Episode 114: Paul Behrens (www.linkedin.com/in/paul-behrens-6b586427/) is an author and academic interested in environmental change at Leiden University College. In September 2020, he published The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: Futures from the Frontiers of Climate Science (https://www.theindigopress.com/the-best-of-times), a popular science book that describes humanity’s possible futures in paired chapters of pessimism and hope.

Paul's last JT appearance:

https://soundcloud.com/jivetalking/102-paul-behrens-on-our-struggles-to-live-the-best-of-times

David's book reviews: https://www.kysq.org/reviews.html

Paul's clarification of what he was trying to say about Adam Smith:

This post (https://www.adamsmithworks.org/documents/self-interest-rightly-understood) says “far from providing rationale for selfish material pursuits, Smith’s self-interest, properly understood, encourages a kind of virtue that protects both individuals and their communities.”

Paul adds: What I was saying was yes, it is in their own interests, but that their interests covers individuals and communities.

Episode 113: Steven Asei-Dantoni a.k.a Great Teacher Steve is a researcher and advisor on Inclusive Education and Social Innovation. His work focuses on improving educational experiences with transformative learning. Steven has worked with companies, governments and schools in Denmark, France, Nicaragua, Rwanda, South Africa and the Netherlands. Steven holds a Master of Arts in Geopolitics and International Relations, and a Bachelor of Business Management and Finance. Steven is a research assistant at the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam and a guest lecturer at Leiden University. He is the host of the Innovating Education Podcast which focuses on changemakers in education.

Podcast : https://www.greatteachersteve.com/podcast

Instagram : @innovatingeducation

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/innovatingeducation

Facebook Page : @greatteachersteve

Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/c/GreatTeacherSteve/

Twitter : @greattsteve

https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity

Steve's prior appearances:

https://soundcloud.com/jivetalking/52-steven-asei-dantoni-brings-joy-to-teaching

https://soundcloud.com/jivetalking/78-steve-titus-and-david-talk-about-teaching-online

Episode 112: Lucas van Oppen (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucas-van-oppen-4a158b100/) graduated from LUC in 2015, majoring in Human Interaction (now called Human Diversity: Culture, History & Society). Since then he completed an MA in History: Political Culture & National Identity (PCNI) at Leiden University. Now he works at RPS as a historian for the UXO-team.

Episode 111: In this episode, Brandon and David talk a lot (you need to listen, I can't summarise it ;)

Brandon's last appearance on JiveTalk:

https://soundcloud.com/jivetalking/67-brandon-zicha-says-liberal-arts-can-save-us

How the West became WEIRD

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/09/joseph-henrich-explores-weird-societies/

How the 'Western mind' was shaped by the Medieval Church

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20201231-how-the-way-you-think-was-shaped-centuries-ago

‘Reach Out to Trump Supporters,’ They Said. I Tried.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/19/opinion/trump-supporters.html

The Reply: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/05/opinion/letters/donald-trump-supporters.html

Episode 110: Zach (https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachariasmalik/) works as a Researcher across the Sustainable Finance programme at E3G (Third Generation Environmentalism, https://www.e3g.org), focusing on how International Financial Institutions, in particular Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), can accelerate the transition towards a climate-safe world. As part of this, Zach supports aligning MDBs with the Paris Agreement.

Prior to joining E3G, Zach worked as a Consultant at the World Bank, focusing on urban development projects across the East Asia and Pacific region. Zach has also been a Researcher at the Japan-based research institute IGES (Institute for Global Environmental Strategies), and a Consultant at Climate-KIC, EU's largest public private partnership addressing climate change.

Outside of his role at E3G, Zach freelances at Vivid Economics, a strategic economics consultancy, and Climate Bonds Initiative an international organisation working solely to mobilise the largest capital market of all, the $100 trillion bond market, for climate change solutions. Recently, Zach was contracted by UN Environment and UNDP.

Zach holds a BSc in Policy Science (now GED) and minor in Sustainability (now EES) from LUC (class of 2016 1/2) and a MSc in Management and Corporate Sustainability from Cranfield University. He has lived in several countries including Egypt, Australia, Switzerland, France, and South Korea. Zach is currently based in London.

Links:

Zach's first JT appearance:

https://soundcloud.com/jivetalking/08-zach-malik-had-five-jobs

Development Projects Observed

https://kysq.org/aguanomics/2017/07/review-development-projects-observed/

Podast on financing development in Africa

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2020-12-09/why-africa-borrowed-billions-of-dollars-from-china-podcast

Episode 109: This episode follows a different format, with Ishak Özdemir (LUC student) and Ankita Singhvi (a researcher at CML) interviewing me on decolonisation and the impacts of COVID 19 on globalisation, respectively. Each interview is about 30 minutes ;)

Episode 108: After graduating with a major in Policy Science in 2016, Felipe stayed at LUC to work as a student assistant in the Recruitment and Communication office. Continuing his interdisciplinary undergraduate, he holds two master degrees focusing on the European Union – one in International Relations from Universiteit Leiden and a second in Economics from the College of Europe in Bruges. After a short time working on German and European Climate politics at the Dutch embassy in Berlin, Felipe now works as a power market expert at Aurora Energy Research in Berlin, focusing on the build-out of renewables in the Dutch and Belgian power sectors.

Motto: "As long as you use your experience, it can’t be a failure"

Episode 107: Jeffry “J.J.” Clausen Jr. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jjclausen/) has worked in commercial real estate, venture capital and investment banking and is focused on synthesizing his disparate experience, personal life journey and acquired knowledge to apply the venturesome spirit of the private sector into the transitioning state of the public sector.

Choosing academia at a later stage in life to complete his personal cycles of self-validation, JJ is currently a first-generation student conducting research with the economics departments at University of South Florida and New College on commercial real estate valuation methods, repo rates, and financial instrument architecture.

To quote the C.P. Cavafy’s poem, JJ is on his own “road to Ithaca” (quite literally to Cornell) where it is full of triumph, tragedy, adventure, and discovery.

Ithaka, by C. P. Cavafy

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51296/ithaka-56d22eef917ec

"The real estate market index.”

https://www.kysq.org/pubs/REMI_Final.pdf

Silicon Valley etiquette

https://medium.com/@romainserman/silicon-valley-etiquette-6934cf6f8f73

Episode 106: After finishing at LUC (majoring in GED)in 2018. Simon Toussaint (twitter @sjtoussaint) enrolled in the Research Master of the Utrecht University School of Economics. Currently, he is a PhD candidate there, researching the dynamics of wealth inequality.

Motto: "Don't stress. Take a walk."

The political economy of property taxes

https://kysq.org/aguanomics/2016/07/the-political-economy-of-property-taxes/

Episode 105: Art Carden (http://artcarden.com) is a professor of economics at Samford University’s Brock School of Business, a fellow at four different institutes and co-editor of the Southern Economic Journal. Art's research focuses on mass-market retailers, economic history, and the history of economic ideas. He also writes for non-academic audiences in publications such as Forbes. We discussed Art's first book, Leave Me Alone and I’ll Make You Rich: How the Bourgeois Deal Enriched the World, which he coauthored with Deirdre McCloskey.

Motto: "Don't add help, subtract barriers!"

__Links__

Leave Me Alone and I’ll Make You Rich

https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo61545999.html

Era of Darkness

https://one-handed-economist.com/?p=516

A history of the institutional racism against Blacks in the US

http://www.sceneonradio.org/tag/season-4/

Looking back at 50 years of Friedman's ideas on corporate governance

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/11/business/dealbook/milton-friedman-doctrine-social-responsibility-of-business.html