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  • 482. The Origin of Humanity’s Musical Abilities with Michael Spitzer

    482. The Origin of Humanity’s Musical Abilities with Michael Spitzer
    2024/11/21

    While many species in the world make music, humans have a unique musical ability. In some ways, music might even define what it means to be human. But how did we become so musical? And what is it about humans that sets our music apart from the music found in nature?

    Michael Spitzer is a professor of music at the University of Liverpool and the author of the book, The Musical Human: A History of Life on Earth, which explores mankind’s ability to synthesize rhythm, melody, and culture throughout history and why music is fundamental to our humanity.

    Michael and Greg discuss when and how music became an intrinsic part of human life, the changing role of music from a participatory activity to its present-day passive consumption, and the implications of technological advancements in music creation.

    *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

    Show Links:

    Recommended Resources:

    • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
    • The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin
    • Robin Williams
    • Gamelan
    • Florentine Camerata

    Guest Profile:

    • Faculty Profile at University of Liverpool
    • Professional Profile on X

    His Work:

    • The Musical Human: A History of Life on Earth
    Episode Quotes:

    Are we losing the value of music?

    43:32: Music should do much more than just relax you. It should make you think and make you feel more alive. The ubiquity means we, it says, as available now as water and air, and it's become cheapened. If you were born on Beethoven's day, you would be lucky to hear a symphony twice in your lifetime. And when you did, it was special because most of the time, you were in silence, and we've lost silence. So, it's swings and roundabouts. We have this fantastic availability all the time, everywhere, everything now, but it means we don't value it very much anymore.

    Why is music spiritual?

    21:01: Why is music spiritual? It's because you can't see it. Unlike vision, it is out there when you see an object. You have this external objectification of that source. But with music and sound, it's inside you, and ontology, or the experience of sound, that is, it's internal or inside your mind, and you can't see it. So, it's intrinsically related to spirituality. It's invisible; it's ineffable; it's interior; it's linked to contemplation, meditation, and prayer. So it makes sense that music evolved, side by side, hand in hand with spirituality.

    Music as the ultimate mimic of emotion and movement

    19:23: You can't separate the feeling from the ethology—the ethological dimension of the emotion. How do you get from there into music? Well, I hear music as a gesture. Even though you don't see anything, it's invisible. I mean, there may not even be any words. It could be a jazz improvisation or a string quartet. Music evokes a sense of emotion, of something virtual, in a virtual landscape, moving and gesturing. And also a sense of voice. There may not be a lyric, there may not be a human voice, but a violin or a guitar can definitely evoke a sense of voice. So you've got your voice, your gesture, your action, your movement, and all the ingredients of behavior and emotional behavior. And music is incredibly eloquent in communicating emotional behavior. In short, music is like a mimic, like a great impressionist.

    Is music really universal?

    24:55: I don't mean that music is universal. Our propensity and our capacity for music are universal. We're born into a culture, and then this is why every musical culture has different vocabularies, different scales, different instruments, and different vocal types.
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    45 分
  • 481. The Science and Philosophy of Economics with Erik Angner

    481. The Science and Philosophy of Economics with Erik Angner
    2024/11/18

    How do economics play into solving major global issues like pandemics, climate change, or inequality?

    Erik Angner is a professor of philosophy at Stockholm University and the author of How Economics Can Save the World: Simple Ideas to Solve Our Biggest Problems. He’s a rare kind of philosopher of science – while most focus on natural sciences, Erik studies social sciences like economics.

    In this episode, Erik and Greg discuss why philosophers have not given more attention to social sciences, how economics is not just a discipline but a methodology, and why economists should be more involved when it comes to solving the world’s issues.

    *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

    Show Links:

    Recommended Resources:

    • The Economist's View of the World: And the Quest for Well-Being by Steven Rhoads
    • Alvin Roth
    • Thomas Carlyle
    • Don Moore
    • Karl Popper

    Guest Profile:

    • Faculty Profile at Stockholm University
    • Professional Website

    His Work:

    • How Economics Can Save the World: Simple Ideas to Solve Our Biggest Problems
    Episode Quotes:

    Why don’t people recognize the consensus in economics?

    45:42: There's a real sort of illiteracy when it comes to economics. We see it in policy questions. We also see it on the private level. So, overwhelmingly, if you ask people questions about interest rates and inflation or whatever, across the world, like, large shares of the population don't understand these concepts, and what that means is that majorities of the population don't have the skills required to make the kind of decisions that they have to make as a citizen of a modern rich country in terms of like choosing mortgages, choosing credit cards, saving for the future, planning for retirement, and so on. We have a system now that requires people to make decisions they're not equipped to make, and that strikes me as a massive problem that we really ought to be doing something about. And it's connected because if people learned more about one, they would maybe learn more about the other.

    How does interdisciplinary research drive economic progress?

    21:01: There's something interesting that happens when you come from another discipline into economics or whatever: you notice blind spots—you bring your own blind spots. But they might be corrected, and then you begin to see opportunities for progress that people within the community might not have seen.

    Why economics can’t ignore values

    07:44: For the longest time, economists imagined that they could proceed without any sort of attention to values. The thought was that economics is a science, that science requires us to ignore values, and that to the extent that values enter into our work, the work is thereby deficient in some way. But that picture is gone. It's gone, broadly speaking, in the philosophy of science, and economists themselves have come to appreciate that we have to engage with values in order to do the kind of work that we need to do as economists. [08:48] To the extent that economists are building things and designing things—designing markets and institutions and auctions and retirement systems and healthcare systems and all sorts of things—we sort of have to begin with a picture of the end goal. What are we trying to build here? What do we want our healthcare system to look like? And that's a question of values. You can't pretend that that's something you can settle by means of data alone.
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    53 分
  • 480. Beyond IQ: The Real Measure of Wisdom feat. David Robson

    480. Beyond IQ: The Real Measure of Wisdom feat. David Robson
    2024/11/14
    What are the true natures of intelligence and wisdom, and how do they play off each other in sometimes surprising ways? What are the best ways to mitigate our many biases, and what factors create the placebo and nocebo effects?David Robson is a prolific journalist, a former editor at New Scientist, and the author of the books The Laws of Connection: The Scientific Secrets of Building a Strong Social Network, The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Change Your World, and The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes.Greg and David discuss how intelligence isn't always correlated with wise decision-making, the potential flaws in educational systems, and the crucial role of critical thinking. They also explore how mindset impacts health and learning, touching on topics like cognitive biases and rationality, and dissect the placebo and nocebo effects. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Show Links:Recommended Resources:Flynn effectFin de siècleLewis TermanKeith StanovichConfirmation biasNobel diseaseDunning–Kruger effectMontessori educationHenry K. BeecherPlaceboNoceboAnita Williams Woolley’s ResearchGuest Profile:DavidRobson.meBio at NewScientist.comSocial Profile on InstagramHis Work:Amazon Author PageThe Laws of Connection: The Scientific Secrets of Building a Strong Social NetworkThe Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Change Your WorldThe Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Dumb MistakesBBC.com ArticlesEpisode Quotes:Are we reflexively pessimistic?41:06: I think a lot of us are reflexively pessimistic in our lives because we think: you expect the worst, and then anything that's better than that will bring you joy. But actually, by expecting the worst through these expectation effects, you might actually be bringing about the worst. It could actually be changing the outcome so that a positive outcome is less likely. So being pessimistic is not rational; it's not as smart as we think it's going to be. But I'm not saying we should be like Pollyanna and just try to pretend that all of these difficulties in our lives don't exist. I think we need to be in that sweet middle ground, where we're remaining open-minded to all of the possibilities.Embracing discomfort43:06: We don't always have to catastrophise things that feel uncomfortable, because sometimes the discomfort is part of what makes them so powerful.On motivated reasoning13:38: When we measure something like IQ, it does seem to be related to the efficiency of the brain's networks in some ways. So it is helping the brain to process information more quickly, which can be a big advantage when you're learning something new and complex or when you have to make very rapid decisions. But what it doesn't protect you from is the things that we spoke about. So all of those biases doesn't necessarily mean that you're any more likely to consider a piece of evidence fairly rather than just allowing your preconceptions to cloud your judgment. The big problem is that once you have made those mistakes, you then have your intelligence to rationalize and justify the conclusion that you've come to. That's a process called motivated reasoning, and I think that's really behind this idea of the intelligence trap.Can we use other people to counter our biases?52:55: It's great to have someone who is a real optimist, is always looking on the bright side, and is always thinking big. But you do want someone—not someone who is pessimistic and is always going to drag everyone down. But you want someone who's realistic and is asking those difficult questions. And they're going to say, "Well, you have these big dreams, but here are the ten challenges that we're going to have to overcome before we get there." So you absolutely want to have those different perspectives. And teams full of one or the other would not work. If you have someone who's only looking at the challenges, they will be less ambitious and maybe produce more mediocre projects. If you have people who are blindly optimistic, well, they're going to overlook some really important challenge that is ultimately going to lead to failure unless you preempt it and plan for it. So that's why I think we can use other people to counter some of our own biases.
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    55 分
  • 479. The Birth of Civilizations: Unpacking a 4,000-Year Global History feat. Josephine Quinn

    479. The Birth of Civilizations: Unpacking a 4,000-Year Global History feat. Josephine Quinn
    2024/11/11
    At what point did the concept of civilization and civilizations emerge? In what ways do we know that societies were mingling and exchanging ideas and objects with each other? How were the Crusades responsible for our culture’s current sugar obsession?Josephine Quinn is a Professor of Ancient History at the University of Oxford, and the author of several books, including her latest work How the World Made the West: A 4,000 Year History and also In Search of the Phoenicians.Greg and Josephine discuss the challenges and insights from piecing together 4,000 years of global history, and digging into the concept of 'civilizational thinking' and its origins. Josephine explains how civilizations intertwine through war, trade, and cultural exchange, and also highlights how modern perspectives shape our understanding of past human interactions. They also discuss the subject of another of Josephine’s books and unpack the significant yet often misunderstood impact of Phoenicians and other early civilizations on today's world.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Show Links:Recommended Resources:PhoeniciaAge of DiscoveryCrusadesLevantHerodotusOttoman EmpireMinoan civilizationArthur EvansKnossosHeinrich SchliemannBarlaam and JosaphatAbbasid CaliphateThe Invention of TraditionZoroastrianismFernand BraudelGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at the University of OxfordWikipedia ProfileSocial Profile on InstagramHer Work:Amazon Author PageHow the World Made the West: A 4,000 Year HistoryIn Search of the PhoeniciansThe Punic Mediterranean: Identities and Identification from Phoenician Settlement to Roman RuleThe Hellenistic West: Rethinking the Ancient MediterraneanThe Rise and Fall of the Classical World: 2500 BC - 600 ADEpisode Quotes:Tracing the roots of civilizational thinking 10:52: One of the things I really want people to take away from my book is that war is one of the most effective modes of communication that people have. But all the same, depended on fundamental notion of similarity between peoples. [11:36] But around 1500, what's happening with this European expansion is to me, a very radical change in that, at the same time as Europeans are engaging in mass conversions to Christianity overseas, they're expelling the significant Jewish and Muslim populations from Europe itself. And so, it's creating a, sort of, us and them situation. Basically for the first time, a significant scale, I mean, things like that happen on a smaller scale and throughout history in all societies but I think this is really, in terms of a global history, something really quite new. And so, to me, it is the roots of that civilizational thinking that gets fully articulated a few hundred years later, starting in the 18th century. The idea of continents is fictional and is used by other geographers to create divisions in their works. 17:01: The idea of continents is a fascinating one to me. It goes back, in fact, to ancient Greek-speaking scientists who are working on the coast of what's now Turkey, very much in touch with what was going on in the big intellectual centers of antiquity, like Babylon, with Egyptian scientists, and so on. But we don't have any evidence that anybody else thought about the world in terms of continents. But they invented it with some geographers, and it was a kind of label. It wasn't a sort of major concept. One of my favorite commentaries is by another Greek historian, Herodotus. I say Greek-speaking. He also was from Anatolia, grew up in Persian lands, but he says, Well, people say that there are these three continents, and they're all named after women: Europa, Asia, Libya, [the] Greek term for what we now say—Africa, but I think this is nonsense. I mean, people don't even know where they begin and end. And, of course, that's right. I mean, some continents exist. The America exists. Australia exists. But Europe, Asia, and Africa?Why do people care about the heterogeneity of origins of things in the modern world?43:05 This is the big question, isn't it? Do people have an investment in the idea of a pure West that is facing pollution or even replacement from the outside right now? I think it's the same kind of question. And I think part of it is just that that's an easier way to think. It offers certainty. I think certainty is a terribly attractive thing but the problem is that human history isn't certain. It's fuzzy and complicated and if there's one thing that I would love people who read this book to think harder about, it's the idea of heritage. I think heritage is often seen as a very positive thing in the world today. But actually, I feel like there's a danger that people invest in a collective past at the expense of a collective present. And that, I think, is quite dangerous. But it is much easier to read things than it is to have conversations.The idea of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations as two separate cultures is a historical typo.The whole idea of Minoan and Mycenaean are ...
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    53 分
  • 478. The Neuroscience of Perception: Exploring Self, Social Conformity, and Animal Cognition feat. Gregory Berns

    478. The Neuroscience of Perception: Exploring Self, Social Conformity, and Animal Cognition feat. Gregory Berns
    2024/11/07
    What does the sense of self give humans over other animals, and how do our storytelling instincts set us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom? What can be learned about humans and animals by training a dog to allow humans to scan its brain with an MRI machine?Gregory Berns is a neuroscientist at Emory University and the author of several books, including Iconoclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently, The Self Delusion: The New Neuroscience of How We Invent—and Reinvent—Our Identities, and his most recent work, Cowpuppy: An Unexpected Friendship and a Scientist’s Journey into the Secret World of Cows.Greg and Gregory discuss the complex interplay between self-perception, social influence, and animal behavior. Referring to his work in The Self Delusion, Gregory delves into how our brains construct and reconstruct our identities, influenced by both sensory information and social pressures. Gregory used brain imaging and machine learning to study conformity, the psychological impacts of social media, and the balancing act between primal instincts and modern life. They also dive into the evolution of human storytelling compared to animal communication, Gregory’s groundbreaking MRI research on dogs, and the deep connections formed through living on a farm and working with cows. This insightful episode also touches on the philosophical and theological questions around human behavior, aiming to provide a holistic understanding of the underlying neuroscience and psychology.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Show Links:Recommended Resources:AmygdalaAsch conformity experimentsKanizsa triangleDopamineVentral striatumUmweltMonty RobertsTemple GrandinGuest Profile:GregoryBerns.comFaculty Profile at Emory UniversityWikipedia ProfileSocial Profile on XSocial Profile on InstagramHis Work:Amazon Author PageCowpuppy: An Unexpected Friendship and a Scientist’s Journey into the Secret World of CowsThe Self Delusion: The New Neuroscience of How We Invent—and Reinvent—Our IdentitiesWhat It's Like to Be a Dog: And Other Adventures in Animal NeuroscienceHow Dogs Love Us: A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Canine BrainSatisfaction: Sensation Seeking, Novelty, and the Science of Finding True FulfillmentIconoclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think DifferentlyPsychology Today ArticlesEpisode Quotes:Human life is telling stories30:16: We're all storytellers, even if you write scientific papers. Ultimately, it's still a story where you do an experiment, you collect data, and yes, I guess at some level, we're testing hypotheses, but most scientific papers these days are not about that, to be honest. Most are more in the exploratory sense, where we're doing experiment because we want to understand something about the world. We might have an idea about it, but it's usually much more nuanced. And then you do the experiment, doesn't turn out the way you expect it. And then it's like, well, what happened? So you tell a story about what you think happened and what it means. And I think, ultimately, that is all that human life is. It is us telling stories, because if it weren't that, then we're not that much different than bees and all the other animals that I study, but we clearly are. Stories go beyond the current state of the art in terms of predictive models31:38: We tell stories to ourselves and to each other to have meaning in our lives. It's not the case that the machine is ever going to care about what's meaningful. So, I do think that meaning, in and of itself, has value to humans that has yet to be captured in any kind of computer model.Are preferences endogenous or constructed?07:36: I think we tend to fool ourselves a little bit in that our preferences are endogenous because it comes back to us thinking about us thinking. It’s like, okay, well, I prefer vanilla ice cream over chocolate ice cream. Well, has it always been that way? I don’t know. Or is it just something that I have come to believe out of habit, and it’s not necessarily the case—or that it even changes based on the circumstance?Why the most meaningful experiences are often the most uncomfortable20:52: I've written a bit about the ways that we might get around that, and one of the ways is novel experiences. The thing about novel experiences is that they're anxiety-provoking—unless, I mean, for the minority of people who thrive on that. For most people, they like the status quo; they like the comfort of things being predictable, and things being unpredictable causes a great deal of anxiety. Even though, if you ask pretty much everyone, the most memorable experiences in their life, the things they think most fondly of, are probably the things that were most difficult, and the things that initially did cause all that anxiety or were uncomfortable. The things that we, as humans, attach meaning to are the things that are meaningful because they're difficult.
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    52 分
  • 477. Cultivating Creativity: The Vital Role of Art in Education and Personal Growth feat. Will Gompertz

    477. Cultivating Creativity: The Vital Role of Art in Education and Personal Growth feat. Will Gompertz
    2024/11/04
    How does art influence our perception of the world? Can fostering creativity in education lead to overall personal happiness and growth? What lessons can be drawn from historical and modern art practices?Will Gompertz is the director of Sir John Soane’s Museum in London, and the author of several books, including What Are You Looking At?: The Surprising, Shocking, and Sometimes Strange Story of 150 Years of Modern Art, Think Like an Artist: How to Live a Happier, Smarter, More Creative Life, and most recently See What You're Missing.Greg and Will discuss the transformative power of art as a tool for self-help and critical engagement. Will analyzes the impact of creativity in education, emphasizing the need for a balanced curriculum that fosters both artistic and analytical thinking. Greg and Will talk about some key figures in the modern art world such as Pierre Mondrian and Marcel Duchamp, who serve as examples of revolutionary artists that challenged the status quo. Will and Greg also explore new ways to look at the importance of teaching art in schools, and how supportive environments in schools and workplaces, like those fostered under leaders like Satya Nadella, can enhance curiosity and innovation. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Show Links:Recommended Resources:Leonardo da VinciPiero della FrancescaMarcel DuchampFountain (Duchamp)The Death of SocratesSteve JobsLouise BourgeoisPiet MondrianRiccardo MutiSir John Soane's MuseumRoyal Academy of ArtsSatya NadellaDavid Foster WallacePaul CézanneAlbert RothenbergMaurizio CattelanSol LeWittDavid HockneyAlan AyckbournGuest Profile:Profile at the Sir John Soane’s Museum of LondonWikipedia ProfileSocial Profile on InstagramSocial Profile on XHis Work:Amazon Author PageSee What You're MissingThink Like an Artist: How to Live a Happier, Smarter, More Creative LifeWhat Are You Looking At?: The Surprising, Shocking, and Sometimes Strange Story of 150 Years of Modern ArtArticles in The GuardianEpisode Quotes:Why is art considered self-help?01:18: I think art is self-help. I think art is self-help by the artist when he or she is trying to express themselves. It's self-help for us as viewers when we're trying to commune with this idea, this thing which has been put before us and asked us to consider it. And so, I think actually for this sort of the crazy world we live in now, museums, galleries, art, the arts more broadly, are the sanest things that are available to us, where humans are thinking and sharing and considering and challenging and sharing their feelings in a way that seems to be completely disappearing from everyday life, which seems to be getting more hectic, more insular, more anxiety-ridden. So actually, I think the arts are an entity, a form of self-help for all involved.Creativity and asking questions make us human07:05: Creativity and asking questions are what make us human. Therefore, when we're doing that, we're at our most human; we're feeling the life force at its most powerful. On creating safe spaces for self-discovery in schools17:56: School should be a place of self-discovery, friendship, community, and expression, not somewhere which feels like an army drill camp; where you get shouted at and told to sit still, sit still, then sit still. But why don't you want to sit still? So we start asking questions and start creating environments where young people feel respected and safe.Do people need to set aside some time for the consumption of art?53:45: Human beings have created art in one way, shape, or form since the very first person walked on this earth. And we will continue to create art until the very last person walks on this earth. It (art) is an essential part of the human experience. Therefore, we should all be given the time and space to enjoy.
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    52 分
  • 476. AI's Potential for Positive Social Change feat. Juan M. Lavista Ferres

    476. AI's Potential for Positive Social Change feat. Juan M. Lavista Ferres
    2024/10/31
    AI is a fast-growing field full of potential insights, challenges, and ethical implications for its users and the world. How can the people behind the machines explore the ways to use AI and data technology to leverage societal benefits?Juan M. Lavista Ferres is the Corporate Vice President and Chief Data Scientist of the AI for Good Lab at Microsoft. He also co-authored the book AI for Good: Applications in Sustainability, Humanitarian Action, and Health.Greg and Juan discuss Juan's book 'AI for Good,' various AI projects, and the critical role of data labeling. They also discuss philanthropic initiatives from Microsoft, the transformative impact of robust data collection, and the challenges of applying AI to real-world problems. Juan covers innovations like GPT and Seeing AI, as well as the ethical concerns of open access to AI models, and Satya Nadella's leadership transformation at Microsoft. Listen in for insights into the importance of using AI responsibly, collaborative efforts for accurate data processing, and how AI technology can actually enhance real lives.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Show Links:Recommended Resources:House of MediciAndrew CarnegieMoore's lawGlobal Forest WatchRuler Detection for Autoscaling Forensic ImagesBeMyEyes AppMichael BloombergBrad SmithAmy HoodGuest Profile:Profile at MicrosoftLinkedIn ProfileAIforGood.itu.int ProfileStanford RegLab ProfileSocial Profile on XHis Work:AI for Good: Applications in Sustainability, Humanitarian Action, and HealthGoogle Scholar PageEpisode Quotes:On deciding which ai-driven projects are worth doing12:26: We first ask the questions like, can we solve it through AI? Not a lot of problems can be solved from AI. There's a small portion of them that can be solved with AI. From those problems, does the data exist? Is the data of good quality? And sometimes the answer is no. Even if the data exists, do we have access to the data? Can we get access to the data? We will usually work on the partners' data sets, not our data sets, meaning that the data set will not leave the partners, but sometimes there's no way to have a data-sharing agreement in place, where it makes it impossible to share the data. Once we have that part, the next question is, do we have the right partner? We are not subject matter experts on the point that we work. We are subject matter experts on AI, but if we're working with pancreatic cancer, we need, on the other side, a group of people that are experts on pancreatic cancer, for example. In that case, we try to partner with people who are subject matter experts and are world-renowned.Data needs to be representative19:55: Data is a fundamental part. I would say the majority of the success or failure will happen because of the data set, and investing in understanding the data set—making sure that there's no bias—is a critical part of the work. It's tough; it's difficult. Data needs to be representative.What are the do’s and don’ts for companies looking to launch initiatives for good?36:40: I would love more companies. So, this is something that we discussed with my team. Whenever we see other competitors creating something like we do, we feel proud because that would be a success for us in many ways. So I would encourage everybody to use that technology for good. That's something that I think is certainly worth the do's and don'ts; I think it's important to make sure that this organization remains clear that its objective is on the noncommercial part of the philanthropic aspect of the company because, within this organization, the objective is to be helping society and making it clear for the people that are working there. That is something that is helping us a lot. Our end goal is to help society, and I think I would encourage other companies to do it.Is there a possibility of a zero bug project?21:09: Some of these problems require people to really ask the question: how is this model going to be used correctly? And that takes experience. More importantly, I think it's crucial that in many of these cases, we need to be ready to find those problems and fix them, correct? And I think that this is like software development in many ways. The chances of having a zero-bug project are zero, correct? Projects that have zero bugs are projects that people don't use. What I think is important as an organization is to find those problems, be proactive in trying to find them, and be really fast in solving them.
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    37 分
  • 475. Unraveling The History of Economic Crises with Harold James

    475. Unraveling The History of Economic Crises with Harold James
    2024/10/28

    How have economic crises throughout history shaped the relationships between nations? Which crises had a hand in wars and major global conflicts?

    Harold James is a professor of history and international affairs at Princeton University. His recent book, Seven Crashes: The Economic Crises That Shaped Globalization examines major economic upheavals from the 1840s to modern day.

    Greg and Harold chat about the concept of a crisis and its evolution, the delicate nature of interconnected economies, and how the World Wars contributed to hyperinflation or exchange rate stability and continue to impact economic policy today.

    *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

    Show Links:

    Recommended Resources:

    • Robert Lucas Jr.
    • Rudolf Hilferding
    • William Stanley Jevons
    • Léon Walras
    • Carl Menger
    • The Great Illusion by Norman Angell
    • Georg Friedrich Knapp
    • John Law
    • Ben Bernanke

    Guest Profile:

    • Faculty Profile at Princeton University

    His Work:

    • Seven Crashes: The Economic Crises That Shaped Globalization
    • The War of Words: A Glossary of Globalization
    Episode Quotes:

    From isolation to innovation lessons from the 1840s and 1970s

    41:07: In the longer run, it seems to me that the pattern that I saw in the 1840s and the 1970s, that the longer-term reaction to a supply shock is actually to open up more. And the 1970s had exactly that. First of all, it's turning inward to the thinking that we can do it ourselves in all the big economies. And then an awareness that the most successful economies had actually not done that, turning in on themselves, but had remained open and had allowed themselves, as a consequence, to innovate.

    The 1840s crisis paves the way for a new era

    04:05: The crisis of the 1840s generated something in the 1850s that brought the world into a new era, and it's really an era where the Marxist diagnosis gets less and less appropriate.

    Understanding demand and supply shocks

    27:50: The 2008 shock was really best thought of as a negative demand shock that was the consequence of a financial panic, a contagious financial panic. The 2020 shock was a negative supply shock. It has analogies with previous negative supply shocks, but can't be handled in the way that you deal with the absence of a demand shock in the wake of a financial crisis. So the way in which people might have dealt more effectively with the Great Depression and did deal quite effectively with the Great Financial Crisis, the Great Recession, whatever you like to call the 2008 story. And so the fiscal stabilization is much bigger in 2020 than it was in 2008, but really inappropriately so. So it pushes more inflation in these moments of demand shocks. You just want more demand. When it's a supply shock, you need a specific kind of good or commodity.
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    44 分