El Podcast

Investment manager Paul Musson argues that modern monetary policy, housing inflation, and financialization have rigged the economy against younger generations and productive capitalism.” Guest Bio: Paul Musson is the founder of Paddington Capital Management and former portfolio manager of the Ivy Funds at Mackenzie Investments. With more than 30 years in the investment industry, he focuses on mone...

Former World Bank economist Dr. Emily Brearley says billions in foreign aid have been wasted by corrupt NGOs, bloated bureaucracies, and elites disconnected from the people they claim to help. Guest Bio Dr. Emily Brearley is a former World Bank development economist and author of Aid Inferno . After decades working inside the global development system across Africa, Latin America, and Asia, she no...

A top Oxford professor and member of the House of Lords warns that universities are abandoning truth for ideology—and explains why that could push society into a new “dark age.” 👤 GUEST BIO Nigel Biggar is a Professor Emeritus of Ethics and Theology at the University of Oxford and a member of the UK House of Lords. He is the author of The New Dark Age: Why Liberals Must Win the Culture Wars , whe...

A wide-ranging conversation on the collapse of trust in legacy media, the economics driving bias and clickbait, and whether journalism can survive the internet and AI era with Drew Holden.  👤 Guest Bio Drew Holden is the managing editor of Commonplace and author of the Holden Court Substack. He is a journalist and media critic whose work focuses on media bias, institutional trust, and the changin...

Dr. Cory J. Clark breaks down how the rise of women in academia may be reshaping institutions—shifting priorities from merit and competition toward equity, harm avoidance, and social dynamics. Guest Bio: Dr. Cory J. Clark is a psychology professor at New College of Florida whose research focuses on moral judgment, political psychology, and academic culture. She is known for her work on sex differe...

A deep dive with Dr. Garrett Jones on how immigration, culture, and intelligence shape long-run economic outcomes—and why economists sharply disagree on the issue. Guest Bio Garett Jones is a professor of economics at George Mason University and the author of The Culture Transplant , Hivemind , and 10% Less Democracy . His work focuses on how national traits—such as intelligence, culture, and inst...

A wide-ranging discussion on whether we’re truly in a “golden age” of television—or just drowning in content—with sharp critiques of streaming economics, woke storytelling, and modern TV bloat. Guest Bio Graham Hillard is a TV critic for the Washington Examiner and editor at the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. He writes cultural criticism focused on television, media trends, and the i...

A long-term expat breaks down the real economics, trade-offs, and lifestyle realities of retiring abroad—arguing Vietnam and Southeast Asia offer unmatched value if you fully commit. Guest Bio Evan Eh is a YouTuber and long-term expat who has lived abroad for 15+ years across Mexico, Australia, China, and Vietnam. He creates content helping North Americans relocate overseas, with a focus on cost-o...

Anthropologist Elizabeth Weiss argues that expanding repatriation policies and identity-driven academic trends are restricting access to skeletal collections and reshaping anthropology away from empirical science. Guest bio Elizabeth Weiss is a physical anthropologist and professor emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at San José State University. She studies skeletal remains, taught human o...

An economist explains why the American Dream isn’t dead—and how policy, not just personal effort, shapes who gets ahead. 👤 Guest Bio  Dr. Justin Callais is Chief Economist at the Archbridge Institute, co-editor of Profectus , and author of the Substack Debunking Degrowth . His research focuses on economic growth, social mobility, and policy-driven barriers to opportunity. 🧠 Topics Discussed Is t...

One-line summary: Chris Consultant joins Jesse to explain why he is leaving Germany, arguing that high taxes, bureaucracy, demographic decline, energy policy failures, and shrinking free speech have made Europe increasingly hostile to productive people. Guest bio: Chris Consultant is a banking and finance consultant, entrepreneur, YouTuber, and Substack writer. He creates content about taxes, econ...

A philosophy professor/lawyer argues that med-school “holistic” + diversity-weighted admissions are less predictive than a numbers-based algorithm—and that the stakes show up downstream in physician quality, access, and patient outcomes. Guest bio: Dr. Steven Kirschner (as stated in your intro) is a distinguished teaching professor of Philosophy at SUNY Fredonia and also an attorney ; he authored...

Canada’s MAiD program has expanded rapidly—Dr. Ramona Coelho argues the system increasingly serves vulnerable people, with uneven safeguards and serious ethical, legal, and social risks. Guest bio: Dr. Ramona Coelho (MDCM, CCFP) is a family physician in London, Ontario, a senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute , and co-editor of Unravelling MAiD in Canada: Euthanasia and Assisted Suici...

A lively tour from Cold War “The Thing” to today’s surveillance capitalism—showing how audio capture, too much data, and automation pressures helped turn listening into AI. Guest bios: Dr. Toby Heys — Professor at the School of Digital Arts (SODA), Manchester Metropolitan University; co-founder of the AUDINT sonic research unit; co-author of Listening In Dr. David Jackson — Senior Lecturer in Digi...

A former Silicon Valley insider explains how MBA-style “spreadsheet management” is breaking software—and why it’s making tech, AI, and everyday products worse. Guest bio: Darryl Campbell is a former tech industry insider who spent 15 years in Silicon Valley at companies including Amazon and Uber and at early-stage startups. He’s the author of Fatal Abstraction: Why the Managerial Class Loses Contr...

MIT Free Speech Alliance president Wayne Stargardt explains how a few high-profile cancellations can drive widespread faculty self-censorship—even at a STEM powerhouse like MIT. Guest bio: Wayne Stargardt is the president of the MIT Free Speech Alliance (independent of MIT) and an MIT alumnus (Class of 1974) who focuses on academic freedom, free expression, and open debate at STEM universities. To...

In this episode, Jesse talks with Fordham University School of Law corporate-law professor Sean J. Griffith about why “go woke, go broke” hasn’t really played out—and why big, publicly traded firms can stay “woke” even when consumers or politicians claim there’s backlash. The core theme: modern corporate power often runs through managers, compliance systems, and financial intermediaries, not “owne...

Political beliefs often matter more than data or methods in shaping how social scientists think about controversial issues. In this episode, sociologist Dr. Mark Horowitz explains why many professors line up by politics on hot-button questions, drawing on moral psychology, groupthink inside universities, and the idea that some topics become treated as morally untouchable “sacred victims.” Guest bi...

Evolutionary psychologist Debra Lieberman explains how “disgust” and other built-in mental programs shape attraction, kinship, morality, and even law—while modern technology and social media scramble the cues those systems evolved to track. Guest bio: Dr. Debra Lieberman is a professor of psychology at the University of Miami and an evolutionary psychologist who studies how evolved “mental apps” s...

Amanda Litman argues U.S. leadership is too old, local races are dangerously uncontested, and the fastest fix is getting more young people to run—backed by better pay and campaign-finance reform. Guest bio  Amanda Litman is the co-founder and president of Run For Something (launched 2017), which supports young people running for local and state office and has helped elect 1,600+ officials in nearl...

Social media isn’t “crack for your brain” for most people—Jeffrey Hall argues the best evidence shows tiny average effects on wellbeing, lots of measurement mess, and a bigger story about relationships, leisure, and moral panic. Guest bio (short) Dr. Jeffrey Hall is Professor and Chair of Communication Studies at the University of Kansas and Director of the Relationships and Technology Labs, resea...

Economic historian Tobias Straumann breaks down how Germany’s debt meltdown in 1931 crashed the global economy—and how a surprisingly generous 1953 debt deal helped spark the German economic miracle by putting growth ahead of punishment. GUEST BIO: Tobias Straumann (Switzerland) is Professor of Modern & Economic History at the University of Zurich; author of Out of Hitler’s Shadow and 1931: Debt,...

A cognitive psychologist explains why college student IQ now averages about 102, why that shift is mathematically inevitable as enrollment expands, and how outdated testing norms and student-evals can quietly wreck both education and clinical decisions. GUEST BIO Dr. Bob Uttl is a cognitive psychologist and professor at Mount Royal University (Canada) who researches psychometrics, assessment, and...

Jeff Davis breaks down why the Highway Trust Fund has been insolvent since 2008 and what fixes (and tradeoffs) are realistic as EVs grow. GUEST BIO Jeff Davis is a Senior Fellow at the Eno Center for Transportation and Editor of Eno Transportation Weekly . He has more than 30 years of experience in federal transportation policy, including eight years working in Washington, D.C., advising on the fe...

Harvard’s Shane Greenstein explains why Acquired wins by treating each episode like an audiobook—high-signal, audience-first, and built for durable value. GUEST BIO: Dr. Shane M. Greenstein is a Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, where he teaches technology, operations, and management and writes HBS case studies on modern businesses. TOPICS DISCUSSED (IN ORDER):   WHY...