Best Rob Riedlinger Podcasts (2025)

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Do We Need a More Assertive Congress? 1:01:00

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4M ago1:01:00

1:01:00

Philip Wallach (follow on X) is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of the book Why Congress, which he joins Richard Hanania to discuss. In this conversation, Hanania and Wallach review the historical role of Congress in American politics, focusing on key events from the FDR administration to the present. Wallach exp…

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Answering the Anti-Vaxxers | Stephen Goldstein & Richard Hanania 58:30

7M ago58:30

58:30

Stephen Goldstein (follow on X) is a postdoc in Evolutionary Virology at the University of Utah School of Medicine, where he specializes in coronaviruses. In this interview, he addresses common misconceptions about vaccines, particularly the debunked link to autism, and emphasizes the rigorous safety testing that vaccines undergo. The conversation …

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How the Race Taboo Swallowed Our Political Culture | Eric Kaufmann & Richard Hanania 1:17:08

12M ago1:17:08

1:17:08

Eric Kaufmann is a research fellow at CSPI and a professor of politics at the University of Buckingham. He joins the podcast to talk about his new book, Taboo: How Making Race Sacred Produced a Cultural Revolution. Eric explains its thesis, which holds that the taboos around race that arose in the 1960s expanded into other areas of life and eventua…

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Sorting Through 498,000 Clinical Trials 1:08:04

1y ago1:08:04

1:08:04

Bess Stillman (email) is a doctor at the Mayo Clinic and writes at Everything Is An Emergency. She is also an excellent storyteller who uses her skills to convey the hectic and at times heart wrenching experiences one faces as an ER doctor. Bess is married to Jake Seliger, who in 2022 was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma. She has written a th…

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Nature, Nurture, and Overcoming Hardship | Rob Henderson and Richard Hanania on "Troubled" 1:02:59

1y ago1:02:59

1:02:59

Rob Henderson joins the podcast to talk about his book Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class. The conversation starts with a discussion about the recent controversy in which Rob was unable to find a book store that would host his launch. Rob also shares insights into his writing style, which focuses on conveying his experience…

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Debt Commission to the Rescue? | Romina Boccia & Richard Hanania 56:39

1+ y ago56:39

56:39

Romina Boccia is the director of budget and entitlement policy at the Cato Institute, where she writes about government spending, the debt problem, and entitlement reform. She also has a Substack called the Debt Dispatch that you can subscribe to here. Romina joins the podcast to discuss available paths to deal with the coming entitlement crisis. O…

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The Threat of AI Regulation with Brian Chau 1:12:49

1+ y ago1:12:49

1:12:49

Brian Chau writes and hosts a podcast at the From the New World Substack, and recently established a new think tank, the Alliance for the Future. He joins the podcast to discuss why he’s not worried about the alignment problem, where he disagrees with “doomers,” the accomplishments of ChatGPT versus DALL-E, the dangers of regulating AI until progre…

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Ideology, Trade, and War | Andrew Roberts & Richard Hanania on Napoleon 47:10

1+ y ago47:10

47:10

Andrew Roberts (website, follow on X) is a historian, Visiting Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and a member of the House of Lords. He joins the podcast to talk about his Napoleon: A Life. The conversation begins with a discussion of different counterfactuals regarding ways in which Napoleon might have been able to …

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Heading Towards the Fiscal Cliff | Brian Riedl & Richard Hanania 54:04

1+ y ago54:04

54:04

Brian Riedl is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, focusing on budget, tax, and economic policy. His previous jobs include chief economist to Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), and positions on the Marco Rubio and Mitt Romney presidential campaigns. He joins the podcast to talk about the financial future of the United States, with a special focus …

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No Need to Argue. Just Build | Niklas Anzinger & Richard Hanania 57:46

1+ y ago57:46

57:46

Niklas Anzinger is the founder and General Partner of Infinita, the first Próspera-based VC fund, which invests in founders overcoming regulatory capture in crypto, biotech and hardware through network states and startup cities. He’s also one of the 100 or so residents of Próspera. This was quite an optimistic conversation. The title of the podcast…

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Propaganda and Power | Chris Rufo & Richard Hanania 1:20:39

2y ago1:20:39

1:20:39

Chris Rufo joins the podcast to talk about his new book, America's Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything. Rufo begins by talking about his background and his theory of political change. The conversation then shifts to his new book, the strengths of Ron DeSantis as an administrator, and finally what he’s doing on the board o…

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AI Alignment as a Solvable Problem | Leopold Aschenbrenner & Richard Hanania 1:02:08

2y ago1:02:08

1:02:08

In the popular imagination, the AI alignment debate is between those who say everything is hopeless, and others who tell us there is nothing to worry about. Leopold Aschenbrenner graduated valedictorian from Columbia in 2021 when he was 19 years old. He is currently a research affiliate at the Global Priorities Institute at Oxford, and previously h…

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Understanding Right and Left | Bryan Caplan & Richard Hanania 1:32:49

2y ago1:32:49

1:32:49

Bryan Caplan joins the podcast to talk about his new book, Voters as Mad Scientists: Essays on Political Irrationality. Bryan begins by explaining why he hates politics. Much of the conversation then centers around Caplan’s simplistic theory of the right and left. This is compared and contrasted with Scott Alexander’s thrive/survive theory of the p…

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Marc Andreessen On Venture Capital, Science, Tech, Progress, and More (Rerelease) 1:56:30

2+ y ago1:56:30

1:56:30

This week we’re rereleasing a previous episode with Marc Andreessen, originally released on August 16, 2021. He is co-founder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz. Earlier in life, he was the co-founder of Opsware, Ning, and Netscape. Marc joins the podcast to talk about what’s gone wrong with science, the prerequisites for progress, and how …

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Waiting for the Betterness Explosion | Robin Hanson & Richard Hanania 1:42:06

2+ y ago1:42:06

1:42:06

Robin Hanson joins the podcast to talk about the AI debate. He explains his reasons for being skeptical about “foom,” or the idea that there will emerge a sudden superintelligence that will be able to improve itself quickly and potentially destroy humanity in the service of its goals. Among his arguments are: * We should start with a very low prior…

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Administrative Procedure and the Common Good | Nicholas Bagley & Richard Hanania 1:04:26

2+ y ago1:04:26

1:04:26

Nicholas Bagley is a professor of law at the University of Michigan, former Chief Legal Counsel to Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and a former attorney in the US Department of Justice. He joins the podcast to talk about his article, “The Procedure Fetish,” in which he calls for liberals to embrace reforms to make federal government agencies less sclero…

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Right-Wing Populism and Moral Corrosion | Tim Miller & Richard Hanania 1:18:34

2+ y ago1:18:34

1:18:34

Tim Miller is a former political operative who has worked for Jeb Bush and John Huntsman, and is currently a writer for The Bulwark and an MSNBC analyst. He joins the podcast to talk about his political memoir, Why We Did It: A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell. With a former insider’s perspective, Miller discusses * Where the Republican …

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Why the Singularity Might Never Come | Jobst Landgrebe, Barry Smith, and Richard Hanania 1:09:59

2+ y ago1:09:59

1:09:59

Jobst Landgrebe is a German scientist and entrepreneur. He began his career as a Fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, then moved on to become a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Göttingen, working in cell biology and biomathematics. In April 2013, he founded Cognotekt, an AI based language technology company. Barry Smith is P…

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Why is the West Special? | Joe Henrich & Richard Hanania 54:00

2+ y ago54:00

54:00

Joe Henrich is the Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology and Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. He is the author of Why Humans Cooperate, The Secret of Our Success, and The WEIRDest People in the World. He joins the podcast to talk about his work. Topics include: * The implications of Henrich’s theories for the…

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Understanding the Flows of History | Garett Jones & Richard Hanania 1:15:23

2+ y ago1:15:23

1:15:23

Garett Jones is a Professor of Economics at George Mason University. He joins the podcast to talk about his new book, The Culture Transplant. Richard asks whether IQ is superior to other measures used to predict prosperity, and the relationship between Garett’s new book and Hive Mind. He also presses the author on whether there is a selection effec…

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Getting at True Heritability | Alexander Young & Richard Hanania 1:02:31

2+ y ago1:02:31

1:02:31

Alexander Young is a researcher at the UCLA Anderson School of Management Genomics Department and School of Medicine’s Human Genetics Department, working with the Social Science Genetic Association Consortium (SSGAC). He studies the genetics of cognitive ability and educational attainment, with a particular focus on developing methods to uncover tr…

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The Right-Wing Echo Chamber | Aaron Sibarium & Richard Hanania 1:20:25

2+ y ago1:20:25

1:20:25

Aaron Sibarium is a recent graduate of Yale University (2018) and journalist who writes for the Washington Free Beacon. He joins the podcast to discuss his work covering identity politics issues from a conservative perspective, along with his dream of eventually synthesizing his reporting with his own opinion writing. Aaron and Richard share many o…

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Blame Elites...or the Masses? | Rob Henderson, Zach Goldberg, & Richard Hanania 1:32:25

2+ y ago1:32:25

1:32:25

Rob Henderson recently received his PhD in psychology at St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge. Zach Goldberg is a former research fellow at CSPI and currently affiliated with the Manhattan Institute. They both join the podcast to talk about Rob’s idea of “luxury beliefs” and Zach’s new paper testing the theory in the context of attitudes towards crim…

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Identity and Elite Polarization | Eric Kaufmann & Richard Hanania 1:16:14

2+ y ago1:16:14

1:16:14

Eric Kaufmann is a distinguished researcher and a fellow at CSPI. He joins the podcast to talk about his latest CSPI report, “Diverse and Divided: A Political Demography of American Elite Students.” The data indicates that we can expect a future in which elites continue to be heavily divided by race, religion, sex, and sexual orientation. Richard a…

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Operation Warp Speed and the Triumph of Governance | Alex Tabarrok & Richard Hanania 1:34:45

2+ y ago1:34:45

1:34:45

Alex Tabarrok is a professor of economics at George Mason University. He joins the podcast to talk about his involvement in Operation Warp Speed, a uniquely successful federal government project. Richard asks how broadly applicable its lessons are, whether or not we could do something similar for cancer, and why economists and public health officia…

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Thinking about "Social Justice" Like an Economist | Bryan Caplan & Richard Hanania 1:16:55

3y ago1:16:55

1:16:55

Bryan Caplan joins the podcast to talk about his new book Don’t Be a Feminist: Essays on Genuine Justice. The lead essay is written as a letter to his daughter in the hopes that she will reject an ideology that is wrong on the facts and psychologically damaging. Richard asks whether Bryan grants too much to feminists in the first place by treating …

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"How Ambitious Are You?" | Tyler Cowen & Richard Hanania 1:18:15

3y ago1:18:15

1:18:15

Tyler Cowen needs no introduction. He joins the podcast to talk about his new book, co-authored with Daniel Gross, called Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World. Richard asks him about whether intelligence is overrated or underrated, the idea of “State Capacity Libertarianism” as an improvement over old-fashione…

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Diversity, Debate, Decline | Amy Wax & Richard Hanania 1:29:41

3y ago1:29:41

1:29:41

Amy Wax is the Robert Mundheim Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She joins the podcast to talk about the ongoing attempt to cancel and possibly fire her for making politically incorrect remarks. Usually there is some pretext that a professor actually engaged in forbidden conduct in these kinds of investigations, but thi…

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Mana from Heaven | Stephen Grugett, James Grugett, & Richard Hanania 33:57

3y ago33:57

33:57

Stephen and James Grugett are programmers, entrepreneurs, and cofounders of the website Manifold Markets, which hosts user-created prediction markets. They join the podcast to discuss the CSPI/Salem Tournament on Manifold Markets, which launched last week. The Grugetts and Richard talk about the origins of Manifold, what differentiates it from othe…

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Policy Reform for Progress | Andrew Kenneson, Maxwell Tabarrok, Brent Skorup & Richard Hanania 1:32:52

3y ago1:32:52

1:32:52

On this week’s CSPI Podcast, Richard interviews the top three winners of the CSPI Essay Contest: Policy Reform For Progress. The first interview is with contest winner Andrew Kenneson, a program navigator at a public housing authority in Kodiak, Alaska and former reporter. In “Gathering Steam: Unlocking Geothermal Potential in the United States,” A…

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Lessons from the Frontlines of the University Wars | Richard Lowery & Richard Hanania 1:05:43

3y ago1:05:43

1:05:43

Richard Lowery is an Associate Professor of Finance at The University of Texas at Austin and a senior scholar at the Salem Center for Public Policy. He joins the podcast to talk about his recent article “How UT-Austin Administrators Destroyed an Intellectual Diversity Initiative,” which details what went wrong with plans to build the Liberty Instit…

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The American Race Regime | David Bernstein & Richard Hanania 1:39:49

3y ago1:39:49

1:39:49

David Bernstein is a Law Professor and Executive Director of the Liberty and Law Center at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. He joins the podcast to talk about his new book Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America. David and Richard discuss the history of racial conflict and classification in America,…

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Does Big Data Know Best? | Seth Stephens-Davidowitz & Richard Hanania 1:43:36

3y ago1:43:36

1:43:36

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz is a data scientist, author, and keynote speaker. He holds a PhD in economics from Harvard and is a contributing op-ed writer for the New York Times. He joins the podcast to talk about his two books, Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are (2017) and Don’t Trust Your Gut…

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How LGBT Are the Kids? | Eric Kaufmann & Richard Hanania 1:25:41

3y ago1:25:41

1:25:41

Eric Kaufmann is Professor of Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London, a CSPI research fellow, and the author of several books, including Whiteshift: Populism, Immigration and the Future of White Majorities. He returns to the podcast to discuss his new report for CPSI, Born This Way? The Rise of LGBT as a Social and Political Identity. H…

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Social Desirability as the Enemy of Truth | Bryan Caplan & Richard Hanania 1:38:19

3y ago1:38:19

1:38:19

Bryan Caplan is a professor of economics at George Mason University, a visiting senior scholar at the University of Texas at Austin, and the author of several books, including The Myth of the Rational Voter and The Case Against Education. He returns to the podcast to talk about his two new collections of essays released as books, Labor Econ Versus …

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The Future of Tech (Bonus Episode) | Eron Wolf & Richard Hanania 45:35

3y ago45:35

45:35

Eron Wolf is the founder of Yahoo! Games, a WhatsApp seed investor, and the founder and CEO of FUTO, an Austin-based organization dedicated to developing technologies to fight the centralization and consolidation of the tech industry. He and Richard talk about the business model of Big Tech and how machine learning and algorithms can shape human be…

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Baby Brainwaves and Broken Science | Jordan Lasker & Richard Hanania 1:08:06

3y ago1:08:06

1:08:06

Jordan Lasker is a PhD student at Texas Tech University and a bioinformatician. He joins the podcast to discuss his recent report for CSPI, “About Those Baby Brainwaves: Why ‘Policy Relevant’ Social Science is Mostly a Fraud.” The report critically examined a recent study claiming small cash transfers to the parents of newborns improved their babie…

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The Le Pen Curse | Philippe Lemoine & Richard Hanania 1:41:04

3y ago1:41:04

1:41:04

Philippe Lemoine returns to the CSPI Podcast to discuss his prediction for the 2022 French Presidential election. This episode was recorded on April 22nd, two days before Macron’s victory on April 24th, because Philippe was so confident in his forecast that he didn’t think it was necessary to wait until after the election to discuss the results. He…

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Towards an Anti-Woke Political Program | Gail Heriot & Richard Hanania 1:20:00

3y ago1:20:00

1:20:00

Gail Heriot is a Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law and a member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. She joins the podcast to explain the connections between civil rights law and wokeness, how disparate impact criminalizes everything and leads to arbitrary government power, and the real-world consequences of …

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Is the West to Blame for Ukraine? | Noah Carl & Richard Hanania 57:03

3+ y ago57:03

57:03

Noah Carl is an independent researcher, writer, and free speech advocate. He invited Richard on his new podcast (which you can find at Noah’s Substack) to discuss whether the West is to blame for the conflict in Ukraine. We’re re-releasing that episode, which originally came out on March 1st. Although much has happened since then, the topics discus…

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"The Pressure to Conform is Enormous": Steve Hsu on Affirmative Action, Assimilation, and IQ Outliers | Steve Hsu & Richard Hanania 1:54:12

3+ y ago1:54:12

1:54:12

Steve Hsu is a Professor of Theoretical Physics and Professor of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. He returns to the CSPI Podcast for a wide-ranging discussion of various personal, political, and technical topics, including his attempted cancelation from Michigan State, thoughts on Russia-Ukraine, aff…

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Vision, Beauty, and Creative Destruction in Silicon Valley | Jimmy Soni & Richard Hanania 1:17:09

3+ y ago1:17:09

1:17:09

Jimmy Soni is a biographer and speechwriter. He joins the podcast to talk about his new book, “The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley,” which explores the early days, history, and legacy of PayPal. It also outlines the unique qualities, business savvy, and technological vision that led to the founders’ suc…

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The Future of Humanity Is IVF Babies and Chinese Domination | Steve Hsu & Richard Hanania 1:38:13

3+ y ago1:38:13

1:38:13

Stephen Hsu is a Professor of Theoretical Physics and Professor of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. He is also a serial entrepreneur and has published on genomics, in addition to blogging on a wide range of topics from econometrics and geopolitics to mixed martial arts. Hsu joins the Podcast, where h…

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Practical Progress in DC | Alec Stapp & Richard Hanania 1:09:06

3+ y ago1:09:06

1:09:06

Alec Stapp is co-CEO of the Institute for Progress, a new think tank that focuses on accelerating scientific, technological, and industrial progress. He joins Richard to talk about why he started his think tank and what policymaking looks like in DC behind the scenes. They also discuss the idea of Secret Congress, the backgrounds of DC staffers, me…

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Darwin and Marx: Friends or Foes? | Freddie deBoer & Richard Hanania 1:08:19

3+ y ago1:08:19

1:08:19

Freddie deBoer joins the podcast to talk about his book “The Cult of Smart,” which argues that many problems in the education system and American society are due to the failure to grapple with the fixed nature of individual differences in intelligence. He and Richard discuss the effectiveness of charter schools vs. public schools, how the economic …

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Underwhelmed by Academia (Year in Review) | Jonah Davids & Richard Hanania 1:16:28

3+ y ago1:16:28

1:16:28

Jonah Davids is CSPI’s director of communications. He joins Richard to talk about his essay on leaving academia, how social science is mostly storytelling, and what CSPI accomplished in 2021. They also discuss why reaching out to people is underrated, the recent study on racial discrimination in emailing, reasons to stay in or leave academia, the e…

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Wokeness and Civil Rights Law | Charles Fain Lehman, Gabriel Rossman & Richard Hanania 1:12:07

3+ y ago1:12:07

1:12:07

Charles Fain Lehman is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor of City Journal. Gabriel Rossman is a sociologist at UCLA. They join Richard to debate the relationship between woke institutions, civil rights law, and corporate culture. Each has written a recent article on this topic: Richard’s “Woke Institutions is Just Civil Rig…

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Population Structure: What Epidemiology Has Gotten Wrong | Philippe Lemoine & Richard Hanania 1:31:03

3+ y ago1:31:03

1:31:03

Philippe Lemoine is a Research Fellow at CSPI and a PhD candidate in philosophy at Cornell University. He returns to the podcast to discuss his new paper, “Have we been thinking about the pandemic wrong? The effect of population structure on transmission.” He and Richard discuss the role of networks in COVID transmission, the politics and sociology…

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Is DEI Conquering Science? | Leif Rasmussen & Richard Hanania 1:10:08

3+ y ago1:10:08

1:10:08

This week’s guest is Leif Rasmussen, a PhD candidate in computer science at Northwestern University, and the author of the new CSPI report, “Increasing Politicization and Homogeneity in Scientific Funding: An Analysis of NSF Grants, 1990-2020.” He discusses the report and critiques of it, along with his experiences in academia, and the growing bias…

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The Queen of the Human Sciences | Robert Plomin & Richard Hanania 1:28:38

3+ y ago1:28:38

1:28:38

Robert Plomin is a Professor of Behavioural Genetics at King’s College London and author of Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are. The conversation includes sections on the history of the field of behavioral genetics, and why we should not undersell what it tells us about why people turn out the way they do. Research involving twins, adoptees, and…