Economics & Beyond with Rob Johnson

Terrence McNally, the host of the podcast Free Forum: A World that just Might Work, interviews Rob about the current state of the world and what needs to happen for us to get out of the mess in which we find ourselves.

John Fullerton, the Founder of the Capital Institute, discusses the urgent need for a new paradigm in economic thinking, modeled on living systems instead of Newtonian physics, which he calls regenerative economics.

Peter Goodman, New York Times correspondent and author of the just-published book, Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World, talks to Rob about how inequality is not inevitable, but has been engineered through the political process by selling us a false idea of what is possible. 

In a replay of INET Live's webinar, following the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow last December, Richard Kozul-Wright of UNCTAD, Patrick Bond of the University of Johannesburg, and author Maude Barlow discuss the disproportionate impact climate change has on the developing world and the ways to best address it.

Professor Glenn Hubbard, professor of Finance and Economics at Columbia Business School, talks about his just-released book, The Wall and the Bridge: Fear and Opportunity in Disruption’s Wake, and how society and policymakers can help those who are left behind in the wake of today's competitive world.

Prosperity Now CEO Gary Cunningham talks to Rob, in a wide-ranging discussion, about the many ways in which the pandemic has affected racial justice and injustice and how we might overcome the divisions and polarizations that we currently confront.

INET's Research Director Thomas Ferguson talks about the research he and his collaborators Paul Jorgensen and Jie Chen conducted of the 2020 election and some of overlooked factors that were at play in that election.

Yuen Yuen Ang, political science professor at the University of Michigan and author of the book, China's Gilded Age, argues that the US and China have more in common than we usually think and that it makes more sense to see the conflict as a clash of two gilded ages instead of a clash of civilizations.

Tom Nichols, Professor of National Security Affairs, US Naval War College, columnist for USA Today, and contributing writer at The Atlantic, discusses his new book, Our Own Worst Enemy: The Assault from within on Modern Democracy, and how a decline in civic virtue has generated a dangerous illiberalism.

Dan Breznitz, author of the book Innovation in Real Places, Strategies for Prosperity in an Unforgiving World, and professor of public policy at the University of Toronto, talks about how innovation ought to be guided if it is to be successful in addressing our most pressing problems.

"I was considering what I was going to do, [and] what I decided I could not do, was stay within the confines of mainstream academic economics." Rob Johnson talks with INET Co-Founder Bill Janeway about his exciting new project at Cambridge University.

Patrick Bond, sociology professor at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, discusses the urgent need for climate reparations for Africa, in light of the COP26 climate summit, and why market solutions will not work to address the problems Africa is currently facing. Part 2 of 2.

Patrick Bond, sociology professor at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, discusses the urgent need for climate reparations for Africa, in light of the COP26 climate summit, and why market solutions will not work to address the problems Africa is currently facing. Part 1 of 2.

From LBJ to the present, the federal government has knowingly continued to expand the US fossil economy, not passively but as a major active player, endangering the future of young people.

Political economist, author, and public speaker Ann Pettifor talks about her latest book, The Case for a Green New Deal, which not only lays out the urgency for such a deal, but also proposes a roadmap for both national and global financial reform to make it possible.

Nancy MacLean, history professor at Duke University, talks about the ways in which neoliberal economic icon Milton Friedman collaborated with segregationists and with right-wing billionaires in the pursuit of his goal of privatizing public education.

Princeton economics professor Markus Brunnermeier discusses his recently released book, The Resilient Society, which argues that in crisis-prone situations societal resilience is a crucial component for averting outright disaster and outlines how we might achieve that resilience.

The education of the next generation of economists too often ignores the real crisis we face today: climate change, inequality, and financial instability. Sam de Muijnck and Joris Tieleman seek to address this problem in their book, Economy Studies, which outlines a practical road map for effectively connecting pluralism of core academic material to real world events, values, and the great questio...

Adam Tooze, director of Columbia University's European Institute, discusses his new book with Rob Johnson.

The COVID pandemic highlighted the deepening water crisis. "Do we understand that over half the population of the world doesn't have a place to wash their hands with soap and warm water?" says water warrior Maude Barlow.

Gisele Huff, education policy specialist and president of the Gerald Huff Fund for Humanity, along with john a. powell, director of UC Berkeley's Othering & Belonging Institute, talk about the motivations and process behind the soon-to-be-released report, "Convening on Automation, Opportunity, and Belonging: Vision and Foundations for a Better Society."

Stanislav Shmelev, the director of Environment Europe Foundation in Oxford, discusses the many dimensions we need to consider when preparing our cities, businesses, and economies to the demands of ecological sustainability.

Geoff Mann, professor of geography at Simon Fraser University and co-author of the book, Climate Leviathan, discusses the authoritarian dangers ahead, as the world tried to cope with climate change, and how all institutions, including central banking, need to evolve so they address the problem adequately.

Lori Wallach, of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, and Jayati Ghosh, economics professor at UMass Amherst, discuss how first world countries are protecting pharma companies' exorbitant profits, at the expense of vaccinating people living in the Global South and thereby also endangering everyone in the world.

Prolific author and philosopher Ervin Laszlo discusses his most recent books, in which he outlines how the latest discoveries in science converge with spiritual insights and point to the ways in which society might evolve in ways that will help overcome contemporary crises.