Robin Hanson is an economist at George Mason University, the inventor of prediction markets, and the author of The Age of Em and The Elephant in the Brain. In this conversation he argues that our civilization is failing because we broke the engine of cultural evolution, and that the only way out is to let capitalism run more things, which I pushed back on, badly.
We also got into prediction markets, why we don't actually want accurate information, authenticity as hidden performance, foragers vs farmers, falling fertility, insider trading, and what young people should do with their lives.

📚 Robin's work:
Overcoming Bias: https://www.overcomingbias.com
The Age of Em: https://ageofem.com
The Elephant in the Brain: https://www.elephantinthebrain.com

🎧 More from me:
Substack: https://substack.com/@micahzarin

⏱️ Chapters:
00:00 — Hook
00:11 — Intro
01:27 — Philosophy
05:04 — Kalshi & Polymarket
13:56 — Group loyalty, and implausible beliefs
21:15 — Cultural evolution
27:14 — Why civilization is collapsing
51:41 — The incoherence of utopia
57:22 — Where I tried to defend anti-capitalism
1:16:21 — Life advice for me