EconTalk
Russ Roberts
EconTalk: Conversations for the Curious is an award-winning weekly podcast hosted by Russ Roberts of Shalem College in Jerusalem and Stanford's Hoover Institution. The eclectic guest list includes authors, doctors, psychologists, historians, philosophers, economists, and more. Learn how the health care system really works, the serenity that comes from humility, the challenge of interpreting data, how potato chips are made, what it's like to run an upscale Manhattan restaurant, what caused the 2008 financial crisis, the nature of consciousness, the conflicts and history of the Middle East, and more. EconTalk has been taking the Monday out of Mondays since 2006. All 1000+ episodes are available in the archive. Go to EconTalk.org for transcripts, related resources, and comments.
Episodes
Mentioned books
24 snips
Mar 23, 2026 • 1h 10min
The Match That Lit the Flame: Hannah Senesh and the Creation of Modern Israel (with Matti Friedman)
Matti Friedman, journalist and author specializing in Israeli history, explores Hannah Senesh, a poet who left Budapest for a kibbutz and then a 1944 parachute mission. He recounts archival sleuthing across Europe. Short scenes trace why a failed mission became a powerful founding myth, the making of Hannah’s poems and song, and how storytelling reshaped Zionist memory.
56 snips
Mar 16, 2026 • 1h 6min
The Economics of Scarcity and the UNC-Duke Basketball Game (with Michael Munger)
Michael Munger, economist and professor known for work on political economy and public choice, explores the crazy world of Duke–UNC ticket scarcity. He describes tenting rituals, a 58-question trivia test, student-written constitutions, and strict enforcement. Short stories reveal how rituals, monitoring, and emergent rules allocate scarce rewards and build intense community bonds.
53 snips
Mar 9, 2026 • 1h 14min
How We Tamed Ourselves and Invented Good and Evil (with Hanno Sauer)
Hanno Sauer, philosopher and author of The Invention of Good and Evil, studies moral evolution and cultural history. He explores how large-scale cooperation arose, the idea of self-domestication via selection against aggression, the role of religion and reputation in sustaining norms, and how agriculture and urban life reshaped morality and society.
86 snips
Mar 2, 2026 • 1h 8min
The Power of Introverts (with Susan Cain)
Susan Cain, author and speaker best known for Quiet, explores why introversion differs from shyness and how solitude fuels creativity. She critiques groupthink in schools and workplaces. Short, engaging takes on energy-based personality differences, ambiverts, contemplative leadership, and how cultural shifts favor charisma over character.
91 snips
Feb 23, 2026 • 1h 17min
The Man Who Would Be King of Saudi Arabia (with Karen Elliott House)
Karen Elliott House, journalist and author who has covered Saudi Arabia for decades, offers a compact portrait of Mohammed bin Salman. She discusses his rapid consolidation of power, Vision 2030 social and economic reforms, the Ritz-Carlton anti-corruption purge, the Khashoggi affair, Gulf rivalries, and the tension between cultural liberalization and tight political control.
108 snips
Feb 16, 2026 • 1h 1min
Seiko, Swatch, and the Swiss Watch Industry (with Aled Maclean-Jones)
Aled McLean-Jones, writer on work and economic history, explains how Swiss watchmaking survived the quartz onslaught. He traces Seiko’s breakthrough and the industry’s collapse. He describes bold Swiss storytelling and product moves, Nicolas Hayek’s restructuring, the invention of Swatch to reclaim the low end, and why mechanical watches became luxury symbols.
77 snips
Feb 9, 2026 • 1h 8min
A Military Analysis of Israel's War in Gaza (with Andrew Fox)
Andrew Fox, a former British Army officer and conflict researcher, discusses reporting from Gaza and the limits of open-source verification. He examines urban clearing tactics, tunnel and IED threats, and why infrastructure destruction was used. He also covers aid flows, distribution problems, and how medical and drone innovations shaped the campaign.
150 snips
Feb 2, 2026 • 1h 15min
How to Flourish (with Daniel Coyle)
Daniel Coyle, author and consultant on human performance, shares his take on flourishing as a living, relational process. He explores yellow doors—unexpected detours that open new possibilities. Conversation covers presence versus task attention, group flow and playful teamwork, rituals that cultivate connection, and how uncertainty and small practices spark shared meaning.
47 snips
Jan 26, 2026 • 1h 7min
Zionism, the Melting Pot, and the Galveston Project (with Rachel Cockerell)
Rachel Cockerell, author of The Melting Point, traces her family’s role in early Zionist debates and the Galveston Project. She recounts reassembling history from newspapers, letters, and diaries. Conversations touch on Israel Zangwill, the Melting Pot play, the plan to reroute refugees to Texas, and a family's dispersal across London, New York, and Jerusalem.
92 snips
Jan 19, 2026 • 1h 5min
Nature, Nurture, and Identical Twins (with David Bessis)
In this engaging discussion, mathematician and author David Bessis challenges the narrative of genetic determinism in the context of identical twins raised apart. He critiques famous studies that claim high heritability in traits like IQ, emphasizing flaws and biases in the data. Bessis introduces Eric Turkheimer's laws, illustrating the significant role of unique experiences in shaping individuals. The conversation explores the limitations of twin studies and underscores how personal journeys, rather than genetics alone, heavily influence talent and abilities.
