Business Talk

In this episode, Dr. Saori N. Katada, the Louis G. Lancaster Chair of International Relations at UC Santa Barbara, unpacks the central insights of her book, Japan’s New Regional Reality: Geoeconomic Strategy in the Asia-Pacific. She traces Japan’s transition from post-war neomercantilism to a proactive, state-led liberal strategy driven by domestic stagnation, the rise of China, and regional finan...

In this episode of Business Talk, host Deepak Bhatt speaks with Dr. Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute, about his book, Confessions of an Alien Hunter. Dr. Shostak separates science fiction from reality, explaining how radio telescopes scan the cosmos for engineered signals rather than biological entities. He challenges cinematic tropes, refutes government cover-up myths, and pr...

Dr. Tomasz Mickiewicz, 50th Anniversary Professor of Economics at Aston Business School and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at University College London, offers valuable insights drawn from his research, “Growth Expectations of Entrepreneurs During Crisis: The Role of Social, Environmental, and Economic Motivations.” He examines empirical findings from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor covering...

Dr. Anna Tavis, Clinical Professor and Chair of the Human Capital Management Department at NYU’s School of Professional Studies, shares key insights from her book, The Digital Coaching Revolution. She explains how artificial intelligence is democratizing workplace coaching by turning an exclusive executive privilege into an accessible, 24/7 development tool for employees at all levels. Anchoring p...

In their discussion of the Handbook of Research on Base of the Pyramid Entrepreneurship, Dr. Miguel Rivera-Santos and Dr. Carlos Rufín demonstrate that Base of the Pyramid markets are governed by distinct informal institutions rather than mere institutional voids. Drawing on settings from conflict zones to informal street trading, they show that entrepreneurial success depends on social identity,...

In this insightful discussion, Professor Alexandra Natapoff, the Lee S. Kreindler Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, explores the core themes of America Unfinished: 250 Years of Law and Governance. Marking the semiquincentennial of the Declaration of Independence, this landmark collection of essays from Harvard Law scholars examines American democracy not as a completed monument, but as an on...

In this episode, Dr. Tanya Wilson, Senior Lecturer in Economics at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, President of the Scottish Economic Society, and an IZA Research Fellow, shares key insights from her research, “Unemployment and Domestic Violence: Theory and Evidence.” In her study “Unemployment and Domestic Violence: Theory and Evidence,” Dr Tanya Wilson resolves why prior s...

Dr. Donald Kettl, Professor Emeritus and former Dean of the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, shares key insights from his book, The Divided States of America: Why Federalism Doesn’t Work, exploring how federalism is pulling the nation apart and what reforms could make the system function more effectively. American federalism, originally designed to balance national authority...

Dr. Xuenan Cao, Professor and Co-Chair of General Education at San Francisco Bay University and Adjunct Faculty at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, shares key insights from her book, Chinese Media Improvisations: Thriving on Deficits. She offers a compelling and unexpected perspective on China’s technological rise, showing how deficit-driven improvisation has helped shape innovation across med...

In this Business Talk episode, Dr. Terri Griffith of Simon Fraser University discusses how organizations and professionals can adopt AI responsibly while keeping people, judgment, and learning at the center. She emphasizes that AI adoption is not simply about installing new tools, it requires continuous learning, high-quality data, strong security practices, supportive leadership, and redesigned w...

In 1988, Jeffrey Hollender launched Seventh Generation as a small mail order catalog with a big belief: business must serve a greater good. For years, the market wasn’t ready. Sustainable products didn’t yet exist as a category in most consumers’ minds. Then came two turning points. First, Whole Foods began stocking the brand across all its stores. Next, a partnership with Target brought those pro...

In this episode of Business Talk, Deepak Bhatt speaks with Dr. Arnaldo Camuffo of Bocconi University about using scientific reasoning in entrepreneurship. They discuss how developing theories, testing clear hypotheses, and learning from evidence can help founders make better decisions, pursue focused pivots, and identify unpromising ideas earlier. The conversation highlights that well-informed ter...

Dr. Michael Tarr, the Kavčić-Moura Professor of Cognitive and Brain Science in the Department of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, shares key insights from his research, “When Brains Meet Machines: Primate Vision and Artificial Vision Systems.” This episode explores how biological vision influences artificial intelligence. Dr. Tarr highlights the primate brain’s strengths in generalization...

The podcast with Dr. Ellen Ernst Kossek, Professor Emerita at Purdue University, explored gender inclusion, workplace flexibility, mentoring, STEM diversity, and entrepreneurship. She emphasised that inclusive policies require supportive managers, fair career opportunities, effective mentoring, and flexible work practices. The discussion also highlighted the need to address systemic barriers for w...

In this episode of Business Talk, Dr. Eva Boxenbaum, Professor of Organization and Management Theory at Copenhagen Business School, explores how academic knowledge is translated and transformed as it moves from universities into business and practice. She discusses the impact of professional identity, the risks of losing context and attribution, the power dynamics between academia and industry, an...

In this Business Talk episode, Dr. T.V. Paul, Distinguished James McGill Professor at McGill University, explores why nuclear weapons have not been used since 1945. Drawing on his book, ‘The Tradition of Non-Use of Nuclear Weapons’, he distinguishes between a “taboo” (an unthinkable act) and a “tradition” (a practised restraint shaped by reputation costs and self-deterrence). Through historical cr...

Honoured to host Dr. Charles F. Manski, renowned econometrician and Board of Trustees Professor at Northwestern University, on Business Talk! We dive into his book, “Patient Care Under Uncertainty,” exploring how honest conversations about what we know (and don’t know) can lead to better decision-making in medicine. Dr. Manski reveals why more data can’t always solve uncertainty, why “credible bou...

In this episode of Business Talk, Deepak Bhatt speaks with Dr. Scott Schieman, Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto, about his book, “I Want More: Why Your Job Still Matters.” Drawing on research involving more than 40,000 workers, Dr. Schieman introduces the MORE framework, Mooring, Opening, Relating, and Exceeding, to explain how work provides far more than financial income. The c...

In her book Burnout Market Feminism: Urban Chinese Businesswomen in the Internet Age, Dr. Ling Tang examines how female entrepreneurs navigate China's digital economy. Rather than viewing Chinese feminism solely through state socialist or civil society lenses, Tang introduces a third perspective focusing on women's economic agency within the market. While China's booming digital landscape allows w...

In his book, Private Power and Democracy's Decline: How to Make Capitalism Support Democracy, Stanford Economics Professor Emeritus Mordecai Kurz examines how tech monopolies fuel income inequality and social polarization. Expanding on the ideas in The Market Power of Technology (2023), Dr. Kurz presents concrete policy solutions, including antitrust reform and taxing monopoly profits, to protect...

Dr. Sibel Kusimba, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of South Florida, joins us to explore her fascinating book, Reimagining Money: Kenya in the Digital Finance Revolution. a 2023 SEA Book Prize finalist from the Society for Economic Anthropology. In an episode of Business Talk, Dr. Sibel Kusimba discusses her book, Reimagining Money: Kenya in the Digital Finance Revolution. Tr...

Dr. Allan Lichtman, Distinguished Professor of History at American University, offers a fresh perspective on the evolution of conservative thought in the United States in his compelling book, Conservative at the Core: A New History of American Conservatism, sharing his rich ideas, experiences, and insights. Applying philosopher Dr. Imre Lakatos’s framework, Prof. Lichtman argues that conservative...

Professor Chris Impey, University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona, takes us to one of modern science’s most thrilling frontiers: the search for alien worlds. In Worlds Without End: Exoplanets, Habitability, and the Future of Humanity, he poses a question that could define our species, where else might life exist, and what does it mean for us? Dr. Impey highlighted...

Dr. Xu Jiang, Associate Professor of Business Administration at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, focuses his research on banking regulation, optimal disclosure policies, accounting standards, and strategic communication. Inspired by real-world observations of companies delaying their scheduled earnings calls to coincide with Federal Reserve meetings, Dr. Jiang co-authored an original st...

In a recent deep-dive interview on the Business Talk podcast hosted by Deepak Bhatt, Dr. Sapnoti K. Eswar, Senior Lecturer in Finance at the University of St. Andrews Business School, unpacked her landmark Research Policy paper co-authored with Dr. Laura Dimitrova, exploring whether FX derivatives adoption directly drives technological innovation. Capitalizing on the exogenous shock of the 1987 IS...