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Russ Roberts

Published podcast speaker

Claims
70
Episodes
4
Shows
1
Named items
4

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book / uses

Brothers Karamazov

“When I read Brothers Karamazov, I read it over a fairly long period of time, but the last 300 or 400 pages I read in a couple days because it’s such a page-turner.”

Conversations with Tyler · 25 Nov 2024

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

book / recommends

The Wondering Jew

“I recommend the book The Wondering Jew by Micah Goodman, that came out in the last few years, about what’s going on on the ground here in Israel and the amount of religious innovation that’s happening and how people who are “not religious” are connecting to Jewish text.”

Conversations with Tyler · 19 Jan 2022

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

app / likes

Zoom

“I think people have a great thirst for face to face and I don’t think Zoom is, I love Zoom.”

Conversations with Tyler · 19 Mar 2020

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

other / likes

The Pretense of Knowledge

“I’m a big fan of “The Pretense of Knowledge,” his Nobel Prize acceptance speech.”

Conversations with Tyler · 5 Jun 2019

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

Claim ledger

What Russ said.

70 transcript-backed records

01 / recommendation

Mentions personal use of Brothers Karamazov.

“Well, she doesn’t get a lot of air time, and she isn’t written about a lot. It might have had trouble finding any kind of references to her. As you point out, she plays a very powerful, symbolic role, but she doesn’t take up a lot of pages. I mentioned the essay a minute ago, “The Sistine Madonna.” I asked ChatGPT what it was about, and it totally got it wrong. It said it was about beauty and art. It is not what it is about at all. Claude got it right exactly, which is maybe neither here nor there other than it’s good to have, sometimes, two LLMs to ask questions of. I found my reading of the book was very inconsistent. I struggled in the early pages, as I’ve mentioned, to get my momentum going. When I read Brothers Karamazov, I read it over a fairly long period of time, but the last 300 or 400 pages I read in a couple days because it’s such a page-turner. This book is not a page-turner. As I said, you might get discouraged, but I found myself more, if I may say so, engrossed in it, engrossed in a Grossman novel. There’s almost no or very little narrative suspense. We know how the Battle of Stalingrad turns out. The tide turns. I found it interesting that Novikoff, I think, is part of the lead tank group going into Ukraine. He’s very excited to reclaim Ukraine for the Soviets and take it back from the Germans. It was a slightly eerie shadow of the current moment, but I just kept going. One of my followers on Twitter . . . I apologize to you because this is such a good joke, and we’ll put a link to it in the show notes that don’t have it. But when I said, “We’re reading this book. You should get started. It’s going to air soon,” he wrote back, “I’m on page 12, and all the characters are named Stroganoff. I need more time.” The names are hard.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

03 / belief

There is a cast, I would say perhaps five to eight central characters, as well as perhaps three to four central, major themes, so everything is kind of a fugue of characters, a fugue of plot.

“There is a cast, I would say perhaps five to eight central characters, as well as perhaps three to four central, major themes, so everything is kind of a fugue of characters, a fugue of plot.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

04 / belief

In fact, supposedly as people get older — it’s not my personal experience; I’m grateful for that — but a lot of people, when they get older, just get crankier, and they get more obsessed with their obsessions, more fanatical about their fanaticisms. I think I’ve been spared that.

“In fact, supposedly as people get older — it’s not my personal experience; I’m grateful for that — but a lot of people, when they get older, just get crankier, and they get more obsessed with their obsessions, more fanatical about their fanaticisms. I think I’ve been spared that.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

06 / belief

Obviously, we’re living in a moment where the world’s a little different, with the current situation in Israel. But I think the characters in Life and Fate obviously do feel that they are beleaguered.

“Obviously, we’re living in a moment where the world’s a little different, with the current situation in Israel. But I think the characters in Life and Fate obviously do feel that they are beleaguered.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

09 / evaluation

He says, “The private kindness of one individual towards another, a petty, thoughtless kindness, an unwitnessed kindness, something we would call senseless kindness, a kindness outside any system of social or religious good, but if we think about it, we realize that this private, senseless, incidental kindness is, in fact, eternal.

“He says, “The private kindness of one individual towards another, a petty, thoughtless kindness, an unwitnessed kindness, something we would call senseless kindness, a kindness outside any system of social or religious good, but if we think about it, we realize that this private, senseless, incidental kindness is, in fact, eternal.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

10 / evaluation

I think of the man of system, the Adam Smith quote from The Theory of Moral Sentiments, this idea that if you have a view of the world that you want to impose on the chessboard of the human experience, you’re going to do some bad things.

“I think of the man of system, the Adam Smith quote from The Theory of Moral Sentiments, this idea that if you have a view of the world that you want to impose on the chessboard of the human experience, you’re going to do some bad things.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

11 / evaluation

The officers of the church — and here I’m talking about not any particular church but any religious dogma — they’re flawed. They’ve lost the original doctrine that inspired the believers, but the idea of giving up that doctrine is so painful to the adherents that they confess to things they didn’t do because they have to believe that the system, the church, still stands.

“The officers of the church — and here I’m talking about not any particular church but any religious dogma — they’re flawed. They’ve lost the original doctrine that inspired the believers, but the idea of giving up that doctrine is so painful to the adherents that they confess to things they didn’t do because they have to believe that the system, the church, still stands.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

12 / preference

When I read Brothers Karamazov, I read it over a fairly long period of time, but the last 300 or 400 pages I read in a couple days because it’s such a page-turner.

“When I read Brothers Karamazov, I read it over a fairly long period of time, but the last 300 or 400 pages I read in a couple days because it’s such a page-turner.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

13 / recommendation

As I’ve suggested, you may want to read this on the Kindle, which makes it a little easier to follow the characters because it’s easy to search for them if you forget who they are.

“As I’ve suggested, you may want to read this on the Kindle, which makes it a little easier to follow the characters because it’s easy to search for them if you forget who they are.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

16 / belief

I think all of us have some utilitarian impulses in the certain cases where it’s overwhelmingly clear that too many people benefit from something, or the size of it’s so large.

“I think all of us have some utilitarian impulses in the certain cases where it’s overwhelmingly clear that too many people benefit from something, or the size of it’s so large.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

17 / belief

There are a lot of units here where people in them can’t tell you what they’re in because they’re, I think, highly classified, highly involved in those kinds of cybersecurity issues.

“There are a lot of units here where people in them can’t tell you what they’re in because they’re, I think, highly classified, highly involved in those kinds of cybersecurity issues.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

20 / evaluation

We give all of our students a stipend that covers their tuition and a good chunk of their living expenses, and as a result — in America, if that were the case — we take no money from the government; it’s all private donations.

“We give all of our students a stipend that covers their tuition and a good chunk of their living expenses, and as a result — in America, if that were the case — we take no money from the government; it’s all private donations.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

21 / evaluation

Most people don’t know this — I don’t know it well, so I may embarrass myself — but people who are born within the borders of the Jewish state right now, in the borders of Israel, who are not Jewish — Arab Israelis — are full citizens.

“Most people don’t know this — I don’t know it well, so I may embarrass myself — but people who are born within the borders of the Jewish state right now, in the borders of Israel, who are not Jewish — Arab Israelis — are full citizens.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

23 / recommendation

I recommend the book The Wondering Jew by Micah Goodman, that came out in the last few years, about what’s going on on the ground here in Israel and the amount of religious innovation that’s happening and how people who are “not religious” are connecting to Jewish text.

“I recommend the book The Wondering Jew by Micah Goodman, that came out in the last few years, about what’s going on on the ground here in Israel and the amount of religious innovation that’s happening and how people who are “not religious” are connecting to Jewish text.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

24 / evaluation

As religious person, I don’t like the idea that this implicit bargain that somehow the ultra-Orthodox are, what, carrying the water of the ballast — I don’t know what you would call it — anchoring the Jewishness of the country.

“As religious person, I don’t like the idea that this implicit bargain that somehow the ultra-Orthodox are, what, carrying the water of the ballast — I don’t know what you would call it — anchoring the Jewishness of the country.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

26 / preference

As for the Torah, I think the biggest thing that I felt actually wasn’t in services or reading the Bible; it’s exploring different parts of the country I hadn’t ever been to before.

“As for the Torah, I think the biggest thing that I felt actually wasn’t in services or reading the Bible; it’s exploring different parts of the country I hadn’t ever been to before.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

27 / evaluation

I think there’s a lot of cohesion here that we’re not seeing — it’s a very fractious political environment here, as you know — a lot of political parties, parliamentary system, no constitution, a lot of yelling in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. But despite all that, because of, I think, the external threat, there’s a lot of cohesion here, whether there’s an army or not.

“I think there’s a lot of cohesion here that we’re not seeing — it’s a very fractious political environment here, as you know — a lot of political parties, parliamentary system, no constitution, a lot of yelling in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. But despite all that, because of, I think, the external threat, there’s a lot of cohesion here, whether there’s an army or not.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

28 / preference

It’s about travel adventures, a sense of home, a very reliable wife who’s come with me for this adventure. And I’ve been writing about it recently for my next book — Penelope’s decision and dealing with the absence of her husband, but the idea of that book, which I think is just one of my favorite books, The Odyssey, is the idea that home pulls you.

“It’s about travel adventures, a sense of home, a very reliable wife who’s come with me for this adventure. And I’ve been writing about it recently for my next book — Penelope’s decision and dealing with the absence of her husband, but the idea of that book, which I think is just one of my favorite books, The Odyssey, is the idea that home pulls you.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

30 / belief

I’ve talked endlessly now on EconTalk, I’ve an episode coming up soon on this question of this challenge we have of the semi-free market, this weird market we have in pharmaceuticals that I think is poorly constructed.

“I’ve talked endlessly now on EconTalk, I’ve an episode coming up soon on this question of this challenge we have of the semi-free market, this weird market we have in pharmaceuticals that I think is poorly constructed.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

32 / belief

I think the biggest problem that pundits, and I’ll put myself in that class on this level of conversation, I mean we just use words like bailout as if we know what we’re talking about or if it’s well specified.

“I think the biggest problem that pundits, and I’ll put myself in that class on this level of conversation, I mean we just use words like bailout as if we know what we’re talking about or if it’s well specified.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

35 / belief

I mean the whole crisis for me right now other than anxiety and worries about the future of the country and death of my loved ones who are even older than I am and other people’s loved ones, they main effect is that on Friday I impulsively went to Costco, which was better than Sunday I think.

“I mean the whole crisis for me right now other than anxiety and worries about the future of the country and death of my loved ones who are even older than I am and other people’s loved ones, they main effect is that on Friday I impulsively went to Costco, which was better than Sunday I think.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

38 / belief

In terms of the expectations of sub quarantining and self isolation and things being closed. I think we’re going to get to see Tom Brady in a Tampa Bay Buccaneer uniform.

“In terms of the expectations of sub quarantining and self isolation and things being closed. I think we’re going to get to see Tom Brady in a Tampa Bay Buccaneer uniform.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

39 / prediction

I do think the internet has helped influential people influence people’s behavior to be more worried about this, which I think is probably going to be a lifesaver for, I think, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people.

“I do think the internet has helped influential people influence people’s behavior to be more worried about this, which I think is probably going to be a lifesaver for, I think, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

42 / prediction

The etiquette of that’s going to evolve, but I don’t know how it’ll be. But I think increasingly people will put away their phones because they don’t want to be connected 24/7.

“The etiquette of that’s going to evolve, but I don’t know how it’ll be. But I think increasingly people will put away their phones because they don’t want to be connected 24/7.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

43 / prediction

It will help them pay their rent, which will reduce that cascading worry that I mentioned earlier from the real estate developer I had talked to. That’s going to be, I think, extremely important in reducing the set of economic readjustments that you were more focused on than I was in the earlier part of the conversation.

“It will help them pay their rent, which will reduce that cascading worry that I mentioned earlier from the real estate developer I had talked to. That’s going to be, I think, extremely important in reducing the set of economic readjustments that you were more focused on than I was in the earlier part of the conversation.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

44 / evaluation

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with it, as my listeners know, because it can be a ugly sinkhole of attention, of acrimony, and other things, but I think for me, and I think for you as well, based on our pre-recording conversation, it’s a huge source of information.

“I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with it, as my listeners know, because it can be a ugly sinkhole of attention, of acrimony, and other things, but I think for me, and I think for you as well, based on our pre-recording conversation, it’s a huge source of information.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

46 / belief

I could say, as an economist, there’s a lot of fun things in the Bible that tell us about incentives and behavior in ancient times. It’s an untapped area, I think.

“I could say, as an economist, there’s a lot of fun things in the Bible that tell us about incentives and behavior in ancient times. It’s an untapped area, I think.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

48 / belief

Later in my life — I was probably 50 or so — I realized a lot of Hayek is echoing this view that reason’s overrated, which is one way to summarize pragmatism in a sentence.

“Later in my life — I was probably 50 or so — I realized a lot of Hayek is echoing this view that reason’s overrated, which is one way to summarize pragmatism in a sentence.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

50 / uncertainty

Again, I don’t know what Smith really thought, but for me, when I think about how pleasant it is when someone says something nice about me, I try to discount it.

“Again, I don’t know what Smith really thought, but for me, when I think about how pleasant it is when someone says something nice about me, I try to discount it.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

55 / belief

Circle’s a concept. And yet the idea that it’s out there, this human creation, a mathematical definition, is a very powerful, I think, influence on our thinking still.

“Circle’s a concept. And yet the idea that it’s out there, this human creation, a mathematical definition, is a very powerful, I think, influence on our thinking still.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

56 / belief

A recent article — a recent book, I think; people are writing about that book — I think the author is Ann Harrison — are making the point that in the old days, psychiatrists had this model that mental illness was a chemical imbalance, and this drug — this psychiatric attempt to fix it — repairs the imbalance.

“A recent article — a recent book, I think; people are writing about that book — I think the author is Ann Harrison — are making the point that in the old days, psychiatrists had this model that mental illness was a chemical imbalance, and this drug — this psychiatric attempt to fix it — repairs the imbalance.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

57 / belief

In particular, the bailouts that we did of past failed financial institutions, I think, encouraged lenders to be more careless with how they lent their money, mainly to other institutions, not so much to people out in the world like you and me.

“In particular, the bailouts that we did of past failed financial institutions, I think, encouraged lenders to be more careless with how they lent their money, mainly to other institutions, not so much to people out in the world like you and me.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

58 / belief

Mishpatim is the section in the Jewish calendar. But I look at that as a Coasean, and I look at how there’s some aspects of the rewards and punishments in that area that are a little bit puzzling, and I think Coase helps me understand that.

“Mishpatim is the section in the Jewish calendar. But I look at that as a Coasean, and I look at how there’s some aspects of the rewards and punishments in that area that are a little bit puzzling, and I think Coase helps me understand that.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

61 / evaluation

We don’t have a political home for our ideas, and I think the intellectual home has failed badly for our inability to make the case, either for liberty in and of itself, and to understand how and why people who are being left behind by our economy, and what policies might help them.

“We don’t have a political home for our ideas, and I think the intellectual home has failed badly for our inability to make the case, either for liberty in and of itself, and to understand how and why people who are being left behind by our economy, and what policies might help them.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

65 / evaluation

I will say that one of the things that I loved when I came to George Mason in 2003 was how happy people were to take a piece of behavioral economics and say, “Well, in this area, people don’t maybe work as rationally as in other areas, and therefore I could assume this, that, and the other.

“I will say that one of the things that I loved when I came to George Mason in 2003 was how happy people were to take a piece of behavioral economics and say, “Well, in this area, people don’t maybe work as rationally as in other areas, and therefore I could assume this, that, and the other.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

66 / evaluation

If the government just transfers, which is, I think, probably not so distortionary relative to doing stuff, maybe that’s okay. But I think government does a lot of stuff that means slower consumption for the rest of us, except the people who are the beneficiaries.

“If the government just transfers, which is, I think, probably not so distortionary relative to doing stuff, maybe that’s okay. But I think government does a lot of stuff that means slower consumption for the rest of us, except the people who are the beneficiaries.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

67 / commitment

I think there’s a tension there that most economists who, like you and I — I don’t know about you; I shouldn’t say you — but certainly I was a very strong proponent of the volunteer army.

“I think there’s a tension there that most economists who, like you and I — I don’t know about you; I shouldn’t say you — but certainly I was a very strong proponent of the volunteer army.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

68 / prediction

One is that my optimism, my cheery view of growth in the past isn’t just that we’ve mismeasured inflation. It’s that we’ve mismeasured the gains to the average American because of changes in household structure, for example, which I think is probably the most important fact.

“One is that my optimism, my cheery view of growth in the past isn’t just that we’ve mismeasured inflation. It’s that we’ve mismeasured the gains to the average American because of changes in household structure, for example, which I think is probably the most important fact.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

69 / commitment

Early on in EconTalk — not early on, but at some point in EconTalk — I realized I wanted to be open about my biases, and I discovered that by being open about my biases, I had to confront them a little bit because here I am, saying them out loud.

“Early on in EconTalk — not early on, but at some point in EconTalk — I realized I wanted to be open about my biases, and I discovered that by being open about my biases, I had to confront them a little bit because here I am, saying them out loud.”
Speaker
Russ Roberts
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler
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