The Joe Walker Podcast

Tyler Cowen is an economist and public intellectual par excellence.Show notesSelected links •Follow Tyler: Website | Twitter | Podcast | Blog •Stubborn Attachments, by Tyler Cowen •Ideal Code, Real World, by Brad Hooker •Utilitarianism and Co-operation, by Donald Regan •Peter Thiel interview, Conversations with Tyler •The Great Stagnation, by Tyler Cowen •The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, by Benjamin Friedman •Fully Growth, by Dietrich Vollrath •'The Nobel Prize Isn't What It Used To Be', Bloomberg article by Tyler Cowen •'Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: 2020' •Superintelligence, by Nick Bostrom •A Tract on Monetary Reform, by John Maynard Keynes •Indian Currency and Finance, by John Maynard Keynes •Individualism and Economic Order, by Friedrich Hayek •The Rise and Fall of American Growth, by Robert GordonTopics discussed •If God is dead, life is absurd and there are no rules, why shouldn't we just commit suicide? •Why should we care about the distant future? •Does rule utilitarianism collapse into act utilitarianism? •How can we make decisions at all without succumbing to moral paralysis and total uncertainty? •Why isn't the epistemic critique fatal to consequentialism? •Why didn't Tyler donate the proceeds of Stubborn Attachments to an effective charity? •What is the Great Stagnation? •Why was 1973 the breakpoint in western productivity growth? •Is the Great Stagnation overdetermined? •What metric would Tyler look at to determine whether the Great Stagnation had ended? •When did Tyler first become cognisant of the...See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr Andrew Leigh MP is an economist and Federal Labor parliamentarian.Show notesSelected links •Follow Andrew: Website | Twitter •Reconnected, by Andrew Leigh and Nick Terrell •Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville •Bowling Alone, by Robert Putnam •Disconnected, by Andrew LeighTopics discussed •What has Andrew's experience of the pandemic been like? 7:54 •Andrew's vision for Australian society. 9:40 •What was it like to work under Robert Putnam? 12:27 •What are some of the big lessons Andrew learned from Putnam? 15:00 •What is Andrew's research system? 17:43 •What is 'social capital'? 18:12 •What is the story of the decline of social capital in Australia? 19:24 •Pushing back on the idea of social capital. 21:17 •Andrew's favourite examples of social entrepreneurship in Australia. 29:00 •Has the net effect of the digital world been to connect or disconnect us? 31:38 •Why are some organisations better at building social capital than others? 35:07 •How does Andrew think about religion? 36:40 •How can we increase social capital by using systems or design thinking? 41:37 •What impactful community organisation is no one building? 44:05See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bethany McLean is an investigative journalist and contributing editor for Vanity Fair.Show notesSelected links •Follow Bethany: Website | Twitter •The Smartest Guys in the Room, by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind •'Is Enron Overpriced?', Bethany's March 5, 2001, article for Fortune •'What Caused Enron?: A Capsule Social and Economic History of the 1990's', article by John Coffee •Bad Blood, by John Carreyrou •The Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse, by Marriane Jennings •Spy The Lie, by Philip Houston, Michael Floyd and Don Tennant •Saudi America, by Bethany McLean •The Undoing Project, by Michael LewisTopics discussed •How did Bethany become a journalist? 4:13 •How did Enron come to be Enron? 6:30 •How did Bethany see through Enron when most others were beguiled by it? 8:33 •What was the reaction to Bethany's original article expressing skepticism about Enron? 11:35 •Why was Enron an example of 'legal fraud'? 13:34 •How to spot the "dogs" dressed up as "ducks". 16:20 •What were the ultimate causes of Enron's collapse? 19:43 •How did so many smart people at Enron become so corrupted? 30:06 •Bethany's book recommendations. 32:42 •The fine line between frauds and visionaries. 34:56 •Self-deception. 41:56 •If Elizabeth Holmes succeeded, would the end have justified her means? 45:23 •Elon Musk. 46:54 •The truth about fracking. 55:14 •How does Bethany stay organised as a journalist? 57:17 •How does Bethany put questions to her sources? 58:36 •Balancing accuracy with narrative flair. 59:35 •Which factors help Bethany decide which facts to include in a story and which to omit from it? 1:05:40 •How to construct an effective narrative. 1:11:46 •What business model could scale up investigative journalism? 1:17:54 •How does democracy survive the eroding of journalism's traditional business model? 1:24:04See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ian Macfarlane was Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia from 1996 to 2006.Show notesSelected links •Follow Ian: Website •The Deficit Myth, by Stephanie Kelton •Macroeconomics, by William Mitchell, L. Randall Ray and Martin Watts •'Indebted Demand', paper by Atif Mian, Ludwig Straub and Amir SufiTopics discussed •Monetary policy. 4:44 •Modern Monetary Theory. 42:07 •Secular Stagnation and Indebted Demand. 1:11:10See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Eric Weinstein is a mathematician and the Managing Director of Thiel Capital.Show notesSelected links •Follow Eric: Website | Twitter •The Three Languages of Politics, by Arnold Kling •'Opinions and Social Pressure', paper by Solomon AschSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Vernon Smith won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2002. Show notes Selected links •Follow Vernon: Website •Rethinking Housing Bubbles, by Vernon Smith and Steven Gjerstad •'Debt Deflation: Theory and Evidence', address by Mervyn King •'Is the 2007 US Sub-Prime Financial Crisis So Different? An International •Historical Comparison', paper by Rogoff and Reinhart •'Global Household Leverage, House Prices, and Consumption', FRBSF Economic Letter by Reuven Glick and Kevin Lansing •'Dealing With Household Debt', chapter by the IMF •'The great mortgaging: housing finance, crises and business cycles', paper by Jorda, Schularick and Taylor •'Leveraged bubbles', paper by Jorda, Schularick and Taylor •'Housing and the Economy', 2019 speech by Guy Debelle •'Bubbles, Crashes, and Endogenous Expectations in Experimental Spot Asset Markets', paper by Vernon Smith, Gerry Suchanek and Arlington Williams •A Life of Experimental Economics, Volume I, by Vernon Smith •The example scenario of pessimists and optimists buying 100 identical houses is from House of Debt, by Amir Sufi and Atif Mian •'The Leverage Cycle', paper by John Geanakoplos •'Boys Will Be Boys: Gender, Overconfidence, and Common Stock Investment', paper by Brad Barber and Terry Odean •The Wisdom of Crowds, by James Surowiecki •'The Clinton Housing Bubble', WSJ article by Vernon Smith •''We're heartbroken': home in same family for 93 years passes in', 2018 The Daily Telegraph article •'Why are we so worried about household debt?', See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Avi Loeb is Chair of Harvard's Astronomy Department.Show notesSelected links •Follow Avi: Website •The Myth Of Sisyphus, by Albert Camus •The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas Kuhn •'The End of Spacetime', public lecture by Nima Arkani-Hamed •Rendezvouz With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke •'Glowing Auras and "Black Money": The Pentagon's Mysterious U.F.O. Program', NYT article (16/12/17) •'2 Navy Airmen and an Object That "Accelerated Like Nothing I've Ever Seen", NYT article (16/12/17)Topics discussed •Avi's childhood growing up on a farm in Israel, and journey into academia. 5:16 •Avi's romance with philosophy, Satre, and Camus. 10:11 •When in their careers should scientists court risk? 15:24 •Albert Camus and The Myth Of Sisyphus. 21:10 •How does alien intelligence change the meaning of human existence? 24:50 •If there was no other intelligent life in the universe, would that make a god more likely? 34:51 •How far off is technology for 3D printing of...humans? 40:49 •What are the a priori odds of other intelligent life in the universe -- and how do we calculate them? 42:49 •Why is it so quiet out there? 47:25 •Space archaeology. 52:33 •Is space-time a doomed concept? 1:04:14 •How do we verify what happens beyond the event horizon of a black hole? 1:12:08 •The multiverse: bullshit or not? 1:17:25 •What could spacefaring aliens teach us about physics? 1:30:00 •'Oumuamua -- a possible interstellar spacecraft lurking in our solar system. 1:31:45 •The Pentagon UFO releases. 1:43:47 •Hostile aliens. 1:46:00 •The advantages of generalism. 1:54:43 •The meaning of life (42). 2:01:21See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Peter Doherty is an immunologist and winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Medicine.Show notesSelected links •Follow Peter: Website | Twitter •'I'm 79, I won the Nobel Prize and I don't give a s---', AFR profile of Peter Doherty •Pandemics: What Everyone Needs To Know, by Peter Doherty •The (in)famous Imperial College paperTopics discussed •Has Peter always not given a shit? 7:32 •Peter's odd high school experience. 9:00 •How the media report on science. 12:30 •What is the difference between a virus and a bacterium? 15:08 •How does a new coronavirus come into existence? 17:47 •What is Peter's area of expertise and what does he know about pandemics? 22:57 •What has the coronavirus pandemic taught us about the usefulness of epidemiological models? 25:20 •The politicization of lockdowns. 35:57 •The origins of America and Australia's cultural differences. 47:33 •Social media and political polarisation. 57:05 •In weathering the pandemic relatively well, was Australia lucky or were the epidemiological models too pessimistic? 59:56 •Can we just lockdown the vulnerable segment of the population, rather than the whole population? 1:03:52 •Is Peter optimistic about keeping a lid on the virus until a vaccine arrives? 1:08:25 •What do governments need to learn from the pandemic to be better prepared for the next one? 1:16:00See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cameron Murray is a Research Fellow at the University of Sydney's Henry Halloran Trust. Ian Mulheirn is Executive Director and Chief Economist at the Tony Blair Institute.Show notesSelected links •Follow Cameron Murray: Website | Twitter •Follow Ian Mulheirn: Website | Twitter •Tackling the UK housing crisis: is supply the answer?', 2019 report by Ian Mulheirn •'Innovative Approaches to Reducing the Costs of Home Ownership', 2003 report by Joye and Caplin •'The Australian Housing Supply Myth', 2019 paper by Cameron Murray •'The Geographic Determinants of Housing Supply', paper by Albert SaizTopics discussed •Why isn't a lack of supply the primary cause of high house prices? 14:40 •The role of interest rates. 18:46 •The tangled web of causality behind house prices. 36:42 •Narratives in housing markets: are they exogenous shocks or post hoc rationalisations? 41:40 •Where did the housing supply narrative come from? 46:41 •How would the UK government prop up its housing market if fundamentals deteriorated? 1:04:52 •Arguments in support of the housing supply myth. 1:05:48 •What makes for an intellectually defensible forecast of house prices? 1:29:17See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matt Ridley is an author, journalist, biologist, and businessman. His books have sold over a million copies.Show notesSelected links •Follow Matt Ridley: Website | Twitter •How Innovation Works, by Matt Ridley •The Origins of Virtue, by Matt Ridley •Zero to One, by Peter Thiel •Born Standing Up, by Steve Martin •The Innovator's Dilemma, by Clayton Christensen •'The Use of Knowledge in Society', essay by Friedrich Hayek •Bad Blood, by John Carreyrou •The Great Stagnation, by Tyler Cowen •The Rise and Fall of American Growth, by Robert GordonTopics discussed •When did Matt first come to understand the disturbing notion of selfish gene theory? 8:55 •How did Matt, a biologist, become so interested in innovation? 16:20 •The infinite improbability drive. 20:30 •What's the difference between innovation and invention? 24:05 •What do most people (wrongly) believe about how innovation works? 25:48 •Why innovation relies on collaboration. 33:53 •Innovation is the child of freedom. But what amount or types of freedom are sufficient to underpin innovation? 40:35 •Why does innovation thrive in fragmented political systems? 46:39 •Does unfettered economic freedom tend irresistibly towards monopolies? 50:37 •Antitrust enforcement: have we been doing enough? 1:02:44 •The relationship between uncertainty and innovation. 1:05:58 •Frauds and visionaries. 1:14:20 •Uncertainty and economics. 1:15:26 •Are we in the midst of a Great Stagnation? 1:26:40 •Can we escape stagnation? 1:40:30See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.