Podcasts about university fm

What does it mean to ‘know' something, and what does it mean specifically when stated by a scientist? What is the role of debate in driving scientific progress, and how does progress get built on the bones of science that we later find to be incorrect?James C. Zimring is a professor of pathology and immunology at the School of Medicine at the University of Virginia and also an author. His latest books are What Science Is and How It Really Works and Partial Truths: How Fractions Distort Our Thinking.Greg and James discuss the complex nature of scientific thinking and the philosophical underpinnings of scientific practices. James emphasizes the discrepancies between the idealized version of science and its messy reality. They explore the critical distinction between phenomena and theoretical claims, the social constructs within scientific methodology, and the importance of understanding what it means when scientists claim to 'know' something.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:What science is and isn't03:18: My goal here was really to try and provide non-scientists with, as you pointed out, a more realistic assessment of what science is and what it means when a scientist says they know something. Because the hyperbole around scientific claims, although exciting, right, has also destroyed a lot of scientific credibility. The best way to lose credibility is to make a claim that you cannot possibly live up to. And at the same time, science is epistemically distinct. When a scientist says they know something, it means something different than other knowledge claims in other areas of thought. I am not a scientific imperialist. It does not mean something better, but it really means something different. And the failure, I think, to make that distinction is very damaging to how we navigate the world.Science is not about being right14:14: Science is not about being right. Science is about getting closer and closer to rightness. But scientists, we try to kill theories. That is what we do.Science is messy and sloppy1:00:45: Science is messy and sloppy, and this is what it means when a scientist says they know something, and it is very different from when anyone else says they know something. But it is quite different from what, historically, we say it means.Why is common sense thinking toxic to scientific progress?23:48: Common sense thinking is toxic to scientific progress because things that are common sense are often wrong. I mean, they are really helpful if you are wandering around the savanna trying to survive as a nomadic human. But when you are in the laboratory studying science, those things that work so well on the savanna are categorically incorrect. Unlearning millions of years of evolution of cognitive psychology is part of what it is to be a scientist, as you point, learning that we do not observe causality, learning that there are these confounders, learning that common sense things that are obvious may not be, is a large part of the scientific enterprise. And that is where it differs from what you are talking about—normal everyday thinking, especially statistics and other things.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Thomas KuhnRichard FeynmanKarl PopperA. J. AyerWillard Van Orman QuineNational Institutes of HealthBerengar of ToursTransubstantiationCharles Sanders PeirceConfoundingPaul FeyerabendMichel FoucaultPeter MeijerGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at the University of Virginia School of MedicineLinkedIn ProfileGuest Work:Amazon Author PageWhat Science Is and How It Really WorksPartial Truths: How Fractions Distort Our ThinkingTransfusion Medicine and HemostasisGoogle Scholar PageResearchGate Page

For much of America's history, the promise of greater economic opportunities in new places was an intrinsic idea to the country's identity. But in recent decades, it's become increasingly difficult to pack up and chase that American dream. Why? Yoni Appelbaum is a deputy executive editor at The Atlantic and the author of the book, Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity which explores the significant decline in geographic and economic mobility in the United States over the past 50 years.Yoni and Greg analyze the historical context of mobility trends in America, the role of zoning laws, the influence of homeownership policies, and the changes brought about by millions of moves within American society. They also discuss possible reforms and a generational shift towards embracing growth and community development.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:How America got stuck in a mobility decline16:00: For almost all of American history, when a place was thriving economically, we threw up new housing to accommodate all the new arrivals who would flock toward that opportunity. And then, 50 years ago, we pretty much made it impossible to do that. And so, as a result, when people are in a place today with declining opportunity, they really are kind of stuck—the places that they could move just can't accommodate them.The hidden costs of not building30:09: If you do not build housing that is affordable, if you do not build new luxury housing that rich people move into, thereby letting the older housing stock become available to people on, on more limited incomes, if you are not building, then you are shutting out those people. And so, it is not just the crisis of homelessness, which is a real crisis, it is also that lack of mobility.Why newcomers make communities thrive06:45: Loneliness is good, aloneness is bad, but loneliness is like hunger. It is a spur to action… [07:09] It is that loneliness of the new arrivals in town that has traditionally spurred people to form social relationships. You are much likelier to join something if you are new in town. And then, there is the other part of it too, which is that a community that is full of new arrivals will have a much more vibrant civic life.Geography as a tool for reinvention08:26: Everything that mattered about you was defined at your birth. You inherited your spot in the social hierarchy, your religion, often your father's occupation, your prospects, your identity — all of that — and largely your geographic location, right? You lived on the land your family had lived on for generations and where you expected your grandkids and your great-grandkids to live. You were defined at birth. What America did by allowing people to choose their own communities, by giving a legal right — and this was a bit of a legal revolution — the chance for people to move where they wanted to, we gave people the chance to decide who they wanted to be through their physical geography, through those serial relocations. Because Americans did not just move once, maybe not 40 times, but by moving repeatedly through their lives, Americans were able to continually reinvent themselves and to fashion their own identities. All of these things became matters of choice.Show Links:Recommended Resources:The Opportunity AtlasOkie Jacob RiisGuest Profile:Author Bio at The AtlanticProfessional Profile on XGuest Work:Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity

After navigating a challenging endometriosis diagnosis, multiple surgeries, and a complex healthcare system, Andria “Monique” Pourkarimi '25 decided to tackle a gap she experienced firsthand. While pursuing an online MBA at Rice, an idea born in the classroom grew into Dr. Clara, LLC — a women's health startup focused on closing the communication gap between patients and providers.Just a year earlier, Monique founded Pourkarimi & Associates, LLC, a financial consulting and independent insurance brokerage firm that helps clients navigate complex financial decisions and insurance needs. In this episode, Monique joins co-host Brian Jackson '21 to share how her health journey inspires her work with Dr. Clara, why financial and insurance literacy are so important, and what led her career from the aisles of Costco to entrepreneurship and a Rice MBA.Episode Guide:00:00 Introduction to Monique Pourkarimi01:23 Balancing Business and MBA09:08 The Inspiration Behind Dr. Clara10:46 Challenges and Advocacy in Women's Health19:19 Future Plans and Reflections22:29 The Importance of Financial Education27:43 Pursuing Public Policy for Healthcare Reform30:51 Concluding ThoughtsOwl Have You Know is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.Episode Quotes:Where did Monique get her entrepreneurship spirit?07:45: I think entrepreneurship runs in my blood. So my uncle has a logistics company that is here in the US and transports in Mexico as well. My grandmother, she works with him and his business, and, my mom has her own insurance brokerage as well, specializing in Medicare. So independent of my pursuits, my grandmother and my mom are the ones who raised me. So here it was three generations of strong Mexican women who were, you know, just under one roof. And I think that is kind of what shaped me in terms of  the woman that I am today and that entrepreneurial spirit.Success is about impact, not numbers27:25: I think for me, success is counting how many people am I able to help at the end of the day, right? And it's not a number of just benchmarks of, oh, okay, I have a quota of helping 500,000 people. No, it's not about that at the end of the day. And do I confidently know that I have been able to help make a positive impact in this world? I do not want to leave it as I am starting these businesses because I am doing them for myself, or even with awards that I received through Rice. I think success is: what is my legacy? And if I were to die today, you know, what would people think about me? I think success is: what is my legacy? And if I were to die today, what would people think about me? Did I make a positive impact in people's life? That, to me, is success.The moment Monique said yes to Rice05:21: For me, I was thinking, wow, there is so much potential—especially with an MBA. There is so much potential I have in growing my businesses. And, as you said, Brian, being connected with the other students—I joke that Rice did all the background checks for us because I love my cohort. The people at Rice, the alumni—we are one big Happy Owl family. I had a lot of people who believed in me and were willing to help and point me in the right direction.Show Links: TranscriptGuest Profiles:2025 Best & Brightest Online MBA: Andria Monique Pourkarimi, Rice University (Jones) | Poets & QuantsAndria Monique Pourkarimi | LinkedIn

Private markets have taken off in the last couple decades, with more investors opting to invest in private equity and debt instead of public markets. But what caused that shift? And are the private markets really a better bet right now, or is there more to the story?  Hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen sit down with private markets expert Ludovic Phalippou, a professor of financial economics at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford and author of Private Equity Laid Bare. In the conversation, they explore what private markets can provide asset owners that public markets can not, the potential tradeoffs of investing in private equity, how performance in private and public markets is measured, and if the return on investment is really worth the high fees that come along with private equity firms.   Find All Else Equal on the web:  https://lauder.wharton.upenn.edu/allelse/All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of the UPenn Wharton Lauder Institute through University FM.

The evolving economic landscape makes institutional reforms in areas like finance, planning, and public infrastructure, a necessity. AI is capable of causing an economic shakeup similar to the transition from horses to steam, with far-reaching ramifications throughout the world's economies.Jonathan Haskel is a professor of economics at Imperial College Business School, in London, and also the author of a few books, including Capitalism without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy and Restarting the Future: How to Fix the Intangible Economy.Greg and Jonathan discuss how traditional institutions, intellectual frameworks, and measurement disciplines are struggling to adapt to an economy increasingly dominated by intangible assets such as software, data, and branding. Jonathan explains the complexities of valuing and measuring intangibles, the role of venture capital, intellectual property laws, and the impact of AI and general-purpose technologies. The episode also covers the necessity for institutional reforms in areas like finance, planning, and public infrastructure to better support the evolving economic landscape.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:The two boosts of productivity31:30: When you have a general-purpose technology, which is also an invention, method of invention, you get two boosts to productivity. The first boost to productivity is in the invention sector itself—what I would call the intangible sector itself, as in the R&D and the software and all that—you get a boost to productivity there. And then the second boost to productivity is when all of those new inventions—now think of steam—start spreading out to the economy as a whole, to be used in the transport sector, in companies, in firms, and all that kind of thing.The intangible things the new economy makes03:23: What does the new economy make? It's people writing software. It's people writing movie scripts. It's people trying to think of new ways to market their product or publicize their brand or rearrange their organization. Those are all very intangible things.What makes the intangible economy unequal?18:39: We first got into this. We were thinking that spillovers would be the predominant economic force, and therefore a more intangible economy would be, in some broad sense, a more equalized economy…[19:04] But that, of course, goes against people's intuition. We think the economy, in some sense, has become more unequal. And we changed our mind during the writing of the book, actually, and ended up thinking that the forces of synergies are a force, of course, for making it more unequal.The human edge in a world of intangibles55:01: Once you start thinking about the task of coordinating the synergies and getting all these people together—guess what—that needs people, people. And scientists might be really good at that, but artists and poets and historians and students of ancient Greek—they might be really good at that as well. So, I am optimistic, actually, that the future could admit people with all sorts of backgrounds and all sorts of skills into this new world.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Diane CoyleBaruch Lev BooksIntangible AssetSoftware DevelopmentPaul RomerIntellectual PropertyDataThomas PhilliponDouglass NorthAbundance by Ezra KleinGeneral-purpose technologyEric BrynjolfssonRobert GordonGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at Imperial College Business SchoolWikipedia ProfilePrinceton University Press ProfileBank of England ProfileSocial Profile on XGuest Work:Amazon Author PageCapitalism without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible EconomyRestarting the Future: How to Fix the Intangible EconomyMeasuring and Accounting for Innovation in the Twenty-First CenturyNBER PageGoogle Scholar Page

What can be gained from looking back now at the pandemic response during COVID? What would a “postmortem” tell us about how policies were designed and how scientific discussions played out? Stephen Macedo is a professor of politics at Princeton University, as well as at the University Center for Human Values, and the author of several books including Greg and Stephen discuss the decision-making flaws during the COVID-19 pandemic, the lack of robust debate, the role of public health experts, and the increasing influence of partisanship. Stephen explores the potential long-term implications for democracy and science, the concept of noble lies, and the necessity of balancing expert advice with broader public interests. Their conversation also touches on the importance of liberal virtues and the need for both improved decision-making structures and individual adherence to professional ethics.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:When public health crowds out public values09:52: The public health mindset is that you only pay attention to reducing disease, and so public health experts had too much power. Wider decision-making should have been made by people looking at the whole range of public values, not just disease reduction or attempts to reduce disease. So, the many things that came together—but we regard the book as a window onto the state of our democracy, and in a way, our—you know—the dangers of our epistemic tribalism, to put it that way. The degraded state of deliberation in our country.How epistemic bubbles are making us dumber50:57: We are making ourselves stupider by being ensconced in these epistemic bubbles. We are undermining our own capacity for critical thought by not being more open to disagreement.Science can't decide for a democracy alone55:58: We need both more checking of a wide array of elites being involved in thinking, challenging, questioning decisions, but also some way of making sure—possibly through legislative oversight, House of Representatives being involved. The public voices need to be heard as well because they bear the cost of these—need to be heard as well because they bear the cost of these measures. And as we said before, science is not going to make these decisions for us. There are value judgments involved, and it is the people's value judgments that matter to some degree of risk tolerance…[56:35] We need more checking and balancing in these kinds of decisions that affect the public as a whole, and more open debate, discussion, more tolerance of disagreement—including, or maybe even especially, coming from the partisan other, as it were.Science needs scrutiny, not censorship14:17: We need empirical inquiry to test the assumptions behind these particular policies and assumptions—not censorship in advance of evidence that might be unwelcome with respect to, you know, certain kinds of policy claims. So, I think there's a wider politicization of science. I do think we need more viewpoint diversity in the academy, and people say, "Wasn't this the code word for having more conservatives?" And I'll say, yes. I think we're a bit too far out of balance. We should not reflect the American public—I mean, that's not the aim—but I think we do not take seriously enough, reasonable concerns coming from the other side of the political spectrum. So, it's a long-winded answer to your question, but I think the COVID experience is emblematic and indicative of a wider problem and deeper problem.Show Links:Recommended Resources:David HalberstamGraham AllisonNeil FergusonDavid ZweigFrancis CollinsAnthony FauciSandro GaleaStephen HaberJohn IoannidisScott AtlasDeborah BirxAlasdair MacIntyreCharles TaylorThe Federalist PapersJohn LockeAdam SmithConsequentialismBen BernankeThe Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics (Politics and Society in Modern America) by Jefferson CowieInsecure Majorities: Congress and the Perpetual Campaign by Frances E. LeeGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at Princeton UniversityWikipedia PagePrinceton Politics PageSocial Profile on XPhilPeople.org ProfileGuest Work:Amazon Author PageIn Covid's Wake: How Our Politics Failed UsDeliberative Politics: Essays on Democracy and DisagreementDiversity and Distrust: Civic Education in a Multicultural DemocracyAmerican Constitutional InterpretationThe New Right v. the Constitution | CATO Institute

What historical forces have led to the rise of demagogues in the past and how to they compare to the increasing power of populism today? What are the benefits and drawbacks of empowering leaders from outside politics during these times?Eric A. Posner is a professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School and also the author of several books, including The Demagogue's Playbook: The Battle for American Democracy from the Founders to Trump, Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society, and The Executive Unbound: After the Madisonian Republic.Greg and Eric discuss the definition of demagoguery and its historical context in American politics, particularly comparing presidents Donald Trump and Andrew Jackson. They explore the rise of populism, its implications for democracy, and the role of elites and institutions. Additionally, Eric explains his views on labor market power and antitrust law reforms, reflecting on recent American political dynamics and potential future reforms.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:How President Trump changed the presidential playbook40:43: Trump is really not that popular, but he does—but he is very popular among his base. So I think he has decided, unlike—I think most presidents want to have, like, a large majority, super majority of support. And I think Trump, at some point, realized that he would never get that. And so he wanted to maintain his base plus a few swing voters. And if that is your goal, if that is your plan, it may be fine to do things that upset a lot of people. Whereas when these norms developed—if that is what we are going to call them—they developed in a context in which there was less partisan division, less ideological strife, and it made sense for politicians to be basically more cooperative, even though they represented people with very different interests.Demagogues appeal to the emotion08:12: Demagogues appeal to emotion, but it would be wrong to say that any politician who appeals to emotions is a demagogue. There are community and “let us work together” and “let us protect people, vulnerable people,” versus this kind of hatred, which is characteristic of the demagogue, who wants to find somebody to blame for people's problems.What is the essence of populism?06:37: The virtuous people, meaning something—well, not never really clear—definitely farmers and maybe working people, versus an establishment consisting of politicians and bankers and capitalists. I think that division is the essence of populism.The threat of demagoguery33:08: Usually people are worried about demagoguery because they are worried, basically, that ordinary people will be persuaded by somebody who is evil, basically, or does not have their interest at heart. It is still with us. Never went away.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Daniel KahnemanPopulismDemagogueWilliam Jennings BryanAndrew JacksonFederalist PartyFranklin D. RooseveltPat BuchananHuey LongSecond Bank of the United StatesNapoleonDouglas MacArthurHenry GeorgeGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at The University of Chicago Law SchoolEricPosner.comFaculty Profile at NYU Law SchoolWikipedia PageLinkedIn ProfileGuest Work:Amazon Author PageThe Demagogue's Playbook: The Battle for American Democracy from the Founders to TrumpRadical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just SocietyThe Executive Unbound: After the Madisonian RepublicHow Antitrust Failed WorkersLaw and Social NormsClimate Change JusticeThe Twilight of Human Rights LawLast Resort: The Financial Crisis and the Future of BailoutsTerror in the Balance: Security, Liberty, and the CourtsEconomic Foundations of International LawThe Perils of Global LegalismGoogle Scholar Page

How has the landscape of legal education shifted, and what ramifications has that already started having? How do politics factor into judicial appointments more than ever before, and how did we get to this point?Ilya L. Shapiro is a senior fellow and the director of Constitutional Studies at the Manhattan Institute. He's also the author of several books, including Lawless: The Miseducation of America's Elites and Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America's Highest Court Cato Supreme Court Review.Greg and Ilya explore issues related to Supreme Court nominations, cancel culture, and the impact of bias in legal education. Their conversation also addresses the longstanding politicization of judicial appointments, challenges within legal academia such as DEI and student activism, and the broader implications for law and society. Ilya also shares potential reforms for improving the legal profession and education system.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:When the law becomes just another form of activism35:49: Another failure of our systems of legal education or of the culture of the legal profession. Young lawyers seeing themselves as the law or their legal tools as just another part of activism, rather than as a profession. Or law schools not teaching lawyers the same way. The way to be a good lawyer is to be able to understand and see all sides of a given argument or issue or dispute. That is how you can best advocate your own sides, your own client's position. Well, if half of that 360 degrees is illegitimate, or you cannot even discuss beyond the pale, outside the Overton window, as they say, then you are going to be a much less effective lawyer. And yes, I think the legal profession has suffered, in general, its credibility, its reputation.What universities were meant to be43:19: It is the purpose of universities to develop, to have free inquiry, to have civil debate, to confront new ideas. And if universities have not been doing that for a whole host of reasons, then I think that is a level of criticism—something that they should be held to account for.On judges and legal objectivity04:36: You would hope that law and policy are different things, because there is a reason why we separate out the judicial power, and that reason is for it to be a counter-majoritarian check. You do not need judges to buttress popular opinions. You need judges to protect against abuses of power by elected officials. You need judges to protect individual rights against mob rule. And so, it cannot be the case that what is right on the law is always going to be what the majority of policy views. When fear shapes the future of the legal profession30:27: Most students just want to get their degree, get their credential, get a job, have some fun while they are at it, and that is about it. They are not politically motivated or philosophically motivated. They are just there because—especially when we are talking about law schools, rather, or some other professional school as opposed to college—they are there because this is the next step on their career trajectory, and they are just trying to keep their head down so as not to be caught in the cancellation crossfire. And it is fear, and this is how I counsel students, is that you do not have to be a martyr. You do not have to stand up and be an individual, objecting to every injustice you face.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Ketanji Brown JacksonBurwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.Robert BorkTheodore RooseveltJames MadisonAlexander HamiltonJohn JayMancur OlsonWilliam TreanorThe Paper ChaseLewis F. Powell Jr.John Paul StevensGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at The Manhattan InstituteProfile at the CATO InstituteProfile for Burke Law GroupLinkedIn ProfileSocial Profile on XGuest Work:Substack - Shapiro's GavelAmazon Author PageLawless: The Miseducation of America's ElitesSupreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America's Highest CourtCato Supreme Court ReviewReligious Liberties for Corporations?: Hobby Lobby, the Affordable Care Act, and the ConstitutionAmicus Brief -- Alvarez v. Smith

What if there was a system that could decide who to consult for a decision in real time? How would the diversity of the available sources affect the information gathered?Scott E. Page is a professor of management, social science, and complexity at the University of Michigan. He's also the author of several books including The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You, Complex Adaptive Systems: An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life, and The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies.Greg and Scott discuss the importance of diverse models and perspectives in decision-making. Scott also shares insights on the evolving nature of information access and the role of AI in augmenting diversity in team decision-making processes. The conversation covers themes like cognitive diversity, the role of selection and treatment in maintaining diverse perspectives, and the challenge of fostering a healthy organizational culture where diverse ideas can thrive.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:How do we design institutions for diversity and better decisions with AI01:01:46: So how do we design, especially now with AI, institutions, organizations, whether they're for-profits, universities, governments, that creates, you know, better people in a way, right? We're so focused on the allocation or the decision that's being made. At the end of the day, the decisions and the allocations are going to be made by those people. So you're getting the outcome, but you're also getting the people. And how do we kind of—and to your point about the treatment—you also want those people to be diverse, right? And you want to allow them and encourage them to be learning new things. In fact, I think you do not want to solve it because you could not solve it, because it would be like social engineering. But I think you want to have some awareness that particular institutional structures and incentives of structures that you're putting in place are not necessarily creating the world you want—or are creating the world you want.How AI's power to curate makes culture more important than ever28:58: We all know AI can know—these are really nice knowledge maps. But the question is: when you start linking people to the knowledge maps and start saying, ‘We can dynamically bring people into the meeting and get their feedback,' now you're suddenly curating. I think AI's ability to curate, to your point, is amazing. But now, let's pull the culture thing in. How do I not feel like a gadget? How do I not feel like some sort of widget that the AI is using? I think this is where creating the right organizational team culture is going to be really important.Invisible forces behind organizational design01:01:30: What comes for free, whether you like it or not, whenever I design an institutional structure and organizational structure, are the norms, the behaviors, the beliefs, the networks—all that other stuff. The kind of dark matter that really matters for society.Why simple models fail on complex problems07:59: If you take something like inequality, it is a complex problem, right? Or the environment. It is a complex problem. Models are simple. So there is no way you can explain something complex with something simple. You are kind of explaining a 16 with a three or something. You just cannot. If the problem is this big and your model is this big, you cannot get it all. But if you have a bunch of models in conversation with one another, then I think you can, potentially, reach a deep understanding. You could predict better, right? I think it is a better way to advance science.How AI can bridge decision gaps across social inequality58:12: People who come from families who are well socially connected, who have wealth, who are educated—they get good advice on big decisions that maybe other people do not get. And you can go to the internet to get advice, but you are going to get it pointing in a thousand directions. The question is: will there be ways to have—like, will banks, will others—will they develop AI that they say, “Look, okay, we are going to approve this, but why do you not, you know, use this software and go through this process? It may help you think about particular things.”Show Links:Recommended Resources:Keynesian EconomicsJames G. MarchMarkov ModelPorter's Five ForcesCharlie MungerBayesian StatisticsPhilip E. TetlockDaniel KahnemanJohn Seely BrownGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at the University of MichiganWikipedia ProfileLinkedIn ProfileSocial Profile on XGuest Work:Amazon Author PageThe Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for YouComplex Adaptive Systems: An Introduction to Computational Models of Social LifeThe Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and SocietiesThe Diversity Bonus: How Great Teams Pay Off in the Knowledge EconomyDiversity and ComplexityGoogle Scholar Page

During their time at Rice Business, Mike Tatz '14 and Corban Bates '15 saw an opportunity to connect veterans with capital and the network needed to start a business. As veterans themselves, they understood how important it is to have the right connections and platform to pitch an idea. With that, the Veterans Business Battle was born. But Mike and Corban's story starts long before Rice. The two first met as students at West Point and followed similar paths — from Division I athletics to Army service to financial services, and eventually entrepreneurship. After launching the Veterans Business Battle and earning their MBAs at Rice, Mike went on to found a CBD company for athletes, and Corban began overseeing direct investments into private companies — now serving as the chief financial officer for one of those investments. Mike and Corban join co-host Maya Pomroy '22 to chat about how their time at West Point shaped them, what brought them to Rice Business and the impact the Veterans Business Battle has had over the past decade. Episode Guide:00:00 From Battlefield to Boardroom: Meet Mike and Corban03:01 Life at West Point: Challenges and Lessons08:38 Transitioning From Military to Business School12:57 Creating the Veterans Business Battle20:18 The First Prize and Investor Opportunities22:15 The Journey and Impact of the Competition24:01 Career Transitions and Personal Growth25:29 Mike's Venture Into the Sports Industry27:57 Corban's Path to Artisan Bakery33:43 Final Thoughts and Advice for Aspiring EntrepreneursOwl Have You Know is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.Episode Quotes:The conversation that led Corban from Army to business school09:55: [Corban Bates] Mike's been a huge blessing in my life, 'cause business school wasn't really even on my radar. It's just kind of going up and down the aisles of the career conference, and there were probably 20 schools there, but I didn't talk to any of 'em. It wasn't on my radar, and I talked to Mike. I just ran into him and it's like, “Hey, how have you been?” Like, you know, all for Rice. He was there recruiting for Rice — Rice had a booth — and he starts telling me about it. And he was just about to start this internship at Goldman Sachs, and he had this amazing first year at Rice, and it just sets you up…[10:24] Yeah, I just ran towards it and was extremely fortunate to get in, and Mike completely changed the course of my career. If I hadn't run into him, then things would be very different.On unapologetically pursuing what lights you up34:29: [Mike Tatz] I think a lot of people, even at business school, they get very pigeonholed into thinking that they have to be a consultant or an investment banker because they think about the financial support that it is going to give them or the safety net. There is a gazillion ways to make money out there. I think you have got to be happy. You have got to be happy. And you can be, but you have got to take that leap. You have got to have a plan. And then once you figure out what it is, you go, baby. You go as hard as you can, and you make everybody else think that you are crazy for how hard you are working at whatever you are doing. If you do that, I think good things are going to happen.Why veterans and business school are a perfect match17:09: [Corban Bates] Rice came up with this concept of really bringing on more veterans to their business school. I think it's a great match of veterans being very far along in their leadership development and people management development by the time they're in their late twenties, but being behind on the business concepts. And then you pair, you know, the rest of the civilians who are advanced in their business concepts but are probably lacking on the leadership front — probably haven't led that much in their twenties. And so it's this great pairing where both sides can learn from each other.The business network gap veterans face13:35: [Mike Tatz] I don't think veterans need any special treatment, nor should they expect — or do we expect — any special treatment. But what I do think is the case is that, going back to that last example — let's say I do want to start a business. I'm starting a business. There are a lot of steps to it, but one of those steps that is crucial is capital. And so my network, being in the military, is Army sergeants, Army majors, privates — whatever it may be, right? They're not the Goldman Sachs folks. They're not the people looking to make investments into companies. They're not the people with the means to not only provide financial capital, but mentorship capital and experience capital that you would need as somebody being in the military, coming out and trying — and wanting — to start your own business.Show Links: TranscriptGuest Profiles:Mike Tatz | LinkedInCorban Bates | LinkedInVeterans Business Battle

For the summer season, All Else Equal will be alternating between new episodes and reruns. In this week's episode, we're revisiting our conversation with Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University John Cochrane.  What exactly is a trade deficit? And why are so many policymakers fixated on it? Lately, the trade deficit in the U.S. is taking the bulk of the blame for the economic situation we're in and it's one of the reasons the Trump administration is pushing for sweeping tariffs. But tariffs are likely not the answer, and a trade deficit might be better referred to as a capital surplus.   As a continuation of the tariffs discussion in the last episode, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen are joined by John Cochrane, an economist at Stanford University and the Hoover Institution.   The conversation covers how trade deficits actually work, their implications on global and domestic economies, and how current trade policies may impact economic growth, inflation, and international relations.  Find All Else Equal on the web: https://lauder.wharton.upenn.edu/in-the-news/all-else-equal/All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of the UPenn Wharton Lauder Institute through University FM.

Liberalism is a term that has been adopted and adapted in different ways over the centuries of its use. How do we need to rethink and communicate the core principles of liberalism in the face of modern challenges?Helena Rosenblatt is a professor in the History, French, and Political Science departments at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). She is also the author of several books, including The Lost History of Liberalism: From Ancient Rome to the Twenty-First Century and Liberal Values: Benjamin Constant and the Politics of Religion.Greg and Helena discuss the shifting meanings and history of liberalism, focusing on key themes such as the Anglo-American appropriation of liberalism, the evolution of liberal values, and the struggle between individual rights and civic virtues. Helena also touches upon the impact of religious influence, the educational system, the rise of new liberalism, and the relevance of civic education in contemporary society. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:Liberalism began with character, not politics09:10: With the advent of Christianity, we started to talk about God's liberality towards, so there was no liberalism. The noun was liberality, as you mentioned. And then it became Christianized, and it meant then charitable. And then eventually, in the 18th century, with the Enlightenment, it started to mean tolerant and sociable. A gentleman was liberal in that he was open-minded. He was polite. He was educated, and we should not forget liberal arts education. Right? So very important to liberality. And it is good to think about today when the liberal arts, we think anyway in the humanities, are under siege, if you will, you know, and people lamenting the decline of civic engagement and of qualities of a citizen—that is what the liberal arts education was supposed to teach.Why liberalism was never meant to be direct democracy26:00 We are for the people, and we are accountable to the people. But it is for the people. It is not by the people. Government—we are supposed to be generous. We are supposed to be thinking about them. We are supposed to rule for them, but we cannot possibly allow them to rule.What happens when liberal face strongmen22:00: The notion that a strongman politics, which we are seeing again today, was something that liberals became very especially concerned with because they saw what could happen when people place their faith in a strongman who appealed directly to—you know, populism is not a recent thing. They did not call it populism then? I do not think so. But this idea that I am the people, I understand the people, your so-called representatives are just, you know, in deadlock. They cannot make—they are just talking. They are just a bunch of lawyers who, you know—this is an old, very old accusation that strongmen used in order to get, very often, elected democratically, but then unravel and destroy all the safeguards that were there or were meant to be there to safeguard individual rights, for example.Show Links:Recommended Resources:LiberalismJohn LockeThomas HobbesGermaine de StaëlBenjamin ConstantFrench RevolutionFreemasonryOtto von BismarckAdam SmithWalter LippmannLiberal PartyNapoleonRichard T. ElyFriedrich HayekAlexis de TocquevilleGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at CUNYWikipedia ProfileSocial Profile on XGuest Work:Amazon Author PageThe Lost History of Liberalism: From Ancient Rome to the Twenty-First CenturyLiberal Values: Benjamin Constant and the Politics of ReligionThe Cambridge Companion to ConstantRousseau and Geneva: From the First Discourse to The Social Contract, 1749–1762

Technology is now involved in all industries, and there is a need for a critical and ethical approach to technology's development and integration into daily life for the betterment of all.Greg M. Epstein is the Humanist chaplain at both Harvard and MIT, and also the author of the books  Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World's Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation and Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe.In this episode, Greg discusses the concept of humanistic chaplaincy, its historical roots, and the emergence and acceptance of humanism as an alternative to theistic religions.. Greg explains the idea that technology, specifically the tech industry, functions as a modern religion complete with its own beliefs, practices, and influence over human lives. He also discusses the potential wins and pitfalls of this new 'tech religion' and the need for a reformation akin to that of historical religious movements. They also focus on the ethical implications of tech's pervasive role in society and compare it to traditional religions. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:The belief system behind Silicon Valley19:15: This is the myth of the Silicon Valley unicorn. You're disruption, right? You are going to disrupt taxi cabs and you are going to get Uber and Lyft. You are going to disrupt, you know, on and on and on, right? And so, what I would say is that the religion is a religion that we actually are teaching a lot of young people today. I mean, we may not frame it as a religion, but to say that it's simply, "We're just doing an MBA, man, it's fine." Like, "We're just teaching people how to run a company." Like no, you're teaching people a very particular ideology for how they should relate to who they are as humans, how they should relate to their fellow human beings, what it is to be a good person and live a good life, and how we should structure communities. Because our entire society is structured around the whims and ideals of this religion now.Reclaiming humanity from tech worship30:58: The technologies that were created should be about making human lives more human and humane, not getting people to devote themselves more and more fanatically to tech, as if it were the God that demanded jealously that we worship it.When AI becomes a god  46:40: The biggest problem in the world today, they have been saying for years now, is not climate change or nuclear war, or the lack of ethics, or authoritarianism, or what—it's unaligned AI. And that they have been advising through their 80,000 Hours website. Effective ultras have, for years now, said that any young person wanting to do the most good should put their efforts, their life, their 80,000 hours of work—which, by the way, is a lot of work... They should put their 80,000 hours of work into making sure that this tech God that we are building likes us and, you know, likes us back, worships us back, or at least takes good care of us, as we are now becoming its flock. And that, to me, is—as bizarre as any other theological tenet I have ever read about in 30 years of feeling.Show Links:Recommended Resources:HumanismJonathan HaidtConstantine the GreatTechnopolyMillenarianismRay KurzweilElon MuskSMART RecoverySam AltmanSatya NadellaLudditeEffective AltruismSam Bankman-FriedWilliam MacAskillGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at Harvard UniversityFaculty Profile at MITProfile on WikipediaHumanistChaplaincy.orgGuest Work:Amazon Author PageTech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World's Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a ReformationGood Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe

What is the relationship between philosophy, rhetoric and law? What can we still learn from ancient Greek and Roman philosophers like Socrates and the Socratics? How is thinking like a martial art? Ward Farnsworth is a professor of law and former dean of the School of Law at the University of Texas at Austin. He's also the author of numerous books that explore law, philosophy, and rhetoric including, The Legal Analyst: A Toolkit for Thinking about the Law, The Socratic Method: A Practitioner's Handbook, and The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual.Ward and Greg discuss the symbiotic relationship of law and philosophy, stoicism and its modern relevance, and the value of philosophical thinking particularly through the lens of the Socratic method in legal education and at universities as a whole.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:The Socratic method isn't just a teaching technique but a way of living and thinking05:09: The Socratic method is a style of thinking first before it's a style of teaching or a way to talk to others. It's a style of thought. And the reason it's an effective teaching method, as far as I'm concerned, is that in the classroom, if it's used effectively, it can provide a model that you can internalize and use as a style of thought for yourself, which is important because most of us do not spend a lot of our lives engaged in real Socratic dialogue with others.  So we have the 99% of our time when we are not doing that. What's going on then? And hopefully the answer is still something Socratic. It's obviously a lot easier to do well when you've got another person doing it, because other people can see your own blind spots a lot more easily than you can uncover them. But still, in the end, I think it's trying to—the Socratic method I see as being a model for thought that, when thinking is going well, is internalized. And it's something you do yourself.Why great lawyers need to think like philosophers02:21: If you really want to be a great lawyer, you have got to understand something about psychology. I think you have got to be a little bit of a philosopher. You have got to understand some economics.Legal education is about thinking like a judge03:07: If you are doing legal education right, you are often trying to teach students how to think like a judge would, and a judge is trying to find the right answer—whatever that might mean—or the best answer. We can talk about the nature of the answers the judge searches for. But I think in a case like that, it is helpful to be thinking not as if you have a dog in the fight, but as if you are trying to discover what the best way is to resolve the case. And then if you are a lawyer, you are trying to anticipate the way the judge will think and beat that. It is also true that if you are a lawyer, you are trying to understand your case and also the other side's case. And that is a very important part of what I call Socratic thinking—being able to anticipate the response to whatever you are imagining saying or thinking, and to be good at going back and forth.Show Links:Recommended Resources:SocratesJohn Stuart MillDaniel KahnemanSeneca the YoungerArthur SchopenhauerOliver Wendell Holmes Jr.Guest Profile:Faculty Profile at the University of Texas at AustinProfessional WebsiteGuest Work:The Legal Analyst: A Toolkit for Thinking about the LawThe Socratic Method: A Practitioner's HandbookThe Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's ManualFarnsworth's Classical English ArgumentFarnsworth's Classical English Metaphor 

On this episode of the OneHaas Alumni Podcast, learn how alum Liz Castelli went from a middle school science teacher to co-founder and CEO of Tinsel Experiential Design. After planning her own dream wedding, Liz wanted to pivot from education to the events planning space. With the help of her two friends, they launched Tinsel and quickly grew it from a boutique agency to a powerhouse experiential company working with clients like GitHub and Uber. Liz chats with host Sean Li about the evolution of Tinsel, the importance of having a clear vision when it comes to company culture, and why she wanted to pursue an executive MBA at Haas with an already successful business under her belt.*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:On Tinsel's early days“ How do brands connect with their audiences? This was sort of the beginning of experiential. And man, we were the redheaded stepchild. It would go through like capital A agency, it would go through create, it would go through digital, you name it, every other entity…And then they'd be like, I think there's $3 for experiential. And now it's wild. It's totally the opposite where everyone is thinking about how does the customer experience the product?”On why she wanted to pursue an executive MBA “ Well, if I'm going to be able to exist as this person who started a company and it is successful, I'd like to feel confident enough in a room of other people who run businesses and know what I'm talking about. And I do know for myself, but I've always done it by learning the hard way or by learning from other people that we've hired. And I think that I wanted to know that what I had done was right.”The surprising lessons she gained at Haas“ That's one of the greatest things that Berkeley gave me. I thought I was coming for the operations. I thought I was coming for the finance, but actually I was coming for politics and power and difficult conversations. And I can think of like 12 different classes where I'm like, oh my God, that's what I came to Berkeley for.”On where she's headed next “ I have always thought of myself more as a builder, then this like visionary, you know, futurist if you will. And so I know that my skillset is around building tinsel into a sustainable model at scale within this holding corporation. That's what I'm excited to do. I'm excited to see the right teams and the right people and things sort of moving in the right direction and taking it from where we were post acquisition, which was still nothing to sniff at, you know. But I think there's just a different level of complexity and growth that's there. And I wanna see it through and I wanna make sure that Tinsel is an entity that will stay on and continue.”Show Links:LinkedIn ProfileTinsel Experiential DesignSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations

Before the Mona Lisa became one of the most famous and beloved paintings in the world, it sat in obscurity for hundreds of years away from the public eye. During that time, no one would have considered it the timeless, classic masterpiece that it is today. How did that change? Who decides what is worthy of the title “classic” and is it possible to have classics in our modern age? Rochelle Gurstein is an intellectual historian, critic, and fellow at the New York Institute for the Humanities. Her latest book, Written in Water: The Ephemeral Life of the Classic in Art explores what it means for something to be labeled “classic” and how the notion of the classics has evolved over centuries. Rochelle and Greg discuss the historical fluidity of aestheticism and taste, the shifting perception of iconic artworks, and unearth the forgotten contributions of critics and artists who shaped our understanding of what it means for art to transcend time. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:Is the world being threatened by new art?42:07:   One of the things that I try to trace in the book is this idea that one's world is being threatened by new art, and the sense that it's not the importance—by the 19th century and the 20th century—of what is at stake. It's not just that there is another work of art in the world, or a style that has entered the world. Instead, it is that a whole sensibility, taste, worldview is under attack.What is the strongest foundation for a classic?52:39: The strongest foundation for a classic is when artists keep a work alive in their own practice. So that, as long as people could still see the Venus de' Medici in the works of all the artists who took it as the exemplar, they would continue to love it because they were all part of a continuum—an aesthetic continuum, a moral continuum—that, in the 20th century and 21st century, became harder and harder to maintain, because contemporary art shifted so dramatically every 10, 20 years—every other year these days. The way that we could keep art alive from the past is: the more we know about what other people have said about it—the people who have loved it, or the people who have not loved it.What really keeps art alive57:00: The practice of art itself—what artists are doing, not what collectors or museums and all the rest are doing, which is, of course, important. But I do not think that that is the most important thing. I think the artist's practice and what they are keeping alive. And then knowing enough, caring enough about the art of the past, to try to understand what their aims were, and knowing it changed over time, and that these works were loved or not loved at different moments of time—and why?Show Links:Recommended Resources:RaphaelVenus de' MediciJoshua ReynoldsWilliam HazlittJohn RuskinStudies in the History of the Renaissance by Walter PaterGiovanni MorelliRoger FryGuest Profile:Fellow Profile at New York Institute for the Humanities Professional WebsiteGuest Work:Written in Water: The Ephemeral Life of the Classic in ArtThe Repeal of Reticence: America's Cultural and Legal Struggles over Free Speech, Obscenity, Sexual Liberation, and Modern Art

Like the discovery of penicillin, it started with an unexpected moment in the lab.Charlie Childs and Madeline Eiken didn't set out to revolutionize drug testing — but a surprise breakthrough led them to create the world's first lab-grown human intestine and win the 2025 Rice Business Plan Competition's grand prize. Their startup, Intero Biosystems, could dramatically reduce clinical trial costs, improve drug safety and advance personalized medicine.Host Maya Pomroy '22  talks with Charlie and Madeline about the moment that sparked it all, their experience winning the 2025 Rice Business Plan Competition, and what's next for their fast-growing startup. Episode Guide:00:59 Meet the Founders: Madeline and Charlie01:49 Their Groundbreaking Innovation of a Lab-Grown Human Intestine03:24 The Journey From Lab to Startup07:06 The Accidental Discovery11:49 Competing in the Rice Business Plan Competition15:52 The Pitch and the Competition Experience19:14 Support and Success at Rice23:37 Future Plans and Advice for Aspiring EntrepreneursOwl Have You Know is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.Episode Quotes:Charlie on the lab-grown intestines breakthrough04:43 [Charlie Childs]: I think, every day, like, as we develop this model, we are just more and more amazed how amazing, like, nature is and how smart science is. So, what we can do is we take these stem cells, which, like you said, can turn to anything in the body, and then we simulate human development. So, every day we give them… we literally call it Gatorade. Like, the cells live in this red liquid, and it truly is Gatorade. It has, like, glucose and proteins and other things that the cells need to live just like our bodies do. And each day, we give them different proteins that leads them down human developmental time until they turn into the miniature intestines. So, it's actually a lot more simple than you would think. And our breakthrough figured out that a single protein that we switched in this process caused this beautiful thing to form. So, the cells, we joke about this every day, like, the cells just know what to do and we just need to, like, push them in the right direction and they will figure out what to do.From lab partners to startup co-founders 04:06 [Madeline Eiken]: We just know that we work really well together. We know that we have really complementary skill sets. So my background is in engineering, and, while Charlie is a biologist, and so the way that we approach problems is quite different from each other, but we have this, like, really shared interest in commercializing that technology.How does the Rice Business Plan competition stand out in comparison to some others?18:12 [Charlie Childs]: It was like a whole other beast, and people kept warning us, like, leading up to it. They were like, “This is fun, but wait till you get to Rice.” It was just like the breadth of not only the startups, but also the judges and all the people from Rice. It was the investors — like, we were just blown away at how much support and interest there was. And I mean, our first pitch was crazy. Like, people were audibly like gasping and cheering, and it was just such a fun group to pitch to. And we just made so many wonderful connections, and I truly, truly, like, this is like launching us into another realm that we didn't even think we were gonna be able to be in. Both from, like, connections and investors, and just support — we're so thankful.What's next for Intero Biosystems?24:05 [Madeline Eiken]: We're really excited to be really laser-focused on de-risking the company and meeting our milestones with this fundraise. We were really lucky to basically double what we were hoping to raise. So that was really awesome and exciting for us. And because of that extra cushion that we have, we think we can push a lot faster on some of our milestones that we had been thinking about for seed rounds and even Series A. So, right now we're really focusing on onlining our manufacturing and figuring out how we're gonna make the organoids really reproducibly so we can get them into the hands of customers as quickly as we can. So, now the fun part of running the company is what we get to do.Show Links: TranscriptGuest Profiles:Charlie Childs | LinkedInMadeline Eiken | LinkedInIntero Biosystems

For the summer season, All Else Equal will be alternating between new episodes and reruns. In this week's episode, we're revisiting our conversation with Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and the author of the book Straight Talk on Trade: Ideas for a Sane World Economy, Dani Rodrik.With President Trump's tariffs on Canada, Mexico, China, and other countries now in full swing, what consequences from an economic standpoint could the U.S. be facing? And what was the path that led us here? Hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen put the tariffs question to economist and author Dani Rodrik. Rodrik is  the Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and the author of the book Straight Talk on Trade: Ideas for a Sane World Economy. Beginning with the historical context and purpose of tariffs, the conversation covers how the political and social dissatisfaction with hyperglobalization opened the door for these extreme tariffs, whether or not they're an effective tool in modern trade policy, and what alternative strategies exist to rebuild America's middle class.  Find All Else Equal on the web: https://lauder.wharton.upenn.edu/in-the-news/all-else-equal/All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of the UPenn Wharton Lauder Institute through University FM.

It's a button most people these days don't think twice about before clicking online: the like button. But there's no argument that the button has turned into a powerhouse of an icon, with its purpose now reaching far beyond the creators' original intent. So, how did we get here? Why was the button originally invented, and what can its ubiquitous role online teach us about our culture?Martin Reeves, chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, and Bob Goodson, founder of Quid, are the authors of the new book, Like: The Button That Changed the World, which tells the fascinating story of how a tiny piece of code completely transformed the way we interact online. Martin and Bob join Greg to delve into the micro-history of the “like” button, including Bob's original sketch for it when he was at Yelp, the role of serendipity in innovation, the booming business that sprang out of “likes,” and how the like button has shaped our understanding of not only online social interaction, but offline socializing as well. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:How the like button transformed online behavior23:50 [Bob Goodson]: So when Yelp was being created, it was not obvious at all that you could get large numbers of people to contribute content, because normal people who had the opinions needed to rate restaurants and bars and doctors and so on were not really adding content to the internet.So it was part of that wave where everyone was trying to figure out, separately and for different business reasons, how do we get people to contribute content—which is why, in some ways, it was the movement of user-generated content. And nowadays we do not think twice about it. And the Like button—really, something Martin and I cover in the book—is that the Like button really greased the wheels for that process, because it is the simplest way to contribute content to the internet. And it still is. With one click, people do not think that they are contributing content; they just think of it as something else. Like it is a type of reading almost: “I am giving my reaction.” But it is contributing content. You are putting your name on something, and you are adding data to a complex system—which is why we call it the atomic unit of user-generated content.A button that tells a thousand words25:46: [Martin Reeves] There is something quite brilliant and impressive about the Like button, in a way.…[26:25] It's the simplest and most compact thing you can say that is actually meaningful to others. And so, there really is something quite brilliant about the simplicity of this thing.When a small fix becomes a big thing04:52: [Martin Reeves]  The strangest thing about all of the pioneers of the Like button—and we spoke to about 30 companies—was that none of them saw any special significance in the day that they made their contribution. They were just addressing that day's tactical challenge. It might be voting, or content stream prioritization, or something. And it was only later that the Like button turned out to be a thing. I call it the moment when a thing becomes a thing, and then—then it becomes a big thing. But it was absolutely not a grand design. So I thought, wow, this is the perfect story of what I had long suspected about innovation, which is: it is neither as planned as the hero stories we tell about it, nor as manageable as the managerial structures and metrics and plans and goals that we put in place to manage it.The idealism involved before social media19:52 [Bob Goodson]: We put so much emphasis on social media now that we easily forget. Before it was possible for citizens to share information, the only way to get information out there was through these usually individually owned, massive media companies. So there was a lot of dissatisfaction about censorship and about media being controlled by only the wealthy, and so on. So there was a lot of idealism involved.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Episode 64 of unSILOed feat. Martin ReevesMax LevchinPollice Verso (Gérôme)Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve KrugRussel Simmons Super Sad True Love Story by Gary ShteyngartGuest Profile:Martin Reeves' Profile at Boston Consulting GroupMartin Reeves on LinkedInBob Goodson's Professional WebsiteBob Goodson on LinkedInGuest Work:Like: The Button That Changed the World

It makes sense that economic principles could be a useful guide in deciding what career to pursue, but what if they're also the key to deciding whether to ask for a promotion, who to marry, or what house to buy? Daryl Fairweather is the chief economist at Redfin and the author of the book, Hate the Game: Economic Cheat Codes for Life, Love, and Work. Through the lens of behavioral economics and game theory, the book provides readers with practical strategies for navigating some of life's biggest decisions. Daryl and Greg discuss how economic principles can be applied to real-life decisions, from careers to family planning, and insights into the housing market's complexities including bidding wars, changes to how buyers' agents are paid, and where the market might be headed. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:Can exposure to economics change the way people interact?04:31 Economics provides a really useful framework for making decisions. We have utility theory, right? So you just go with the decision that has the higher expected utility. And I do not think many people think about decisions that way. They get caught up in things like sunk cost fallacies or status quo bias. So having that understanding of both economics and the behavioral part—incorporating the psychology into it—I think allows me, and I think a lot of other, hopefully more people who read the book, to feel more confident in the decisions. I think a lot of people know what the right decision is, but they do not really have the confidence to make it because they are not really thinking through it in terms of what will maximize my utility.Don't hate the player, hate the game52:06 Just because the economy is unfair, and it is unfair for a whole host of reasons—it is not all, like, nefarious reasons. Sometimes games have these inherent flaws in them…[52:28] But if you see that you can navigate around it, you do not have to hate yourself for trying to make it in this economy. You can just see the economy for what it is, and its flaws, and still try to excel at it.The housing market needs big interventions29:17: I think we definitely need some, some big interventions in the housing market. We've seen a lot of policy changes in California, which if California alone fixed its housing problems, it would probably fix housing problems for the entire country…[29:40] But California's problems I think are deeper than just zoning. They have Prop 13, which gives a much lower property tax rate to existing homeowners…[29:59] So, I think there's a lot that we could do to make housing better than what it is right now because it is pretty dire.How PhDs undervalue themselves18:41 I think where a lot of PhDs make a mistake is they do not really understand how valuable they are, and they get stuck in the first job that they went to straight out of grad school, not realizing how many other opportunities there are where they could earn just as much money, or maybe even more money, and have even broader opportunities. But they just kind of, like, stay put because they do not see that broader world around them. They are very good at taking PhD students and turning them into professionals, but then they get the benefit that most of those people hang on for a very long time and do not really go and look at what their other opportunities are, because I think if they did, they would see that they would be very valued outside of just consulting.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Steven LevittJohn ListThe Art of WarHal VarianGary BeckerThe Family Firm: A Data-Driven Guide to Better Decision Making in the Early School Years by Emily OsterGuest Profile:Author Profile on RedfinProfessional Profiles on LinkedIn, XGuest Work:Hate the Game: Economic Cheat Codes for Life, Love, and Work

How can you make philosophy accessible to everyone without stripping it of essential depth and complexity? Where can philosophy take hold in diet and everyday activities?Julian Baggini is a philosopher, journalist and the author of over 20 books about philosophy. His latest are How to Think Like a Philosopher: Twelve Key Principles for More Humane, Balanced, and Rational Thinking, How the World Eats: A Global Food Philosophy, and The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten: 100 Experiments for the Armchair Philosopher.Greg and Julian discuss making philosophy accessible to everyone, and Julian's latest works. Julian discusses the importance of epistemic virtue, cognitive empathy, and the challenges of integrating philosophical thinking into everyday life. They examine the role of attention in good thinking, the merits and drawbacks of various food ethics movements, and the balance between technophilia and technophobia, even coining a new term for practical wisdom in technology use.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:System change beats consumer choice40:38: We should be a little less neurotic about, Is this clean, dirty? Is this good, bad? Try and do the right thing. But actually, it is a system change that is most important. And so the most important thing you could do as an individual is influence organizations and things you are around with. What about your school? What is your school doing for food? I mean, crikey, I am in France at the moment, and I just got the local newsletter from the school. The local schools here—they have a local chef. They give a good chef. They favor local sourcing. They are 30% organic in their ingredients. They spend three euros a day on the food for the kids. And it is—wow, that is great. Right now, in a lot of English British schools, it is terrible, and that is partly because they do not have the resources for it. So, you know, you have got a school—get your school buying the right stuff and feeding the right stuff. That is going to affect like several hundred kids, which is much more than you can affect with your shopping basket.Why attentiveness matters in philosophy58:15: Attentiveness is important because I think in some debates, they become scholastic in the sense that a question arises in philosophy, it gets formulated, and people go after the answers, but people are not paying attention as to why we are asking the question in the first place.Why thinking should be a team sport43:17: So the so-called cognitive failures we have, it shows how stupid we are. Bad we are at abstract thought. Well, that's when we try and do things privately by ourselves, and I think in general, yeah, absolutely. Thinking with others—so this has become my mantra. I actually got a fridge magnet made with this on it: Think for yourself, not by yourself. Think for yourself is important. Do not just accept what you are told.Rethinking what it means to think well05:20: People often think that good thinking is a technical matter. You get your training in logic; you get to analyze whether a statement is fallacious, whether the conclusion follows from the premises, et cetera, et cetera—all of which are useful skills, to be sure. But there is a whole other side of good thinking, which is to do with what we call these epistemic virtues. It describes the whole attitude you bring to your thinking.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Epistemic VirtueBernard WilliamsPhilippa FootIris MurdochFriedrich NietzscheWilliam JamesPeter SingerThe Good SonFyodor DostoevskyDavid HumeJohn SearleWason selection taskKieren SetiyaDaily Rituals - How Artists WorkOnora O'NeillT. M. ScanlonMiranda FrickerRichard FeynmanPhronesisGuest Profile:JulianBaggini.comProfile on WikipediaSocial Profile on InstagramSocial Profile on XGuest Work:Amazon Author PageHow to Think Like a Philosopher: Twelve Key Principles for More Humane, Balanced, and Rational ThinkingHow the World Eats: A Global Food PhilosophyThe Pig That Wants to Be Eaten: 100 Experiments for the Armchair PhilosopherThe Great Guide: What David Hume Can Teach Us about Being Human and Living WellHow Do We Know? The Social Dimension of Knowledge: Volume 89

It may be not much to look at, but the unassuming shipping container has had a massive impact on the global economy since its invention in the 1950s. The story of its rise as the dominant form of shipping is filled with dramatic turns and insights into the explosion of globalization.  Marc Levinson is a journalist, economist, and a former senior fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations. His books like, The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger and Outside the Box: How Globalization Changed from Moving Stuff to Spreading Ideas explore the complex economic history and unexpected impact of how goods make their way around the world. Marc and Greg discuss the labor-intensive nature of shipping before containerization, the union battles, regulatory hurdles, and the economic implications of adopting a standardized container. They also examine the unforeseen consequences of global supply chains and the evolving power dynamics between shippers and transporters.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:The hidden globalization behind modern trade47:48: The value of international trade of exports and imports is really based on transactions. Okay? One party is selling something to another party, and there is a price for that transaction. But what happens when you're looking at something on the internet? You're not paying any money to do that. You're just sitting at your computer. You do not know that the server that's offering you that page on the internet is actually based in a different country. That's an international exchange. It's not—there's not a transaction. This is not recorded as international trade, but it is. It's quite common now within large companies to have research operations in several countries. The researchers talk to one another all the time. They send each other emails all the time. And those ideas have economic benefit, but they do not have value that can be captured by national statistics. So we're having a much harder time keeping track of what is going on.The unsung heroes behind global trade28:27: The real heroes in the container story, I think, are the engineers from the ship lines and the container manufacturers and other companies who spent 10 years literally sitting in smoke-filled rooms, negotiating over things like: How many supports should there be inside the container? How thick should the end walls be? What should the door hinges look like? All of this seems really trivial, but economically, it made a big difference to the different companies...It made a difference to the cost of the container.How companies are rethinking trade risk41:08: I think companies have really devoted a lot more effort in the past couple of years to understanding how their supply chains work and looking for vulnerabilities. There are a couple of basic choices that they have got. One is that they can just keep more inventory, keep more stuff in the warehouse here in the States. Well, that is costly. First, you have to pay for it, and then you have to pay to store it. And it may go out of date depending upon what business you are in. But that is one way of reducing this riskShow Links:Recommended Resources:Malcom McLeanJohn R. MeyerGuest Profile:Professional WebsiteProfessional Profile on LinkedInGuest Work:The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy BiggerOutside the Box: How Globalization Changed from Moving Stuff to Spreading IdeasGreat A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America

It might sound counterintuitive but digital transformation is not about technology. So, what does it mean for companies to keep up in an ever-evolving digital age? Well, according to today's guest, it's about having a “strategic imagination.”David Rogers, an instructor at Columbia Business School, is an OG thinker on digital transformation. His books, The Digital Transformation Playbook: Rethink Your Business for the Digital Age and The Digital Transformation Roadmap: Rebuild Your Organization for Continuous Change, laid the foundation for an entire strategic approach to taking companies into the digital age. David and Greg delve deep into the misconceptions about digital transformation, emphasizing that it's not merely about technology but about strategic imagination and continuous organizational change. They discuss the evolution of digital transformation over the past decade, the importance of a well-defined strategic vision, and the roles of agile methodologies, hypothesis-driven experimentation, and cohesive leadership.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:Digital transformation is about contexts56:33: The question of digital transformation. It is not about bolting technology onto an existing company. It is about—really, it is about—how do we adapt an organization so that it can thrive in a digital context, right? The digital is actually about the context, not about what you are doing, even necessarily per se, inside the business. And to me, the most defining characteristic of the digital era is this accelerating change and accelerating and growing uncertainty that organizations have to cope with.What makes an effective leader?25:16: Effective leaders do not orient their job around making decisions primarily. What they are primarily trying to do is to define what truly matters, to then communicate that to others, achieve that kind of alignment and clarity that we are pulling in the same direction, and then to empower others—to enable the rest of the organization to do it.Digital transformation is not about technology10:28: Digital is not about the technology inside your company. It is not about the behaviors of the market and the customers. But it is more the context we are in, which is one of—not a change that happened in 1994 to 1996, or some other change. Oh, the shift to mobile. Oh, the shift to this. Let's shift to the cloud. It is just one after another, and each wave of technology change is catalyzing the next. It is not just, “Oh, why are they each coming?” Well, each one is building on the one right before it. And so we are dealing with this pace of change and level of uncertainty; therefore, in your context, for any organization, that is unprecedented and certainly not what big organizations were built for and organized for in the 20th century.Strategy as thinking discipline34:39: Strategy is something you need to embed in every level of organization as a thinking discipline, which is about defining: what are we trying to achieve? What do we believe is a way—or the best way—to achieve that at this point in time.Show Links:Recommended Resources:James Hackett Daniel KahnemanPraveer Sinha, TataSteve BlankBob DorfGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at Columbia Business SchoolProfessional WebsiteProfessional Profile on LinkedInNewsletter on SubstackGuest Work:The Digital Transformation Roadmap: Rebuild Your Organization for Continuous ChangeThe Digital Transformation Playbook: Rethink Your Business for the Digital AgeThe Network Is Your Customer: Five Strategies to Thrive in a Digital Age 

On this episode of the OneHaas Alumni Podcast, meet Christina Cairns, an international development professional who spent over 10 years at USAID and now helps expand financial access to under-capitalized business owners and entrepreneurs through the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). With a background in international relations and environmental science, Christina joined USAID as a Foreign Service Officer in 2012 where she worked on climate change adaptation, clean energy, wildlife conservation, and improving economic conditions in places like sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. Wanting to expand her financial knowledge, she decided to go back to school and pursue an Executive MBA at Haas in 2020.Christina chats with host Sean Li about her family's deep roots in California, the challenging and inspiring work she's done through various roles, including her time in the Foreign Service, the critical and often overlooked work of USAID, the impact of recent U.S. policy shifts, and her current role at the DFC.*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:On growing up as a fifth generation Californian“ I grew up in the foothills near Sequoia National Park and from an early age was raised running around in the orange groves and going up to the mountains. Every summer, my dad would take my two older brothers and I backpacking for a few days and give my mom some rest before she started teaching school again in the fall. And I think that really shaped me in many ways: my love for the outdoors, appreciation for nature, cold, clear water, fresh air.”On the recent policy shifts that have affected USAID“I think a lot of Americans had no idea what USAID was until they heard about it in the news this February when it was ripped apart. And they were told that it was an agency that had been corrupted and was basically full of waste and fraud.So I would advise people to do their own research. There was actually something called the DEC [Development Experience Clearinghouse] where we put all of the project information, where all of your taxpayer dollars were going for USAID work, into this database. It showed who the contractor or grantee was, which are the main forms of how we got money out the door at USAID, and what that money was spent on. I would encourage people to go look at the current data on foreignassistance.gov and to see what your taxpayer dollars were spent on.”On her role with the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation“ What we do is we put in place these risk reduction mechanisms or incentives for financial institutions to take on more risk. To lend to a farmer who doesn't have title to their land but is still farming it because of antiquated titling systems or whatnot, or to women who can't legally own land because it has to be in their husband's name. So, how are these people going to get a loan? We help facilitate or work with the banks, and a lot of times, microfinance institutions to open up their lending aperture and get capital to people who will make really good use of it.”On her efforts to continue the impact of USAID's work“ A former USAID colleague and I have submitted a proposal for funding to categorize all of the terminated climate projects that were started by USAID, with very basic information: what country was it in? What sector? Who was the local partner? What was the project aiming to do? How much financing or funding did it need? We want to put all that information into a platform for donors, foundations, impact investors, multilateral organizations like the World Bank or others, and ask, ‘Are you interested in continuing any of this work? This is work that has already been designed and vetted by the U.S. government, not to mention all of these people who are working on these programs are available if you would like them to continue the work.' ”Show Links:LinkedIn ProfileSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations

What drives humans to seek and discover the previously unknown? Does the wanderlust that so many of us share in common have a scientific explanation? Science journalist Alex Hutchinson is the author of The Explorer's Gene: Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the Map, as well as the book Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance. His work focuses on expanding our understanding of human performance, particularly in relation to fitness, sports, and outdoor activities. Alex and Greg delve into what it means to have the “Explorer's Gene,” the evolutionary benefits of seeking novelty, and the psychological aspects of exploring, including the balance between the impulse to explore and the necessity to exploit known resources.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:Why is defining exploration so tricky?33:56: What do you mean by exploring? Well, on one extreme, it can be like, well, if you are the first person to do this ever, then you are exploring. And that is a very narrow definition that not many of us will ever satisfy. The other definition is like, hey, I am changing the channel on TV and therefore I am exploring the airwaves. And that is also not very meaningful. Then, like, everything we do is exploring.So, somewhere in the middle, there is a definition that I think is useful. And part of that definition, I think, is that it is—you know, a meaningful form of exploration inevitably involves some struggle. It involves the risk of failure. It does not have to be physical struggle, but it involves some risks, some challenge.Is technology making us passive explorers?33:02: Technologies make us more passive in our explorations. There is something lost in the quality of our experience, in how much we enjoy it, and then also in how much we learn about the world from those experiences.Why are we drawn to solving uncertainty?24:37: The subjective sense that life is good—like the feeling that you are happy and good and satisfied—is a manifestation of the fact that you are reducing uncertainty quickly. That this is like you are learning about the world, things are going well. And so, when we talk about exploring and curiosity, we are looking for opportunities to get this steepest slope that we can surf down, where we are reducing uncertainty quickly.Why a changing world demands exploration18:56: If the world was stationary—in the bandit literature, they talk about stationary bandits and restless bandits. So, stationary bandits are like, if the slot machine pays off 62% of the time, it is always going to pay off 62% of the time. If the world was like that, then there might be a case for locking yourself in a closet, or at least some equivalent of, like, you do not need to explore quite so much—let us just figure out a comfortable way of living and let us do that. The problem is, the world never stays stationary. So, what worked yesterday may not work as well today, and almost certainly, eventually there will come a time where it is not working. We have to keep adapting. And so, in these lab areas, you can show that the more restless the world—the greater the changes in the reward functions around you—the more valuable exploration is.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Daniel Ellsberg John Maynard Keynes Bernard Suits Mark Miller “Your Brain on GPS” by Alex Hutchinson | The Globe and Mail Mindwandering: How Your Constant Mental Drift Can Improve Your Mood and Boost Your Creativity by Moshe BarGuest Profile:Professional WebsiteProfessional Profile on LinkedInAuthor Page at Outside MagazineGuest Work:The Explorer's Gene: Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the MapEndure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance 

As the first figure skater to play Elsa in Disney On Ice's Frozen and now a pioneer in the private security industry, Becky Jackson knows a thing or two about creating something from scratch. Before earning an MBA at Rice and becoming an entrepreneur, Becky had an illustrious figure skating career with Team USA and Disney. Now, she's revolutionizing the way private security contractors reach clients with her company ONGUARD. Becky joins co-host Brian Jackson '21 to chat about her journey — from discovering her passion for skating at age 7 and traveling the world with Disney on Ice to founding a business that works with local law enforcement and veterans to make private security more accessible.   Episode Guide:00:00 Introduction to Becky Jackson02:05 Early Life and Figure Skating Journey04:03 Professional Career With Disney on Ice08:56 Transition to Business and Consulting11:57 Pursuing an MBA at Rice University14:07 Founding ONGUARD16:34 ONGUARD's Mission and Future22:35 Connection With Veterans and Pitch Competitions23:54 Reflections on Entrepreneurship and Teamwork30:10 Advice for Aspiring EntrepreneursOwl Have You Know is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.Episode Quotes:Lessons from being a solo founder24:49: Being a solo founder, I've learned the importance of a team, and how essential it is to have a really strong team with you. And so I think, in that respect, the experience with Disney always was—so incredibly grateful to be surrounded by artists and engineers who really love and, you know, are really committed to their work. And so that's been an important lesson for me: that you can't just go it alone. You can't just brute-force your way into starting a company. You really need to listen to experts. You need to know when to bring in the right people. And so, I think it's been a tougher journey for that, just kind of starting this off solo. But I quickly learned—and, you know, being at Rice helped me learn that too—is that, no, you need to learn to delegate, and you need to really tap into the network and the world around you.You're never too old to go chase a dream27:32: You can really use the skills, but more importantly, the network to do anything that you, you know, really want to do. And something that I'm passionate about is that during my time at Rice, we had the slogan, “Rice Business, You Belong Here.” And that means, you know, can mean so much to everyone. It can mean something different. But for me, I always took the chance to think about it in terms of age, and that you're never too old to go chase a dream, or you're not too advanced in your career to start something new. And I think that's an important message that I always tell prospective students.How Becky found consulting after skating09:19: One thing I knew for sure is I wanted to work in some kind of, you know, dynamic environment. I had come from tour that was one city after the next, and it was traveling and meeting new people and new challenges every week. And so that's—that's where I landed in the world of consulting. I thought, oh, great—like traveling every week, new challenges, a lot of ambiguity. And so I thought that—that that's the thing for me.Show Links: TranscriptGuest Profiles:Becky Jackson | LinkedInONGUARD

For the summer season, All Else Equal will be alternating between new episodes and reruns. In this week's episode, we're revisiting our conversation with Madhav Rajan of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. As more and more universities move away from full-time MBA programs, what does the future of business education look like? How should it look?In this episode, hear perspectives from three of the top business schools in the U.S.: Stanford Graduate School of Business, The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. Hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen sit down with Chicago Booth's Madhav Rajan to discuss the state of the MBA programs at their universities and why there seems to be a decline in MBA degrees. The conversation also touches on the need for rigorous education, the value of technical skills versus managerial training, and potential innovations like modular MBA degrees. Find All Else Equal on the web: https://lauder.wharton.upenn.edu/in-the-news/all-else-equal/All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of the UPenn Wharton Lauder Institute through University FM.

Being easily distracted by the latest technologies has been a consistent feature of the human race since the time of Plato. But is the technology to blame? Or is the key to being more productive and present in life have to do with forming healthy habits around the technology?Nir Eyal, writer, consultant, and former lecturer in marketing at Stanford, is the author of Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life and Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products. In his work, Nir explores the psychology behind habit-forming technology.Nir and Greg discuss the positive applications of habit-forming technologies, the timeless nature of distraction, the importance of forethought in combating impulsiveness, and practical strategies for becoming “Indistractable.” *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:The antidote to impulsiveness is forethought15:32: Studies have found that 90% of your distractions are not external triggers. They do not come from the outside world. Ninety percent of the time you check your phone, you check your phone not because of a ping, ding, or ring, but because of an internal trigger. Because 90% of distractions begin from within. They start because of these internal triggers. What are internal triggers? Internal triggers are uncomfortable emotional states—boredom, loneliness, fatigue, uncertainty, anxiety. This is the source of 90% of our distractions. So what that means is, when you let those impulses take over, right? The antidote to impulsiveness is forethought. When you allow yourself to check social media or watch something on the news or whatever it is that is not what you want to do, because of an immediate sensation, that tends to be, 90% of the time, the source of the problem. That is when it becomes something of, “Oh my gosh, what was I doing? I wasted the whole day worrying about somebody else's problems online,” as opposed to what I really need to do. Whereas if you plan that time in advance, it is fine. There is nothing wrong with it.How do you become indistractable?50:42: The first step to becoming indistractable is mastering internal triggers, or they will master you. So you can have the best tools, the best life hacks, the best—all that stuff. But if fundamentally you do not know how to deal with that sensation, you do not know how to process boredom, loneliness, fatigue, uncertainty, anxiety—if you do not know what to do with that sensation—you are always going to find a way to escape.Humans adapt and adopt with every new technology07:29: The solution is not to abandon the technology. The solution is to make it better, to do what we as Homo sapiens have always done. We have always done two things in the face of dramatic technological innovation. What we have done is to adapt and to adopt, right? We adapt our behaviors. We adapt to new social norms. We adapt to the downsides of these behaviors by changing our manners, and then we adopt new technologies to fix the last generation of technologies.Show Links:Recommended Resources:AkrasiaPaul VirilioPeter GrayAmy Edmondson | unSILOedRobert D. PutnamGuest Profile:Official Website Professional Profile on LinkedInGuest Work:Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your LifeHooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

There is a shift happening in the complex world of proof. Simulation and probabilistic approaches are increasingly accepted as ‘good enough' in areas traditionally dominated by exact proofs. Persuasion depends on the degree of certainty needed.Adam Kucharski is a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and also the author of three books, Proof: The Art and Science of Certainty, The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread--And Why They Stop, and The Perfect Bet: How Science and Math Are Taking the Luck Out of Gambling.Greg and Adam discuss the versatile concept of 'proof', examining how it applies differently across mathematics, law, medicine, and practical decision-making. Adam discusses the challenges of proving concepts under uncertainty, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the role of intuition versus formal modeling in various fields. They also explore the crossover of epidemiological principles into finance, marketing, cybersecurity, and online content dynamics, illustrating the universal relevance of contagion theories. The episode highlights how simulation and probabilistic approaches are increasingly accepted in areas traditionally dominated by exact proofs.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:The gap between science and policy09:25: One of the challenges we had in COVID is this dimension of a problem where all directions had a lot of enormous downsides, and countries were having to make that under pressure. And even one of the things that I think I did not really appreciate at the time was, even later in the year, when a lot of these questions about the severity, a lot of these questions about transmission, had really been resolved because we had much better data. We still had a lot of this tension demanding, "Oh, we cannot be sure about something," or "You know, we need much, much higher evidence." And I think that is the gap between where kind of science lies and where policy lies.It's not the content, it's the contagion37:59: I think a lot of people think about the content, but obviously it is not just, "It is something goes viral." It is not just about the content. It is not about what you have written; it is about the network through which it is spreading. It is about the susceptibility of that network. It is about the medium you use. Do you have it that lingers somewhere? Is it just something you stick on the feed and it kind of vanishes? So, there is a direct analogy there with the different elements and how they trade off in ultimately what you see in terms of spread.What human networks can't teach us about machines46:35: One thing that is really interesting about computer systems is the variation in contacts you see in the network is enormous. You basically get some hubs that are just connected to a huge number of computers, and some are connected to very few at all. So that makes the transmission much burster.It is not like—so humans have some variation in their contacts—but most people have about 10 contacts a day, in terms of conversations or people they exchange words with. Some more, some less, but you do not have people generally have like 10,000 contacts in a day, whereas in computers you can have that. So it makes the potential for some things to actually persist at quite low levels for quite a long time because it will kind of hit this application and then simmer along, and then hit another one and simmer along.Show Links:Recommended Resources:EuclidGeorge E. P. BoxWilliam Sealy GossetP-valueRonald RossJonah PerettiDuncan J. WattsAmazon Web ServicesMonty HallGuest Profile:AdamKucharski.ioFaculty Profile at London School of Hygiene & Tropical MedicineSocial Profile on BlueSkyGuest Work:Amazon Author PageProof: The Art and Science of CertaintyThe Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread--And Why They StopThe Perfect Bet: How Science and Math Are Taking the Luck Out of GamblingSubstack NewsletterGoogle Scholar PageTED Talks

How do individuals navigate moral typecasting? What is the dual nature of empathy in the context of human pain and suffering? When is there a disconnect between the perceptions of what is right and what is moral?Kurt Gray is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he directs the Deepest Beliefs Lab and the Center for the Science of Moral Understanding. In the autumn of 2025, he will join the faculty of the Department of Psychology at Ohio State University. He's also an author, and his books are titled Outraged: Why We Fight About Morality and Politics and How to Find Common Ground and The Mind Club: Who Thinks, What Feels, and Why It Matters.Greg and Kurt discuss Kurt's work at the Deepest Beliefs Lab and the Center for the Science of Moral Understanding. Their conversation covers key topics such as how moral disagreements are rooted in differing perceptions of harm, the impact of evolutionary psychology, and the role of empathy in bridging divides. Kurt also shares insights from his classroom experiences on fostering understanding among students.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:How can pain and suffering change your view about empathy?43:00: There are two ways, right? That pain and suffering could change your views of empathy. And I should say there are some people who do experience a lot of pain and suffering and then do not feel sympathy...[43:16] Everyone suffers. Just like, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, dust yourself off and get hard, get tough. But for the most part, if you suffered a lot in life, you can kind of recognize that it's tough sometimes to be a human being and that you have more sympathy for others, at least more so than people who never suffered in their lives, right? But I think the way that pain causes you to have less empathy is if you're in pain right now. Right? So if you are standing in, you know, a pile of razor blades, it's hard to be really empathic for someone—you know, someone's situation, right?—because you're so focused. Like, pain just overwhelms your entire consciousness. So never try to get empathy from someone who is actively in pain, but I think instead, reach out to people who, you know, have gone through a similar thing.Moral understanding begins with human contact40:46: The more you have sustained contact with people who are different than you, you show more moral understanding.When recognizing pain depends on perception27:13: When it comes to the ability to suffer, pain like that is ultimately a matter of perception. Like, you can, you know, agency—someone is intending—you can see that more on the surface, right? Like, I am going to think and I will do something—that is agency. But if you start crying, like, are you a method actor? Are you actually in tears? Are those crocodile tears? So, questions of pain are easy to accept when it is your family or your friends. Perhaps when someone is very different than you, or maybe you are locked in a conflict with someone and they are crying, right? It is much harder to take their pain as authentic.Understanding starts with stories not arguments30:53: Stories are a way of sharing one true thing, shall we say, right? This thing happened to me, and it's not a talking point I heard on the radio. It actually happened to me, and let me tell you about it so that you can better understand me. I think it's powerful because it's not the thing that you're going to use to persuade in policy, let's say—although, often, stories are persuasive in policy—but instead it's a way of saying, here's where I'm coming from. Can you understand where I'm coming from? And that's a great place for a conversation to start. Right now, I understand you're a person, I'm a person, and let's explore our perspectives rather than argue about complex policy issues.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Jonathan HaidtMoral Foundations TheoryDaryl DavisLuigi MangioneDavid GogginsDaniel KahnemanGuest Profile:KurtJGray.comDeepest Beliefs LabThe Center for the Science of Moral UnderstandingProfile on LinkedInSocial Profile on InstagramSocial Profile on XHis Work:Amazon Author PageOutraged: Why We Fight About Morality and Politics and How to Find Common GroundThe Mind Club: Who Thinks, What Feels, and Why It MattersAtlas of Moral PsychologyGoogle Scholar Page

You know what they say — Silicon Valley wasn't built in a day, nor was it built by just a small group of tech gurus. In fact, the origin story of the Valley is a complex story involving government, industry, and academia.Margaret O'Mara is a history professor at the University of Washington. Her latest book, The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America gives an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the making of the tech empire, and how it's grown into an economic engine. Margaret and Greg discuss the significant role the government played in the early days of Silicon Valley, key historical figures in the region's rise to prominence and factors that set it apart from other tech hubs like Boston, and how the ecosystem has evolved alongside politics, technology, and cultural shifts. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:How storytelling built Silicon Valley's legacy31:59: I think there's the story of the products, and then there's the story of the place, the story of the guys in garages. The story of this entrepreneurial genius, and that's a great, great story. It's part of the story. It leaves out this bigger landscape of government and society and people who are non-technical people, the Regis McKenna's of the world, who are so instrumental in making all this happen. But it's—I mean, I know as a historian—storytelling is powerful. That's how you help people understand and relate. And so Silicon Valley has been such a good storyteller.Why everyone should understand tech history04:27: It's really important for all of us as users of this technology to have a way to understand it and understand its history. Even if we don't know, even if we aren't programmers ourselves.Meritocracy alone hasn't changed the face of power53:16: We're seeing the people at the very, very top of power and influence are more homogenous than ever, which is showing that this meritocracy, this idea, just doesn't—only goes so far. So understanding the history kind of helps, I think, is really important in kind of getting why. Okay, why has this not changed? Why is this so baked into the model? But it also doesn't mean that we should just throw up our hands and say, well, this is the way it is.Federal research grants built founders not just labs11:57: Research money for universities is not only seeding basic research in labs and then seeding spinoff companies and commercializing technologies from those labs, but it's also educating people. When you look, kind of dollar for dollar, about, you know—when you look at Stanford, for example, if you just look at the tech space—I think biotech is different. Medical sciences are different because you have more of that kind of pipeline from lab to startup in that space. But when you're looking at computer hardware and software, it's more about the people that went to Stanford that went on to found companies, right? Everyone from Hewlett and Packard to Brin and Page and everyone in between. That is, it's kind of a people factory, so that's part of it. And that federal money is paying for people for science and engineering programs. So that's a really important component.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Frederick TermanVannevar BushRegional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 by AnnaLee SaxenianRobert NoyceBurt McMurtryTerry WinogradBill DraperPitch JohnsonRegis McKennaWilson Sonsini Goodrich & RosatiGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at University of WashingtonProfessional WebsiteGuest Work:The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America 

Are there ways to change your personality? What traits are easier to change than others? How does environment and life events tend to influence the Big Five traits of your personality?Olga Khazan is a staff writer at The Atlantic magazine and also the author of the books Me, But Better: The Science and Promise of Personality Change and Weird: The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World.Greg and Olga discuss the concept of personality change, focusing on the Big Five personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Olga shares her personal journey of attempting to modify her own traits, the challenges faced, and the various techniques used, such as meditation, improv, and volunteering. They also talk about the implications of personality change in different environments, the heritability of traits, and the broader significance of these changes for personal and professional growth.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:The case for volitional personality change12:03; Everyone will change slightly, even if they do not do anything. So you can just, like, buckle up and enjoy the ride, I guess. The maturity principle — like people become less neurotic, more conscientious over time — so those are positive changes, and most of us will kind of enjoy those. But volitional personality change, which is what my book is really about, is trying to make a more pronounced change in a shorter period of time. And the kind of type of thing I am talking about is, like, starting therapy. Like most people, if they have a problem, they do not kind of sit back and say, "This problem will eventually go away, so I am not going to get therapy." You know, they are like, "I want to go see a therapist because I want this process to resolve faster — like, want to get over this problem sooner." And so, it is similar with volitional personality changes: you are noticing a problem in your life, and you are taking steps to change it faster than it would change naturally.Why extroverts are often happier22:40: Extroversion is important. Most studies show that extroverts are happier. That's just because they have more social connections... There's just something about being seen by other people, feeling like you're part of a community, feeling like you matter, that is really beneficial for health and can't be replicated by reading a book or watching a TV show.Neuroticism and safety vs. risk25:37: Neuroticism will keep you very safe because you will never do anything. But you have to ask yourself whether you want a life where you've never taken any risks. 'Cause that's also part of it.What improv can teach you about being open20:37: What improv is really good at is, if you are someone who is very controlling of situations or likes to be in control, it completely breaks you of that immediately because there is absolutely no way to control what's happening in improv. Everything is so made up and so confusing, and so you have to like to be in the moment and just pivot on the spot with whatever's happening. And for me, that really helped with extroversion, but also kind of just some of the parts of me that were kind of not willing to be extroverted.Show Links:Recommended Resources:NathanWHudson.comPersonalityAssessor.comBrent RobertsWilliam JamesBrian LittleDale CarnegieHow to Win Friends and Influence PeopleGuest Profile:OlgaKhazan.comProfile on LinkedInWikipedia ProfileSocial Profile on XSocial Profile on InstagramHer Work:Articles in The AtlanticAmazon Author PageMe, But Better: The Science and Promise of Personality ChangeWeird: The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider WorldSubstack Newsletter

On this episode of the OneHaas Alumni Podcast, meet alum Shinghi Detlefsen, president of Wholesome Story and CEO of ExpandFi. Shinghi's entrepreneurial spirit at a young age propelled him into a successful sales career with experience at major tech companies like Google and Amazon. After beginning his higher education at Berkeley City College, he transferred to Haas and a world of opportunity opened for him. Shinghi chats with host Sean Li about finding his entrepreneurial drive as a kid, the organizational lessons he gleaned from working at Amazon and Google, how he launched Wholesome Story with his wife, and why he believes everyone has the power to be the change they want to see in the world. *OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:How his entrepreneurial spirit began from a young age“ We moved to Virginia when I was like seven from California, and I remember we were doing a yard sale for like selling stuff before we left and I was in charge of the money and selling things and I still remember being a little kid like, I loved that. I loved selling things and making money. And it always was in my interest sphere. And like, even when we moved to Virginia…I was mowing lawns, making money. I think my parents also raised me with that type of mindset where there are no handouts. You don't just get money from your parents, you need to go earn it.”Lessons he learned from Amazon's corporate culture “Amazon is a written culture, so there are no PowerPoints…You don't have a presentation where some guy stands up in front of everyone and talks about it. Everything's in a doc, so I had to learn how to write and that has been the most valuable asset that I've learned from Amazon. I still use it today. I try to have my own team lean into writing versus presenting just because it's so much more tangible and it also forces you to think very clearly.”On leaving Amazon to take Wholesome Story to the next level“ It was absolutely liberating…At Amazon, like you could really just work your ass off or any corporation and you can get 10% more in salary. And in a business you could work a thousand percent more and you can make a million percent more. It's like that return on your time and your effort is so much higher in entrepreneurship if things work out.”His advice to budding entrepreneurs“ I would focus on – aim to be a millionaire, not a billionaire. And I think, again, going back to that barrier mindset where you have the Googles and the Facebooks and that's who you want to be growing up. That's like a one in a billion chance of you hitting that, right? And a lot of people will spend a ton of time, they'll do a startup, they'll raise a ton of money, they'll be diluted to the point where they would've been better off becoming a millionaire. And so like my point to everyone is that there are million dollar opportunities everywhere, and it's simple. It's like you can create a million dollar business and you just take a problem, a small problem, and you solve it.”Show Links:LinkedIn ProfileX ProfileMedium Article: “E-commerce Wars — and how the US is losing.”Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations

Could the key to a happier life be found with our most ancient ancestors and the way they depended on community over autonomy? In a modern world built to encourage independence, how do we find the right balance between connectedness and autonomy? William Von Hippel is a retired professor of psychology from the University of Queensland and the author of The Social Paradox: Autonomy, Connection, and Why We Need Both to Find Happiness. His research, also found in his first book The Social Leap and countless articles, focuses on the evolutionary science behind happiness.William and Greg chat about how evolutionary science can offer guidance on living a happier, more fulfilled life, the psychological and physiological impacts of social connections, the historical context of human relationships, and the role of modern technology and societal changes in our well-being.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:Why loneliness hurts more than we realize28:38: Loneliness is really hard on your health. We know that it kills you at rates higher than cigarettes once you get older, and you're more vulnerable. And so the feeling of loneliness doesn't guarantee you don't have people around, but it does mean that you don't feel part of it.You feel somewhat excluded. And of course, feeling excluded should hurt because our ancestors who couldn't see that they're about to be excluded are the ancestors who kept misbehaving and therefore got excluded. When you look at hunter-gatherer societies, they all follow the same pattern of exclusion, whereby before they actually give you the heave-ho, first they kind of tease you. And if you don't respond to this teasing, well, already, you're a little bit too thick-skinned, because that's meant to bring you back in line. If teasing doesn't work, then they start acting like you're not even there. They talk around you and not responding to you. Almost everybody, when they get to that point, starts to feel terrible. It feels like physical pain because our ancestors, our potential ancestors who weren't bothered by that, took the next step and woke up one morning either dead or all alone. So, the system makes perfect sense that it really hurts. Happiness is one of evolution's best tools04:06: Happiness is one of evolution's best tools. It motivates us to do things that are in our genes' best interest, not necessarily ours as human beings, who may or may not want to do those things, but it motivates us to do what's in our genes' best interest—typically by making us happy when we do those things.The tradeoff between autonomy and connection06:34: We enter relationships which are super important to us and our happiness; we're a gregarious species. When we enter those relationships, we have to sacrifice some degree of autonomy to do what our friends want some of the time, or at least at the time they want, et cetera. And when we decide to pursue our autonomy, usually in pursuit of skills and self-development, we have to sacrifice our relationships to some degree, because that means we're spending time honing our own skills and not socializing or helping others.Why wealth doesn't guarantee happiness19:47: The things that made us happy, as far as the social connections, were also the things that made us reproductively successful. And they, in some ways, they very much still are. So if I'm famous or rich, I'm high in status, and then I'm attractive to members of the opposite sex or whoever I prefer. And I'm attractive to people who I want to be in my coalition. I have the sort of social accolades that actually make me feel good. And I think that's actually the basis of the Eastland Paradox—this notion that as societies get wealthier, people don't get happier. But richer people are happier than poorer people.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Daniel KahnemanShigehiro OishiRobert Trivers ÖtziJohn T. CacioppoJanice Kiecolt-GlaserSheldon CohenGuest Profile:Professional Profile on LinkedInProfessional WebsiteHis Work:The Social Paradox: Autonomy, Connection, and Why We Need Both to Find HappinessThe Social Leap: The New Evolutionary Science of Who We Are, Where We Come From, and What Makes Us Happy

Retail executive Ramon Marquez can point to virtually every store in a shopping mall and explain how he helped that brand grow. With a passion for retail dating back to his childhood, he's built a career as a leader in merchandising, product management and retail operations for major retailers like JCPenney, Abercrombie & Fitch, Old Navy, and is now shaping the future of Kmart and Sears. As a newly minted MBA graduate, Ramon gained not only a degree from Rice, but also a meaningful board appointment with Panama-based company, Effluz. After working with Effluz on his Global Field Experience, Ramon remained close with the company, which was founded by Taylin Luzcando and specializes in premature baby clothing and accessories. Ramon and Taylin join co-host Brian Jackson '21 to chat about Ramon's career journey from his grandfather's general store in Mexico to the C-suite of some of the biggest global retailers, as well as why he decided to pursue an MBA at Rice and how he's made an impact at Effluz. Founder Taylin also shares the personal origins of Effluz and why entrepreneurs should jump at the chance to partner with Rice's Global Field Experience program. Episode Guide:01:41 Ramon's Early Career and Rise in Retail06:05 Leadership and Adaptability in Retail07:41 Pursuing an MBA at Rice Business10:52 Joining the Board of a Panamanian Startup13:34 Insights on Retail and Future Plans21:03 Personal Life and Community Involvement26:10 Meet Taylin Luzcando, founder of Effluz31:11 Taylin's Experience with Rice's Global Field Experience ProgramOwl Have You Know is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.Episode Quotes:How one class changed Ramon's path19:14: [Ramon Marquez] Towards the end of the MBA... and one of the very last classes I took was Life of Meaning. It's an entrepreneurship lab. And what that class does is that it takes a look at where you want to be and how you fill the gap. And we did a lot of frameworks that helped me map out what is next. So, there were a lot of great things that came out of it. One was that I really didn't have a plan in writing or a roadmap to where I want to land. In the class, part of the frameworks will get you back to, like, what are you passionate about? What is it that you wanted to do when you were a kid? What are the things that you don't want to be left undone? And it helped me realize that, you know, there's an entrepreneurial side of me that I have never explored.Why Ramon says passion for your job matter14:37: [Ramon Marquez] I encourage everyone, whatever you do, position yourself in a place where you love it, that you're so intrigued and so inquisitive and so passionate. And a lot of people come to me and say, you know, “How do you get your job?” And I say, “Well, you have to be interested and passionate about retail. If you're not, don't get my job, because then it's too much pressure. It's too hectic. It's too fast. It's too vulnerable. It's too difficult right now. Retail is really difficult.” But if you think about the fact that, you know, merchants have been around for thousands of years and commerce has existed from the beginning of time, retail's not going to go away. It's just the way that we will get to know what it's like. And for that, I don't have the answer, in case you were wondering.Show Links: TranscriptGuest Profiles:Ramon Marquez | LinkedInTaylin Luzcando | LinkedInEffluz

For the summer season, All Else Equal will be alternating between new episodes and reruns. On this week's episode, we're revisiting our conversation with historian Victor Davis Hanson.History shows that as societies rise to greatness, the scales eventually tip back and those societies fall. But what leads to that fall and are we heading toward one? In this episode, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen speak with historian Victor Davis Hanson, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution who specializes in classics and military history.  The conversation explores the complexities and fragilities of successful societies like the Mycenaeans, Romans, and Byzantines, how specialization can lead to higher living standards but also increased vulnerability, and our existential worries about the future.  Find All Else Equal on the web: https://lauder.wharton.upenn.edu/in-the-news/all-else-equal/All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of the UPenn Wharton Lauder Institute through University FM.

What happens to the speed of trading as technology advances? How do we move from automated button pressing machines to ultra-fast algorithms? What surprising impact does the rain have on the trading windows of financial markets?Donald MacKenzie is a professor of sociology at the University of Edinburgh and also the author of several books. His most recent works are Trading at the Speed of Light: How Ultrafast Algorithms Are Transforming Financial Markets and An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets.Greg and Donald discuss the intersection of sociology and finance, exploring how financial models not only describe markets but also actively influence them. Donald explains the concept of performativity, where financial theories shape market behavior, and contrasts qualitative sociological methodologies with quantitative financial studies. Their conversation also touches on the history and impact of technologies and regulatory environments that have transformed financial trading, highlighting contributions from notable academics and instances of feedback loops between theory and practice.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:Chicago pits vs. algorithms28:34: For, say, investment management firms that have to buy and sell large portfolios of assets, there's little doubt that the modern world of automated trading has benefits, but it also has downsides. I mean, the benefit is, quite simply, of course, that automated systems are a lot cheaper than human beings in colored jackets running around in Chicago's pits or on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. But, at the same time, of course, if you are trying to sell or buy a very large position, then you do leave electronic traces that trading algorithms can pick up on and make money out of.Why financial models shapes markets like engine not camera04:31: An engine does things, it's not a camera—at least in our ordinary thinking about cameras, where you take the photograph and the landscape remains the same. An engine does stuff, it changes its environment.The power of shared signals in trading success34:11: The secret of my success is I realized quite early on that there were things—signals, as they would be called in the field—inputs to algorithms that everybody knew about and that everybody knew that everybody knew about. So it wasn't like I had an unsuccessful attempt, way back to research statistical arbitrage and dare nobody would tell you what exactly they were trading off of. But I think they're trading because everybody knows that if you're trading shares, then a move in the relevant index future is a very, very important signal. Everybody knows that, and everybody knows that. Everybody knows that.Finance beyond numbers, the human side of quantitative work02:30: Finance as an academic field, and indeed of course finance as a practice, is typically highly quantitative. And to get into the technology, quantitative work can be great, but to really get into it you've got to talk to people. Ideally, you want to go see things, so the methodology is more qualitative than quantitative, and it probably would not be the best of ideas.Show Links:Recommended Resources:William F. SharpeThomas MortonFischer BlackCoase TheoremMark RubinsteinEric BudishJohn O'BrienPortfolio InsuranceMilton FriedmanCommodity Futures Trading CommissionU.S. Securities and Exchange CommissionLeo MelamedThe Library of MistakesGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at the University of EdinburghForbes.com ProfileWikipedia ProfileHis Work:Amazon Author PageTrading at the Speed of Light: How Ultrafast Algorithms Are Transforming Financial MarketsAn Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape MarketsDo Economists Make Markets? On the Performativity of EconomicsMaterial Markets: How Economic Agents are ConstructedInventing Accuracy: An Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance

How are effective leadership practices evolving to keep up in a continually changing world? What can be learned from the leaders of companies like Stitchfix or Waste Management? How can AI in education be handled in a way that is open and enriching to all?Robert Siegel is a lecturer at Stanford University GSB and author of the books The Systems Leader: Mastering the Cross-Pressures That Make or Break Today's Companies and The Brains and Brawn Company: How Leading Organizations Blend the Best of Digital and Physical.Greg and Robert discuss the evolution of leadership, particularly in the context of managing crises and rapid technological advancements. Their discussion explores the different things that must be balanced in leadership roles, such as innovation vs. execution and strength vs. empathy. Robert also emphasizes the importance of systems thinking, adaptability, and statesmanship in modern leadership. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:Is statesmanship in short supply?32:17: This notion of statesmanship or stateswomanship of stewardship is, it doesn't deny the ambition that we have as leaders. It doesn't deny who we want to be and what we hope to accomplish, but it's also about looking about everybody beyond us. And we have to lead men and women who agree with us and disagree with us, and we have to lead men and women. With whom we agree and disagree. Like we don't get to choose who we lead, Greg. Like we have to lead everybody. And if we've gotta get them from here to here, to me, that's what leadership is right now. And I don't think we're seeing this with a lot of the people who are put up there constantly in the mainstream media or on social media. But in the book I've got 15 to 20 leaders, all of whom are successful. And we can look at them and say, huh, well if they could do it, so can I.What leadership looks like now06:44:  Leadership today—in a world especially that's moving so quickly—that's where people have to be able to be more adaptable, internalize certain dualities that maybe existed separately inside of a company in the past that now need to exist inside of us internally. And so I think that things are different. The ability and willingness to adapt, I think, that's constant. But what you have to adapt to depends upon the times.Is it harder to be a leader today?08:09: Most leaders today are not trained to be thinking in kind of this level of speed, nor are they trained to understand what happens in different functions in an organization. In the old days, you could come up through engineering or through marketing or through manufacturing, and you would've teammates who would handle the other functions. Well, now we need to understand, like, what's the connection between what we do in one function versus the other function? How do we see internal and external? I think that's harder.Investing time in yourself is leading smarter32:01: A leader who says, I don't have time for this, they're probably spending time on the wrong issues, like where we spend time in the past isn't where we need to spend time in the future. And so making some time to invest in oneself, reading, finding trusted partners outside of the company. Who you can talk to and learn from. And, by the way, those people can be your peers. They can be people who are older, they can even be people who are younger.Show Links:Recommended Resources:PericlesFuture ShockDaniel A. LevinthalKatrina LakeJeff ImmeltAndrew GroveGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at Stanford GSBProfile at Stanford UniversityRobertESiegel.comProfile on LinkedInWikipedia PageSocial Profile on InstagramHis Work:Amazon Author PageThe Systems Leader: Mastering the Cross-Pressures That Make or Break Today's CompaniesThe Brains and Brawn Company: How Leading Organizations Blend the Best of Digital and Physical

What are the effects of stress on memory? How does age change the nature of this vital piece of human cognition? What are the limitations of memory, and how can we embrace them?Ciara M. Greene is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology, UCD, where she also heads up the Attention and Memory Laboratory. She's also the co-author of the book Memory Lane: The Perfectly Imperfect Ways We Remember.Greg and Ciara discuss the nature of memory, challenging the common belief that the best memory is akin to a flawless recording device. Ciara argues that memory's imperfections are actually evolutionarily beneficial, aiding in survival and decision-making. They discuss how metaphors for memory have evolved alongside technology, the reconstructive nature of memory, and the importance of understanding its functions. Ciara also explains how schemas play a role in memory errors, but how they are also beneficial.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:Why forgetting your shopping list is a feature not a flaw44:38: We don't need to have this fear that means technology is ruining our mind. This is exactly the same way as is. Like you say, you're, I dunno, you're going to the supermarket and instead of remembering your shopping list, you write it down. Okay. You don't then also need to remember it. They're able to adapt. So like if you say, I have written down my shopping list, you've essentially told your brain you no longer need to remember this. You don't need to remember bread and eggs and mouthwash. Like, our brains are flexible. Like they're not just running on tracks. It's not necessary.It's not a good use of your resources because you've offloaded that task. That doesn't mean that your ability to go to the shop tomorrow and remember that you need to buy laundry detergent is going to be impaired because you wrote it down yesterday. It's just that we're, if you could think of it as being almost like extending your mind. Okay. It's almost like adding an external hard drive to your computer. You're just giving yourself a little bit more, like an, again, a broader sketch pad to play with. And that we, sometimes we use those tools. There's nothing wrong using those tools, but we should do them consciously.How does the basis of memory work?30:21: The reconstruction of memory is literally the basis of how memory works. It's inescapable. You can't just have a good memory and not have a reconstruction.Memory helps us belong03:46: It's important to think, not just about what memory is — it's not something static — but to think about what it's for, what its function is, and how it evolved in the way that it did.Because just like every other part of our minds, and our bodies, every function that we have evolved under evolutionary pressures — you know, that there are survival pressures and reproduction pressures — and those influence the way in which we evolved as human beings, as any kind of species. So when we think about our memory, I think it's important to keep that in mind, and that evolution wasn't prioritizing: it's super important that you remember absolutely every boring detail of every single experience you've ever had. And, you know, that you have this perfect fidelity and recollection of every detail of everything you observe — that's not necessary to support your survival, it's not necessary to support reproduction, and in some cases, it can be counterproductive.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Jorge Luis BorgesHyperthymesiaSource-Monitoring ErrorThird-Person EffectElizabeth LoftusRepressed MemorySatanic PanicMcMartin Preschool TrialGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at University College DublinSocial Profile on XAttention and Memory LabHer Work:Memory Lane: The Perfectly Imperfect Ways We RememberGoogle Scholar PageResearchGate Page

What is the role of active versus passive learning for math? How would data science become an avenue of math study for high school students and why isn't it already? Where does change in math education start? At the college level or before?Jo Boaler is a professor of mathematics education at Stanford University and also the author of a number of books, including Math-ish: Finding Creativity, Diversity, and Meaning in Mathematics, Limitless Mind: Learn, Lead, and Live Without Barriers, and Mathematical Mindsets: Unleashing Students' Potential Through Creative Math, Inspiring Messages and Innovative Teaching.Greg and Jo discuss creativity, diversity, and meaning in math education. Their conversation identifies certain flaws in current math teaching methods, the resistance to educational change, and the importance of metacognition, visual learning, and collaborative problem-solving. Jo shares insights from her journey as a math educator, including her experiences with educational reform and the implications of neuroscience on learning math. They also examine the role of active versus passive learning, the potential of data science in education, and the impact of AI on future teaching practices.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:How conjectures ignite mathematical thinking17:00: When we ask kids to reason about maths and to come up with their own conjectures, we like to share that word with kids. This is a word that all mathematicians use—a conjecture for an idea they have that you need to test out. It's like a hypothesis in science, but kids have never heard of that word, which is, you know, means there's a reason for that. But anyway, we teach our kids to come up with conjectures and then to reason about them and prove it to each other. And they get these great discussions where they're reasoning and being skeptical with each other. And that's what sparks their interest. They actually feel like they're discovering new things. And it's, like, really engaging for the kids to get into these discussions about the meanings of why these things work in maths. So it's a great route in, not only to engage kids, but have them understand what they're doing. Yeah, it's not that common.Why every kid should learn data science31:02: Data science is really something all kids should be learning in school, before they leave school, and developing a data literacy and a comfort with data and being able to read and analyze data, to some extent, is an important life skill. And it probably is really important to say, if a democracy, as a lot of misinformation is shared now, and if kids aren't leaving able to make sense of and separate fact and fiction, they will be left vulnerable to those misinformation campaigns. So, it's important just to be an everyday citizen.Why estimation is really important34:48: The idea of Math-ish is, estimation is really important. There's a lot of research evidence that we should be getting kids to estimate, but I know that kids in schools hate to estimate, and they resist it, and they will work things out precisely and round them up to make them look like an estimate. But you ask them, what's your ish number? And something magical happens. Like, suddenly they're willing to share their thinking, but it doesn't happen enough.The problem with teaching everything every year14:28: In the US, we have this system of teaching everything every year. So, you start learning fractions in maybe grade three, but you also learn them again in grade four and grade five and grade six. And at the end of that, kids don't understand fractions and everything else. Everything is taught every year. Whereas if you look at very successful countries like Japan, they don't teach in that way. Fractions is taught in one year—one year group—deeply, well, conceptually. So this is why you see kids going around in these massive textbooks that they can hardly carry, because it has all this content. And, of course, when you try and teach everything every year, often kids don't learn any of it well.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Randomized Controlled TrialMetacognitionCompression as a unifying principle in human learningCarol DweckGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at Stanford GSEProfile on WikipediaYouCubedSocial Profile on InstagramSocial Profile on XHer Work:Amazon Author PageMath-ish: Finding Creativity, Diversity, and Meaning in MathematicsLimitless Mind: Learn, Lead, and Live Without BarriersWhat's Math Got to Do with It?: How Teachers and Parents Can Transform Mathematics Learning and Inspire SuccessData Minds: How Today's Teachers Can Prepare Students for Tomorrow's WorldMathematical Mindsets: Unleashing Students' Potential Through Creative Math, Inspiring Messages and Innovative Teaching

What is ‘good stress' and what are the benefits of it? How does an upbringing in uncertainty prepare you in some ways better for the world than others? How are intolerance and uncertainty linked? What is the important purpose of daydreaming for creativity and business?Maggie Jackson is a journalist and the author of the books Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure, Distracted: Reclaiming Our Focus in a World of Lost Attention, and What's Happening to Home: Balancing Work, Life and Refuge in the Information Age.Greg and Maggie discuss the nuances of uncertainty, attention, and distraction, emphasizing the importance of daydreaming and mind wandering. Maggie explores her findings about the impact of these states on creativity, learning, and memory. Their discussion also covers how societal and cultural attitudes towards uncertainty affect decision-making and problem-solving, especially in professional settings like medicine and finance. Maggie also reveals the role of dissent in fostering creativity and collaboration, and the need to manage mental well-being in an increasingly fast-paced world.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:How uncertainty primes us to learn and perform05:44: What's really important to understand, and comes from the new neuroscience of uncertainty, is that this discomfort we feel is actually good stress. So, when you're meeting up with something new or unexpected or ambiguous—in the forest, or in the workplace, or wherever—you actually have a stress response. Neurotransmitters, hormones, et cetera, you know, are cascading through your body. Your body and brain are kind of springing into action. And what's really amazing, and very new scientifically, is that your brain on uncertainty is undergoing remarkably positive changes. So, when you're unsure—this has been documented in emergency room physicians and others—your working memory improves, your attention heightens, your brain becomes more receptive to new data. So, this is a state—yes, that's uncomfortable—but that's good stress. You're actually being primed to learn and perform.Uncertainty is a signal to learn not to retreat06:42: Uncertainty is the brain telling itself, "There's something to be learned here." So, that puts a different spin on this idea that we should retreat from it.Tolerance of uncertainty is a skill you can build28:15: So, we all sit somewhere on the spectrum of this new personality trait. It was actually discovered about 50 years ago, but it's getting a lot of attention, called tolerance of uncertainty or intolerance of uncertainty. So, if you're tolerant of uncertainty—highly—you're more a flexible thinker. You like surprises, you see uncertainty as a challenge. Intolerant people, during the acute phase of the pandemic, for instance, they were far more likely to turn to denial, avoidance, and substance abuse to cope. So, it's really interesting because our intolerance of uncertainty is mutable. Not only can we boost our tolerance—we can practice, we can do daily exercises—there are clinical studies that are actually treating anxiety just by helping people bolster their tolerance and uncertainty. But it's also important to know that it's situational.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Yerkes–Dodson LawJeremy P. Jamieson | Google ScholarCarol Collier Kuhlthau | Rutgers UniversityHarry S. Truman“The Einstellung Effect, Explained”Amy EdmondsonDaniel KahnemanRobert StickgoldJames J. CollinsGuest Profile:Maggie-Jackson.comLinkedIn ProfileHer Work:Amazon Author PageUncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being UnsureDistracted: Reclaiming Our Focus in a World of Lost AttentionWhat's Happening to Home: Balancing Work, Life and Refuge in the Information Age

In celebration of Pride Month, the OneHaas Alumni Podcast is honored to have Laurie Reemeyer, a sustainable mining consultant, share his journey. For much of Laurie's early career in the mining industry in Australia, he kept his identity as a gay man separate from his work. But after more than a decade of hiding this key part of himself, he decided it was time for a fresh start in the form of an MBA degree at Haas. Laurie chats with host Sean Li about his struggles with accepting and embracing his sexuality in a traditionally conservative environment, the pivotal role Haas has played in his life, how he's giving back through Q@Haas, and how he's working to make mining more sustainable through his consultancy firm Resourceful Paths. *OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:How going from mining in Australia to Haas changed his life“ I think with Australia, by the time that I left, things were changing. I was safe in the cities…I was not feeling safe at all to come out at work. And really that's where Berkeley was a fundamental change in my life because when I came to Berkeley, I just came out the first day I was there. And that was such a liberating experience compared to that feeling of suppression and separation that I felt in the mining industry in Australia.”On the work he's doing with Resourceful Paths ”When we talk about helping you mine responsibly, what I'm really talking about is how do we do things in ways that minimize environmental impact that are more socially acceptable? How do we incorporate practices that reduce energy use, water use, that reduce footprint, those types of things.”On living authentically Being your full self to whatever extent you can and recognizing that in the LGBTQ+ community, that's really primarily the journey of coming out. And that's something that people have to do at their own pace. It's a unique journey for everyone. And we can't necessarily live authentically completely straight away because there may be issues around physical danger, around social pressures, cultural issues, et cetera, which you've gotta navigate through. But that's very important that people, you know, feel that they can be themselves, be their true selves to the largest extent they can.”On being a good ally“Are we showing up, firstly? Are we showing up authentically? Is it about supporting the community or is it about ourselves? So if we're showing up because we just want to feel good about ourselves, et cetera, well, sorry, that's not enough. It's not okay actually. I think allyship has to be something much deeper and I think you're gonna stand with those people and support them authentically when the time gets tough or not.”Show Links:LinkedIn ProfileResourceful PathsSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/onehaas/donations

How can the leadership power be wielded for both good and ill? How can leaders use their influence more ethically and effectively, and why is that important for the growth of the whole superorganism?Adam Galinsky is a professor of leadership and ethics at Columbia Business School, and also the author of the books Inspire: The Universal Path for Leading Yourself and Others and Friend & Foe: When to Cooperate, When to Compete, and How to Succeed at Both.Greg and Adam discuss Adam's research and teaching experiences, emphasizing the complexities of human leadership compared to leadership in the rest of the animal kingdom. Adam highlights the importance of understanding power dynamics and how small actions from leaders can have amplified impacts on their teams. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:On the power perspective taking40:13: One of my biggest research findings was, you know, that power lowers perspective taking, right? Even though the powerful have greater impact and, in some ways, need for perspective, they have less of it. But I also have shown that there's a particularly powerful force of power with perspective taking. And so I actually call it—it's like driving a race car, right? Would be a good analogy. So power is the gas that lets you go fast. But if you don't have a steering wheel, you're gonna crash into things. So perspective taking is your steering wheel. And so, if you just have the steering wheel without the gas, you just sit there going nowhere, right? So it's the combination, I think, of the two that are really, really powerful.Leadership tools can build or break51:48: Every single part of the leadership toolbox can be used for good. Or it can be used for a really bad goal. It can be used to hurt people. And so part of what inspiring leadership is, using the toolbox towards inspiring goals, and to making other people's lives better.The five-second leadership habit26:47:  One of the things that I hope from my books and from my teaching is it just helps people take a little step back and think thoughtfully about, like, little things that they can do, to, when they walk into a meeting, just be a little conscious of, like, where's the best place for me to sit? Five seconds. That's all you got to think about it, right? But like, what am I trying to accomplish in this meeting? Who needs to speak? Okay, I'm going to sit here, right? And I know people sometimes feel like, oh, it's overwhelming enough time. Like most people I know, once they get into the practice of doing that, it's actually very invigorating. It gives them a sense of agency, it gives them a sense of control over the world because they understand it. It's like the pill in the Matrix, right? Like the things, all of a sudden make sense in a way they didn't before.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Dave BrailsfordDeborah H. GruenfeldSuperorganismClaude SteeleCameron AndersonDon A. MooreBruce KogutLinda RottenbergGroundhog Day (film)Guest Profile:Faculty Profile at Columbia Business SchoolAdamGalinsky.comLinkedIn ProfileSocial Profile on XHis Work:Amazon Author PageInspire: The Universal Path for Leading Yourself and OthersFriend & Foe: When to Cooperate, When to Compete, and How to Succeed at BothGoogle Scholar PageTed Talks

Despite entering college as a pre-med major, Corey Layne Crouch '13 found her calling in the classroom after working as a teacher's aide for a kindergarten class. Switching majors, she set out on a path to transform the education system from within. Corey's entrepreneurial mindset in her work as a high school English teacher and school principal led her to Rice's Professional MBA program. Now, she's the chief program officer for AI for Education — an organization providing AI literacy training to educators and championing responsible use of AI in the education ecosystem. In this episode, Corey joins host Maya Pomroy '22 to chat about her pivots from pre-med to English to her current role as an educational tech executive — as well as her time at Rice Business, the importance of supporting AI literacy and the innovative ways she's influenced the education system. Episode Guide:00:00 Introduction to Corey Layne Crouch02:15 From Pre-Med to Kindergarten Teacher05:21 Teach for America and Moving to Houston08:23 Becoming a Principal and Pursuing an MBA17:04 Transition to EdTech and AI in Education25:07 Challenges and Misconceptions of AI in Schools30:26 Future of Education with AI38:22 Conclusion and Final ThoughtsOwl Have You Know is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.Episode Quotes:On building AI literacy through tool-agnostic workshops[30:26] Maya Pomroy: So, tell me some of the work that you do — because AI for Education is really tackling one of the, I mean, this is one of the biggest shifts in modern learning.[31:41] Corey Layne Crouch: So we provide workshops and thing that we do, as well as that we're tool agnostic. We do have opinions about tools and where, you know, what's safe and what's fit for purpose, and what we think isn't quite yet, and how to integrate it in that way. 'Cause the technology is going to continue to evolve, but we really believe a foundation of which is rooted in durable skills, right, of critical thinking, and evaluation and understanding the best tool for a job and how to be community oriented. That is the work that we do. And, of course, we teach people how to use the tools and drive towards outcomes with them while we're laying that foundation as well.How Houston's education scene inspired Corey's bold, equitable innovation07:16: Houston is such a great city, as you know, to be a young professional in and, and to start your career, let alone having the opportunity to be a part of the thriving, innovative education landscape there. I really think that it helped me think much bigger about what it meant to be an education and what was possible with innovation, and really moving the needle toward equity and supporting communities that historically, you know, weren't being serviced in the way that they deserved.Why entrepreneurship skills is essential for an AI-driven world32:46: I really believe that students need entrepreneurial skills, and not necessarily because every student is going to go off and start their own business per se, but at the root of it, entrepreneurial skills is about, you know, understanding what you're trying to drive to, or what's the job to be done, seeing what's the diagnosis, what are the challenges, or, you know, opportunities to do better, and then understanding the resources that you have, and moving forward with strategy, as if it's a puzzle piece and, you know, it's strategy, but it's also about just seeing that opportunity and having the confidence and the belief in your own critical thinking, your own resourcefulness, and your ability to collaborate and build relationship with others in order to solve a problem or drive something forward.Show Links: TranscriptGuest Profiles:Corey Layne Crouch | AI for EducationCorey on LinkedIn

For the summer season, All Else Equal will be alternating between new episodes and reruns. On this week's episode, we're revisiting our conversation with Mohamed El-Erian on the intricacies of national debt and the best ways to measure it. Mohamed, Jonathan, and Jules explore the broader macroeconomic and geopolitical factors at play. They discuss the importance of demographic shifts as well as recent technological advancements (AI) for economic growth and our fiscal future.El-Erian is the former chair of President Obama's Global Development Council and former CEO of PIMCO. He is a Senior Fellow at the Lauder Institute. You can read Jonathan and Jules' paper on national debt, “Why Care About Debt-to-GDP?” published May 27, 2025, here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5271557Find All Else Equal on the web: https://lauder.wharton.upenn.edu/in-the-news/all-else-equal/All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of the UPenn Wharton Lauder Institute through University FM.

There have been periods throughout history when cultural aficionados of the time proclaimed that painting was dead! Yet, the artform has risen over and over again. What is it about painting that makes it so timeless and gives it the ability to continuously evolve? Why, after centuries, can we still be awestruck by the right combination of brushstokes? Art critic Martin Gayford has interviewed many artists over his lifetime about their craft. His books explore painting through a multitude of eras and even gives a personal account of what it's like to sit for a painting in Man with a Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian Freud. His latest book, How Painting Happens (and why it matters), compiles wisdom from numerous artists past and present. Martin and Greg discuss the challenges of writing about a non-linguistic medium like painting, the unique, often physical process of painting, and insights Martin has gleaned from his conversations with contemporary artists, including what makes a painting a great one.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:The silent intensity of painting16:13: You don't have to talk or put things in words to think. There is such a thing as physical thinking, and painting is probably a very good example of that. That was one of the points that struck me when I was posing for Lucian Freud, which I—was a very long, drawn-out process. As you can imagine, it took about 18 months to produce two paintings. And Lucian was very slow, but it wasn't that he was painting all the time very slowly. Most of the time in a sitting, he'd spend thinking, looking. And then, after quite a while, and mixing up the paints and contemplating the situation—looking at me, looking at the painting—then he'd dart forward and put a stroke on, quite fast actually. But probably 95% of the time, he wasn't doing that. He was considering the situation.Why we still need painting in a world of screens42:43: It's arguable that, therefore, paintings, sculptures, unique works of art are what we need now. 'Cause they're the opposite of phones and screens and endless deluge of imagery and distraction, which the modern world offers us. A painting is—if it's good enough—it's something you can just look at for the rest of your life, and if it's really good enough, it'll carry on being rewarding.Painting as a language without words02:02: Painting or visual art isn't exactly a language. It's certainly not a verbal language, but it's a means of communication. And as such, it doesn't necessarily neatly translate into words.How artists reshape art history to suit themselves39:37: Although artists—practicing artists, rather—may have tremendous insights, and the insights of a kind which nobody else has access to, they're going to see art history and the art, the work of all other artists, from the point of view of their own art. And they'll be utterly out of sympathy, therefore, with quite large sections of the art of the past and of the present. To an extent, that's true with critics. They'll have certain idioms, certain styles, certain media they like more than others. But a critic can be a little bit less prejudiced. Oh, I'd like to think critics can be a bit more open-minded about what they're looking at. An artist will pretty well instinctively refashion the whole of art history so that it leads up to what they're doing today in their studio. But we don't all have to do that.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Lucian FreudPatrick HeronWillem de KooningClement GreenbergTracey EminJames TurrellDamien HirstPierre BonnardBridget RileyPeter Paul RubensRobert RauschenbergGary HumeGuest Profile:Professional WebsiteHis Work:How Painting Happens (and why it matters) Man with a Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian FreudModernists and Mavericks: Bacon, Freud, Hockney and the London PaintersShaping the World: Sculpture from Prehistory to NowVenice: City of Pictures A History of Pictures: From the Cave to the Computer ScreenThe Pursuit of Art: Travels, Encounters and Revelations

What is the intrinsic link between philosophical inquiry and personal development? How can academic thought and theory be applied well to practical living in the real world?Kieran Setiya is a professor of philosophy at MIT and also the author of a number of books, including Knowing Right From Wrong, Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way, and Midlife: A Philosophical Guide.Greg and Kieran discuss how philosophy and self-help have diverged over time and the potential for their reintegration. Kieran explores the practical use of philosophical reflection in everyday life, the evolving view of philosophy from his early academic years to now, the impact of Aristotle's concept of the ideal life on contemporary thought, and the nature of midlife crises including his own. They also touch on topics like the value of choice, future bias, the role of suffering, and the integration of philosophy in early education. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:Why Aristotle's ideal life isn't always the answer06:58: What am I going to do here and now, in the conditions I'm in—which are always, to some degree, imperfect—right now, maybe particularly challenging for many of us? And it's just not obvious at all. In fact, I think it's not true that the best way to answer the question, "What should I do in my problematic circumstances?" is, well, look at what an ideal life would be and just sort of aim towards that. And that just—it's both impractical and often very bad advice. It's like if someone said, "Well, you don't have any yeast; try to make some bread." You could think, "Well, what's the thing that's going to be most like a regular loaf of bread?" Or you might think, "Yeah, that's not the right thing to aim for here." There's some more dramatic pivot in how I'm going to try to make a kind of bread-like thing. And I think that's a good—a better—analogy for the situation we're in when we try to think about what to do here and now, when ideals like Aristotle's are not really viable.On regret, choice, and the value of missed opportunities21:21: Regret is a function of something that's not at all regrettable. Mainly the diversity of value.Detached wanting and the good enough life38:10: Stoics have this idea that virtue is the key thing for eudaimonia, and nothing else really matters for eudaimonia. But there are all these—what they call—preferred indifferents. So all the other stuff you might want, it's reasonable to want it, but you should want it in a kind of detached, "that would be a bonus" kind of way. And I think, while I'm not a Stoic and I don't think they draw that line in the right way, I think they're right that there is some kind of line here that has to do with sort of moderation and greed. In effect, thinking at a certain point: "If your life is good enough, you look at all the other things you could have," and the right attitude to have to them is something like, "Well, it'd be great if I had that. Sure." But the idea of being angry that I don't, or feeling like "this is unacceptable that I don't" is just not a virtuous — for want of a better word—it's not a reasonable, justifiable response.Show Links:Recommended Resources:AristotleEudaimoniaTelicityArthur SchopenhauerUtilitarianismPlatoJohn Stuart MillReasons and PersonsIris MurdochGuest Profile:KSetiya.netFaculty Profile at MITProfile on WikipediaProfile on PhilPeople.orgHis Work:Amazon Author PageLife Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our WayMidlife: A Philosophical GuidePractical Knowledge: Selected EssaysKnowing Right From WrongInternal Reasons: Contemporary ReadingsReasons without RationalismSubstack Newsletter

How does strategy factor into the mindsets of presidents like Lincoln and Reagan on both a micro and macro level? What parts of grand strategy are at play when new countries enter NATO due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict?John Lewis Gaddis is a professor of history at Yale University and also the author of several books on history and strategy. His latest books include The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past, On Grand Strategy, and The Cold War: A New History.Greg and John discuss the concept of historical consciousness and its relation to strategic thinking. John goes over the teaching of strategy from a historical perspective, comparing it to evolutionary sciences and emphasizing the importance of common sense in strategic decisions. They also explore the use of metaphors in understanding history and strategy, the role of theory, and the necessity of adaptability in leadership. The conversation touches on various historical and contemporary examples to illustrate these ideas, including the strategic mindsets of figures like Lincoln and the implications of NATO expansion and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:Are we failing to preserve common sense in business schools?36:38: This whole thing about preserving common sense at all altitudes, it seems to me, is something that's often missing in business schools and also in businesses, as we've seen in various cases. So, if reading some history can create that kind of attitude, then I think it's worthwhile. And the reason I think it can work gets back to the sports metaphor because, okay, maybe your business guy is not interested in reading history, but they're probably watching the March Madness or the Super Bowl, and they're probably talking about coaches and why are certain coaches better than other coaches and so on. And when they're doing that, they're talking about what I'm talking about, which is just drawing these lessons from the past, looking at the objective, operating within the rules but understanding that the application of the rules is going to be different in every situation, every moment of the game.The optimal grand strategists know when to adapt and when to steer27:518: I think the optimal grand strategist would be someone who is agile and situationally aware, but also retains a sense of direction.Big ambitions fail without this one principle01:57: It seems to me that there's a kind of logic of strategy, which transcends time and place and culture. And when you set it out, when you give examples of what you mean by that, it sounds like a platitude. So if, for example, I were to tell you that aspirations can be infinite but capabilities must be finite, you would say, I knew that all along. You would say that's a platitude. You can get strategy on that? Well, yes, I think you can build a strategy on that because history is full of people who lost track of that insight, who let their aspirations exceed their capabilities to the point of complete overstretch and self-defeat. [02:50] History is littered with people who forgot that aphorism. And the aphorism is just plain common sense.Why naive questions matter more than you think30:56: You have to realize naive questions are always good to ask. Because one of the problems with theorists is that they don't like naive questions because they're inconvenient. And they're much more interested in the purity of the theory, the rigorousness of the theory, if it's a laboratory sense of replicability, of the theory. But for somebody to come along and just ask a naive question, sometimes they're not prepared for that.Show Links:Recommended Resources:George F. KennanNapoleonMark AntonyMurder BoardJohn NegroponteLeo TolstoyPainting As a PastimePresentismIsaiah BerlinAugustine of HippoJohn C. CalhounVladimir PutinGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at Yale UniversityWikipedia ProfileHis Work:Amazon Author PageOn Grand StrategyThe Cold War: A New HistoryGeorge F. Kennan: An American LifeThe Landscape of History: How Historians Map the PastStrategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of American National Security Policy during the Cold WarThe United States and the End of the Cold War: Implications, Reconsiderations, ProvocationsThe Age Of Terror: America And The World After September 11

Contrary to popular belief – making more money doesn't necessarily mean you'll be happier in life. The same can be said for societies as a whole, especially when it comes to countries with lopsided wealth distribution leading to high levels of inequality. So what are the connections between that inequality,people's general wellbeing, and politics? Keith Payne is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at UNC Chapel Hill. His books, Good Reasonable People: The Psychology Behind America's Dangerous Divide and The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live, and Die explore the science behind inequality and the far-reaching impact it has on modern society. Keith and Greg discuss how inequality affects subjective wellbeing and societal outcomes, the connection between inequality and political polarization, strategies to mitigate psychological harm of inequality, and how understanding these psychological mechanisms can improve cross-party dialogues and reduce divisiveness.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:Why facts don't win arguments51:42: Starting with the goal of understanding is  important, and then when we're actually engaging with the other person, we have this tendency , as soon as they say something is true, we say, well, that's not true, and here are my facts and figures. And so we need to stop trying to bludgeon the other person into agreeing with us by citing facts and better evidence. That may sound counterintuitive, especially in the academic world where I live, because, but that's the currency, right, for argumentation. That's not where most people are coming from. I mean, they care about the facts, but only as tools to defend their social identities. And so, I think a better question to ask is, well, not why do you believe that in terms of why are you wrong about the facts, but what is believing that doing for your psychological bottom line? How is that serving your sense of identity and your group loyalties?Status is more than your paycheck12:50: We need to find ways to judge our status not purely in terms of wealth or income, and to make those richer kind of social connections, as a source of status. Because those are things we have more control over than how rich the 1% is.What shapes our political beliefs06:39:  It is perceived inequality that makes a big difference. And you have to see the wealth around you. And usually, that's not comparing ourselves to the top one-tenth of 1%, because we don't see the billionaires. Even if you live in Manhattan and are surrounded by billionaires, you still don't see it much, right? People like that live in gated communities, surrounded by privacy-insuring mechanisms and stuff. What we see is maybe the top 20% who are driving expensive cars and showing off their vacation pictures on Facebook. So, for the psychological comparisons, you do have to have some visible inequality there. But there's other ways that extreme levels of inequality affect society through non-visible means. [07:34] When it comes to the day-to-day psychological experience of living in an unequal society, the blatant visibility or invisibility of wealth has a lot to do with it.How inequality reshapes our behavior37:07: We found that in high inequality countries, and in high inequality states within the United States, people are engaged in more risky financial behavior — whether that's buying lottery tickets, or not investing for retirement, going to check cashing places rather than traditional banking, et cetera. So that all happens more in high inequality places, and you can see the same sort of patterns with regard to non-financial risk taking around health, like drug use, cigarette smoking — things that are high risk but immediate reward in terms of hedonic or affective reactions — are better predicted by inequality than by poverty as well.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Easterlin paradoxPhilip ConverseDonald KinderNathan P. KalmoeEdmund BurkeJohn Stuart MillGravity Payments“The marketplace of rationalizations” by Daniel WilliamsGuest Profile:Professional WebsiteProfessional Profile on XHis Work:Good Reasonable People: The Psychology Behind America's Dangerous DivideThe Broken Ladder: How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live, and Die

When did the idea of parenthood become less of a certainty and more of a choice? How have anxieties about the modern world impacted our desire to procreate and thus impacted the world's population? Is that impact even a big deal?Anastasia Berg is an assistant professor of philosophy at UC Irvine and co-author of the new book What Are Children For?: On Ambivalence and Choice in which she takes a philosophical approach to the question of whether or not to have children. Anastasia and Greg delve into the shifting motivations and anxieties influencing the choice to have children, how this question has popped up throughout history dating back to Aristotle's time, feminism's relationship with motherhood, and the potential reasons behind declining birth rates.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:When choosing parenthood feels like losing yourself18:53: The transformation is one that really threatens annihilation of self. It's more radical than this difficulty of doing a hedonic calculation. What you are saying about the reluctance of calculating, though, I think is really important to thematize, because we see it especially as people increasingly report a conflict between pursuing what a lot of people are able to actually articulate as, like, a family goal or desire to have children and what they can see romantic relationships to be for.Why fewer people won't save the planet42:39: The fantasy that depopulation is going to be a solution for climate change—it's just that: it's a fantasy. What we need is immediate global climate action, and nothing short of it will make a difference.What are parents really responsible for?37:07 What I think people are responsible for in being parents is not that overall wellbeing. What they're responsible for is preparing, to the best of their abilities, their children for meeting life challenges, pains, and suffering. So it's not to say that you can't fail as a parent. It's not to say that we can't say that. Some people, like, should you be a parent? I'm not sure. But it is to say that judgment is not going to be based on the likelihood of your child to just encounter suffering of any kind.Rethinking parenthood as an avenue for self-fulfillment30:17:  The question of whether or not motherhood is an avenue for self-fulfillment should give way to the question of whether or not parenthood is something of value in human life and how to reconcile it with other demands, moral, material, et cetera. And as we said, that's true at both the individual level. So, within a relationship, to try to overcome the thought that the liberal left thing to do is to put the burden of not just choice, but the burden of asking this question of deliberation, of assuming responsibility for the choice, squarely on the shoulders of women, and also socially, to try and find a way of both recognizing the unique burdens that parenthood places on women, especially in the early stages of parenthood, but also reminding us that this is a profound human question.Show Links:Recommended Resources:The “wisdom” of Silenus | The New Criterion After the Spike: Population, Progress, and the Case for People by Dean Spears and Michael Geruso (publishing July 2025)Melanie Klein Elena FerranteDetransition, Baby by Torrey PetersGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at University of California IrvineProfessional WebsiteProfessional Profile on XHer Work:What Are Children For?: On Ambivalence and Choice