Tyler Cowen is an economist at George Mason University. He is also on his way to becoming the world's first information trillionaire, the host of the extraordinary podcast Conversations with Tyler, and a co-author of the MarginalRevolution blog. He is also, of course, from The Great New Jersey.

He grew up in Hillsdale, Bergen County, but was born in the working-class Scots-Irish town of Kearney in Hudson County. In this conversation, Tyler and David explore what makes New Jersey a uniquely powerful incubator of social scientists, why the state's fragmented "boroughitis" politics created a natural laboratory for understanding economics and governance, and how surviving between New York and Philadelphia makes the Garden State into America's greatest exporter of human capital. They cover the gritty charm of North Jersey downtowns, the under appreciated walkability of old Jersey suburbs, shore town architecture, the Sopranos as social commentary, Philip Roth, what the state loses if it builds more high-rises along the Hudson, and whether AI will fix or break state government. Listen to learn why Tyler's one word description of New Jersey culture is "location-dependent".