Razib Khan is a geneticist and Substacker. He joins the podcast to talk about what genetics can tell us about the human past and the progress made in his field over the last few decades. The conversation touches on population structures in Europe, India, China, and the Western Hemisphere, along with Neanderthal and Denisovan admixture among different races and how different fields define what it means to be human. Richard and Razib discuss questions including how Indian castes were able to remain genetically distinct for such a long time, the original "great replacement" in Europe, and the connection between state capacity and genetic heterogeneity, as can be seen in India and China. The conversation then shifts towards a discussion about their experiences in academia, recent radicalization on college campuses, and growing up as minorities in the United States.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

Steven Pinker is a professor of psychology at Harvard University. The author of several books, his latest is Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters. He joins the podcast to talk about this work, and the discussion includes topics such as why voters make bad decisions, the appeal of conspiracy theories and the sense in which believing in them is rational, how to get more rational elites, and which statistical methods are better than others for establishing causation. In the second half of the discussion, Hanania and Pinker talk about how the conversation surrounding the influence of genetics on human behavior has changed since the publication of The Blank Slate, freedom of speech in academia, and advice for young scholars.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

Robin Hanson is a professor of economics at George Mason University. He joins the podcast to talk about futarchy, a system in which people would vote on values, but bet on beliefs. The conversation touches on the nature of rationality, why firms don't actually maximize profits, why betting markets are better than other forms of prediction or expertise, regulatory and psychological barriers to adopting new technologies, and why the rise of "Davos Man" and a global culture might be bad for innovation. Hanson and Hanania close by discussing the prospects for making futarchy a reality, in the near and long term.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

Noor Siddiqui is a former Thiel Fellow who has taught at Stanford and the founder and CEO of Orchid (www.orchidhealth.com), a biotech company. She joins the podcast to talk about the science behind embryo selection, its potential to help improve people's lives, ethical objections, and the importance of reproductive rights.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

Marc Andreessen is a venture capitalist and the founder of Netscape. He joins the podcast to talk about what's the matter with science, the prerequisites for progress, and how tech has changed our lives and has the potential to disrupt stagnant institutions. Topics also include how the internet has changed dating, what venture capitalists actually do, and whether there is too much–or too little–money in politics.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 recently wrote a blog post called "Lockdowns, econometrics and the art of putting lipstick on a pig," where he takes apart a paper on the effects of COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical interventions. Richard and Philippe discuss what's wrong with this paper and what it reveals about academia and the incentives scholars face more generally. They also explore when and under what circumstances one should trust statistical analysis.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

Eric Posner is a professor at the University of Chicago Law School. He is the author of several books, including The Executive Unbound (with Adrian Vermeule) and The Demagogue's Playbook. He joins the CSPI podcast to discuss Trump, whether demagoguery is an exclusively right-wing problem, the struggle between elites and the masses and whether the last few years have made him reconsider his support for a strong executive branch.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

Richard Hanania joins Razib Khan's podcast to talk about the recent Israeli/Palestinian conflict and its effects on American politics. Richard discusses his frustrations with the American conservative movement and the inadequacies of its approach to fighting wokeness, including Critical Race Theory bans. He also goes into the failures of the public health community throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, what the rise of China means for the American psyche, and what it's like to run a think tank.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

Mark Lutter has a PhD in economics from George Mason University and is the Founder and Executive Director of the Charter Cities Institute. He joins the podcast to talk about his vision of how privately run cities can help end poverty. The discussion includes topics such as the philosophy behind charter cities, mistakes made by the charter city movement in the past, and ongoing projects. Richard and Mark also talk about intellectual entrepreneurship, what the success of China means for American cultural hegemony, the narrowness of academic thought, and why smart young people should seek careers outside of the university.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

Sean McMeekin is a professor of history at Bard University and the author of Stalin's War: A New History of World War II. He joins Richard for a wide ranging discussion about the myths of World War II. They touch on the morality of the conflict, moral differences between Nazis and the USSR, the role of Soviet agents in determining US and British policy, and whether the western allies could have prevented communist takeovers in China, Poland and Yugoslavia.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