Business Talk

In this thought-provoking episode of Business Talk, Dr. Naomi Baron, Professor Emerita of Linguistics at American University in Washington, DC, shares key insights from her latest book, Reader Bot: What Happens When AI Reads and Why It Matters. While much of the conversation around AI has centred on its ability to write, Dr. Baron shifts the lens to an equally critical but underexplored question,...

In this episode of Business Talk, Dr. Elizabeth Roberts, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan, challenges everything we think we know about addiction. Drawing on her groundbreaking book In Praise of Addiction: Or How We Can Learn to Love Dependency in a Damaged World, she weaves together deeply personal family narratives, her sister's struggle with alcohol and benzodiazepines, h...

We are delighted to welcome Dr. Diane Negra, Professor of Film Studies and Screen Culture at University College Dublin and a distinguished Member of the Royal Irish Academy, to Business Talk. In this episode, Dr. Negra joins us to discuss her thought-provoking book, I'm Sorry You Feel That Way: The New Cultures of Customer Service, offering a critical lens on how customer service has evolved as a...

Dr. Bernardo Batiz-Lazo, Professor of FinTech History and Global Trade at Northumbria University's Newcastle Business School and Research Professor at Universidad Anáhuac in Mexico City, joins us to unpack the key insights from his book Cash and Dash: How ATMs and Computers Changed Banking, tracing banking's digitalization journey from the 1960s to today and examining the organizational and techno...

Prof. Anand Pandian, Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University, joins us to unpack the key insights from his latest book, Something Between Us: The Everyday Walls of American Life, and How to Take Them Down - an anthropologist's journey across the United States to explore the deep social and political divides shaping American life, and the everyday strategies we can...

Dr. Vasant Honavar, Professor of Informatics and Intelligent Systems at Penn State's College of Information Sciences and Technology, where he directs both the Center for Artificial Intelligence Foundations and Scientific Applications and the Artificial Intelligence Research Laboratory, confronts one of AI's most pressing paradoxes: how do we hold systems accountable when they perform brilliantly y...

We are joined by Dr. Raiford Guins, Professor and Chair of Cinema and Media Studies in the Media School at Indiana University Bloomington, and Adjunct Professor in the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, to unpack the central ideas from his fascinating book, King PONG: How Atari Bounced Across Markets to Make Millions. What does it really take to turn a simple two-paddle game...

In this engaging episode of Business Talk, Dr. Scott Snyder, Senior Fellow at Wharton, former Chief Digital Officer at EVERSANA, and author of Your AI Life - unpacks why AI is not just for tech insiders, but a powerful tool for everyone, regardless of age, profession, or background. Drawing on over three decades of experience advising Fortune 1000 firms and startups, Dr. Snyder frames AI through u...

In his research, "Dynamic Evolution and Transformative Trends in the Consumer Market: A Technology Paradox Perspective," Dr. Chanaka Jayawardhena, Professor of Marketing at Surrey Business School and Head of the Strategy, Marketing and International Business discipline, argues that today's consumers do not face simple trade-offs but rather deep paradoxes, simultaneously wanting convenience and pri...

Dr. Jan Hagen, Professor at ESMT Berlin, joins us to unpack the core ideas from his acclaimed book How Could This Happen? Managing Errors in Organizations, a compelling look at how organizations can better understand, prevent, and learn from the mistakes that often go unnoticed until it's too late. In this episode of Business Talk, Dr. Jan U. Hagen, Professor at ESMT Berlin, draws on powerful insi...

In this episode, Dr. Virginia Dignum, Professor of Responsible Artificial Intelligence at Umeå University in Sweden and head of the AI Policy Lab, discusses her book The AI Paradox: How to Make Sense of a Complex Future, a user's guide to navigating the intricate, often contradictory relationship between artificial intelligence and human intelligence. She challenges the popular notion that AI is a...

Dr. Brian Gunia, Professor and Area Chair for Management and Organization at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, joins us to unpack the central ideas from his acclaimed book, The Bartering Mindset: A Mostly Forgotten Framework for Mastering Your Next Negotiation. In this episode of Business Talk, Dr. Brian Gunia introduces us to a powerful yet often overlooked lens for negotiation, the barter...

Dr. Zheng Liu, Lecturer in Innovation Management at the University of Bristol Business School, joins Business Talk to discuss her book Cultural Mavericks: The Business and Politics of Independent Bookselling in China, unpacking how non-state bookstores in China navigate commercial pressures while preserving intellectual autonomy and distinctive cultural identities. Drawing on extensive fieldwork,...

Dr. Simon Kirchin, Director of the IDEA Centre at the University of Leeds and Deputy Head of School, joins us to unpack the central ideas from his edited volume The Future of Normativity. This podcast episode explores how Dr. Simon Kirchin’s work on The Future of Normativity helps us think more clearly about values, reasons, and what we ought to do in real life. Drawing on themes from his edited v...

Dr. George Papaconstantinou, Chair of International Political Economy at the Florence School of Transnational Governance and Academic Director of the Global Executive Master at the European University Institute, joins us to draw on his unique experience at the intersection of high level policymaking and academic research to rethink global governance in an era of geopolitical rivalry. Building on t...

Dr. Johann Fortwengel, Professor of International Management and Head of the Department of Strategy, International Management and Entrepreneurship at King’s Business School, UK, joins us to discuss his research on how Huawei constructed its organizational identity through political ideology between 1987 and 2020. Drawing on his co-authored study with Dr. Keyan Lai from the University of Edinburgh,...

Monica Angst, Founder of CultureNow, shares compelling insights from her research and experience on the theme “Face, Pride, and Power: The Hidden Rules Behind Global Negotiations.” Drawing from Monica Angst’s rich international experience across Europe and South America, this piece explores how culture quietly shapes the success or failure of global negotiations. Using a memorable wine metaphor, s...

In this episode, I speak with Dr. Carol Graham, Senior Fellow in the Economic Studies Program at Brookings, College Park Professor at the University of Maryland, and Senior Scientist at Gallup, about the core arguments of her book Happiness for All? Unequal Hopes and Lives in Pursuit of the American Dream. Drawing on decades of research, Dr. Graham explains how declining intergenerational mobility...

Dr. Ashita Aggarwal, Professor of Marketing and Design Thinking and Chairperson of the Post Graduate Diploma in Management programs at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s S. P. Jain Institute of Management & Research, discusses her research titled “Value Creation and Value Appropriation Using Voice AI Technology: Integrating B2B and B2C Marketplaces.” Professor Aggarwal’s research on voice AI emerges from a...

Dr. Marc-William Palen, Associate Professor of History at the University of Exeter and a member of its Centre for Imperial and Global History, joins us to explore the key ideas from his acclaimed book Pax Economica: Left-Wing Visions of a Free Trade World. Dr. Marc-William Palen’s Pax Economica recovers a largely forgotten left-wing tradition that tied free trade to peace, democracy, social justic...

Professor Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, the Julius Silver Professor of Politics at New York University and Director of NYU’s Center for Conflict Resolution and Multilateral Cooperation, joins us to explore the core arguments of his influential book, Anticipating Instability: Assessing and Removing Risks Before They Happen. In this conversation, he explains how leaders can systematically identify emergi...

Dr. Fiona Denney, Professor of Leadership and Business Education at Brunel Business School, Brunel University London, brings nearly three decades of experience in UK higher education to her exploration of leadership in the “third space” of universities. In this conversation, she delves into her research, “Working Thematically: Changing the Path to Leadership for the Third Space,” which examines hy...

Dr. Jianyun (J.Y.) Tang, Professor of Strategic Management at the Faculty of Business Administration, Memorial University, joins us to explore his thought-provoking research, “Disentangling the Leadership Theory Jungle: A Reconciliation of Bright and Dark Side Leadership Theories.” Leadership theory today often feels like a dense jungle, with multiple overlapping concepts and an overly idealistic...

In this episode of Business Talk, Dr. John H. Cochrane and Dr. Klaus Masuch unpack the core arguments from their book Crisis Cycle: Challenges, Evolution, and Future of the Euro, offering a clear-eyed assessment of the Euro’s original design, its structural vulnerabilities, and the unintended consequences of repeated crisis interventions. Drawing on firsthand experience with Eurozone crises, they...

Dr. Valérie Gauthier, Associate Professor of Languages and Cultures at HEC Paris, presents a compelling vision of relational leadership grounded in her Savoir-Relier methodology. She argues that without relationships, there is no leadership, and that effective leaders must be genuine, generous, and generative, building trust, creating safe spaces, and aligning performance with happiness. Drawing o...