Riches and Power

Imagine living through the Great Depression. It was a bleak time in American history with unemployment as high as 25% and despair all around. Looking back, it looks like a bleak time… but that may not be entirely true. In the midst of the pain and dislocation of the Depression, there was a flourishing and little-studied blossoming of entrepreneurship and invention that brought out things that we s...

Imagine a world in which the government has unbounded power, circumscribed by no constitution. This was the reality of things for most of human history, but more recently, in much of the world we have become accustomed to a constitution that limits the power of the government. In the United States, the constitution specifically lists—or enumerates as it is traditionally referred to—powers that the...

Imagine a world without economic crashes. A world in which the economy is always up and to the right, forever. That sounds like a great world, but it is also, perhaps, a less vibrant world. A world in which innovations are adopted less readily and new ways of thinking never emerge. Join us as we learn about economic crashes with Professor Harold James of Princeton who recently published a book exa...

The China Shock started in earnest in the early 2000s after it entered the World Trade Organization. In those years, the American heartland's manufacturing was gutted as a result of the shockingly fast entry of cheaper Chinese goods into the world stage. That was China Shock 1.0. Why was that shock so impactful, and what is going on during today's China Shock 3.0 to many other countries. Join us f...

Imagine a world in which people dying in airplanes wasn’t international headline making news. A world, instead, in which planes crashing was a common, everyday occurrence. A little over 100 years ago, there was an air race that captivated the country as its participants raced from coast to coast, then back again. But this wasn’t a simple race. It was also a concerted effort to usher in the age of...

How much do podcast hosts make? What does it take to get your show listened to? Why is podcasting such a great business model? Gary Arndt is a longtime podcast host of Everything Everywhere Daily, one of the most listened to history podcasts on the planet. We had a great discussion about the podcast industry itself. Join us for the ride!

Part 2: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) rose from obscurity into being the third most popular sport on the planet. How did such a violent, oft-frowned-upon sport become so popular? And how did Dana White come to so dominate the sport via his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) brand? This is a multi-billion dollar sport that you may not ever have heard much about. Join us as we explore this fascinating...

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) rose from obscurity into being the third most popular sport on the planet. How did such a violent, oft-frowned-upon sport become so popular? And how did Dana White come to so dominate the sport via his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) brand? This is a multi-billion dollar sport that you may not ever have heard much about. Join us as we explore this fascinating business...

In Part 2 of our conversation with CEO of Rex, Jack Ryan, we talk about an OpEd in the Wall Street Journal he recently published: "What Does HUD Have to Show for the Trillions It’s Spent?" We dig deep on the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, its staggering spend over the past six decades, and why it has struggled to achieve any of its aims (including driving down the cost of housing)...

CEO and Author Jack Ryan recently wrote an op ed in the Wall Street Journal called "What Does HUD Have to Show for the Trillions It’s Spent?" and subtitled: "The U.S. homeownership rate was 64% in 1967, two years after the department opened. Now it’s . . . 64%." He is an entrepreneur, an expert on housing policy, and a crusader against incumbent housing policy. Join us as a discuss...

Imagine walking down an aisle at Target or Walmart looking for a new coffee maker, but there is just one option. Shelf after shelf of a single brand’s coffee maker. You don’t like it? Too bad. Or, imagine a time before big-box retailers, when you might have to order a coffee maker via a catalog and wait weeks for its delivery. We live in an era of overwhelming choice that is entirely unique from a...

Why is America so odd in that its citizens drink huge quantities of refrigerated milk? Other Western countries primarily drink shelf-stable milk that does not need to be refrigerated until opened. How did this happen? What impact does this have on our grocery stores and environmental footprint?

Imagine a world in which you don’t own index funds, but rather own companies directly. You have to know them intimately, and vote on issues affecting the operations of the company. Today, we live in a world in which most of us invest passively, but it hasn’t always been that way. Join us as we explore the world and history of asset managers. Sahand Moarefy is a corporate attorney, and he is the au...

Spirit Airlines is one of the most reviled airlines--and brands--in the country. Yet, it also might be the most important airline in the country. Join us as we explore why this hated airline is so important to the U.S. air traveler with writer Scott Nover.

Imagine living in a world without a conception of a past greater than a few hundred or thousand years. A world in which “old” was perhaps not much older than your great, great, great grandfather. How would that change your conception of history, your place in the world, what the future holds? Deep time is a very modern idea whose impact on the development of North America as a locus of world power...

Imagine a world before North Face, Patagonia, or any other cold-weather gear. A world in which you had to rely only on what you could find in nature. It was in that world that industrial-scale hunting of seals took place because their fur provided fantastic insulation from the elements. It was also in that world that the unbelievable journey of the Nanina took place in which a group of men were ab...

Imagine a world in which you can’t lie because, if you do, you will be found out 100% of the time. We obviously don’t live in this world, but we’ve built machines in an attempt to get closer to that reality. So-called lie detectors—a staple of police procedural dramas—are an attempt to suss out the truth of a testimony using science. But is that science real, or is it more of a reflection of a mom...

Imagine a world in which you love skiing, but the only way to shush down the mountain is to trudge to the top of the mountain with the skis strapped to your back. There are no lift lines, sure, but each run requires an arduous effort to make happen. Conversely, imagine a world in which ski lifts are abundant, but a lift ticket doesn’t cost north of $200 per day at the window. Why and how did the s...

Why did the Cold War end? Every high schooler in the country would likely answer that with some reference to the steely-eyed resolve of John F. Kennedy, or America's overwhelming economic power. But Professor Fritz Bartel of Texas A&M University has a compelling--and very surprising--new theory he put forth in his recent book The Triumph of Broken Promises .

The two largest ride share providers in the United States, Uber and Lyft, have recently said that they will be exiting Minneapolis in May. Minneapolis' city council has passed into law a requirement that the ride share providers pay a (in the companies' view) high minimum hourly wage to their riders. The companies say the wage is unsustainable. The city council says it is necessary to ensure a liv...

Imagine a war ravaging your home and everything you know. But this isn’t a normal war, it is, in the eyes of the aggressor, a “small war.” The aggressor perhaps calls it a “peacekeeping mission.” From your perspective, this doesn’t matter one bit. Death is death and violence is violence. Throughout modern history, imperial powers have waged so-called small wars across the globe while resisting cal...

Imagine a world in which your elected leaders may not be removed from office. You go to the polls, you vote, and for whichever leader wins the election, they are handed a mandate and a golden ticket to pilfer the country in whatever way they see fit. In the United States and many other democracies around the globe, even the holder of the highest elected office in the land is still subject to remov...

Imagine a world in which time is not kept by a single authority. If you drive from your hometown to one a few hours away, noon is slightly different and tied to the local experience of when the sun peaks. Time would be less precise, and more driven by the moon, the stars, the sun, and even the behavior of animals. We all live in a world in which time is centrally determined and incredibly accurate...

Join us for a discussion with a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist. Imagine living in a country riven by political discord and strife. One party works to steal the election from the other. Politicians who are, in the eyes of their opposition, wholly unfit for office are running for and winning some of the highest elected positions in the country. This may sound familiar, but it is actually a tale of...

Imagine a world in which your life is turned upside down by war…. Not just war, but total war . The very land on which you live is destroyed and you are forced to flee, leaving everything behind. Beyond that, the very place you live in is destroyed. Food is scarce, shelter is difficult to find, and fear pervades your life. Though total war is most associated with modern conflicts, its roots go bac...