unSILOed with Greg LaBlanc

As risk-averse individuals, we tend to try to avoid failure at all costs. But failing is an essential part of learning. So, how can we get better at it? And how can organizations create psychological safety so employees are more willing to take chances, even if it may lead to failure? 

Amy Edmondson is a professor at Harvard Business School and studies psychological safety, organizational learning, and teaming. In her new book, Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well, she guides readers through the art of failing. 

Amy and Greg discuss her psychological safety origin story, the taxonomy of failure, and the importance of learning how to fail right. 

*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

What does psychological safety truly mean?

19:55: My least favorite misconception of what psychological safety is that it means a lack of accountability or a lack of high standards. It means anything goes, and we're just going to be soft and, you know, wrap everybody in bubble wrap. And it's not what it means. It means permission for candor, right? It means permission to take risks, and hopefully, most of those risks will be smart risks.

Errors and failures are rich territory for learning

07:51: You've got to learn, and you have to learn fast, and you have to keep learning—and errors and failures, which I do not believe are synonymous, are really rich territory for learning. Unfortunately, we don't often do it very well. There's a whole lot of room for improvement there.

Leadership doesn’t exist without fellowship

27:19: Leadership doesn't even exist without followership. So we've got to be as interested in what everyone does to co-create value. And some people are at higher levels of leadership than others, but we're all trying to create value for the customers. And we have an overemphasis on sort of the role of those at the top.

At what level can you safely try to change the culture?

25:49: We have this very deep instinct to pay attention to what's happening above us. And oftentimes, because we're a little judgmental, we will decide that what's happening above us is suboptimal, and they don't get it. And they're not doing their part to create a psychological safety or learning environment. And I say that may very well be true, and your responsibility is simply to take a look at what you can do. Look down or across instead of up.

Shifting the way you look at leadership

28:11: We need to think less about organizations and more about teams because organizations are just made up of teams, and if every team does its part, whether it's developing the strategy, deciding on acquisition, building a product, or designing tomorrow's products. Every team does its job in the most learning-oriented, ambitious way possible. Some of those activities will be pretty powerful.

• Carol Dweck
• Teaching Smart People How to Learn by Chris Argyris 
• Charles Perrow

• Faculty Profile at Harvard University
• Professional Profile on Thinkers50
• Speaker Profile on Stern Strategy Group
• Amy C. Edmondson's Website
• Amy C. Edmondson on LinkedIn
• Amy C. Edmondson on Twitter
• Amy C. Edmondson on TEDxHGSE

• Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well 
• The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth
• Workplace Conditions (Elements of Improving Quality and Safety in Healthcare) 
• Extreme Teaming: Lessons in Complex, Cross-Sector Leadership
• Building the Future: Big Teaming for Audacious Innovation
• Teaming to Innovate
• A Fuller Explanation: The Synergetic Geometry of R Buckminster Fuller
• Scholarly Articles 
• Articles on Harvard Business Review

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Does the way we rank colleges prioritize status over educational quality or the public good? 

Colin Diver is the Charles A. Heimbold, Jr., Professor of Law and Economics, former dean at the University of Pennsylvania, and former president of Reed College. His book, Breaking Ranks: How the Rankings Industry Rules Higher Education and What to Do about It, explores the methodologies of U.S. News and others to evaluate higher education institutions.

Colin and Greg discuss the pitfalls of college rankings, how they fail to measure important aspects of education,  how they distort the incentives of college administrators, and what a better system could look like. 

*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

Why are the SATs becoming less popular?

27:43: I realized that in this day and age, the SAT is becoming less and less popular, and I understand why—it does tend to favor privileged students that are economically and academically privileged students. But I still think that it is a force for democratizing higher education. It's a way of identifying talented students from out-of-the-way places, unfamiliar high schools, maybe even kids who didn't have a high GPA for whatever reason, but still have a lot of raw talent.

Do we have the capacity to opt out of rankings?

26:23: Yes, we dislike the rankings. We may even hate them, but we can't afford to fight them. And we can't afford to pull out. I understand that calculation. It's like we depend on the rankings to signal our value to our primary constituency, which is potential undergraduate students.

How does early decision admission contribute to economic inequality?

27:43: If you apply early, we'll give you an answer early, but if we admit you, you've got to accept our offer. And so, that way, you drove up your yield rate because everybody who applied that you admitted was going to come because they had agreed ahead of time that they would come. And, well, what was wrong with that? What was wrong with that was that it favored the rich because the poorer students can't afford to commit early. They need to see what the competitive financial aid awards are. And so, it was well demonstrated in the literature that early decisions tended to favor rich applicants and disfavor poor applicants.

The value of Ivy League education is a function of its exclusivity

55:23: The apparent value of an Ivy League education is a function of its exclusivity. We want to be a club that only a few people can join, is the sentiment. And that is unfortunate. It's a reflection of the competitive conditions in higher education.

• U.S. News Best Colleges
• Build Your Own College Rankings (New York Times)
• Niche
• President John F. Kennedy’s Frost Speech 

• Faculty Profile at University of Pennsylvania 
• President's Profile on Reed College
• Colin Diver on LinkedIn
• Colin Diver on X

• Breaking Ranks: How the Rankings Industry Rules Higher Education and What to Do about It
• Article on The Chronicle of Higher Education
• Article on Los Angeles Time
• Article on The New York Times

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The double helix of DNA twists in the heart of every human cell, and it comes with some editing software known as epigenetics that power what parts turn on and off and when. Scientists are still still working to understand exactly how genetics and epigenetics work, but we are learning more every day.

Nessa Carey is the former International Director at PraxisUnico and the author of several books on genetics. Her latest book is titled Hacking the Code of Life: How gene editing will rewrite our futures.

Nessa and Greg discuss how genetics and epigenetics work and are related, with some concrete examples. Nessa discusses how genetics have been used to clone species and cells in laboratories and the differences between other animals and humans. Greg and Nessa talk about the uses and limitations of gene technology and the exciting possibilities of the gene editing technology CRISPR.

*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

Not all scientists are the same

01:00:39: We have to get better at recognizing that not all scientists are the same. Some are really good problem solvers, some are really good creative thinkers, and it's about finding the right ways to support those people to maximum effect. And we need both. We need the problem solvers as well as the genuinely, deeply creative people. And that is expensive, but on the other hand, you don't get the great breakthroughs. If we only had the problem solvers, all we would have now are better iron lungs for polio. We'd never have a vaccine. But sometimes you need those problem solvers to get other things done as well. So we need to be supporting all different types of research.

On the complexity of biology

17:27: The reality is biology is very, very complicated. All of those systems need to work. If any of them fall apart, the whole thing falls apart. But we're surprisingly tribal and surprisingly wedded to our own theories. I think in biology, we quite often don't realize we're constantly putting ourselves on Gartner's hype cycle, and everybody gets very invested in whichever bit they like and where it's in the cycle at the time.

The beauty and cultural value of funding science

01:01:52: It's a mistake to think we should fund science because, eventually, it'll fund us back. We should fund science because it's beautiful. We should fund it because it's a magnificent cultural activity that adds to the wealth of human gorgeousness in the same way that fine arts and great literature do. Stuff shouldn't just be funded because it has an economic imperative. Isn't it just beautiful to understand more about how the world works?

Why is epigenetics a notable example of scientific paradigm shifts?

14:49: Epigenetics has been a great example of how you get paradigm shifts in scientific fields. You get this situation where there's the prevailing theory, and it survives a lot of onslaughts. But then eventually, it crumbles, and the new theory emerges. So, it's been great both scientifically and in terms of the philosophy of science.

• Waddington Landscape
• The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
• Gartner Hype Cycle
• John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka’s Work
• Anne Ferguson-Smith

• Profile on The Royal Society
• Nessa Carey's Website
• Nessa Carey on LinkedIn
• Nessa Carey on X

• Hacking the Code of Life: How gene editing will rewrite our futures
• The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology Is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease, and Inheritance
• Junk DNA: A Journey Through the Dark Matter of the Genome
• Huffington Post Articles

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When it comes to data privacy laws these days, it’s still sort of like the Wild West out there. There’s no federal agency holding software makers responsible for security holes, consumers don’t understand how much risk there is, and the laws that are on the books are inadequate.

Daniel J. Solove is a leading authority on privacy law and is a professor at the George Washington University Law School. He’s written numerous books and articles on data security and privacy laws, including his most recent book, Breached!: Why Data Security Law Fails and How to Improve it and his textbook, Information Privacy Law.

Daniel and Greg discuss why current privacy laws are counterproductive, what a useful federal law regulating data security could look like, and why being forced to change your password regularly is actually bad advice. 

*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

The need for a human element when it comes to security

38:32: Security does need to think about the human element. And that's a different kind of thinking than what might be best for security. And that's what makes security so tricky. There are good technologies and weaker technologies for security. I think two-factor authentication is good. There are a lot of things that people can do that will make very effective security. But there's also this human dimension, and that's a dimension that a lot of them are not trained on. It's just they're not experts in human psychology, human cognitive abilities, and what humans are likely or unlikely to do. But we need that expertise involved if we're going to create the right security framework for a company.

Is the law focusing on data breaches so much that it's making them worse?

13:25: The law, unfortunately, has focused way too obsessively on breach and failed to focus on things that could actually address this problem in a much more effective way. 

The role that companies play in data breaches

32:51: If we had companies devise ways that they authenticated themselves to people, then we would be a lot safer, and fewer people would be falling for hacker tricks. And if the company is doing some practice that is miseducating, you should be penalized.

Do we make exceptions for technology when it comes to security?

17:40: There's a bit of exceptionalism when it comes to technology, where we accept the risks and dangers of technology and don't hold the makers of it accountable in ways we would never do with any other product. 

• Tort
• Benjamin N. Cardozo
• Louis Brandeis
• Ralph Nader
• Bruce Schneier
• Katz v. United States
• Loomis v. Wisconsin
• Olmstead v. United States
• John Marshall Harlan

• Faculty Profile at George Washington University
• Daniel J. Solove's Website
• Daniel J. Solove on LinkedIn
• Daniel J. Solove on Twitter
• Daniel J. Solove on Talks at Google
• Daniel’s company: TeachPrivacy

• Breached!: Why Data Security Law Fails and How to Improve it
• Information Privacy Law
• Understanding Privacy
• The Digital Person: Technology and Privacy in the Information Age
• Nothing to Hide: The False Tradeoff between Privacy and Security
• The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet
• The FTC and The New Common Law of Privacy
• The Limitations of Privacy Rights
• More scholarly articles

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Is finance really just the economics of time and risk? How do you price things like time and risk?

Edward Chancellor is a columnist with Reuters and is the author of the book, The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest, which delves into the history of lending and the interest rates that followed for the last five millennia. 

Edward and Greg discuss the history of interest and its connections to Greek philosophy, the potential problems with centralized banking, and financial repression in China and the US.

*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

The overlooked aspects of monetary policy and central planning

08:05: What I think happened is you have the support amongst some neoclassical economists for Hayek's ideas relating to the economy as spontaneous, complex, emergent order that is difficult to control centrally. And yet, at the same time, no one has any problem with taking the most important price in the system, the one that affects everything, namely the interest rate. And so it's somehow perfectly acceptable to tweak that for whatever your end.

Insights from a finance journalist

51:34: One of the things I've discovered about writing about finance for nearly 30 years is that it's hardly worth having new ideas, because the conservatism of the world is so great that it's very hard to get them taken up. So I prefer to describe, rather than create, solutions.

Unraveling the complexity between the relationship between inflation and interest

42:37: The relationship between inflation and interest is not as straightforward as people surmise. If a low-interest rate encourages leverage, then the more leverage you have, the greater the leverage tottering over an individual household or an economy as a whole, and the more potential deflation pressure there is.

What’s an inevitable feature of a market-based system?

13:23: The notion that a transitional rise in unemployment may actually be useful is complete heresy and is seen as being a sort of strange, perverted form of sadism. Which I didn't think it was. So it's an inevitable feature of a capitalist or market-based system that you'd have these periods of boom and bust.

• Denationalisation of Money by Friedrich A. Von Hayek
• Milton Friedman
• John Maynard Keynes
• Clément Juglar
• The Nature and Necessity of Interest by Gustav Cassel
• Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk
• Irving Fisher

• Author Page at Reuters
• Speaker’s Profile on Chartwell Speakers
• Edward Chancellor's Website 
• Edward Chancellor on LinkedIn
• Edward Chancellor on X

• The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest
• Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation

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The financial revolution in Europe was an outgrowth of the scientific revolution, and the greatest minds of the time were studying, commenting on, and even participating in the emerging world of finance. Then came the 1720 South Sea Bubble and the financial crisis that followed.

Thomas Levenson is a Professor of Science Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also an author, and his latest book is titled Money for Nothing: The Scientists, Fraudsters, and Corrupt Politicians Who Reinvented Money, Panicked a Nation, and Made.

Thomas and Greg discuss the circumstances of the South Sea Bubble and how it connected to famous minds like Isaac Newton and Edmond Halley. They relate the financial crisis to other bubbles, like the 2007-2008 financial crisis. Thomas draws out the fascinating parts of what happened with the South Sea Bubble and what lessons can be learned from it and applied to today’s financial markets.

*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

Insights on the role of innovation and government purpose in bubbles

33:51: The point of the bubble is that at the core of the bubble was a really good idea that actually served the government's purposes. In fact, served the government's purposes so well that one of the reasons you don't get joint stock companies going forward and in particular, you don't allow private companies to have access to the bond markets, the debt market, in the same way that the government has, is because the government wants to make sure it essentially has a monopoly on that form of finance so that it can continue executing its purposes. And you don't see a private bond market emerging, at least in Britain, until the second quarter of the 19th century.

You can have truth in mathematics

29:02: Mathematics is this sure and certain science. You can have truth in mathematics... The best that physics can be is demonstrated, and there's a difference. And so, if the mathematics work out, then, of course, this is a safe, sound, and perfectly acceptable way to spend your money until it isn't. So there's a rhetoric in the use of mathematical arguments that shouldn't be ignored. It was present in the 1720s bubble and in that era, and it was very much present recently.

Humanities teach you to think about the future in ways that are simply useful

01:01:24: If you try to train for the present, what you're doing is making sure that the future is going to catch you by surprise. And one of the things that the humanities do is teach you to think about the future in ways that are more flexible, more interesting, and, dare I say it, pragmatically, simply useful.

A perspective on continuous evolution and profound shifts

13:29: I see events as a continuous flow rather than as sudden, momentary revolutionary breakthroughs. But if ever there was a profoundly changing, rapidly changing sort of thing, you can experience it in your own lifetime. The late 17th century was remarkable.

• Isaac Newton
• Edmond Halley
• Calculated Values by William Deringer
• The South Sea Bubble of 1720
• The Financial Crisis of 2007-2008
• Tulip Mania
• Exchange Alley
• Horace Walpole

• Faculty Profile at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Thomas Levenson Website
• Thomas Levenson on LinkedIn
• Thomas Levenson on X

• Money for Nothing: The Scientists, Fraudsters, and Corrupt Politicians Who Reinvented Money, Panicked a Nation, and Made the World Rich
• Money For Nothing: The South Sea Bubble and the Invention of Modern Capitalism
• The Hunt for Vulcan: . . . And How Albert Einstein Destroyed a Planet, Discovered Relativity, and Deciphered the Universe
• Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist
• Einstein in Berlin
• Articles from The Atlantic
• Articles from Aeon

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Is the smartest person in the room also the wisest? Not necessarily. So what does it mean to be wise, and how do you go about finding that wisdom in life? 

Thomas Gilovich is the Irene Blecker Rosenfeld Professor of Psychology at Cornell University. His work in social psychology includes the key textbook in the field, and has written books that touch on topics such as behavioral economics and the fallibility of human reason.

Thomas and Greg discuss what it means to truly be wise, whether or not more wisdom leads to more happiness in life, and how to train ourselves to see beyond our subjective perception of the world. 

*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

Should we start with an understanding of the self in order to gain a better understanding of other people?

54:05: We have this great capacity to zoom in, zoom out, look at things from a variety of different angles. And, if you do that well, that's going to give you a better understanding of other people and a better understanding of yourself. So, let's look at it from my perspective. Let's look at it from their perspective, and so on. That is part and parcel of what wisdom is—turning things around to look at a hard problem from a variety of different angles. And, if that's a big component of wisdom, it would be surprising if wisdom was located in one area rather than the other.

Wisdom is where rational understanding meets human insights

03:45: To be wise and effective in this world means that you need to understand all that we've learned about rational choice, logic, etc., and combine that with knowledge of people.

Why construal principle is a big component of wisdom

25:26: One of the biggest principles of social psychology is the so-called "construal principle," which is that there's a reality out there. But we don't respond to that reality. We respond to how we interpret that reality. And knowing that's what we're reacting to is a big component of wisdom; it allows us to understand where other people are coming from, especially when their behavior on the surface immediately may not make sense to us. So, what does it mean to them that they're reacting that way? It's a big part of wisdom.

Considering happiness as a talent, not just a trait

34:35: We think of happiness as a trait, which at some level of description it is, but maybe it's better to think of it as a talent: happy people have the talent to make all these mental moves and arrange their lives in such a way that they will be happier.

• Solomon Asch
• George Carlin - Idiot and Maniac
• Leon Festinger
• The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom by Jonathan Haidt
• Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design by Charles Montgomery
• Kurt Lewin
• Daniel Kahneman
• The Replication Crisis

• Faculty Profile at Cornell University
• Author’s Profile at Sage
• Thomas Gilovich on LinkedIn

• Social Psychology (6th Edition)
• Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment
• How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life
• Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes And How To Correct Them: Lessons From The New Science Of Behavioral Economics
• The Wisest One in the Room: How You Can Benefit from Social Psychology's Most Powerful Insights
• More scholarly articles 

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From an early age, students are taught the major academic disciplines like math, science, history, and art. But one thing that often gets overlooked or not formally taught is creative problem-solving. Why? And what would those classes look like? 

Tina Seelig, the executive director of the Knight-Hennessy Scholars at Stanford University, teaches creativity courses to students around the world and in corporate settings. She’s written numerous books on the subject, such as Creativity Rules: Get Ideas Out of Your Head and into the World and inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity. 

Tina and Greg discuss some of the ways she unlocks creativity in her students, why there should be more of an emphasis on creative problem-solving at educational institutions, and how to cultivate curiosity. 

*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

Insights from 'What I Wish I Knew When I Was 40'

41:02: You can start anywhere. The lane lines of the pool might be on top, but you can swim under them. And it's really, really important that you don't get a job. You get the keys to the building. So find the building you want to be in, figure out where you're going to get your foot in the door, and then figure out how you're going to really make an impact and create new opportunities for yourself.

Failure is data for growth

15:14: I deeply believe that failure is actually data and that you need to understand that every time something doesn't work as you expected, you have some really interesting data that is going to help you get to the next stage.

Do we need courses for creativity?

06:08: We teach math, science, history, art, and music. Why do we not teach creative problem-solving? And there are a very clear set of tools, techniques, and mindsets that are required that allow you to come up with really interesting solutions to problems that we face every single day.

From boredom to fascination in pursuit of passion

25:11: I'm a huge believer that before something is your passion, it's something you know nothing about. And so, something might seem boring and uninteresting, but if you have the right mindset, it's going to be fascinating.

• The Right It: Why So Many Ideas Fail and How to Make Sure Yours Succeed by Alberto Savoia
• Alberto Savoia Talks on eCorner
• 319. The Future Repeats Itself feat. Tom Standage
• What I Wish I Knew When I Was 40

• Faculty Profile at Stanford University
• Contributors Profile on Psychology Today
• Tina Seelig's Website
• Tina Seelig on LinkedIn
• Tina Seelig on X
• Tina Seelig on TEDTalk
• Leap! With Tina Seelig Podcast
• Stanford Innovation Lab Podcast

• Creativity Rules: Get Ideas Out of Your Head and into the World (US)
• inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity
• What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20: A Crash Course on Making Your Place in the World
• Insight Out: Get Ideas Out of Your Head and Into the World (UK)

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Society’s view on fitness swings wildly from era to era throughout history. There were times when caring about your body was considered feminine, times when it was masculine, times when it was patriotic, and times when that was too close to how ideologies we don’t like behave - so not caring about your body was patriotic, but there have been many shifts in the last hundred years alone.

Natalia Mehlman Petrzela is a historian of contemporary American politics and culture, an Associate Professor of History at The New School, and the author of two books, the latest of which is titled Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession. 

Natalia and Greg discuss how fitness has become part of a broader wellness movement. They discuss how access to fitness and attitudes around it has become reserved for the wealthy or privileged. Natalia details how PE offerings in schools have changed over the years to line up with different political attitudes and the fine line between professionalizing fitness instruction and limiting access to the profession.

*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

The imperative of certification and licensing for health and fitness instructors

56:57: One of the biggest impediments to protecting people, both instructors and students, would be certification, real professional guidelines, and licensing. Because right now, fitness instructors and trainers are assuming this outsized role in people's lives with basically no guardrails, no instruction, or no laws governing that. You can sue if you hurt your neck in class, etc. But it's a wild west. And there's a lot of incentives for fitness professionals to actually be really zany and cross boundaries, because that creates this rapport in this very intimate relationship. You want that role in people's lives, but that can go wrong. And so, licensing and professional standards would help with that.

The fitness industry and the dimension of inclusivity

21:33: The gym evolves in how intimidating it becomes over time, but that remains a hallmark of a lot of people's gym experiences. And I should point out that in some ways, that's what the fitness industry is selling—a dimension of exclusivity.

The interplay between American lifestyle and exercise trends

05:58: One of the things that has really happened, that's emerged, that's helped propel this industry and this pressure to exercise, is that so many aspects of American life have become more sedentary. One of the reasons that we do have this class divide and who's thought to participate in exercise regularly is that the big moments when you have the expansion of the fitness industry always have to do with the expansion of the white-collar workforce.

Fitness and community should go hand in hand

51:15: We both know, coming out of the pandemic, that exercise is really good for you, but we know it was a big help with comorbidities and it's so important. But on the other hand, unfortunately, I think we hastened some of this privatization because we shut down parks and recreation centers. And we were like, "Oh, go do Peloton in your home; good luck with that," and that really isolated us and got rid of the community aspect, which is never perfectly inclusive, but I think it's really important.

• Katie Sandwina
• Charles Atlas
• Richard Simmons
• Muscle Beach
• Vic Tanny
• Jim Fixx
• Jane Fonda

• Faculty Profile at New School
• Natalia Mehlman Petrzela's Website
• Natalia Mehlman Petrzela on LinkedIn
• Natalia Mehlman Petrzela on X

• Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession
• Classroom Wars: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture 
• NBC News Articles

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A new era of technology brings about advancements that both thrill and concern society. Some see the oncoming innovations as the solution to our problems, others as the harbinger of the end, but one thing is certain: this isn’t the first time. Whether it’s the criticisms of social media, new vehicles meant to make communing easier, or industries disrupted by new technology, the present can look to and learn from the examples of the past. 

Tom Standage is the Deputy Editor at The Economist and the author of several books. His latest book, A Brief History of Motion: From the Wheel, to the Car, to What Comes Next, explores how personal vehicles have changed and shaped societies for millennia and continue to do so now with the onset of self-driving technology. 

Tom and Greg discuss how the present tech concerns echo panics of the past and the ways in which the discussion of self-driving vehicles today is following the discourse of other major shifts in society, like that from horses to vehicles. Tom gives a different take on the prevalence of smartphones and why it’s wise to take with a grain of salt both the prophets and the doomsayers of new innovations.

*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

Curating information for readers who want to save time

22:02: The Economist has always got most of its revenue from subscriptions. We have quite a high subscription price. Because basically, we have people who don't have much time but have enough money. They pay us to save them time. And getting up to speed quickly on what's happening in the world is the service we provide to our readers. And they pay us money for that information directly. And there isn't an intermediary. There aren't tech platforms, advertisers, and clicks in the middle. But the other thing they're paying us to do is curate what's happened. Tell them what's important. And very often, that's something like, "Have you noticed what's happened to the economy of Venezuela?" That's not a very clickbaity subject, but you know, essentially, that responsibility we have to our readers, which is tell you what's important that you didn't know you needed to know about. You are never going to get that with a click-driven model.

Can journalists see things that professional historians can't see?

18:42: Journalism is structured very differently from history and from academia because it's not generally about learning more and more about a thing. It's generally being able to pick things up quickly. 

What’s the problem with the click-driven model?

32:33: The problem with a click-driven model is, firstly, it distorts those sorts of journalistic incentives. But then the other problem with it is that even if you can make a click-driven model work, you are mortgaging your future to the platform that is sending you the clicks.

Can we fix misinformation?

41:02: I think getting information in that direct way, directly from someone who you pay and who you trust, is something that we are likely to see more of, and swimming in the seas of misinformation is something we'll go and do sometimes, but we'll do it very aware.

• Dangling Modifier
• Paul Krugman
• Fernand Braudel
• Why 10 Year Plans are Wrong by Reid Hoffman

• Professional Profile at The Economist
• Tom Standage on LinkedIn
• Tom Standage on Twitter

• A Brief History of Motion: From the Wheel, to the Car, to What Comes Next
• A History of the World in 6 Glasses
• An Edible History of Humanity
• The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers
• The Mechanical Turk: The True Story of the Chess-playing Machine That Fooled the World 
• Amazon Author Page for› Tom Standage
• Articles for The Globalist

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