Best Microeconomics Podcasts (2025)

1
Hidden Brain: Theory Vs. Reality: Why Our Economic Behavior Isn't Always Rational 50:24

3d ago50:24

50:24

From Hidden Brain: We don't always behave the way economic models say we will. We don't save enough for retirement. We order dessert when we're supposed to be dieting. We give donations when we could keep our money for ourselves. Again and again, we fail to act rationally and selfishly — the way traditional economics expects us to. We've seen this …

1
Econtalk: Robert Frank on Inequality 1:01:37

4d ago1:01:37

1:01:37

From Econtalk: Robert Frank of Cornell University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about inequality. Is there a role for public policy in mitigating income inequality? Is such intervention justified or effective? The conversation delves into both the philosophical and empirical evidence behind differing answers to these questions. Ultimately, …

1
Profit or Purpose? OpenAI's $300 Billion Question, with Rose Chan Loui 47:35

9d ago47:35

47:35

All too often, capitalism is identified with the for-profit sector. However, one organizational form whose importance is often overlooked is nonprofits. Roughly 4% of the American economy, including most universities and hospital systems, are nonprofit. One prominent nonprofit currently at the center of a raging debate is OpenAI, the $300 billion A…

1
Why does the US have a trade deficit? 31:20

9d ago31:20

31:20

The U.S. trade deficit has long been a source of political consternation, but it has come to the forefront in recent weeks. Just a few months into Donald Trump’s second term, he has made the trade deficit a key target of his aggressive tariff policies. On the day that President Trump announced a new, sweeping round of tariffs on all U.S. trade part…

1
Throughline: Lives Of The Great Depression 47:37

11d ago47:37

47:37

From Throughline: The Great Depression was a revolutionary spark for all kinds of things — health insurance, social safety nets, big government — all of which were in response to a national crisis. Through the personal accounts of four people who lived during the Great Depression, we look back at what life was like back then and what those stories …

1
Vox Talks: Climate shock: the economic consequences of a hotter planet 9:19

18d ago9:19

9:19

From Vox Talks: At the heart of policy debates about our collective responses to climate change is the issue of risk and uncertainty - ‘unknown unknowns’ about the impact of global warming. In this Vox Talk, Gernot Wagner - co-author with Harvard’s Martin L. Weitzman of 'Climate Shock: The Economic Consequences of a Hotter Planet’ - argues for Pigo…

1
Is Silicon Valley Turning Fascist? 37:41

23d ago37:41

37:41

Silicon Valley’s traditionally Democratic tech leaders are turning toward President Donald Trump, but are the reasons as straightforward as lower taxes and favorable regulations? Perhaps not, if we consider the influence of a convoluted political philosophy called the “Dark Enlightenment.” Washington and Silicon Valley power players, including Vice…

1
Planet Money: Quit Threat 22:37

25d ago22:37

22:37

From Planet Money: On today's show, we ask: What does full employment really look like? NPR sent reporters across the country, including to Ames, Iowa, the city with the lowest unemployment rate, to find out. The unemployment rate is just 3.6% in the U.S., a 50-year low. People think we are at, or near, full employment. That's the lowest the unempl…

1
Econtalk: Noah Smith on Worker Compensation, Co-determination, and Market Power 1:15:17

1M ago1:15:17

1:15:17

From Econtalk: Bloomberg Opinion columnist and economist Noah Smith talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about corporate control, wages, and monopoly power. Smith discusses the costs and benefits of co-determination--the idea of putting workers on corporate boards. The conversation then moves to a lively discussion of wages and monopoly power and …

1
Why Trump Is Deregulating In The Wrong Way, with Sam Peltzman 45:07

1M ago45:07

45:07

In President Donald Trump's recent joint address to Congress, he said, "To unshackle our economy, I have directed that for every one new regulation, ten old regulations must be eliminated." Elon Musk, whom Trump has assigned to execute this vision, has argued that it is time to get rid of all regulations, or as Musk said, “regulations, basically, s…

1
Freakonomics radio: The Most Interesting Fruit in the World (Ep. 375) 41:22

2M ago41:22

41:22

From Freakonomics radio: The banana used to be a luxury good. Now it’s the most popular fruit in the U.S. and elsewhere. But the production efficiencies that made it so cheap have also made it vulnerable to a deadly fungus that may wipe out the one variety most of us eat. Scientists do have a way to save it — but will Big Banana let them?…

1
Trump’s War on Universities, with Nicholas Dirks 49:34

2M ago49:34

49:34

Skyrocketing costs of attendance, declining enrollment, the advent of artificial intelligence, campus debates about free speech, and a crackdown on diversity initiatives: Today's universities are in a pickle. Adding to this pickle are President Trump's threats and actions on slashing research funding — the financial lifeline of modern universities.…

1
Freakonomics radio: Why Rent Control Doesn’t Work (Ep. 373) 51:55

2M ago51:55

51:55

From Freakonomics radio: As cities become ever-more expensive, politicians and housing advocates keep calling for rent control. Economists think that’s a terrible idea. They say it helps a small (albeit noisy) group of renters, but keeps overall rents artificially high by disincentivizing new construction. So what happens next?…

1
Did NIMBYs Kill the American Dream?, with Yoni Appelbaum 44:46

2M ago44:46

44:46

“Homeownership is the American Dream.” This saying is so ingrained in our zeitgeist that most Americans don't even pause to question it. However, according to the Black Knights Home Price Index, the average US home price increased nearly 80% from April 2015 to April 2023. Census data reveals that the median household income only increased by 4% dur…

1
Planet Money: A Bet On The Future Of Humanity (Ep508) 20:31

2M ago20:31

20:31

From Planet Money: A famous biologist, Paul Ehrlich, predicts that overpopulation will lead to global catastrophe. He writes a bestselling book — The Population Bomb — and goes on the Tonight Show to make his case.An economist, Julian Simon, disagrees. He thinks Ehrlich isn't accounting for how clever people can be, and how shortages can lead to ne…

1
Can AI Even Be Regulated?, with Sendhil Mullainathan 49:31

2M ago49:31

49:31

This week, Elon Musk—amidst his other duties of gutting United States federal government agencies as head of the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE)—announced a hostile bid alongside a consortium of buyers to purchase control of OpenAI for $97.4 billion. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman vehemently replied that his company is not for sale. The artific…

1
WSJ - The Journal: The World Has Too Much Oil 15:06

2M ago15:06

15:06

From WSJ - The Journal: Demand for oil has plummeted as the coronavirus has shut down much of the world, but most producers are still pumping. WSJ's Russell Gold explains the global game of chicken inside the oil industry.

1
Planet Money: Why The Price of Coke Didn't Change For 70 years 20:34

3M ago20:34

20:34

From Planet Money: Prices go up. Occasionally, prices go down. But for 70 years, the price of a bottle of Coca-Cola didn't change. From 1886 until the late 1950s, a bottle of coke cost just a nickel. On today's show, we find out why. The answer includes a half a million vending machines, a 7.5 cent coin, and a company president who just wanted to g…

1
Why This Nobel Economist Thinks Bitcoin Is Going to Zero, with Eugene Fama 45:08

3M ago45:08

45:08

In December 2024, Bitcoin, one of the earliest cryptocurrencies and undoubtedly the most famous, hit $2 trillion in market capitalization, bigger than Tesla, Meta, and Saudi Aramco. In this episode, Nobel Prize-winning economist and Chicago Booth finance professor Eugene Fama—widely considered the “Father of Modern Finance”—predicts it will go to z…

1
Today in Focus (The Guardian): The global race for face masks 27:07

3M ago27:07

27:07

From Today in Focus (The Guardian): The world economy may have dramatically dipped and the price of oil crashed, but one commodity is seeing an unprecedented boom: the face mask. Samanth Subramanian explores the newly distorted marketplace for masks and the lengths some will go to get them When the coronavirus began spreading beyond China in Januar…

1
Planet Money: The Pickle Problem 31:19

3M ago31:19

31:19

From Planet Money: In our second class, we find markets everywhere and discuss what makes them work and when they fail. We start off with the basic tools to understand a market: supply and demand. We find that the price of an item isn't just about money; a price reflects all the information inside a market, from a buyer's willingness to pay to a su…

1
Should Companies Have A Social Responsibility To Be “Great Businesses”?, with John Kay 47:05

3M ago47:05

47:05

The public often imagines corporations as self-contained actors that provide a set of goods and services to consumers. Underpinning this image have been ideas of ownership, rights to capital and intellectual property, and corporate responsibility to stakeholders including consumers, workers, and shareholders. But what if almost everything we are to…

1
Planet Money: Big Government Cheese 20:14

4M ago20:14

20:14

From Planet Money: In 1976, Jimmy Carter made a campaign promise: I'm giving dairy farmers a break. And after he won, he set out to raise the price of milk. But that's easier said than done. The government couldn't just buy milk. They had to buy something storable that used a lot of milk. So the government started buying up as much cheese as people…

1
How Big Money Changed The Democratic Game, with Daniel Ziblatt 49:56

4M ago49:56

49:56

Daniel Ziblatt is an American political scientist, Eaton Professor of the Science of Government at Harvard University, and the co-author (with Steven Levitsky) of several bestselling books, including How Democracies Die and Tyranny of the Minority. Ziblatt writes from the position that what defines strong democracies is free and fair competition fo…

1
America’s Addiction to Easy Money, with Ruchir Sharma 49:08

4M ago49:08

49:08

Are bailouts the new “trickle-down” economics? Have government debt and deficits caused capitalism’s collapse—thus ending the American Dream? Ruchir Sharma is a well-known columnist for the Financial Times, the author of bestselling books Breakout Nations and The Rise and Fall of Nations, and an investment banker who worked as Morgan Stanley’s head…

1
How will the Federal Reserve revise its monetary policy framework in 2025? 33:22

4M ago33:22

33:22

The Federal Reserve’s “Statement on Longer-Run Goals and Monetary Policy Strategy”—commonly referred to as its monetary policy framework—is composed of guiding principles the central bank uses in setting and communicating policy. Since the Fed last updated this framework in 2020, the global economy has faced unique challenges: COVID-19 shutdowns, w…

1
The Argentinian DOGE 47:57

5M ago47:57

47:57

A new U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Its goals include administrative reductions, cost savings, regulatory cutbacks, and reducing federal spending by nearly $2 trillion. President-elect Donald Trump has called DOGE the "Manhattan Project of our time," and has indicated that DOGE will redu…

1
How will the clean energy transition affect wages? 18:47

5M ago18:47

18:47

The clean energy transition has quietly pushed ahead in recent decades, with solar and wind energy accounting for almost 15% of total U.S. energy production in February 2024. The benefits of this transition on climate change have been celebrated, but less acknowledged have been the potential economic benefits. In a new paper, “The economic impacts …

1
The Fertility Crisis: Capitalism's Next Challenge, with Sir Niall Ferguson 45:59

5M ago45:59

45:59

For years, the world worried about overpopulation and our capacity to sustain ever-increasing numbers of people. Now, the worry is underpopulation—and recent numbers are stunning. Fertility rate is the average number of children that are born to a woman over her lifetime. According to the United Nations, this number is currently 1.64 in the U.S.: I…

1
How does Congress react to budget deficit projections? 21:58

5M ago21:58

21:58

Fiscal deficit projections are used by policymakers to understand the trajectory of U.S. debt. Between 1984 and 2003, Congress was responsive to these projections, raising taxes and cutting spending when projections showed that the deficit would grow. However, since 2004, fiscal policy has ceased being responsive to debt projections regardless of t…

1
Visa's Hidden Tax on Americans 47:01

6M ago47:01

47:01

While Americans rely on debit transactions for the necessities of life, most are unaware of the networks that drive those transactions, nor are they aware that one company, Visa, has monopolized debit transactions, penalized industry participants that seek to use alternative debit networks, and co-opted innovators, technology companies, and financi…

1
What is the value of dynamic scoring for legislators? 31:06

6M ago31:06

31:06

When Congress considers legislation, nonpartisan agencies provide estimates of the law’s potential economic effects to policymakers, a process known as “scoring.” In recent decades, analysts at the Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation have developed models that incorporate complex feedback effects, going beyond conventional s…

1
How Lobbying Led to Crony Capitalism, with Brody Mullins 43:07

6M ago43:07

43:07

As the United States elections draw near, everyone is wondering who will take control of Washington next. In this week’s Capitalisn’t episode, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Brody Mullins reveals how the real winner will be neither Democrats nor Republicans. Rather, it will be the lobbyists. Mullins is the co-author (along with his brother Luke, a…

1
What role should sanctions play in foreign policy? The case of Russia. 33:35

6M ago33:35

33:35

Since 2022, Western nations have put a number of sanctions on Russia in response to its war in Ukraine. Policymakers and pundits have debated the efficacy of these measures, but this debate is belied by a deeper question: what does it mean for sanctions to “work”? In new BPEA research, Oleg Itskhoki of Harvard and Elina Ribakova of the Peterson Ins…

1
Mailbag: UBI, AI, and Does Luigi Believe in "Free Time"? 37:54

7M ago37:54

37:54

You asked and we answered: Over the last year, we have solicited listeners’ questions via voicemail, email, and social media. In this episode, our producer, Matt, turns the tables on Bethany and Luigi and puts them in the hot seat to answer your burning questions in an Ask Me Anything “AMA” format. How do Bethany and Luigi actually define capitalis…

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Microeconomics Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen