The Valmy

Podcast: Elucidations Episode: Episode 118: Tyler Cowen discusses Stubborn AttachmentsRelease date: 2019-09-12Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIn this episode, Tyler Cowen lays out an interesting normative ethical theory according to which we should be utilitarians, but with a twist: we should be utilitarians who care just as much about the humans of the future as we care about people now. Re-emphasizing our commitment to future people, he argues, has the effect of allowing us to embrace utilitarianism wholeheartedly without having to feel like we aren't doing enough. Why? The best way to make life better for future generations is to help bring about economic growth, and we have good reason to think that a lot of what we're already doing is pretty good for economic growth. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Podcast: Conversations with Tyler Episode: Rob Wiblin interviews Tyler on *Stubborn Attachments*Release date: 2018-10-16Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIn this special episode, Rob Wiblin of 80,000 Hours has the super-sized conversation he wants to have with Tyler about Stubborn Attachments. In addition to a deep examination of the ideas in the book, the conversation ranges far and wide across Tyler's thinking, including why we won't leave the galaxy, the unresolvable clash between the claims of culture and nature, and what Tyrone would have to say about the book, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Recorded September 21st, 2018 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow 80,000 Hours on Twitter Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Podcast: Philosophy Bites Episode: Cheryl Misak on Frank Ramsey and Ludwig WittgensteinRelease date: 2020-05-30Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationCheryl Misak has recently published a biography of F.P. Ramsey, the great Cambridge thinker who died at the age of only 26, but who nevertheless made a significant impact in several different fields including philosophy, mathematics, and economics. In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast she discusses Ramsey's interactions with Wittgenstein. The two thinkers had very different personal styles and their philosophies reflect this.

Podcast: Philosophy Bites Episode: Dan Sperber on the Enigma of Reasonhthttps://www.dan.sperber.fr/Release date: 2011-09-25Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationOur reasoning capacity sets us apart from other animals. But reason is frequently prone to error. Why then did we evolve with a capacity for reason at all? This is a question that has vexed Dan Sperber - with Hugo Mercier he has been researching the topic. Dan Sperber discusses their research and conclusions with Nigel Warburton for this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. Philosophy Bites is made in assocation with the Institute of Philosophy.

Podcast: The Audio Long Read Episode: Why we need worst-case thinking to prevent pandemicsRelease date: 2020-03-23Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationThreats to humanity, and how we address them, define our time. Why are we still so complacent about facing up to existential risk? By Toby Ord. Help support our independent journalism at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/longreadpod">theguardian.com/longreadpod</a>

Podcast: Rationally Speaking Podcast Episode: Rationally Speaking #232 - Tyler Cowen on "Defending big business against its critics"Release date: 2019-04-30Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationEconomist Tyler Cowen discusses his latest book, "Big Business: A love-letter to an American anti-hero." Why has anti-capitalist sentiment increased recently, and to what extent is it justified? How much are corporations to blame for wage stagnation, climbing cost of living, or the slow response to climate change? Tyler and Julia also explore their various disagreements: on how to communicate, whether people should bet on their beliefs, and whether we should increase public optimism about technology.

Podcast: EconTalk Episode: Jerry Muller on the Tyranny of MetricsRelease date: 2018-04-16Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationHistorian and author Jerry Muller of Catholic University talks about his latest book, The Tyranny of Metrics, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Muller argues that public policy and management are overly focused on measurable outcomes as a measure of success. This leads to organizations and agencies over-focusing on metrics rather than their broader mission. The conversation includes applications to education, crime, and health care.

Podcast: EconTalk Episode: Joshua Greene on Moral Tribes, Moral Dilemmas, and UtilitarianismRelease date: 2015-01-05Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationJoshua Greene, of Harvard University and author of Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about morality and the challenges we face when our morality conflicts with that of others. Topics discussed include the difference between what Greene calls automatic thinking and manual thinking, the moral dilemma known as "the trolley problem," and the difficulties of identifying and solving problems in a society that has a plurality of values. Greene defends utilitarianism as a way of adjudicating moral differences.

Podcast: EdgeCast Episode: Toby Ord - We Have the Power to Destroy Ourselves Without the Wisdom to Ensure That We Don'tRelease date: 2020-04-06Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationTOBY ORD is a senior research fellow in philosophy at Oxford University and author of _The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity. _The Conversation: https://www.edge.org/conversation/toby_ord-we-have-the-power-to-destroy-ourselves-without-the-wisdom-to-ensure-that-we

Podcast: Astral Codex Ten Podcast Episode: Book Review: HooverRelease date: 2020-03-21Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationhttps://slatestarcodex.com/2020/03/17/book-review-hoover/ You probably remember Herbert Hoover as the guy who bungled the Great Depression. Maybe you shouldn't. Maybe you should remember him as a bold explorer looking for silver in the jungles of Burma. Or as the heroic defender of Tientsin during the Boxer Rebellion. Or as a dashing pirate-philanthropist, gallivanting around the world, saving millions of lives wherever he went. Or as the temporary dictator of Europe. Or as a geologist, or a bank tycoon, or author of the premier 1900s textbook on metallurgy. How did a backwards orphan son of a blacksmith, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Midwest, grow up to be a captain of industry and a US President? How did he become such a towering figure in the history of philanthropy that biographer Kenneth Whyte claims "the number of lives Hoover saved through his various humanitarian campaigns might exceed 100 million, a record of benevolence unlike anything in human history"? To find out, I picked up Whyte's Hoover: An Extraordinary Life In Extraordinary Times. Herbert Hoover was born in 1874 to poor parents in the tiny Quaker farming community of West Branch, Iowa. His father was a blacksmith, his mother a schoolteacher. His childhood was strict. Magazines and novels were banned; acceptable reading material included the Bible and Prohibitionist pamphlets. His hobby was collecting oddly shaped sticks. His father dies when he is 6, his mother when he is 10. The orphaned Hoover and his two siblings are shuttled from relative to relative. He spends one summer on the Osage Indian Reservation in Oklahoma, living with an uncle who worked for the Department of Indian Affairs. Another year passes on a pig farm with his Uncle Allen. In 1885, he is more permanently adopted by his Uncle John, a doctor and businessman helping found a Quaker colony in Oregon. Hoover's various guardians are dutiful but distant; they never abuse or neglect him, but treat him more as an extra pair of hands around the house than as someone to be loved and cherished. Hoover reciprocates in kind, doing what is expected of him but excelling neither in school nor anywhere else.