ROCKING OUR PRIORS

Assyria was the world’s first empire. Powerful kings marshalled professional armies, conquered vast territory (from Anatolia to the Persian Gulf), presided over a complex bureaucracy, deported thousands of workers, and accumulated harems of concubines. In the previous millennium, its capital (Ashur) was actually a bit more egalitarian, with checks on executive dominance. What changed and why? In this podcast, I discuss Eckhart Frahm’s fascinating new book (Assyria) alongside globally-comparative new research on imperial expansion and authoritarianism.

When women rise up to positions of power, they are often attacked. Gianmarco Daniele, Gemma Dipoppa, and Massimo Pulejo have a tremendous paper analysing (online and offline) attacks on Italian mayors. Marginally elected women are 3 times more likely to be attacked. The question is why? Full paper: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4508878

The Economic & Cultural Causes of Conflict by Dr Alice Evans

Does Patriarchy Suppress Cognitive Development? by Dr Alice Evans

Ancient Nubia presents a puzzle, suggests David Wengrow. “How [did] its population manage to prevent the emergence of domination in their own midst, despite the existence of Egyptian models of governance on their doorstep and the effects of recurring Egyptian predation on their people and resources[?]”. This podcast discusses geography, states and culture.

Americans used to farm a rich variety of crops. Some were very labour intensive, requiring neighbourly cooperation. In these counties, parents were more likely to give their children names that were common. This may indicate a desire for conformity. By contrast, in areas where farmers could be more self-sufficient, they chose names that were more individualistic. And when exogenous shifts propelled farmers into economic autonomy, they became even more self-expressive. This podcast digs into a phenomenal new paper by Martin Fiszbein, Yeonha Jung and Dietrich Vollrath https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w29643/w29643.pdf My Substack: https://draliceevans.substack.com/p/the-roots-of-cooperation

East Asians typically prefer social cohesion and harmony, rather than self-expression and individualism. They are ‘culturally tight’. While Latin Americans believe it’s fine to pick and choose your friends, East Asians tend to expect group loyalty. Why might this be? Let’s explore 4 hypotheses: Rice Socio-economic threats Confucianism Authoritarianism For pictures and graphs, see https://draliceevans.substack.com/p/why-are-east-asians-culturally-tight

Why has Latin American female employment risen in the absence of growth? by Dr Alice Evans

Have house prices pushed up female employment? by Dr Alice Evans

We are living in an age of incredible technological innovation. But is it actually benefitting humanity? MIT Professors Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson have a tremendous new book on this exact question: “Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle over Technology and Prosperity”. Professor Daron Acemoglu joins me today. In this podcast, we explore: • Why social scientists should pay attention to ‘vision’ • Did automation cause premature deindustrialisation? • Is firm size important? • Why did wages rise so rapidly in South Korea? • What’s caused the fall in worker power? • Why has automation increased? • How can technology be redirected?