I spoke to Pramit Bhattacharya an independent data journalist about India's statistical system. We talked aboutHow did Indian statisticians adapt their statistical methods to account for India's informal sector?How are India's GDP numbers

Ep 56: Talking AI Regulation with Harry Law

Jan 3rd, 2024 45m 59s

I talked with Harry Law of the University of Cambridge and Google DeepMind about AI regulationWe talked aboutMe vs Harry on open source AI regulationBeing humble when regulating AIWhy a "Manhattan Project for X" is overrated---

Ep 55: Adaptive markets and crypto with Derek Wong

Dec 18th, 2023 48m 58s

I spoke with Derek Wong about the adaptive markets hypothesis, macro investing and investing in cryptocurrency marketsWe talk aboutWhy investors should consider the financial markets as a complex adaptive systemHow investing in China is

Ep 54: High Skilled Immigration in America

Dec 14th, 2023 44m 45s

I spoke to Adam Ozimek and Connor O'Brien from the Economic Innovation Group about the policy and politics of high skilled immigration in America. We talked aboutWhy reforming high skilled immigration in the US is so difficultThe lump of l

Ep 53: The State of Indian Cities ft. Devashish Dhar

Sep 11th, 2023 56m 10s

I spoke with Devashish Dhar, the author of the excellent book India's Blind Spot which talks about India's urbanisation crisis and solutions to it. We talk aboutWhy does India have a much lower reported rate of urbanisation than the rest of

Ep 52: Tyler Cowen on Singapore, AI and Economic Growth

Sep 4th, 2023 1h 7m

I interviewed one of the most interesting thinkers today, Tyler Cowen. We talked aboutWhy there are such few Singaporean famous peopleWhat Singapore can do to get more weirdWhy he's sceptical of an AI-driven singularityWhat happens

Ep 51: Why AI won't kill us all ft. Rohit Krishnan

Aug 25th, 2023 1h 5m

I spoke to Rohit Krishnan the author of the blog Strange Loop Canon about why he is sceptical about the idea that AI will kill us allWe talked aboutWhy he’s sceptical of AI regulation proposalsWhy AI “timelines” are not as meaningful as

Ep. 50: mRNA vaccines in India ft. Soham Sankaran

Aug 21st, 2023 1h 1m

I spoke to Soham Sankaran who runs PopVax, an Indian mRNA vaccine company. Their goal is to build low-cost broadly-protective vaccines to protect against the entire sarbecovirus species. Read Soham's experience here (https://chronicles.popvax.c

Ep 49: Dwarkesh Patel - podcasting, Robert Moses, Effective Altruism and AI xrisk

Jun 22nd, 2023 51m 24s

I talked to Dwarkesh Patel of the Lunar Society Podcast about many topics. We talked about:Why do AI researchers and rationalists disagree about existential risk?What would happen if Robert Moses ran San Francisco?Is localism overrat

Ep 48: An Introduction to AI Alignment with Trevor Chow

May 28th, 2023 57m 45s

I spoke to Trevor Chow about existential risks from AI and techniques to align artificial intelligence with human goals. Specifically we talked aboutAn introduction to existential risk from Artificial IntelligenceExisting methods for align

Ep. 47: The World's Biggest Invisible Country: Indonesia

May 20th, 2023 43m 47s

I talked to Faris Abdurrachman about Indonesia and it's nickel boom. We talked specifically aboutWhy Indonesia banned exports of raw nickelWho gets the value from nickel exportsIndonesia's new sovereign wealth fund--- Send in a voi

Ep 46: Growth teams with Kartik Akileswaran

May 13th, 2023 1h 23m

I spoke to Kartik Akileswaran who runs Growth Teams - an initiative which helps build state capacity for economic growth in developing countries. We talked about- Why implementation is a binding constraint for economic policy- How industrial

Ep 45: What's going on with nuclear weapons?

Nov 20th, 2022 37m 21s

I spoke to Matt Korda who works at the Federation of American Scientists on nuclear weapon policy. We have an exciting discussion about the role of nuclear weapons, their growth and the dangerous arms races that are startingSome highlights of

Ep 44: Trade Policy Tragedy in India

Jul 31st, 2022 50m 30s

I talked to Anupam Manur, a professor of economics about India's trade policy before 1991. We talked about:The scarcity mindset about foreign exchange reservesThe controversial 1966 devaluationHow did the pre-1991 import licensing syste

Ep 43: Funding Science and Innovation in the UK

Jul 17th, 2022 54m 6s

I spoke to Professor Richard Jones, about how science funding in the UK could improve. Some interesting questions we talked about are“Penny wise, pound foolish” in science fundingCreating markets for technological advancesHow he’d inves

Ep 42: Parliamentarism

Jul 10th, 2022 50m 2s

I talked to Tiago Santos, a diplomat, about his book Why Not Parliamentarism. Tiago and I explore some questions hereWhat makes parliamentary democracies superior to presidential ones?The creeping presidentialisation of parliamentary democ

Ep 41: Libertarianism and podcasting with Amit Varma

Jun 27th, 2022 1h 13m

I talked to Amit Varma who runs one of my favourite podcasts - The Seen and the Unseen about politics, economics and public policy. We talked aboutLibertarianism within the Indian canonCultivating your audience Being a public intellectu

Ep 40: Progress Studies

Jun 19th, 2022 48m 24s

I spoke to Jason Crawford of The Roots of Progress about the new movement of Progress Studies. We talked aboutBuilding a culture of economic progressWhy are developed countries more averse to progress?Is there a tradeoff between econom

Ep 39: Macro Investing

Jun 5th, 2022 53m 41s

I talked with Mayank Seksaria of Liberty Mutual Investments about investing on macroeconomic views. We talked aboutTranslating macro views into investing allocationsA bottom up view of the macroeconomyEvaluating macro talentWhy does

Ep 38: The Bond King

May 22nd, 2022 42m 24s

I spoke to Mary Childs who is the author of the exceptional book The Bond King. We talked aboutHow finance became an interesting professionHow do you build institutions that succeed at investing?Can we automate the Fed?Financial hist

Ep 37: Australia: A Mine with a Parliament?

May 15th, 2022 57m 46s

I spoke to Steven Hamilton professor of Economics at George Washington University about Australian economic policy, and their upcoming elections. We talk aboutWhy was Australian COVID policy so strict?Australia as a nation of prison guards

Ep 36: Labour Economics Versus the World

May 8th, 2022 1h 13m

What is the labour market like? What are the largest barriers in the labour market? Nathan Young and I spoke to economist Bryan Caplan about his new book Labor Econ Versus The World. We also talk aboutCensorship and dictatorshipsBets he is

Working on Existential Risks with David Manheim

May 2nd, 2022 39m 35s

I spoke to David Manehim who works on reducing existential threats to humanity at the Technion. We talked aboutThe biggest threats to humanityPreventing all future pandemicsIs working on X-risk even tractable?How you can work on redu

Ep 34: Long Run Growth with Trevor Chow

Apr 17th, 2022 1h 9m

I spoke to the very very talented Trevor Chow about the history of long run growth. Topics includeWishlist of economic history topicsGetting over vetocracyQualities of the best economic blogsWhy more economics graduates should join a

Ep 33: Jumping Through Financial History with Jamie Catherwood

Mar 6th, 2022 45m 9s

I spoke with Jamie Catherwood who writes and teaches financial history at Investor Amnesia. We had a lot of fun talking about The relevance of financial historyFormation of bubblesInvesting during a warSurprising stories behind the 190