Although the influence of the past diminishes over time, even such seemingly distant events as serfdom and slave labor continue to affect our lives today. A striking example of this is the Black Lives Matter movement in the U.S. How do events of the past influence our lives today? Are we still experiencing the legacy of serfdom? And how much longer will it haunt us? These and other issues will be discussed in the New School of Economics podcast, "Economics out Loud,” by Andrei Markevich, a professor at the New School of Economics and co-director of the joint bachelor's degree program at the New School of Economics and Higher School of Economics.

The economy has just begun to recover from the coronavirus crisis, but it is not out of the woods. How can we take away the life-support system without threatening the fragile recovery — but also without creating problems with monetary injections that are too big and cause a monetary glut? This is a crucial problem for central banks and governments. There is no simple answer. But we’ll look for an answer with Professor Konstantin Egorov from the New Economics School and Professor Oleg Vyugin from the Higher School of Economics in the new edition the podcast "Economics Out Loud" from the New Economics School.

They call it natural riches for a reason. If Mother Nature was generous to a country, it seems that its people have nothing to worry about – they will thrive. But reality brings this vision to the ground: often, the more commodities a country has, the slower its economy grows.

Some resource dependent countries manage to improve situation by diversifying their economies. Others succeed in becoming wealthy without much diversification. How, you may ask. Is the resource curse real? Why does it weigh upon some countries but fails to prevent development of others? It is about more than economy itself, argues in ‘Economics Out Loud’ podcast Gerhard Toews, professor of the New Economic School, who specializes in natural resource economics. The podcast special guest Vladimir Drebentsov, chief advisor to the director general of the Russian Energy Agency and former chief economist for Russia and CIS in BP, presents his opinion on how Russia can participate in the energy transition that can rip it off significant part of the oil and gas revenues.

Why do we love brands so much? By choosing any product, we immediately imagine the whole chain of different associations, however they may not work correctly. How can companies properly build such associations with their brands? Or break the negative association if it suddenly appears, for example, that Corona beer causes coronavirus? Professor of New Economic School Daria Dzyabura shared her research and gave advice on how to build associations with brands, and PR-director of Yandex.Zen Yevgenia Ponomarenko talked about her experience in building a brand.

There is no doubt that the Internet has fundamentally changed social life and politics, the way citizens and government interact with each other. Social networks and messengers have become a symbol and an instrument of protests and color revolutions around the world. And it seems that greater Internet use almost certainly leads to an increase in critical sentiment towards the authorities. Let's talk about that with Ruben Enikolopov, Rector of the New Economic School, and Sergei Guriev, Professor of Economics, Sciences Po, Paris.

A sale ends in two hours, so you rush to take advantage of the discounts? How do you react if you find out that you are earning less than your colleagues - will you work better or worse? Can you see the difference between $1,000 and $1,100? How about between $100,000 and $100,100? Well, it’s the same $100.

Do you think more expensive wine tastes better? And finally, do you understand how often you are manipulated by retailers and advertisers and how often you behave irrationally? We talk about all this with Yevgeny Yakovlev, Professor at the New Economic School, and Pavel Teplukhin, General Partner of Matrix Capital.