Technology has eased our transition to the new socially distant world. 

The government has long played a role in advancing (and delaying) technological innovation.

The stories we tell about the future can create the future.

If progress had to be invented, then it can be halted too.

Innovation might seem magical, but magic comes with a steep price tag. Venture capital provided a superior way of funding entrepreneurship than what existed before. 

American research universities have been a powerhouse of innovation, especially once the government stopped sitting on grant-funded patents

Without immigrants, Silicon Valley would be a shell of what it is today. Yet bad restrictionist policies threaten to undermine American dominance in tech and stymie innovation.

Does piracy have a catastrophic effect on how music, movies, and books are distributed?

The US Social Security system can’t fulfill its promises, but Australia’s system gives its people a better shot at a comfortable retirement.

Food is deeply emotional, which is why Impossible Foods is trying it’s best to create the best, sustainable, meat-like product.

There is promising technology that will be able to take care of us as we age, but only if the FDA does not get in the way.  

While people in the US have the first world privilege to complain about wasting time on their phones, millions of people in the developing world are using their cellphones to pull themselves out of poverty. 

Hal Varian, Chief Economist at Google, joins the show today to talk about Google’s market dominance and the future of work.

Brian Rosenwald joins the show to discuss the history of talk radio and how it formed our media landscape today. 

Susan Schneider joins the show to challenge our preconceived notions of consciousness and whether machines can achieve it. 

Finn Brunton is on the show today to talk about why cryptocurrency has emerged as more than science fiction in the last decade.

Timothy McLaughlin joins us to describe the history of 8chan and its association with recent mass shootings. 

Alex Tabarrok explains that dominant assurance contracts can help markets provide more public goods.