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
94 snips
May 11, 2026 • 1h 11min
Thinking Inside the Box (with David Epstein)
David Epstein, journalist and author of Range and Inside the Box, studies creativity and problem solving across fields. He argues that smart boundaries often boost creativity. He contrasts mythic discovery stories with real contexts. He explores rituals, deliberate constraints, and how limits can steer innovation and focus.
37 snips
May 4, 2026 • 60min
Golfing Alone (with Gary Belsky)
Gary Belsky, author and former editor-in-chief of ESPN The Magazine, makes a lively case for golf played alone. He explores why solitude on the course feels meditative and restorative. The conversation touches on performance anxiety, flow, analog physical skill, rough public courses, and why even non-golfers may find meaning in the game.
125 snips
Apr 27, 2026 • 1h 17min
Claude, War, and the State of the Republic (with Dean Ball)
Dean Ball, an AI policy analyst and writer, digs into the clash over Claude and military use. They explore autonomous weapons, domestic mass surveillance, pressure on private firms, and the blur between corporate and state power. The conversation widens to constitutional erosion, collapsing institutional trust, and whether the republic is ready for powerful AI at all.
147 snips
Apr 20, 2026 • 1h 4min
Adam Smith's Warning About Wealth, Fame, and Status (with Ross Levine)
Ross Levine, Stanford economist and Hoover senior fellow, explores Adam Smith as a sharp observer of human nature. The conversation digs into why people chase esteem more than comfort. It looks at ambition that never shuts off, the trap of status seeking, admired versus admirable, imposter syndrome, and how celebrity culture and the worship of wealth can erode character and freedom.
114 snips
Apr 13, 2026 • 1h 4min
The Man Who Built NVIDIA (with Stephen Witt)
He arrived in America as a child with no English. He was mistakenly sent to a school for juvenile delinquents. He faced rampant prejudice--yet Jensen Huang, the under-the-radar CEO of NVIDIA, became a catalyzing figure behind the AI revolution and built the most valuable company in the world. Listen as journalist Stephen Witt speaks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about how Jensen pivoted from manufacturing processing units for video games to leveraging their capacity into astonishing computing power and speed. They analyze why Huang bet so heavily on AI when no one else did, and why NVIDIA processors enjoyed almost unrivalled market dominance for so long. They also explore Huang's unique way of thinking and problem-solving—as well as his temperamental leadership style.
85 snips
Apr 6, 2026 • 1h 27min
The Unseen Work: Stewart Brand on Maintenance and Civilization
Stewart Brand, writer and founder of the Whole Earth Catalog and Long Now Foundation, explores why maintenance quietly shapes success. He moves from a doomed solo sailing race to battlefield design flaws, the Model T’s repair-friendly simplicity, John Deere’s repair wars, and AI’s coming upkeep headaches. A wide-ranging tour of the hidden work that keeps civilization running.
251 snips
Mar 30, 2026 • 1h 2min
AI, Employment, and Education (with Tyler Cowen)
Tyler Cowen, economist and George Mason professor known for Marginal Revolution, argues AI will reshape work and education but not doom jobs. He proposes devoting large parts of college to AI skills and experiments with AI-led courses. He discusses AI tutoring, assessment, cheating solutions, and how students should learn to use models to ask better questions.
58 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.
62 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.
83 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.
