Jimmy Soni is a biographer and speechwriter. He joins the podcast to talk about his new book, “The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley,” which explores the early days, history, and legacy of PayPal. It also outlines the unique qualities, business savvy, and technological vision that led to the founders’ success at PayPal and elsewhere. Jimmy and Richard discuss the value of “founders,” the cultural impact of Elon Musk, and why so much high-level talent was concentrated at the University of Illinois in the ‘90s. They consider the role of productive tribalism and Peter Thiel’s memetic philosophy in shaping tech culture, and reflect on how the tension between vision and practicality is central to American dynamism and innovation.Sign up for CSPI’s Substack newsletter: https://cspi.substack.com.Follow CSPI on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CSPICenterOrg.Subscribe to our YouTube for video podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvs4ugq0xSvbvwArpFJG6gA.Learn more about CSPI: https://cspicenter.org.Jimmy Soni, “The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley.”  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.cspicenter.com

Stephen Hsu is a Professor of Theoretical Physics and Professor of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. He is also a serial entrepreneur and has published on genomics, in addition to blogging on a wide range of topics from econometrics and geopolitics to mixed martial arts. Hsu joins the Podcast, where he and Richard begin by talking about the Russia-Ukraine crisis and American military power relative to that of China and Russia. What would a Chinese attempt to conquer Taiwan look like, and what would the US be able to do in response? This is followed by a long discussion on the strengths and weaknesses of the Chinese system and its differences with the democratic capitalist model, including the former's high level of reliance on standardized tests and institutions designed to evaluate and promote government officials. The conversation closes on the topics of genomics and embryo selection, including the state of the technology, its current uses, and cross-national differences in attitudes and regulations. A full transcript of the conversation is available here.Sign up for CSPI’s Substack newsletter: https://cspi.substack.com.Follow CSPI on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CSPICenterOrg.Subscribe to our YouTube for video podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvs4ugq0xSvbvwArpFJG6gA.Learn more about CSPI: https://cspicenter.org.Ezra Voegel, “Japan as Number One.”John Dower, “War Without Mercy."Dan Wang, ”2021 Letter.”Dan Bell, “The China Model.”Richard McGregor, “The Party.”"DNA Dreams" (documentary film).Richard Hanania, “The Inevitable Rise of China.”Richard Hanania, “Fertility as the Final Boss in Chinese Development, and Richard Hanania Prediction Markets.”Steve Hsu, “Sustainability of China Economic Growth.”Steve Hsu, “Les Grandes Ecoles Chinoises.”Francesco C. Billari, Hans-Peter Kohler, Gunnar Andersson and Hans Lundström, “Approaching the Limit: Long-Term Trends in Late and Very Late Fertility.”  p. 163. (On Swedish Fertility, Extreme Births)Steve’s Podcast, “Manifold.” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.cspicenter.com

Alec Stapp is co-CEO of the Institute for Progress, a new think tank that focuses on accelerating scientific, technological, and industrial progress. He joins Richard to talk about why he started his think tank and what policymaking looks like in DC behind the scenes. They also discuss the idea of Secret Congress, the backgrounds of DC staffers, meta-science, biosecurity and immigration as policy issues, and the pros and cons of state capacity.Sign up for CSPI’s Substack newsletter: https://cspi.substack.com.Follow CSPI on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CSPICenterOrg.Subscribe to our YouTube for video podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvs4ugq0xSvbvwArpFJG6gA.Learn more about CSPI: https://cspicenter.org.Alec Stapp and Caleb Watney, “Progress Is a Policy Choice.” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.cspicenter.com

Freddie deBoer joins the podcast to talk about his book “The Cult of Smart,” which argues that many problems in the education system and American society are due to the failure to grapple with the fixed nature of individual differences in intelligence. He and Richard discuss the effectiveness of charter schools vs. public schools, how the economic value of traits changes over time, if American despair is a spiritual or economic issue, and whether college degrees have peaked in value. They also explore their differences over economic philosophy, which includes a discussion of why Freddie calls himself a Marxist, different kinds of Marxism, and how his philosophical outlook relates to his views on genetics and intelligence. Despite Richard being a capitalist, they find much common ground on policy specifics, including the need for less education and the acceptance of billionaires, markets and inequality. They also debate what Freddie's ideas about individual differences in intelligence imply – and don't imply – about differences between groups.Sign up for CSPI’s Substack newsletter: https://cspi.substack.com.Follow CSPI on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CSPICenterOrg.Subscribe to our YouTube for video podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvs4ugq0xSvbvwArpFJG6gA.Learn more about CSPI: https://cspicenter.org.Freddie deBoer, “The Cult of Smart: How Our Broken Education System Perpetuates Social Injustice."Seth Ackerman’s Substack.Peter Frase, "Four Futures: Life After Capitalism." Robert Brenner, "The Economics of Global Turbulence."Freddie deBoer’s Substack.  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.cspicenter.com

Jonah Davids is CSPI’s director of communications. He joins Richard to talk about his essay on leaving academia, how social science is mostly storytelling, and what CSPI accomplished in 2021. They also discuss why reaching out to people is underrated, the recent study on racial discrimination in emailing, reasons to stay in or leave academia, the effectiveness of advertising, why CSPI has been successful so far, and wokeness as stupid vs. evil in the aftermath of the IDW.Sign up for CSPI’s Substack newsletter: https://cspi.substack.com.Follow CSPI on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CSPICenterOrg.Subscribe to our YouTube for video podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvs4ugq0xSvbvwArpFJG6gA.Learn more about CSPI: https://cspicenter.org.Jonah Davids, “The Overwhelming Underwhelmingness of Academia: Three Reasons to Leave.” Ray Block Jr., Charles Crabtree, John B. Holbein, J. Quin Monson, “Are Americans less likely to reply to emails from Black people relative to White people?” Hugo Mercier, “Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe.” CSPI, “CSPI 2021: The Year in Review.” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.cspicenter.com

Charles Fain Lehman is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor of City Journal. Gabriel Rossman is a sociologist at UCLA. They join Richard to debate the relationship between woke institutions, civil rights law, and corporate culture. Each has written a recent article on this topic: Richard’s “Woke Institutions is Just Civil Rights Law,” Charles’ “The Geneology of Woke Capital,” and Gabriel’s “Why Woke Organizations All Sound the Same.” They also discuss the history of affirmative action, successes and failures of the conservative legal movement, the connection between the civil rights policies of the Reagan administration and pop culture, status quo bias and negative polarization, and whether Americans still believe in meritocracy.Click here to watch the video version of the podcast on YouTube. Richard Hanania, “Woke Institutions is Just Civil Rights Law.” Charles Fain Lehman, “The Geneology of Woke Capital.” Gabriel Rossman, “Why Woke Organizations All Sound the Same.”John W. Meyer and Brian Rowan, “Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony.”Frank Dobbin and John R. Sutton, "The Strength of a Weak State: The Rights Revolution and the Rise of Human Resources Management Divisions.” Wikipedia, “Grutter v. Bolinger.” Sign up for CSPI’s Substack newsletter: https://cspi.substack.com.Follow CSPI on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CSPICenterOrg.Subscribe to our YouTube for video podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvs4ugq0xSvbvwArpFJG6gA.Learn more about CSPI: https://cspicenter.org. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.cspicenter.com

Philippe Lemoine is a Research Fellow at CSPI and a PhD candidate in philosophy at Cornell University. He returns to the podcast to discuss his new paper, “Have we been thinking about the pandemic wrong? The effect of population structure on transmission.” He and Richard discuss the role of networks in COVID transmission, the politics and sociology of the pandemic, the enforcement of mask mandates in LA County and French gyms, why we might want less genomic surveillance of new variants, and why the Omicron variant is no reason to worry. Click for the report on population structure, a thread explaining the results, and his latest piece on the Omicron variant.Sign up for CSPI’s Substack newsletter: https://cspi.substack.com.Follow CSPI on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CSPICenterOrg.Subscribe to our YouTube for video podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvs4ugq0xSvbvwArpFJG6gA.Learn more about CSPI: https://cspicenter.org. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.cspicenter.com

This week’s guest is Leif Rasmussen, a PhD candidate in computer science at Northwestern University, and the author of the new CSPI report, “Increasing Politicization and Homogeneity in Scientific Funding: An Analysis of NSF Grants, 1990-2020.” He discusses the report and critiques of it, along with his experiences in academia, and the growing bias against non-conformists in intellectual life. A tweet thread summarizing the report can be found here.Sign up for CSPI’s Substack newsletter: https://cspi.substack.com.Follow CSPI on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CSPICenterOrg.Subscribe to our YouTube for video podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvs4ugq0xSvbvwArpFJG6gA.Learn more about CSPI: https://cspicenter.org. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.cspicenter.com

Robert Plomin is a Professor of Behavioural Genetics at King’s College London and author of Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are. The conversation includes sections on the history of the field of behavioral genetics, and why we should not undersell what it tells us about why people turn out the way they do. Research involving twins, adoptees, and now looking directly at the genome, use a variety of methods to arrive at the same conclusion and all reveal that differences between individuals are rooted in our DNA, and the role of the home environment is very limited. Richard and Robert touch on parenting, what is happening in China and elsewhere across the world, consumer genomics, the existence of the p factor, and whether behavioral genetics can find more acceptance outside of the academic literature. They also discuss the potential political implications of the field.Sign up for CSPI’s Substack newsletter: https://cspi.substack.com.Follow CSPI on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CSPICenterOrg.Subscribe to our YouTube for video podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvs4ugq0xSvbvwArpFJG6gA.Learn more about CSPI: https://cspicenter.org. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.cspicenter.com

Michael Shellenberger is an activist and author. He joins the podcast to talk about his book San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities. He discusses debates around homelessness in San Francisco, the ideology driving the homelessness advocacy community, how the West coast differs from the rest of the world in its treatment of mental illness and addiction, and whether there is hope of political change.Sign up for CSPI’s Substack newsletter: https://cspi.substack.com.Follow CSPI on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CSPICenterOrg.Subscribe to our YouTube for video podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvs4ugq0xSvbvwArpFJG6gA.Learn more about CSPI: https://cspicenter.org. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.cspicenter.com