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Selected podcast episodes on psychology, economics, science, history and culture
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Andrea Wulf: George Forster and the Search for Humanity
Today00:39:10Tap to summarizePodcast: The Book Club (LS 49 · TOP 0.5% what is this?)Episode: Andrea Wulf: George Forster and the Search for HumanityPub date: 2026-06-10Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationMy guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is Andrea Wulf, talking about her fascinating new book, The Traveller: George Forster and the Search for Humanity. Andrea tells me about the now-forgotten adventurer who sailed with Captain Cook, toured Europe as an intellectual celebrity and sparred with Kant and Rousseau over race and human civilisation – before throwing his lot in with the French Revolution.Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcastsContact us: podcast@spectator.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Spectator, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
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Trevor Jackson, "The Insatiable Machine: How Capitalism Conquered the World" (Norton, 2026)
Yesterday00:55:45Tap to summarizePodcast: New Books in Economic and Business History (LS 32 · TOP 5% what is this?)Episode: Trevor Jackson, "The Insatiable Machine: How Capitalism Conquered the World" (Norton, 2026)Pub date: 2026-04-28Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationHow did an economic system that was the result of largely uncoordinated and unplanned individual decisions come to dominate our modern world? This is the core question that my guest, Berkeley economic historian Trevor Jackson, tries to answer in his new book, The Insatiable Machine: How Capitalism Conquered the World (Norton, 2026). Jackson begins with the origins of the global monetary system in the fifteenth century and ends in the early twentieth century, when capitalism faced its most serious challenges from communism and socialism. While wage labor and financial instruments like loans and stocks feel unremarkable today, he reminds us that “it wasn’t always this way.” Capitalism is not natural, timeless, or inevitable. Trevor Jackson is an economic historian at the University of California, Berkeley. He previous book, Impunity and Capitalism: The Afterlives of European Financial Crises, 1690–1830, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2022. Steven P. Rodriguez is a scholarly publishing professional and historian. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesThe podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from New Books Network, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
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AW: "Poisoned Ivies" with R-NY Rep. Elise Stefanik
2d ago00:46:40Tap to summarizePodcast: C-SPAN Bookshelf (LS 36 · TOP 2.5% what is this?)Episode: AW: "Poisoned Ivies" with R-NY Rep. Elise StefanikPub date: 2026-05-31Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationRep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) argued that elite universities in America have embraced a culture of antisemitism, leftist groupthink, and censorship. She spoke at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Museum in Yorba Linda, California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesThe podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from C-SPAN, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
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How “Muskism” Is Changing American Capitalism - ft. Quinn Slobodian
4d ago00:55:37Tap to summarizePodcast: Capitalisn't (LS 53 · TOP 0.5% what is this?)Episode: How “Muskism” Is Changing American Capitalism - ft. Quinn SlobodianPub date: 2026-05-07Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationFor the better part of the 20th century, the American economy relied on the steady social peace of "Fordism"—an era of mass production and consumption that helped reconcile capitalism with democracy. Today, a radical new paradigm threatens to upend that equilibrium: "Muskism". While conventional wisdom suggests that Silicon Valley billionaires are libertarians desperate to escape government oversight, historian Quinn Slobodian argues they actually want to achieve state symbiosis by turning the government into a dependent client. This vassalization of the state means private actors absorb critical public functions without any democratic constraints. Discussing insights from his and co-author Ben Tarnoff's new book, Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed, Slobodian unpacks how Elon Musk’s worldview is reshaping the global political economy. This episode also dives into the parallels between American tech supremacy and the Chinese economic model. Slobodian posits that the real vulnerability in the United States is not the excess of regulation that the Abundance agenda focuses on, but rather a failure to discipline capital. Connect with us: 📺 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel 📱 Follow Capitalisn’t on Instagram & TikTok ✉️ Email your questions and comments to capitalisntpod@gmail.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from University of Chicago Podcast Network, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
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Exploding the myths of immigration
5d ago00:40:19Tap to summarizePodcast: The Lowdown from Nick Cohen (LS 41 · TOP 1.5% what is this?)Episode: Exploding the myths of immigrationPub date: 2025-12-01Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationSummaryNick Cohen and Professor Alan Manning - economist and one of the country's leading experts on immigration - discuss the impact of immigration on Western democracies, including its role in recent and upcoming elections, as well as the resurgence of right-wing movements driven by immigration-related fears. Alan Manning, a professor at the London School of Economics, explains the complexities of immigration policy and the challenges of balancing migration capacity with global inequality. Nick and Alan discuss various policy approaches, including temporary protection measures and the need for international cooperation, while criticising overly simplistic solutions and highlighting the importance of realistic immigration policies.Political charlatans such as Nigel Farage mis-sold Brexit claiming it would help the uK "take back control" of its borders. Ironically, they may helped helped create huge increases in net immigration in recent years, as well as encourage the small boats bringing asylum seekers across the Channel from France. Now the same political grifters are relentlessly campaigning on the issue of immigration to get votes and win power. It's time to explain the issues driving immigration and explode the myths of immigration, rather than exploit them.Read all about it!Professor Alan Manning - @alanmanning4 formerly Chairman of UK's Migration Advisory Committee has been investigating the issue for his new book, Why Immigration Policy Is Hard: And How to Make It Better is published by PolityNick Cohen's @NickCohen4 latest Substack column Writing from London on politics and culture from the UK and beyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Nick Cohen, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
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Is Man the Hunter just a myth?
6d ago01:32:01Tap to summarizePodcast: Many Minds (LS 42 · TOP 1.5% what is this?)Episode: Is Man the Hunter just a myth?Pub date: 2026-06-05Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationThere's a story about of our past that you know well. It goes like this: At some point earlier in human evolution, we started to hunt. Men in particular—perhaps channeling some deep-seated aggressive impulses—began to seek out big game. This new food source, this bonanza of calories, was what allowed our brains to expand. It changed our bodies and our societies and sent our species off on a whole new track. In short, Man the Hunter made us human. This story—told in different versions, with different points of emphasis—has circulated for decades. It's been debunked and revived, rejected and reimagined. What is the history behind the Man the Hunter idea? How does it square with our current understandings of evolution? Is it, in fact, pure fiction? My guest today is Dr. Vivek Venkataraman. Vivek is an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Calgary, and an editor-in-chief of the journal Hunter Gatherer Research. He and his collaborators recently published an article on the different layers and meanings of the Man the Hunter idea. Here, Vivek and I lay out those meanings. We talk about how the phrase refers, first, to that popular myth about our evolution, but also to a landmark scientific conference in the 1960s, and to a major finding of research on contemporary hunter-gatherer groups—namely, that men generally do do most of the hunting. We do a little crash-course on the field of hunter-gatherer research, including the kinds of questions it asks and frameworks it uses. We dig into some of the key ingredients of the Man the Hunter myth: the idea that we have aggressive tendencies, the idea that only men hunt, and the idea that hunting played a transformative role in our evolution. We walk through three recent, high-profile studies challenging Man the Hunter ideas in various ways. And we talk about the ever-present danger of projecting our current norms and ideals back in time. Along the way, Vivek and I touch on 2001: A Space Odyssey; reasons why contemporary hunter-gatherers may differ from the hunter-gatherers of long ago; giant sloths; extractive foraging; the case of the Agta, a society in which women do engage in big-game hunting; the forest people and the fierce people; risk and cooperation in sexual divisions of labor; persistence hunting and endurance activities; caregiving and cognition; and honey. Alright friends, I think you'll enjoy this one. On to my conversation with Dr. Vivek Venkataraman. Notes 3:30 – The article by Dr. Venkataraman and colleagues, 'The Meaning and Dividends of Man the Hunter.' Commentaries on the article can be read here. A recent popular essay by Dr. Venkataraman on the same ideas. 5:00 – Raymond Dart's "killer ape" was originally laid out in a 1953 article 'The Predatory Transition from Ape to Man' (unavailable online) and then developed in Robert Ardrey's book, African Genesis. 8:30 – The "dawn of man" scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey. 16:00 – The 1966 conference titled 'Man the Hunter' resulted in a 1968 volume of the same name. 27:00 – A philosophical discussion of the use of the "ethnographic analogy" in reconstructions of the past. The paper describing the "tyranny of the ethnographic record." 33:00 – The classic ethnography, The Forest People; the classic ethnography, Yanomamö: The Fierce People. 36:00 – The article by Chris Boehm on the concept of "reverse dominance hierarchy." See also his book Hierarchy in the Forest. 37:00 – Our earlier episode with Brian Hare. 38:00 – Steven Pinker's widely read and contested book, The Better Angels of our Nature. 44:00 – A study of the Agta, a society in which women hunt for big game. 48:00 – The paper by Judith Brown about childcare and subsistence. A paper by Haneul Jang and colleagues about how young girls help mothers during foraging. 55:00 – For a book-length treatment of hunting in evolution and history, see Matt Cartmill's A View to a Death in the Morning. 1:01:00 – For the 2023 paper by Anderson and colleagues on the prevalence of women's hunting across cultures, see here. For Dr. Venkataraman and colleagues' commentary on the paper, see here. For the related study by Dr. Venkataraman and colleagues about women's hunting, see here. 1:05:00 – For the 2020 paper by Haas and colleagues about female hunters of the Americas, see here. 1:13:00 – For the academic 'Woman the Hunter' papers by Lacy and Ocobock, see here (for the physiology paper) and here (for the archaeology paper). For their article in Scientific American, see here. For an interview on the podcast On Humans with Cara Ocobock, see here. 1:14:00 – For the recent study on persistence hunting in the ethnographic record, see here. 1:20:00 – The authors of the three critiques discussed here have all written commentaries on Dr. Venkataraman and colleagues' paper. These commentaries and others can be read here. 1:24:30 – For the commentary emphasizing the links between popularization and science, by Nadine Weidman, see here. 1:28:00 – For our earlier episode with Alison Gopnik, in which we discuss the overlooked cognitive capacities involved in caregiving, see here. 1:29:00 – For papers on the importance of honey in human evolution, see <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07409710.2011.630618?casa_token=CXtD8P6WTQUAAAAA:CtwNHLg-0v-3IBa8WkBhypgYlSXa2hQ8uCV01YkKoUe9oAEuScAnSVOfGdlP3aERXqYzD8Da73Tdhw&casa_token=8ji9utGRKiIAAAAA:s26gcsHrtaIJ75agWAAdppaIFQQ-A1pnG2ZL7kHCs12MC9LlTdprElJcXdYl...
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The Black Death: A Global Apocalypse?
1w ago01:00:45Tap to summarizePodcast: Gone Medieval (LS 63 · TOP 0.1% what is this?)Episode: The Black Death: A Global Apocalypse?Pub date: 2026-06-05Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationA plague of terrifying speed, mysterious symptoms and global reach, the Black Death transformed more than Europe alone.Matt Lewis is joined by Thomas Asbridge to chart the medieval spread, from Caffa’s siege lines to Cairo’s crowded streets, from brutal medical experiments to self-flagellating penitents and a medieval world shaken to its core.MOREHow To Survive Plague and War in the Middle AgesListen on AppleListen on SpotifyLeprosy in the Middle AgesListen on AppleListen on SpotifyGone Medieval is presented by Matt Lewis. Audio editor is Amy Haddow, the producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.All music used is courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.Gone Medieval is a History Hit podcast.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week, early access and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
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AGI Is BS | Jamie Metzl's AI Prediction
1w ago00:54:53Tap to summarizePodcast: Rational Optimist Podcast (LS 27 · TOP 10% what is this?)Episode: AGI Is BS | Jamie Metzl's AI PredictionPub date: 2026-06-03Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationJamie Metzl explains why he believes "AGI is BS," what artificial intelligence will actually mean for jobs, and how humanity can navigate the biggest technological transition in history. Jamie is a leading expert on AI, genetics, biotechnology, and the future of humanity. In this conversation we discuss AGI, AI ethics, the future of work, AI education, human-centered technology, and why transparency in AI use matters more than ever. Jamie and host Stephen McBride discuss: • Artificial general intelligence • AI jobs and the future of work • AI ethics and transparency • AI as a creative partner • The AI Ten Commandments • Education in the age of AI Jamie and GPT-5 co-authored The AI Ten Commandments, which you can find here: https://a.co/d/02TqUZEM Read Jamie's Blog post on Pope Leo's AI Encyclical: https://jamiemetzl.com/pope-leos-ai-encyclical/ Learn more about Jamie at: Jamiemetzl.com Rational Optimist Society Become a member (free): rationaloptimistsociety.substack.com TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rationaloptimistsociety?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Stephen McBride, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
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Gad Saad: When Empathy Becomes Dangerous
1w ago01:30:02Tap to summarizePodcast: The Michael Shermer Show (LS 58 · TOP 0.5% what is this?)Episode: Gad Saad: When Empathy Becomes DangerousPub date: 2026-05-26Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationGad Saad returns to discuss his new book Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind, a provocative argument that empathy is not a moral trump card. Empathy can illuminate suffering, but it can also distort judgment when it is treated as an unquestionable virtue, applied selectively, or insulated from consequences. Saad's central claim is that many Western institutions have learned to treat compassion as a substitute for judgment. In practice, he argues, this can mean extending sympathy toward the wrong targets (for example, criminals over victims), excusing destructive behavior, rewarding ideological conformity over truth, or denying uncomfortable facts in the name of kindness. The result is a moral framework that feels humane in the moment but can produce outcomes that are unfair, irrational, or even dangerous. The conversation covers cultural relativism, islamism, suicide cults, kamikaze pilots, immigration and foreign aid, forbidden knowledge, and why some ideas spread and take hold while others fade away. Gad Saad is a professor and an evolutionary behavioral scientist. He has authored numerous scientific papers and pioneered the use of evolutionary psychology in marketing and consumer behavior. In addition to his scientific work, he often writes and speaks about idea pathogens that are destroying logic, science, reason, and common sense. He is the host of The Saad Truth podcast. His new book is Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Michael Shermer, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
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How AI is transforming warfare and the US military with Katrina Manson
1w ago00:36:59Tap to summarizePodcast: GZERO World with Ian Bremmer (LS 55 · TOP 0.5% what is this?)Episode: How AI is transforming warfare and the US military with Katrina MansonPub date: 2026-05-09Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIan Bremmer's guest this week is author and Bloomberg defense tech reporter Katrina Manson, who spent years reporting on Project Maven for her new book on the Pentagon's AI push. The program launched in 2017 with a narrow mandate: use machine learning to process drone footage. It has since expanded into something far more ambitious. Autonomous weapons, drone swarming technology, and AI-assisted targeting are now central to how the Pentagon talks about modern warfare. The tech rollout is fast, but not reliable. Algorithms fail when the battlefield changes. The targeting process is accelerating to the point where operators are clicking through AI recommendations with little ability to question them. Manson says the military knows about AI's vulnerability "to sycophancy, to escalation, to bias and hallucination," and has not yet found adequate solutions. Subscribe to the GZERO World with Ian Bremmer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from GZERO Media, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
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