Mar 29, 2023

Episode 320: Politics, Anarchy, and Baseball

Economist, former mayor, self-professed anarchist, and baseball fan Randy Simmons joins us this week to talk about government and politics through the eyes of someone who is both a skeptic of government and who served in elected office. We recorded this episode in January,...

Mar 22, 2023

Many listeners have asked that we do an episode on the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and its implications for the rest of the banking sector. Peter Earle, economist and former Wall Street trader, joins us to talk about what happened, how it might have been avoided, what comes next, and whether the rest of the...

Mar 15, 2023

Foolishness of the week: 12:19
Main episode: 16:54

People’s view of the past is biased because we tend to forget the bad things. The (inexplicable to an economist) tendency of young people to think that like in the 1950s was better than life today is one example. This week, we talk about this tendency to nostalgia...

Mar 14, 2023

Words and Numbers is a weekly half-hour podcast that explores current events through the eyes of an economist and political scientist. The show is an alternative to the shouting heads that occupy most public discussions. We follow evidence and reason where they lead for a non-partisan  and entertaining approach...

Mar 8, 2023

Foolishness of the week: 07:11
Main episode: 11:20

Economic historian Phil Magness joins us to talk about how the popular 1619 Project gets both the history and the relationship between slavery and capitalism wrong. This is the second of a two-part episode.

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