Ideas Untrapped

Welcome to another season of your favourite podcast! We are starting off the season by exploring the many explanations of The Industrial Revolution with economic historian and writer Davis Kedrosky. You can learn more about Davis' work from his excellent newsletter here . You can also listen to this podcast through all the other options here . The transcript of the conversation is below. TRANSCRIP...

Supply chains have been in the news a lot lately - because there have been shortages of many important things like food, semiconductor microchips, heating and cooking gas, and even shipping containers. Prices of many commodities have gone through the roof because of these shortages, and policymakers globally are scrambling to find a solution especially with the holiday season coming around. I trie...

Surely the biggest development in the last year is the record speed with which vaccines were discovered for the Covid-19 virus that shut down the entire world. I spoke to medicinal chemist and science  blogger  Derek Lowe about the many issues surrounding drug discovery like regulatory constraints, funding, and many other issues in the industry. Enjoy the conversation with Derek Lowe - and the tra...

I spoke to Christopher Ogunmodede about some of the major themes from the events in Nigeria over the past year. We also talked about some of his more radical ideas - like the abolition of the nation-state. Talking to Chris always leaves me more informed and perceptive - and I want to thank him for being always willing to share his knowledge. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss t...

The problem of the rule of law is inescapable in any society - and even more especially in the context of economic development. Policies that promote prosperity cannot be devoid of considerations for the rights of people who make up the society and the economy, regardless of all technocratic pretensions otherwise. Adam Smith himself stated that economic prosperity thus requires ''a tolerable admin...

I had a great conversation with David Roodman - researcher and senior adviser at Open Philanthropy. He played an important role in helping us understand and interpret the evidence on the microfinance phenomenon that was sweeping through the development community a little while back. We also talked about his work in evaluating foreign aid, how his background in mathematics has helped him throughout...

I had a very stimulating conversation with Nathan Lane. Nathan is an empirical economist and an Associate Professor of economics at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on the political economy of development, the economics of the state, and Industrial Policy. Nathan's work combines new methods from data science and traditional micro-data to understand questions at the heart of economic...

Many low-income countries confront the challenge of transforming from an agrarian or resource-based economy to an industrial economy. We can see this in how countries struggle to diversify their exports and sources of public revenues. Nurturing a policy environment for economic transformation - despite the abundance of literature and example for the recent East Asian experience - is often the hard...

Welcome to another episode of Ideas Untrapped podcast, where we discuss ideas that promote progress, prosperity, and economic development. We do this by speaking to academics, industry experts, and other creative social thinkers. My guest on this episode is Robert Frank, professor of economics at Cornell University, New York. Robert is my favourite economist because he presents complex ideas in si...

I spoke to macroeconomic analyst Karthik Sankaran about many of his brilliant insights on economic development process. Karthik long and broad experience working on emerging markets shines through our entire conversation. His gift of wit and summarizing complex economic into understandable bits is one of the best I have encountered - as you can tell from his Twitter feed and blog . You can listen...

I spoke to Decision Scientist Oliver Beige on some of the things experts got wrong about the Covid-19 infection pattern, and the policy response. We talked about those exponential predictions that were popular at the height of the pandemic, the things Japan got right, Sweden, and how society and policymakers should evaluate expert knowledge. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss t...

The second part of my conversation with Andrew Nevin. We talked about the economic development patterns of India vs China's - and what Nigeria can learn. We also talked about his habits during the lockdown, Amartya Sen, and the habits of mind that shaped him growing up. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.ide...

Andrew Nevin - who is the chief economist of PwC West Africa - returns to the show for a record third time. I spoke to him about some of the big trends that will matter now and into the future. He provided excellent insights on the socioeconomic implications of population growth and decline, climate change, technology, and why we will need a more robust measurement of human well-being beyond GDP....

I learned a lot having this conversation with economic historian Mark Koyama. State Capacity has become an important concept to be understood - especially with the current economic and security problems Nigeria is currently dealing with. A lot of us are also reeling from the consequences of the decisions our governments made in responding to the global pandemic. My conversation with Mark was a bit...

It is quite common to hear people imply that any government that fixes Nigeria's electricity problem will enter the nation's pantheon of sainthood. But even the promise of immortality has not been enough for any meaningful change in the sector. I sat down with Timi Soleye - who is an industry player and insider (he is the President of CRYO Gas and Director of Power at Raven Energy) - for an extend...

I had a conversation with former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Professor Kingsley Moghalu, and it was worth every minute. He explained why the CBN has taken the role it has on economic policy (and how he thinks it has overstepped), the lack of state capacity in Nigeria - and why we need a philosophical basis for governance. I also asked him about his plans for the 2023 elections,...

In the first of a series of end of season episodes - host Tobi Lawson talks to Prof. Pat Utomi about the state of Nigeria, and how it all went wrong. You can listen on your preferred platform here , or from the player on the website. You can also rate us on any of the platforms or here - this helps others find the show. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscri...

It has been a little over a year since we started the podcast. Host and curator of the show Tobi Lawson is a guest on this episode - to talk about the philosophy behind the project and his opinions on many of the issues the show has discussed. You can rate us  here . If you want to support our efforts in bringing you the thoughts of brilliant thinkers through these conversations, you can be a patr...

Here is the second part of my episode with Chris Ogunmodede. We continued the discussion on Nigeria’s political economy. We touched on institutional memory in the legislature and why we need a stronger civil society. Chris is insightful as always. You can rate us  here . If you want to support our efforts in bringing you the thoughts of brilliant thinkers through these conversations, you can be a...

I have long admired the thoughts of foreign policy analyst Chris Ogunmodede through his Twitter feed, and it was a pleasure having this conversation with him. Our jump-off point was the tragic fallout from the EndSars protests. Chris’ knowledge and grasp of the core issues ensured he had deep insights on all my questions. (P.S he had some fun bashing economists). You can rate us here . If you want...

I had a conversation with Efosa Ojomo of the Clay Christensen Institute. He is the co-author of the book The Prosperity Paradox - along with Karen Dillon and the late Harvard management guru Clayton Christensen. The central argument of the book is that economic development happens when businesses innovate by creating a previously non-existent market. The book has been largely shunned by developmen...

I spoke to urban planning scholar Taibat Lawanson about most things Lagos city. We discussed housing, overpopulation, infrastructure, and the many problems that have made Lagos hard to live. She described Lagos as a ''complex city'' - and she is a sceptic of developments like Eko Atlantic city. TL : This is Ideas Untrapped, my guest today is Dr Taibat Lawanson who is a professor of urban planning...

I had a conversation with Elizabeth Omotunde, Emmanuel Era, and Ronke Bankole on the ongoing protest against police brutality in Nigeria. We thought out loud mostly on police reforms, what the legacy of the protests might be, and the complicated morass of the Nigerian bureaucracy. Many thanks to my guests for finding the time to offer their thoughts. Like I have reiterated multiple times, this is...

Trade economist Meredith Startz and I talked about her research on the information costs of trade. We discussed the strategies that traders use to lower costs associated with search (ensuring they get their goods to the market on time) and moral hazard costs (ensuring they get what exactly was ordered from their suppliers). We talked about how big businesses use fixed cost strategies to lower cost...

I had a very interesting conversation Shelby Grossman - political scientist at Stanford University. We talked about her research on informal trade in Lagos, and what we can learn generally about how institutions form from her findings. You can read this essay for a general background and explanation on what Shelby and I discussed on this episode. Download and other listening options are here - and...