ on Medium: https://russroberts.medium.com/

Russ on Twitter: https://twitter.com/EconTalker?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author

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Outline:

[0:00] Intro

[1:51] What is economics?

[11:09] What are trade-offs?

[15:13] Incentives matter

[19:51] Skin-in-the-game and responsibility

[22:59] Subjective value

[27:56] Incentives matter, continued

[32:04] What is emergent order?

[39:14] Trade is not a zero-sum game

[41:59] Say’s law of markets and Keynesian spending

[46:10] Adam Smith’s theory of why we’re nice to people

[51:29] The impartial spectator

[54:54] Being loved and being lovely

[58:44] How do you know what you want?

[1:03:48] Your child is an autonomous extension of you

[1:09:46] What is the nature of being a dad?

[1:12:48] Making the world better isn’t about grandiose theories

[1:15:17] Outro

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Watch the video version on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTKcJdgz7U4

Make a tax-deductible donation to Dad Saves America: https://secure.anedot.com/emergent-order-foundation/dad-website?

Visit our website: https://www.dadsavesamerica.com/

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Dad Saves America is a channel dedicated to celebrating heroic fatherhood while teaching the next generation of fathers strategies they can utilize in parenting their children. We believe strong children come from a strong family. We’ve had many experts in the studio, including Jonathan Haidt, Mike Yates, Lenore Skenazy, Warren Farrell, Matt Ridley, Martin Gurri, and Michael Strong.