What happens when a thoughtful investor sits down with a contrarian academic for a free-flowing, two-hour conversation? In this wide-ranging episode, Guy Spier reconnects with his former professor, Amar Bhidé, who’s the Professor of Health Policy at Columbia University Medical Center, for a dialogue that blurs the lines between economics, storytelling, philosophy, and life itself. They begin by reflecting on paths taken—and those deliberately left behind. Professor Bhidé shares how a winding career through finance, policy, and academia has shaped his unconventional views on business education and the role of theory. At the heart of the conversation is a simple but profound distinction: risk versus uncertainty. But this is no dry academic discussion. Instead, it opens into a deeper exploration of how we make decisions, how we explain the world, and why models often fail to capture what matters most. Stories play a starring role—stories in business, in investing, in life. The two ...