If/Then

Seemingly unrelated activities — like taking a soccer penalty kick or crafting an online dating profile — involve an embedded economics. 

“Understanding and applying economic logic can be valuable in pretty much any job or any other endeavor in your life,” says Paul Oyer, a professor of economics at Stanford Graduate School of Business.  

On this episode, Oyer digs into the shared economic logic of online dating and the labor market, explains why pro athletes and sports fans think like economists, and explores how AI has reduced the beneficial friction that was once a part of job searches. 

Got a question about the economics of dating, sports, or the job market? Ask us at [email protected].

Related Content:

• Paul Oyer faculty profile
• Utility Player: Paul Oyer Explains How Economics Can Make Sports More Fun

Chapters:

00:00 Strategic decision-making in air traffic control

03:06 Introduction

03:27 Why sports are a useful lens for understanding economics

09:53 Why economics matters far beyond money

10:54 Economics & online

14:36 Applications of game theory

16:54 How AI is reshaping hiring and the labor market

22:25 The labor market challenge economists still have not solved

24:18 Conclusion

If/Then, from Stanford GSB, features conversations with faculty that explore how their research deepens our understanding of business and leadership.

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When should we leap instead of take the obvious next step? Why do we instinctively see gender everywhere? When do our opinions begin to feel less like ideas and more like our identity?

If/Then, from Stanford Graduate School of Business, is back with a new season of sharp, surprising conversations that deepen our understanding of business and leadership.

Each episode brings you into the room with a Stanford GSB faculty member as they discuss their research and how it challenges conventional wisdom, sharpens judgment, and reframes the way we approach complex decisions. 

Join us on Wednesdays for a new season of If/Then.

What do you want to hear on If/Then? Email us at [email protected].

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This week on If/Then we’re sharing an episode of GSB at 100, a limited audio series created especially for Stanford Graduate School of Business’s Centennial. GSB at 100 presents a scrapbook of memories, ideas, and breakthroughs as Stanford GSB celebrates its first century and looks around the corner to what the next 100 years may hold.

On this episode of GSB at 100, you’ll experience Centennial Day, hear Dean Sarah A. Soule honor the past, celebrate the present, and look to what the future may hold. GSB at 100 depicts a school defined not only by its innovation and impact, but by its people: curious students, devoted faculty, and accomplished staff — a community of thinkers, dreamers, and doers.

Learn more about the Stanford GSB Centennial

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This week on If/Then we’re sharing an episode of GSB at 100, a limited audio series created especially for Stanford Graduate School of Business’s Centennial. GSB at 100 presents a scrapbook of memories, ideas, and breakthroughs as Stanford GSB celebrates its first century and looks around the corner to what the next 100 years may hold.

On this episode of GSB at 100, you’ll step inside the classrooms where teaching sparks transformation.

Learn more about the Stanford GSB Centennial

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on [If/Then or View From The Top] we’re sharing an episode of GSB at 100, a limited audio series created especially for Stanford Graduate School of Business’s Centennial. GSB at 100 presents a scrapbook of memories, ideas, and breakthroughs as Stanford GSB celebrates its first century and looks around the corner to what the next 100 years may hold.

On this episode of GSB at 100, you’ll hear from the dedicated and accomplished staff members who work behind the scenes to make Stanford GSB a community unlike anywhere else in the world.

Learn more about the Stanford GSB Centennial

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on If/Then, we’re sharing an episode of What’s Your Problem?, a show from Pushkin Industries where entrepreneurs, engineers, and scientists talk about the future they’re trying to build—and the problems they must solve to get there. Hosted by former Planet Money co-host Jacob Goldstein, each conversation explores the challenges and breakthroughs shaping the next wave of innovation.

In this episode, Goldstein speaks with Fei-Fei Li, Stanford computer scientist, former Chief Scientist of AI and Machine Learning at Google, and one of the most influential figures in the field of computer vision. Li reflects on her pioneering work developing ImageNet, the massive dataset that helped spark the modern AI revolution, and the “north star” questions that have guided her research from neuroscience to machine learning.

Together, they trace how a single insight about how humans see the world led to a paradigm shift in artificial intelligence—and how Li’s vision continues to shape the way we teach machines to see, learn, and collaborate with us.

More Resources:

    •  Fei Fei Li

   •  Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI)

    •  ImageNet

    •  What’s Your Problem?

If/Then is a podcast from Stanford Graduate School of Business that examines research findings that can help us navigate the complex issues we face in business, leadership, and society.

Chapters: 

(00:00:00) Introducing “What’s Your Problem?”

Kevin Cool introduces the Pushkin Industries podcast hosted by Jacob Goldstein.

00:00:45 — What Is Computer Vision?

Jacob Goldstein and Fei-Fei Li explain how machines learn to see and interpret images.

00:03:18 — Real-World Uses of AI Vision

Li shares examples from healthcare, robotics, and environmental science.

00:05:06 — Discovering the Science of Seeing

How human vision research inspired Li’s lifelong “north star” in AI.

00:09:56 — Creating ImageNet

Li builds a massive image database that transforms computer vision research.

00:13:29 — Defining 30,000 Visual Concepts

How cognitive science helped shape ImageNet’s massive scale.

00:16:41 — Building the Dataset by Hand

Li's team uses global crowdsourcing to label millions of images.

00:19:38 — The 2012 Breakthrough

Jeff Hinton’s neural network shatters records and sparks the deep learning era.

00:22:19 — Data Meets Hardware

Li reflects on how big data and GPUs converged to power modern AI.

00:24:55 — Lightning Round with Fei-Fei Li

Quick insights on resilience, mentorship, and the future of human-AI collaboration.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on If/Then, we’re sharing an episode of GSB at 100, a limited audio series created especially for Stanford Graduate School of Business’s Centennial. GSB at 100 presents a scrapbook of memories, ideas, and breakthroughs, as the GSB celebrates its first century and looks around the corner to what the next hundred years may hold.

The first episode of the series begins where the GSB begins: in 1925, Herbert Hoover, a Stanford alum and future U.S. president, had an idea. “A graduate School of Business Administration is urgently needed upon the Pacific Coast,” he wrote. 

One hundred years later, what has Stanford Graduate School of Business accomplished, and what might its future hold? Listen in as professors reflect on founding principles, frontier technologies, and the magic that makes the GSB the place it is — and shapes what it aspires to be.

If/Then is a podcast from Stanford Graduate School of Business that examines research findings that can help us navigate the complex issues we face in business, leadership, and society. Each episode features an interview with a Stanford GSB faculty member.

Learn more about the Stanford GSB Centennial

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on If/Then, we’re sharing an episode of View From The Top: The Podcast, an audio series featuring leaders from around the world in conversation with MBA students. Recorded live at the CEMEX Auditorium at Stanford Graduate School of Business, episodes feature insights on effective leadership, the values that guide it, and lessons learned along the way.

Lisa Su, the chair and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), leads one of the world’s most influential technology companies, a pioneer in high-performance computing and designer of chips that power everything from cellphones to supercomputers.

Su joins Michael Liu, MBA ’25, to talk about what it takes to stay on the cutting edge of technology, the tremendous potential of artificial intelligence, and why her superpower may be her commitment to learning.

“Careers are very much by chance,” Su says. “The nice thing about my early career is I was lucky enough to have bosses who asked me all the time, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ And I was like, ‘I don't know. Let me think about [it]...what I like to believe is the ability to learn at each step was what really helped me in my career.”

This conversation was recorded on February 24, 2025. 

More Resources:

    •  Lisa Su

    •  GSB Insights 

    •  View From The Top 

If/Then is a podcast from Stanford Graduate School of Business that examines research findings that can help us navigate the complex issues we face in business, leadership, and society.

Chapters: 

(00:00:00) Introduction

Kevin Cool introduces a summer spotlight on other podcasts, featuring View from the Top.

(00:00:59) Meet Lisa Su

Michael Liu introduces Lisa Su, AMD CEO, and highlights her career transformation.

(00:04:13) Growing Up & MIT Years

Lisa reflects on her immigrant upbringing and her journey through three degrees at MIT.

(00:05:43) Discovering Semiconductors

A part-time lab job at MIT ignites Lisa’s passion for chip technology.

(00:07:21) From Engineer to Leader

Lisa describes her transition from technical work to managing people and projects.

(00:11:19) Tackling Hard Problems

How curiosity and teamwork help Lisa embrace high-stakes technical challenges.

(00:13:40) Betting on Talent

Lisa recounts moments when she was given a chance—and how she now pays that forward.

(00:17:03) Becoming CEO at AMD

What brought Lisa to AMD and the unexpected call to lead the company.

(00:21:51) Strategy in a Turnaround

How AMD focused on high-performance computing and long-term bets.

(00:25:41) Cultural Shift at AMD

Lisa outlines how AMD’s culture became collaborative, ambitious, and learning-driven.

(00:27:19) AI & Global Tech Politics

The complex intersection of AI innovation and geopolitical regulation.

(00:32:37) Open vs. Closed AI Platforms

AMD’s open-source AI approach with NVIDIA’s more vertical model.

(00:38:54) Future Vision & Final Reflections

Lisa offers advice to MBAs and shares what she wants her legacy at AMD to be.

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 As we celebrate the conclusion of the second season of the If/Then podcast, we present a bonus episode featuring Deborah H. Gruenfeld, the Joseph McDonald Professor and Professor of Organizational Behavior and a Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Stanford Graduate School of Business. 

Gruenfeld, who appeared on the first season of If/Then in an award-winning episode about hierarchies and the nature of power, returned to the studio to share her thoughts on the value of academic research and its impact on individuals and organizations. 

“The nice thing about research is that it provides tools and methods and an approach to learn about what’s true in the world, taking into account that what we learn from firsthand experience is not reliable,” she says. “Research helps us build a body of knowledge about what's actually true that we can trust.”

This episode was recorded on July 16, 2025.

Related Content:

• Deborah H. Gruenfeld, faculty profile
• Why Research Matters
• Why I Research: Findings Fueled by the Head and the Heart

If/Then is a podcast from Stanford Graduate School of Business that examines research findings that can help us navigate the complex issues we face in business, leadership, and society. Each episode features an interview with a Stanford GSB faculty member.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on If/Then, we’re sharing an episode of The Future of Everything, a podcast hosted by Stanford School of Engineering professor and friend of the show Russ Altman.

Everyone has goals — some are monumental, others modest — but every goal matters. Szu-chi Huang, an associate professor of marketing at Stanford Graduate School of Business, is an expert on sustaining enthusiasm for individuals, customers, and employees across global corporations and organizations.

On this episode, Huang shares what it takes to stay motivated over time — not just at the beginning of a goal, when energy runs high, or at the end, when the finish line is in sight, but through the toughest part: the middle. She explains why motivation is a dynamic process that requires different tools at different stages, and offers practical advice drawn from her research on everything from retirement savings and loyalty programs to children’s health and social apps. Along the way, she and Altman explore how purpose, progress, and even a little social pressure can help us keep going — and how AI might someday coach us through.

More Resources:

•  Szu-chi Huang, faculty profile & If/Then episode
•  Russ Altman, faculty profile
•  The Future of Everything

If/Then is a podcast from Stanford Graduate School of Business that examines research findings that can help us navigate the complex issues we face in business, leadership, and society.

Chapters:

(00:00:00) Introduction

Russ Altman introduces Szu-Chi Huang, professor of marketing at Stanford GSB.

(00:03:31) Studying Motivation

Szu-chi shares what led her to study motivational science

(00:04:03) Defining Motivation

Motivation as the drive to close the gap between current and ideal self.

(00:04:57) The Science of Motivation

Studying motivation through behavioral and neurological data.

(00:05:48) Why It Matters in Business

How motivation science applies to leaders, teams, and customers.

(00:06:39) Motivation Framework

The strategies needed in order to stay motivated over time.

(00:07:42) The Mindset of Motivation

The different mindsets needed throughout the stages of motivation.

(00:09:21) Motivating Kids to Choose Healthy

A Collaboration with UNICEF to study what motivates children.

(00:10:55) Gamified Coupons in Panama

A study using gamified coupons to influence children's food choices.

(00:14:26) Loyalty Programs as Motivation

How customer reward programs act as structured goal journeys.

(00:16:47) Progress Versus Purpose

The different incentives needed in each stage of loyalty programs.

(00:18:29) Retirement Saving Lessons

How financial institutions apply motivational science to long-term goals.

(00:21:12) Motivation in Social Context

The role of social connections in goal pursuit and sustaining motivation.

(00:26:10) Designing Apps for Motivation

How redesigning user interfaces can help users stay motivated.

(00:27:20) AI as a Motivation Coach

Using AI to personalize feedback across all stages of goal pursuit.

(00:30:09) Starting and Sustaining a Goal

Practical strategies for launching and sustaining a goal.

(00:31:57) Conclusion

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