If/Then

How do you engage effectively across deep disagreement without shutting down the conversation? This week on If/Then, we’re sharing an episode from our colleagues at Stanford Legal , the podcast from Stanford Law School that looks at the cases, questions, and conflicts shaping public life. In a world where confidence is rewarded and humility can feel like a liability, Stanford Law professor Robert...

“Humans manage to do so much with surprisingly little,” says Douglas Guilbeault , an assistant professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “Whereas AI, by comparison, is doing relatively little, but with so much power, so much compute, so many resources, and by comparison, relatively fewer constraints.” On a bonus episode of the If/Then podcast, Guilbeault describ...

Chad Jones, a professor of economics at Stanford Graduate School of Business, recently published a paper, “AI and Our Economic Future.” Using more than 100 years of economic data, he modelled several potential AI-infused economic futures we may experience. These include the good (abundance, we never work again), the not-so-bad (business more or less as usual), and the ugly (a superintelligence tha...

“Friction for us has to do with obstacles,” says Hayagreeva “Huggy” Rao, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “Obstacles can disable you. Obstacles can enable you.” Rao compares friction to cholesterol: Some is good, but some is bad. “Good friction actually slows you down, gets you to pause, and most of all, gets you to reflect,” he explains. “But there’s...

“I don’t see things like anybody else,” says Jonathan Berk, a professor of finance at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “And so I can see things people don't see.”  On this episode, Berk explores recent research that pushes against conventional wisdom, from questioning the utility of the debt-to-GDP ratio to asking whether regulation is actually in the best interests of the consumer.&nbsp...

“When people come to view attitudes and opinions towards, say, political policies or issues as relevant to their identities, they become more extreme in their attitudes,” says Christian Wheeler, the StrataCom Professor of Management and Professor of Marketing at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “I become more positive or negative towards an issue the moment it becomes relevant to who I view m...

“Masculinity is my new frontier,” says Ashley Martin, an associate professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Martin, whose work examines why gender plays such a central role in how we perceive and make sense of others, has been looking at how traits associated with masculinity are simultaneously organizationally rewarded even as they’re personally harmful to men...

Steven Callander has spent years building a mathematical framework to answer the question of how people learn from experience. “Here in Silicon Valley, the expression that you learn from failure is very widespread and very intuitive. But the question is… what do you learn? How do you optimally learn from that experience?” In this episode, Callander, the Herbert Hoover Professor of Public and Priva...

Seemingly unrelated activities — like taking a soccer penalty kick or crafting an online dating profile — involve an embedded economics.  “Understanding and applying economic logic can be valuable in pretty much any job or any other endeavor in your life,” says Paul Oyer, a professor of economics at Stanford Graduate School of Business.   On this episode, Oyer digs into the shared e...

When should we leap instead of take the obvious next step? Why do we instinctively see gender everywhere? When do our opinions begin to feel less like ideas and more like our identity? If/Then , from Stanford Graduate School of Business, is back with a new season of sharp, surprising conversations that deepen our understanding of business and leadership. Each episode brings you into the room with...

This week on If/Then we’re sharing an episode of GSB at 100 , a limited audio series created especially for Stanford Graduate School of Business’s Centennial. GSB at 100 presents a scrapbook of memories, ideas, and breakthroughs as Stanford GSB celebrates its first century and looks around the corner to what the next 100 years may hold.   On this episode of GSB at 100 , you’ll experience Cent...

This week on If/Then we’re sharing an episode of GSB at 100 , a limited audio series created especially for Stanford Graduate School of Business’s Centennial. GSB at 100 presents a scrapbook of memories, ideas, and breakthroughs as Stanford GSB celebrates its first century and looks around the corner to what the next 100 years may hold. On this episode of GSB at 100, you’ll step inside the classro...

This week on [If/Then or View From The Top] we’re sharing an episode of GSB at 100 , a limited audio series created especially for Stanford Graduate School of Business’s Centennial. GSB at 100 presents a scrapbook of memories, ideas, and breakthroughs as Stanford GSB celebrates its first century and looks around the corner to what the next 100 years may hold. On this episode of GSB at 100 , you’ll...

This week on If/Then, we’re sharing an episode of What’s Your Problem? , a show from Pushkin Industries where entrepreneurs, engineers, and scientists talk about the future they’re trying to build—and the problems they must solve to get there. Hosted by former Planet Money co-host Jacob Goldstein, each conversation explores the challenges and breakthroughs shaping the next wave of innovation. In t...

This week on If/Then , we’re sharing an episode of GSB at 100 , a limited audio series created especially for Stanford Graduate School of Business’s Centennial. GSB at 100 presents a scrapbook of memories, ideas, and breakthroughs, as the GSB celebrates its first century and looks around the corner to what the next hundred years may hold. The first episode of the series begins where the GSB begins...

This week on If/Then , we’re sharing an episode of View From The Top: The Podcast , an audio series featuring leaders from around the world in conversation with MBA students. Recorded live at the CEMEX Auditorium at Stanford Graduate School of Business, episodes feature insights on effective leadership, the values that guide it, and lessons learned along the way. Lisa Su, the chair and CEO of Adva...

  As we celebrate the conclusion of the second season of the If/Then podcast, we present a bonus episode featuring Deborah H. Gruenfeld , the Joseph McDonald Professor and Professor of Organizational Behavior and a Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Stanford Graduate School of Business .  Gruenfeld, who appeared on the first season of If/Then in an award-winning episode about...

This week on If/Then , we’re sharing an episode of The Future of Everything , a podcast hosted by Stanford School of Engineering professor and friend of the show Russ Altman. Everyone has goals — some are monumental, others modest — but every goal matters. Szu-chi Huang, an associate professor of marketing at Stanford Graduate School of Business, is an expert on sustaining enthusiasm for individua...

This week on If/Then , we’re sharing an episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , a podcast hosted by Stanford Graduate School of Business lecturer and friend of the show, Matt Abrahams. How do you communicate with others when you’re confused yourself? For fellow GSB lecturer Rob Siegel, leadership isn’t about avoiding uncertainty: it’s about embracing the clarity that ambiguity can bring. In his latest...

Do you stick to the rules or do you roll through stop signs? Whether you’re “tight” or “loose” — how closely you adhere to social norms — has major implications for your life at home and at work.  “To be effective, we want to be ambidextrous,” says Michele Gelfand , the John H. Scully Professor in Cross-Cultural Management and Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford Graduate School o...

AI has the potential to reshape medicine. But translating its promise into solutions for providers and patients is a high-stakes challenge. “There’s a lot more problems than solutions available,” says Mohsen Bayati, the Carl and Marilynn Thoma Professor of Operations, Information & Technology at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “So it’s ripe for innovation.” From trust and privacy to hall...

“The way I think about trying to anticipate and shape the AI future requires us to take a step back and ask ourselves first, ‘What does this technology do? What does it enable?’” reflects Amir Goldberg, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “That’s very different from asking ourselves, ‘How is the technology implemented?’”   From locating the origins...

Neil Malhotra , the Edith M. Cornell professor of political economy at Stanford Graduate School of Business, aims to identify the nature of our tumultuous political moment in his work.  In this episode, Malhotra explores rising distrust, shifting political identities, and what these changes mean for individuals — and businesses.  Plus, the billion-dollar question: “Is Trump creating a mo...

Sridhar Narayanan , a professor of marketing at Stanford Graduate School of Business, studies how small businesses operate and why they’re so important, especially in the developing world.  “Modernizing small businesses will have a profound impact on economies worldwide in many ways,” he says.  In this episode of If/Then , Narayanan explains why so many retailers still rely on cash, how...

Only a third of the global population is financially literate. Why? Because most of us don’t learn the basics of personal finance in school — or elsewhere.  Treating financial literacy as an afterthought can have serious consequences, from personal calamities to economic crises, according to Annamaria Lusardi , a professor of finance and the director of the Initiative for Financial Decision-M...