Chicago Booth Review Podcast

Airport bookstores are full of volumes claiming to reveal the secrets of effective leadership, and yet business leaders often don't seem to be getting any better at actually leading. Some people seem to be born leaders, but many executives really struggle with exercising authority, connecting with, and motivating their workforces, and many ultimately fail to do so. In this episode of the Chicago B...

It's no revelation that the language we use often says more about us than whatever it's describing. But what about the number of words? The more we're surprised by something, the more we're likely to say about it, and that can reveal all sorts of prejudices that we might not be aware of. In this episode, we chat to Ayelet Fishbach, a professor of behavioral science at Chicago Booth, about her rece...

Rajat Gupta was one of America's most successful Indian-born businessmen. In 1994, he became McKinsey's youngest chief executive and the first who had been born outside of the US. Duing his nine-year leadership, McKinsey's revenues grew from $1.5 billion to $3.4 billion, its number of consultants went from 3,300 to 7,700, and from having 58 offices in 24 countries, it expanded to 81 offices in 44...

Most of us find it hard to achieve our goals. So how can we set better goals and follow through on them? We put that question to two experts on motivation, Chicago Booth's Ayelet Fishbach and the University of Pennsylvania's Katy Milkman.

How carefully do you tend your professional network? How does your network shape your ideas and your behavior? Understanding network theory can both help you become more successful professionally, and to explain political and sociological trends such as polarization, nationalism, and anti-globalization.

As hybrid work becomes increasingly common, organizations and managers are trying to come to grips with the challenges of a partly remote workforce. We consider how hybrid work will shape the labor market with three experts in the theory and practice of hybrid work: Chicago Booth's Steve Davis and Mike Gibbs, and the University of Chicago's Melina Hale.

What should the uber wealthy do with their money? How can they leave a lasting legacy? And what responsibilities do they have to society at large? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, Booth's John Paul Rollert reflects on the role of those at the very top of the 1 percent.

Many economists agree that inequality has risen in recent decades, but that's where the agreement ends. Measuring the trend is contentious, and it's more than just a methodological squabble. How severe one sees the problem informs the policies proposed, from no change to a host of new taxes aimed at correcting the imbalance. In this special episode of the Chicago Booth Review podcast, we present a...

Academic models often built on the assumption of how rational utility-maximising individuals would behave. But as behavioral scientists have long pointed out, real people don't actually behave that way. Does that mean that we behave irrationally, and if so why? Or is our behavior actually more rational than it may appear? In this special episode, we present Chicago Booth's Richard Thaler, an econo...

Do stock prices reflect all publicly available information? Are they entirely a reflection of the fundamental values of their respective companies? Or is there something else that helps to explain episodes of surprisingly high volatility, from market-wide plunges to the sudden surges of meme stocks? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, we explore the inelastic markets hypothesis, w...

The buzz around artificial intelligence has led to a surfeit of funding for A.I. startups—and, consequently, less funding to go around for other young companies. Is the hype around this technology creating a bubble? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, Hal Weitzman speaks with a panel of experts to explore what underlies the valuations of A.I. startups, and what those valuations me...

The loss of faith in free markets that followed the 2007–10 financial crisis was followed up by a number of political developments that suggested the ascendency of populism and a more skeptical attitude toward democracy among many people. What can be done to protect democracy from this erosion of trust? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast , we feature a conversation, held at Chicag...

Individuals acting in their own self-interest are, according to classical economics, an important part of a productive, efficient economy. And yet, selfishness is among the personality traits best known for impeding healthy human relationships. How do we separate the two concepts? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, Booth's John Paul Rollert explores how we define the line between...

Lying is wrong, right? And yet, almost everyone lies sometimes, and most of us see lying as not only acceptable but preferable in some situations. How does context affect the importance of the truth? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, we examine the findings of research into how lying is perceived.

Total household debt in the United States is in the neighborhood of $17 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Who's funding that debt? One theory is that ultrawealthy Americans are, through their excess savings, and that the result is a destabilizing cycle of inequality. This episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast looks at the research behind this argument and what this...

Facebook and Google are each facing antitrust scrutiny in the United States, and they have come under the gaze of European regulators as well. But most people don't pay money to ei-ther company for the services they provide, so can Facebook and Google really be said to have monopolies? And if they do, does it matter? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Pod-cast, we revisit a debate between...

When a business's customers object to its conduct, they generally have two options: exit (vote with their wallets and cut ties with the company) and voice (boycott, protest, or otherwise raise awareness of their complaint). Social media has changed the calculus behind this choice for both individuals and companies. On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, Booth's John Paul Rollert cons...

Algorithms are everywhere. They curate our music playlists, guide our online shopping—and, increasingly, dominate the news. But while most of us have accepted the idea of algorithms making, or helping make, some of the mundane decisions in our day-to-day lives, when do we prefer human discretion to the inscrutable judgment of A.I.? And how do we keep algorithms, some of which are tasked with makin...

Many of us have a tendency to attach labels to the money flowing into and out of our hands—"wages," "windfall," "bills," "leisure," and so on—and to treat the money differently depending on where it came from or how we're using it. In behavioral economics this is called mental accounting, and it can lead to some irrational personal-finance choices. On this episode, the Chicago Booth Review Podcast...

What are the qualities of a good CEO? What differentiates CEOs from other executives? How do companies seek them out, and should those recruiting practices adapt as corporate America seeks to improve diversity at its highest levels? On this episode of the  Chicago Booth Review Podcast , Chicago Booth's  Steve Kaplan  and a trio of experts in executive search discuss the business world's preeminent...

What is within the power of free markets? What can capitalism do for society, what can't it do, and what should it do? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, Booth's John Paul Rollert explores how many people came to have an unshakeable faith in capitalism's broad ability to solve nearly any problem, while the experience of others has left them skeptical. In the era after "the end of...

It may be in the nature of taxation that it should suffer a bad public image—but US law, with its convoluted tax code, doesn't help make it any more palatable. Why is it so complicated, particularly when simplifying it is one of the rare ideas that enjoys bipartisan support? And apart from making it more straightforward, how else might lawmakers improve it? This episode of the Chicago Booth Review...

Much has been said and written about the wealth concentrated in the highest-earning 1 percent of US households. But wealth and income are also similarly concentrated within that small slice of the US economy, with the 1 percent's 1 percent—that is, the .01 percent—far outpacing the rest of that elite group in terms of income and wealth share, according to some economists. Who makes up this small f...

Good communication is widely recognized as a cornerstone of high-functioning organizations—and yet, it can be hard to achieve consistently for many businesses and other groups. How and why do we fall short at conveying our messages to others, and what can we do to fix it? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, host Hal Weitzman revisits a conversation he had with three behavioral sci...

What does it mean to sell out? What should we make of the tradeoffs we accept between our personal aspirations and professional successes? At what point do such tradeoffs become ethically problematic? On this episode of the  Chicago Booth Review Podcast , columnist and Booth adjunct associate professor John Paul Rollert considers what makes someone a sellout—and whether being one really matters.