Economics

Economics

episodes

Interviews with economists about their new books.

Kevin Woodson, "The Black Ceiling: How Race Still Matters in the Elite Workplace" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

May 13, 2024

The Black Ceiling

Kevin Woodson
Hosted by Deidre Tyler

America's elite law firms, investment banks, and management consulting firms are known for grueling hours, low odds of promotion, and personnel practi…

Amy Schiller, "The Price of Humanity: How Philanthropy Went Wrong—And How to Fix It" (Melville House, 2023)

May 13, 2024

The Price of Humanity

Amy Schiller
Hosted by Brian Hamilton

Amy Schiller's The Price of Humanity: How Philanthropy Went Wrong—And How to Fix It (Melville House, 2023) makes an attempt to rescue philanthropy fro…

Kate Maclean, "Cash, Clothes, and Construction: Rethinking Value in Bolivia's Pluri-economy" (U Minnesota Press, 2023)

May 11, 2024

Cash, Clothes, and Construction

Kate Maclean
Hosted by Dave O'Brien

How do alternative economic ideas and practices develop? In Cash, Clothes, and Construction: Rethinking Value in Bolivia’s Pluri-economy (U Minnesota …

Alyxandra Vesey, "Extending Play: The Feminization of Collaborative Music Merchandise in the Early Twenty-First Century" (Oxford UP, 2023)

May 11, 2024

Extending Play

Alyxandra Vesey
Hosted by Bradley Morgan

Despite the hypervisibility of a constellation of female pop stars, the music business is structured around gender inequality. As a result, women in t…

Tiziano Bonini and Emiliano Trere, "Algorithms of Resistance: The Everyday Fight against Platform Power" (MIT Press, 2024)

May 10, 2024

Algorithms of Resistance

Tiziano Bonini and Emiliano Trere
Hosted by Dave O'Brien

What are the tactics needed for a world of platforms and algorithms? In Algorithms of Resistance: The Everyday Fight against Platform Power (MIT Press…

Francesca Trivellato, "The Promise and Peril of Credit" (Princeton UP, 2019)

May 5, 2024

Promise and Peril of Credit

Francesca Trivellato
Hosted by Mark Klobas

In 1647, the French author Étienne Cleirac asserted in his book Les us, et coustumes de la mer that the credit instruments known as bills of exchange …

Céline Bessière and Sibylle Gollac, "The Gender of Capital: How Families Perpetuate Wealth Inequality" (Harvard UP, 2023)

May 3, 2024

The Gender of Capital

Céline Bessière and Sibylle Gollac

In many countries, property law grants equal rights to men and women. Why, then, do women still accumulate less wealth than men? Combining quantitativ…

Allison Schrager, "An Economist Walks Into A Brothel: And Other Unexpected Places to Understand Risk" (Portfolio, 2019)

April 30, 2024

An Economist Walks Into A Brothel

Allison Schrager
Hosted by Kyle McMillen

Whether you are a commuter weighing options of taking the bus vs walking to get you to work on time or a military general leading troops into war, ris…

Adia Harvey Wingfield, "Gray Areas: How the Way We Work Perpetuates Racism and What We Can Do to Fix It" (Amistad Press, 2023)

April 30, 2024

Gray Areas

Adia Harvey Wingfield
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Labor and race have shared a complex, interconnected history in America. For decades, key aspects of work—from getting a job to workplace norms to adv…

George R. Boyer, "The Winding Road to the Welfare State: Economic Insecurity and Social Welfare Policy in Britain" (Princeton UP, 2019)

April 29, 2024

The Winding Road to the Welfare State

George R. Boyer
Hosted by Mark Klobas

The creation of the postwar welfare state in Great Britain did not represent the logical progression of governmental policy over a period of generatio…

Michael De Groot, "Disruption: The Global Economic Shocks of the 1970s and the End of the Cold War" (Cornell UP, 2024)

April 28, 2024

Disruption

Michael De Groot
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In Disruption: The Global Economic Shocks of the 1970s and the End of the Cold War (Cornell University Press, 2024), Dr. Michael De Groot argues that…

John L. Sullivan, "Podcasting in a Platform Age: From an Amateur to a Professional Medium" (Bloomsbury, 2024)

April 27, 2024

Podcasting in a Platform Age

John L. Sullivan
Hosted by Shu Wan

Podcasting in a Platform Age: From an Amateur to a Professional Medium (Bloomsbury, 2024) explores the transition underway in podcasting by considerin…

Teri Finneman et al., "Reviving Rural News: Transforming the Business Model of Community Journalism in the US and Beyond" (Routledge, 2024)

April 25, 2024

Reviving Rural News

Teri Finneman, Nick Mathews. and Patrick Ferrucci
Hosted by James Kates

Based on extensive research into weekly rural publishers and rural readers, Reviving Rural News: Transforming the Business Model of Community Journali…

Anu Bradford, "Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology" (Oxford UP, 2023)

April 24, 2024

Digital Empires

Anu Bradford
Hosted by Jake Chanenson

The global battle among the three dominant digital powers―the United States, China, and the European Union―is intensifying. All three regimes are raci…

Michael J. Graetz, "The Power to Destroy: How the Antitax Movement Hijacked America" (Princeton UP, 2024)

April 23, 2024

The Power to Destroy

Michael J. Graetz
Hosted by Meghan Cochran

The anti-tax movement is "the most important overlooked social and political movement of the last half century", according to our guest Michael J. Gra…

Guido Alfani, "As Gods Among Men: A History of the Rich in the West" (Princeton UP, 2023)

April 19, 2024

As Gods Among Men

Guido Alfani

This provocative and interesting book has received considerable attention. Roaring reviews and interviews include The Financial Times (UK), The Teleg…

Grazia Ting Deng, "Chinese Espresso: Contested Race and Convivial Space in Contemporary Italy" (Princeton UP, 2024)

April 14, 2024

Chinese Espresso

Grazia Ting Deng
Hosted by Shu Wan

Why and how local coffee bars in Italy--those distinctively Italian social and cultural spaces--have been increasingly managed by Chinese baristas sin…

Dani Rodrik (Harvard Kennedy School Economics Professor) on Industrial Policy, Globalization and His Career

April 11, 2024

Dani Rodrik (Harvard Kennedy School Economics Professor) on Industrial Policy, Globalization and His Career

Dani Rodrik
Hosted by Jon Hartley

Dani Rodrik (Harvard Kennedy School Economics Professor) joins the podcast to discuss his career, the best case for industrial policy, the labor marke…

Sean Vanatta on Credit Cards

April 8, 2024

Sean Vanatta on Credit Cards

Sean H. Vanatta
Hosted by Lee Vinsel

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with historian and standup comedian, Sean Vanatta, lecturer in economic and social history at the University …

Marc Edelman, "Peasant Politics of the Twenty-First Century: Transnational Social Movements and Agrarian Change" (Cornell UP, 2024)

April 6, 2024

Peasant Politics of the Twenty-First Century

Marc Edelman
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Peasant Politics of the Twenty-First Century: Transnational Social Movements and Agrarian Change (Cornell University Press, 2024) by Dr. Marc Edelman …