#87: The Doyen Of Economics Podcasting On Death, Lockdown, And The Art Of Socratic Dialogue — Russ Roberts

Show notes

Selected links

• Follow Russ Roberts: Website | Twitter
• EconTalk
• Macroeconomic Patterns and Stories, by Ed Leamer
• Fooled By Randomness, by Nassim Taleb
• Systemic Risk of Pandemic Via Novel Pathogens — Coronavirus’, paper by Joe Norman, Yaneer Bar-Yam, and Nassim Taleb
• ‘To philosophize is to learn how to die’, essay by Montaigne
• How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life, by Russ Roberts

Topics discussed

• When and how did EconTalk begin? 8:55
• Has interviewing over 750 people made Russ a better or more effective person? 13:59
• How to really understand an idea. 32:00
• What has Russ learned from Nassim Taleb? 35:43
• The Precautionary Principle. 42:03
• The lockdown dilemma. 48:38
• The Precautionary Principle again. 1:11:52
• Is Russ afraid of death? 1:18:49
• What has Russ done to improve his craft as an interviewer? 1:27:18
• Where was Russ born and what did his parents do? 1:48:21
• Why did Russ study economics? 1:49:52
• Narrative economics. 1:51:13
• Who are the most important economists for non-economists to know? 1:57:12
• How does Russ think about what he does? 2:02:31
• Vipassana meditation. 2:06:26
• When would Russ recommend economics as an undergraduate degree? 2:17:18
• Adam Smith’s distinction between being loved and being lovely. 2:21:14