Chicago Booth Review Podcast

Modern management is all about making the workplace more efficient. But what is the cost of that efficiency? John Burrows talks about his new book on social capital, which argues that in the pursuit of a more efficient workplace, companies are missing out on innovation and individuals are missing out on professional development. This is the first of two podcasts about the book.

One of the top things that people do online is look at pornography. Pornhub is among the world's most popular websites, but not in 25 US states including Florida, Texas, and Virginia, where it has decided to shut down in response to age-verification laws that require visitors to submit a government ID or other form of age authentication. These laws are aimed at stopping underage browsers. But have...

When companies sell products, they only put some of the features front and center and hide others. How do they know if they're highlighting the right things? Chicago Booth's Giovanni Compiani talks about his research on salient and hidden features. Economic models traditionally assume that consumers consider all the facts before buying. How can we work out what they really care about?

Selling to customers drives all companies, but it's very different for a startup versus a big established corporation. So what are those differences? Chicago Booth's Michael Alter talks to us about the sales process. When should an entrepreneur hand over the task of selling to a dedicated professional? When should you start to standardize sales techniques? And how is AI changing the sales process?

Leaders are often told to be their authentic selves, but what does that actually mean? Chicago Booth's Samantha Coleman thinks that authenticity is a choice. How do we make that choice, and what are the consequences of being authentic?

How much do consumers care about shoppers' reviews and product photos? And can economists capture that information and turn it into data? Chicago Booth's Giovanni Compiani talks about his research using AI to analyze "unstructured data." Could his approach help retailers to measure the "vibe" of a product?

How good are you at selling? Or do you think that you don't need to be? Our guest today would like you to think again. Chicago Booth's Michael Alter wants us to think about sales as less about convincing people and more about listening to them.

People with a net worth at least $5m are heavily overrepresented in politics. That enables them to bend the law to benefit themselves. Many tend to be business owners, and some have used policymaking to make their companies more profitable. How have they done that, and what should we do about it? Welcome to the Chicago Booth Review podcast, where we bring you groundbreaking academic research in a...

When you think of someone who's rich, who comes to mind? The billionaires of Silicon Valley, AI entrepreneurs or the titans of Wall St? But what about toilet paper and toothbrush manufacturers, chicken processors and burger chain owners? Chicago Booth's Eric Zwick talks about his book, "The Everywhere Millionaire: Who Is Really Rich in America and How They Got There." This is the first of two epis...

Imagine it's 1 o'clock. Would you rather wait for 30 minutes or until 1:30? They're the same, but research suggests that people tend to feel that 30 minutes will take longer. What does that tell us about how our brains think about time? Chicago Booth's Kristin Donnelly talks about her research on time-duration asymmetry. Why is it that we think differently about waiting times depending on how they...

How was school today? What did you have for lunch? Any parent who's asked these questions consistently has probably been met with a single-word response or even just a grunt. How do we make those conversations better? Ariel Kalil of the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy thinks many of us have been thinking wrong about how to encourage parents to talk and read with their childr...

The Peter Principle observes that employee tend to rise to their level of incompetence. It's a sarcastic take on corporate culture, but many of us have seen technically brilliant people get promoted into nontechnical roles where they struggle to manage people and teams. Chicago Booth's Christine Carpenter shares her insights on people skills and leadership. Can technical experts become successful...

For many decades, the Pentagon has bought most of its equipment from five big defense contractors: Lockheed Martin, RTX, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and General Dynamics. Is all that about to change? Chicago Booth's Marc Knez talks about how Anduril, a tech startup, is threatening to disrupt the defense industry. Could it ultimately lead to cheaper and more effective systems for the military?

Do accountants merely measure company activity, or do they actually make it better? Chicago Booth's Mike Minnis talks about his research on auditing and productivity. Do audits make companies perform better, or do effective managers choose to get audited?

Americans use buses and trains much less than their European counterparts. Yet while they sit in their cars, they are subsidizing buses that run mostly empty. Could the system be tweaked to make everyone better off? Chicago Booth's Milena Almagro talks about her research on public transit. Is it possible to make the system more sustainable both financially and environmentally?

Americans' self-reported rates of happiness plummeted during COVID and haven't recovered since. Will they ever? Chicago Booth's Sam Peltzman talks about his research on happiness. Before 2020, Peltzman says, the US was a "reasonably happy country" for nearly 50 years. But in the past six years, everything has changed. So are we in a permanent happiness slump?

Sometimes information is freely available and would be useful, but we choose to avoid it. Why do we do that, and does it make any sense? Chicago Booth's Jane Risen talks about her research on willful ignorance. As small children most of us are permanently curious and never stop asking why, but older children are more likely to avoid certain information. Why is that, and is our ignorance helping or...

Vulnerability is typically perceived as a weakness in professional settings. Chicago Booth's Christine Carpenter wants us to think of it as a strength when it comes to leadership. So when is it appropriate to be vulnerable? And how can you show vulnerability without coming across as out of your depth or incompetent?

Software as a Service has boomed in recent decades, but now it faces an existential threat from AI. Chicago Booth's Marc Knez gives us his take on the SaaS Apocalypse. Which companies will survive? Are businesses really going to stop subscribing to software applications housed in the cloud to run their businesses, and what will they do instead?

The value of the US economy is increasingly accounted for by intangibles – things like intellectual property, brands and customer relationships. How is that changing finance and business? Chicago Booth's Amir Sufi talks to us about the rise of the intangible economy. Should advance economies abandon the idea of reviving manufacturing, and instead continue to chase intangible value?

Many US cities are highly racially segregated. Explicit segregation is illegal today, but some patterns of settlement haven't fundamentally changed. So why does housing segregation persist? Chicago Booth's Milena Almagro tells us about her research on racial housing covenants. What do the racist housing rules of the 1940s tell us about housing policy today?

Much of the world's economy is informal, with transactions taking place in street markets. How does business credit operate in that environment? Chicago Booth's Rimmy Tomy talks about her research on the huge Iewduh bazaar in Shillong, the largest and oldest market in northeast India. Tomy finds that vendors often prefer not to share business metrics with lenders. So how do they get credit?

Do you ever find yourself scrolling through videos on your phone? If so, does watching the same video on repeat change the way you think about it? Chicago Booth's Kristin Donnelly talks about her research on the "replay illusion." Why does seeing video of spontaneous events more than once make them seem rehearsed or premeditated?

College-educated mothers spend about 300 more hours a year in intensive childcare than mothers with only a high school diploma, yet they enjoy it less. So what's prompting them to spend so much time with their kids? Ariel Kalil of the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy talks about her research on the parenting time gap. All parents say that childcare is emotionally rewarding, s...

Do you trust your bank? What would it take for you to lose that trust? Chicago Booth's Rimmy Tomy talks about her research on trust in the financial system. It turns out that you might lose trust in your bank even if it hasn't done anything wrong. So how should banks, regulators and customers think about the role of trust?