In the long run, talent allocation is almost everything. But as a society, we're not actually very good at it. The question of how to reliably match people with jobs they are well suited for is one of the big unsolved problems of our times. 
Joe catches up with return guest Tyler Cowen to discuss the art of identifying talent. Tyler is a professor of economics at George Mason University and host of the podcast Conversations with Tyler. He is also the co-author of a new book, Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World.
Full transcript available at: thejspod.com
Episode recorded: 18 May 2022. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Talent Is That Which Is Scarce — Tyler Cowen

Joe Walker hosts refreshingly in-depth conversations with founders, scientists, scholars, economists, and public intellectuals.
(Formerly 'The Jolly Swagman Podcast'.)

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In this special episode, the tables are turned as I'm interviewed by a listener of the show, DJ Thornton from Sydney. We reflect on the progress of the show in 2023, what I learned from this year's guests, and what's in store for 2024.
Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

2023 Retrospective — A Listener Interviews Me

At a time when the Enlightenment is under attack from without and within, I bring together two of the most thoughtful defenders of progress and reason, for their first ever public dialogue.
Steven Pinker is the Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. I think of him as providing the strongest empirical defence of the Enlightenment (as seen in his book Enlightenment Now).
David Deutsch is a British physicist at the University of Oxford, and the father of quantum computing. I think of him as having produced the most compelling first principles defence of the Enlightenment (as seen in his book The Beginning of Infinity).
Full transcript available at: https://josephnoelwalker.com/153-deutsch-pinker-dialogue. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David Deutsch & Steven Pinker (First Ever Public Dialogue) — AGI, P(Doom), & The Enemies of Progress

Shruti Rajagopalan is an Indian-American economist. She leads the Indian political economy research program and Emergent Ventures India at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. She also hosts the Ideas of India podcast.
Full transcript available at: jnwpod.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shruti Rajagopalan —  On Spotting Talent, And Making Sense of Rising India

What were the deep causes of the global financial crisis and great recession? Has unconventional monetary policy in the wake of the crisis done more harm than good? And should monetary policy target financial stability?
I discuss these questions and more with Indian economist and Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Raghuram Rajan.
Raghuram Rajan was chief economist at the IMF from 2003 to 2006, and from 2013 to 2016 he was Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. As RBI Governor, he notably introduced India's inflation-targeting scheme, among many other achievements.
Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/151-raghuram-rajan See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Raghuram Rajan — Debt, Monetary Policy, and Unintended Consequences

Peter Singer is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He is widely regarded as the world's most influential living philosopher.
Full transcript available at: jnwpod.com
Episode recorded on 26 April 2023. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Talent Is That Which Is Scarce — Tyler Cowen

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