Best David Sumner Podcasts (2025)

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Blake Scholl on Supersonic Flight and Fixing Broken Infrastructure - Live at the Progress Conference 37:46

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2d ago37:46

37:46

Blake Scholl is one of the leading figures working to bring back civilian supersonic flight. As the founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic, he's building a new generation of supersonic aircraft and pushing for the policies needed to make commercial supersonic travel viable again. But he's equally as impressive as someone who thinks systematically about…

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David Goettler: Mountain of Faith 52:48

4d ago52:48

52:48

This week on the pod, Kenton is joined by high-altitude mountaineer David Goettler. This is his second time on the podcast, having previously chatted to Kenton back in 2022 after he successfully summited Everest without oxygen. On this occasion, Kenton was keen to speak to David because he has recently returned from an expedition in Pakistan, where…

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The Wonder of the Emergent Mind (with Gaurav Suri) 1:39:40

4d ago1:39:40

1:39:40

How is your brain like an ant colony? They both use simple parts following simple rules which allows the whole to be so much more than the sum of the parts. Listen as neuroscientist and author Gaurav Suri explains how the mind emerges from the neural network of the brain, why habits form, why intuition often knows before language does, and why our …

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Someone Knows Something Introduces | Allison after NXIVM from Uncover 43:19

7d ago43:19

43:19

You think you know the NXIVM story. The secretive self-help empire. The sex cult headlines. The downfall of its leader, Keith Raniere. But the most famous woman at the centre of the story has remained largely silent. Allison after NXIVM from Uncover tells the story of Allison Mack: former Smallville actress, high-ranking NXIVM member, and convicted…

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Donald S. Lopez Jr. on Buddhism 57:04

9d ago57:04

57:04

Register for the Austin listener meetup Donald S. Lopez Jr. is among the foremost scholars of Buddhism, whose work consistently distinguishes Buddhist reality from Western fantasy. A professor at the University of Michigan and author of numerous essential books on Buddhist thought and practice, he's spent decades studying Sanskrit and Tibetan texts…

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Shampoo, Property Rights, and Civilization (with Anthony Gill) 1:08:19

11d ago1:08:19

1:08:19

Why is it okay to take the little shampoo bottles in hotels home with you but not the towels? And what stops people from taking the towels? Listen as political scientist Anthony Gill discusses the enforcement of property rights with EconTalk's Russ Roberts. Backing up their observations with insights from Adam Smith, Friedrich Hayek, and our everyd…

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Sam Altman on Trust, Persuasion, and the Future of Intelligence - Live at the Progress Conference 54:53

16d ago54:53

54:53

Register for the Austin listener meetup Sam Altman makes his second appearance on the show to discuss how he's managing OpenAI's explosive growth, what he's learned about hiring hardware people, what makes roon special, how far they are from an AI-driven replacement to Slack, what GPT-6 might enable for scientific research, when we'll see entire di…

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Gwendolyn Bounds: Building Fitness for Life 1:04:09

18d ago1:04:09

1:04:09

On this week's episode of Cool Conversations, Kenton speaks to award winning journalist and champion Obstacle Course Racer, Gwendolyn Bounds. Wendy, as she is known, took up Obstacle Course Racing at 45 years old and has built her fitness to such an extent that she now competes for podium places in Spartan races around the world. But this hasn't al…

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Primal Intelligence (with Angus Fletcher) 1:20:41

18d ago1:20:41

1:20:41

What do Shakespeare, Hollywood storytelling, and military special operations have in common? They all excel at inventing new plans, or improvising when we're facing radical uncertainty. Listen as professor of story science Angus Fletcher tells EconTalk's Russ Roberts how we've misdefined intelligence, equating it with data--driven reasoning in plac…

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Jonny Steinberg on South African Crime and Punishment, the Mandelas' Marriage, and the Post-Apartheid Era 52:04

24d ago52:04

52:04

Tyler considers Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage one of the best books of the last decade, and its author Jonny Steinberg one of the most underrated writers and thinkers—in North America, at least. Steinberg's particular genius lies in getting uncomfortably close to difficult truths through immersive research—spending 350 hours in police r…

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A Mind-Blowing Way of Looking at Math (with David Bessis) 1:21:53

25d ago1:21:53

1:21:53

What if math isn't about grinding through equations, but about training your intuition and changing how your brain works? Mathematician and author David Bessis tells EconTalk's Russ Roberts that the secret of mathematics isn't logic--it's the way we learn to see. He explains why math books aren't meant to be read like novels, how great mathematicia…

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Aldo Kane: Adventuring with Purpose 1:07:43

1M ago1:07:43

1:07:43

This week's Cool Conversations guest is adventurer and safety expert, Aldo Kane. Aldo tells Kenton that he was a Royal Marines Commando for 10 years before finding his way into TV and film where he looks after safety and logistics in extreme, remote, hostile environments. Prompted by Aldo's work, this conversation delves into the changing world of …

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Twenty Years of Freakonomics (with Stephen Dubner) 1:42:44

1M ago1:42:44

1:42:44

Quantitative, contrarian, and nuanced: these are the hallmarks of the Freakonomics approach. Hear journalist and podcaster Stephen Dubner speak with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about the 20th anniversary of the popular-economics book Dubner co-authored with Steven Levitt. They discuss how the book came to be, how the journey changed Dubner's life, and …

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George Selgin on the New Deal, Regime Uncertainty, and What Really Ended the Great Depression 1:08:42

1M ago1:08:42

1:08:42

George Selgin has spent over four decades thinking about money, banking, and economic history, and Tyler has known him for nearly all of it. Selgin's new book False Dawn: The New Deal and the Promise of Recovery, 1933–1947 examines what the New Deal actually accomplished—and failed to accomplish—in confronting the Great Depression. Tyler and George…

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The Magic of Tokyo (with Joe McReynolds) 1:09:23

1M ago1:09:23

1:09:23

What drives the seeming relentless dynamism of Tokyo? Is there something special about Japanese culture? Joe McReynolds, co-author of Emergent Tokyo, argues that the secret to Tokyo's energy and attractiveness as a place to live and visit comes from policies that allow Tokyo to emerge from the bottom up. Post-war black markets evolved into today's …

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4.5 - The Battle of Leipzig: A New Dawn 1:05:08

1M ago1:05:08

1:05:08

With the battle over, peace reigns across Leipzig. However, the American occupation forces are confronted with a new set of challenges in the city. The dead must be buried, the destroyed buildings must be rebuilt, and if possible, Leipzig’s return to democracy must be achieved. But whatever challenges the people of Leipzig faced under the Americans…

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The Influential Oregonian - Don Caverhill (The Kingsmen) 1:21:50

1M ago1:21:50

1:21:50

Welcome to The Influential Oregonian, a show where we discuss all things Oregon and interview important people who made their mark on the Beaver State! This week, we are featuring one of the original band members of Oregon's very first band, The Kingsmen, Don Caverhill!

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Tales from the Trails: Laila Peak Part Two 40:48

2M ago40:48

40:48

By Kenton Cool

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The Invisible Hierarchies that Rule Our World (with Toby Stuart) 1:13:15

2M ago1:13:15

1:13:15

Status isn't fixed; it's transferred and "bestowed," shaping who gets resources, attention, and opportunity. So argues author Toby Stuart of UC Berkeley in his book, Anointed. He and EconTalk's Russ Roberts explore why hierarchies persist--reducing conflict, allocating scarce resources, and curating our overwhelming choices--and how endorsements, b…

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John Amaechi on Leadership, the NBA, and Being Gay in Professional Sports 59:32

2M ago59:32

59:32

John Amaechi is a former NBA forward/center who became a chartered scientist, professor of leadership at Exeter Business School, and New York Times bestselling author. His newest book, It's Not Magic: The Ordinary Skills of Exceptional Leaders, argues that leadership isn't bestowed or innate, it's earned through deliberate skill development. Tyler …

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Tales from the Trails: Laila Peak Part One 50:27

2M ago50:27

50:27

The popular Tales from the Trails is back and this week Kenton is taking us on a journey through Pakistan. Starting in Islamabad, Kenton and his team fly to Skardu (not without drama!), then take 4x4s to Hushe, high in the Hushe Valley, before they continue on foot to Laila Peak's Basecamp. As always, Kenton provides vivid descriptions of the lands…

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Eating with Intelligence (with Julia Belluz) 1:05:49

2M ago1:05:49

1:05:49

Losing weight should be simple: eat less, exercise more. But according to author and health journalist Julia Belluz, it's complicated. Listen as Belluz talks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about her new book, Food Intelligence. Belluz argues that a calorie is pretty much a calorie whether it's carbs or fat. Keeping calories under control is often har…

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4.4 - The Battle of Leipzig: The Last Stand 34:10

2M ago34:10

34:10

American forces have captured most of Leipzig, but key strongholds throughout the city remain in German hands. For example, at the Völkerschlachtdenkmal, a German garrison led by the fanatical Colonel Von Poncet refuses to surrender, leading to a tense stand-off with the Americans… Dates covered: 19th - 20th of April 1945. Map: Here is a map giving…

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The Influential Oregonian - John Parenteau (Filmmaker & Author) 1:12:28

2M ago1:12:28

1:12:28

Welcome to The Influential Oregonian, a show where we discuss all things Oregon and interview important people who made their mark on the Beaver State! This week, we have a very special guest, John Parenteau, who has written several books and worked on many films, including Iron Man 2, Hunger Games, and Sin City, and gives us a little bit of an ins…

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Steven Pinker on Coordination, Common Knowledge, and the Retreat of Liberal Enlightenment 45:58

2M ago45:58

45:58

Steven Pinker returns to Conversations with Tyler with an argument that common knowledge—those infinite loops of "I know that you know that I know"—is the hidden infrastructure that enables human coordination, from accepting paper money to toppling dictators. But Tyler wonders: if most real-world coordination works fine without recursively looping …

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Steven Pinker on Common Knowledge 1:23:20

2M ago1:23:20

1:23:20

Why are Super Bowl ads so good for launching certain kinds of new products? Why do we all drive on the same side of the road? And why, despite laughing and crying together, do we often misread what others think? According to bestselling author and Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, it all comes down to common knowledge, or the phenomenon that happ…

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4.3 - The Battle of Leipzig: City Under Siege 55:48

2M ago55:48

55:48

With Leipzig surrounded on all sides by American forces, the US 2nd Infantry Division and the 69th Infantry Division launch their assault on the city. In the face of such unrelenting American military strength, one of Leipzig’s leaders tries to surrender the city…with farcical results. Date covered: 18th of April 1945. Map: Here is a map giving an …

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David Commins on Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism, and the Future of the Gulf States 51:07

2M ago51:07

51:07

David Commins, author of the new book Saudi Arabia: A Modern History, brings decades of scholarship and firsthand experience to explain the kingdom's unlikely rise. Tyler and David discuss why Wahhabism was essential for Saudi state-building, the treatment of Shiites in the Eastern Province and whether discrimination has truly ended, why the Saudi …

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Conversation with Hannah Cox: Project Salt Run 54:38

2M ago54:38

54:38

Kenton's guest on this episode of Cool Conversations is Hannah Cox who is about to launch herself into a 4,200km run, having only started running last year. Why? You will learn that Hannah is obsessed with a hedge that formed an inland customs line across India about 150 years ago. It was used to enforce a salt tax and resulted in a widespread fami…

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How Did America Build the Arsenal of Democracy? (with Brian Potter) 1:05:05

2M ago1:05:05

1:05:05

American manufacturing of aircraft during WWII dwarfed that of its enemies. By the end of the war, an American assembly line was producing a B-24 bomber in less than an hour. But that success was far from inevitable. Structural engineer and writer Brian Potter speaks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about the logistical challenges of ramping up product…

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4.2 - The Battle of Leipzig: The Americans Are Coming 44:55

2M ago44:55

44:55

April 1945: American forces, led by US V Corps, advance across central Germany, seeking to crush the Third Reich once and for all. With Leipzig now clearly within the crosshairs of the Americans, the city's military and civil leadership panic over how exactly to defend Leipzig from the impending American attack… Map: Here is a map giving an overvie…

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How Teams Succeed (with Colin Fisher) 1:03:22

2M ago1:03:22

1:03:22

What makes some groups thrive while others crash and burn? According to organizational-behavior scholar Colin Fisher, the real villains are rarely individuals, but dysfunctional teams and organizations. Listen as he and EconTalk's Russ Roberts discuss the reasons for the free-rider problem and the importance of meaningful, well-defined tasks to inc…

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4.1 - Welcome to the Battle of Leipzig 43:05

2M ago43:05

43:05

An introduction to the Battle of Leipzig, including an overview of the importance of the city to the Third Reich’s war effort. In this episode I also outline the military situation facing the Americans in Germany in 1945 - and how that directly impacted the subsequent American decision to assault (and capture) Leipzig. Map: Here is a map giving an …

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The Influential Oregonian - 1000 Miles Across Oregon 1:11:19

3M ago1:11:19

1:11:19

Welcome to The Influential Oregonian, a show where we discuss all things Oregon and interview important people who made their mark on the Beaver State! This week, there's lot's of fun banter and stories from the 1000 mile journey that Marcus took around coastal, southern, and central Oregon! From the prehistoric park to the edge of a volcano, learn…

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Seamus Murphy on Photographing Patterns Across Cultures 54:41

3M ago54:41

54:41

Seamus Murphy is an Irish photographer and filmmaker who has spent decades documenting life in some of the world's most challenging places—from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan to Nigeria's Boko Haram territories. Having left recession-era Ireland in the 1980s to teach himself photography in American darkrooms, Murphy has become that rare artist who …

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Sevan Garo: Starting the Conversation 1:10:29

3M ago1:10:29

1:10:29

We have another outdoor special for you this week, recorded near Chamonix in Servos. Kenton chats to Sev Garo, an artist and sculptor who is inspired by glaciers. Sev explains how he aims to capture the energy of glaciers through his art and how he hopes his work helps to start conversations about climate change and glacial melt. Sev tells Kenton h…

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Humans Are Overrated (with Christine Webb) 1:10:53

3M ago1:10:53

1:10:53

Are humans the most intelligent species, or just the most arrogant? NYU primatologist Christine Webb, author of The Arrogant Ape, believes that human exceptionalism is a myth that does more harm than good. Listen as she speaks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about how research has skewed our understanding of animals' capabilities, the surprising inner…

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Hemingway, Love, and War (with David Wyatt) 1:06:28

3M ago1:06:28

1:06:28

What can Ernest Hemingway teach us today about the morality of war, the eternal and transient nature of love, and how to write a masterpiece? Listen as author and teacher David Wyatt talks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about Hemingway's epic For Whom the Bell Tolls. Topics include Hemingway's role in the wars of the 20th century, the book's context …