The Rational Reminder Podcast

Welcome to another special episode of Rational Reminder Podcast, a show to help us learn about cryptocurrencies and their role in our current and future financial systems. In today's show, we speak to Tobin Hanspal, an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Vienna University of Economics and Business who has written several papers focused on household finances. Tobin's research area offers insights...

Welcome back to another exciting and informative episode of the Rational Reminder Podcast, a show all about finances and how to get the most of your money responsibly. To make the right decisions regarding your investments, besides the knowledge and understanding of financial systems, you also need to understand the psychology behind your decisions. To help us unpack this complicated and interesti...

Welcome back to another episode of our series focusing on cryptocurrencies. In this episode, we dive into conceptual complexities surrounding cryptocurrencies and how this might affect the financial system in future. To help us unravel this nuanced subject is Professor Eswar Prasad, a senior professor of trade policy and Professor of Economics at Cornell University, and a senior fellow at Brooking...

Welcome to another episode of the Rational Reminder Podcast. In today's jam-packed episode, hear updates regarding our goals survey, the schedule for upcoming guests on the show, the latest news and highlights from the financial world, and some of the feedback we have received about the show. We also highlight interesting articles and papers regarding tech valuations, expected stock returns, the p...

Understanding the complexity surrounding cryptocurrencies is essential in making the correct decisions regarding investing in DeFi technology. To help us understand the basics, we talked to Dr. Igor Makarov who is an expert on cryptocurrency and Bitcoin, particularly Bitcoin and the associated mining processes. He is based at the London School of Economics, where he serves as an Associate Professo...

John List is the recently appointed Chief Economist at Walmart, and is also a Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, having worked as the Chief Economist at Uber and Lyft. He has published a huge array of important papers in the field of economics and is also the author of the recent book  The Voltage Effect,  which deals with the question of how to scale ideas successfully. We are v...

Fundamentals of the Blockchain with Daniel Mescheder   Episode 1: Show Notes   Welcome to the first episode of our limited series focusing on cryptocurrencies and everything you need to know about them. Our first guest is Daniel Mescheder, who joins us to appropriately break down some of the basic concepts and engineering of the blockchain, using his expertise as a software engineer as the lens fo...

We have a jam-packed episode for all of our listeners today, with two guests, a lot of news, and many great resource recommendations. We start off by rounding up some recent updates from the world of finance and the Rational Reminder community, and spend some time talking about Ben's recent paper, titled 'Finding and Funding Good Life'. We are then joined by Robb Engen, for his third appearance on...

To carry on the trend of amazing guests on the show, today we welcome Antti Ilmanen. Antti is the co-head of the Portfolio Solutions Group at AQR, and the author of a couple of really impactful books that we highly recommend. His most recent is  Investing Amid Low Expected Returns,  and in today's chat, we get to hear all about the ideas contained in its pages, and the most important moments in hi...

Today, on the Rational Reminder Podcast, we are tackling a few interesting topics that tie into recent and forthcoming conversations with our amazing guests. In this 'us only' episode, we are focusing on thematic ETFs and the truth about dividend investing. After a quick look at  The Quick Fix  by Jesse Singal, some reflections on the past six months at ARK Invest, and the lessons we can still lea...

We are so happy to bring you all our 200th episode, and who better to have on the podcast on this auspicious occasion than the legendary, Professor Gene Fama? This is one of the most jam-packed episodes we have ever recorded, with Gene providing concise and thought-provoking answers to our many, many questions. After delving into the foundations of Gene's work and philosophy, covering market effic...

As we near the 200th episode of our little podcast, we wanted to have a chat with our friend Aydin Mirzaee about one of our favourite topics: books. Before welcoming Aydin into the conversation we round up some important news, go deeper than ever into the fascinating subject of bonds, and share some thoughts on  Setting the Table.  As the host of the Supermanagers Podcast and the CEO of Fellow, Ay...

You don't need to be a rocket scientist to work at Dimensional Fund Advisors, but Gerard O'Reilly sees it as an asset, particularly when it comes to problem-solving. Now the Co-CEO and Chief Investment Officer of one of the fastest-growing US investment businesses, Gerard received a Ph. D. in aeronautics before entering fund management, attracted to Dimensional because of the opportunity it afford...

Many people have been contemplating the death of bonds, which is why for the main topic of today's episode we're going to be talking about their immortality. After a vicarious trip to The Masters, an overview of The Art of Insubordination, and an explanation of why we're concerned about the changes that WealthSimple has made to their business model, we get into the world of bonds. Bond returns hav...

Welcome back to the show all about sensible investing in Canada! Today we have yet another masterclass with a wonderful guest, Sebastien Betermier. Sebastian is an Associate Professor of Finance at Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University, where he teaches investment management, applied investments, and pension funds retirement systems. We have a deep, thoughtful, and precise conversat...

The world of personal finance is full of axioms, and new investors can get caught up in investing myths and 'rules of thumb' that are limiting at best and lead to underperformance and unnecessary losses at worst. In this week's episode, we outline some of the common misconceptions that new investors have, the evidence (or lack thereof) surrounding them, and how to think more like a seasoned invest...

When it comes to the uncertain future of financial markets and technological innovation, a deep understanding of history and the roots of the systems at play in our contemporary climate is often overlooked. This is the argument made by Bill Janeway, our guest on the show today and the author of  Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy.  We have a fascinating conversation with Bill who has vast...

Today on Rational Reminder we take a deep dive into the evolution of modern portfolio theory. We kick the show off with some updates and reviews on some of the brilliant shows and books we are watching right now. A key item from this selection is Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention  and the points it makes about the value of flow state for learning and creativity. After this week's news stor...

We always appreciate research-based arguments here at the Rational Reminder and when those arguments might rattle some assumptions we get particularly excited. Today we have an eye-opening conversation with finance professor Alex Edmans, in which he discusses his idea of growing the pie and how social change and value relate to investor decisions. Alex's work is deeply rooted in skepticism and a c...

There seem to be many differing opinions out there about investing in emerging markets, and unfortunately, many of these are inaccurate. This is mostly due to the fact that emerging markets and your involvement in them, perform in ways that are somewhat counterintuitive. In today's episode, we tackle this tricky subject from a number of angles and try to give all of our listeners a better understa...

It is commonly believed that rational thought is threatened by emotion, but contemporary understandings of the brain paint a more complicated picture. Today's guest is Leonard Mlodinow and he joins us to talk about why. As a mathematician and theoretical physicist, Leonard might seem like an odd fit for this topic at first glance. However, when Leonard's desire to discover the secrets of the unive...

In this special episode, we review the relationship between war and financial markets. War is a tragedy. We are not minimizing the humanitarian tragedy of what is happening in Ukraine by focusing on the potential impact on financial markets. But we are offering a Rational Reminder for investors in a stressful time. Wars and financial markets have coexisted, and often been intertwined, for hundreds...

Today's guest is Neil Pasricha and he joins us to discuss how to read more. Before our time with Neil, Ben and Cameron lead the discussion, working through a range of topics including how to grasp large numbers, the value of 'humbitious' leadership, and how to get a better understanding of regret. When Neil jumps into the conversation, he starts by making an argument for reading, telling us how it...

Goal-setting has been a divisive subject of discussion for us here on the Rational Reminder Podcast, and today we dive a bit deeper into the topic with the help of the amazing Ayelet Fishbach, author of the recent book  Get It Done.  Ayelet is an expert in motivation and a Professor of Behavioral Science and Marketing at the Chicago Booth School of Business. Her focus in her work is researching so...

Identifying investment goals is a critical step in developing a sound financial plan that helps investors reach their objectives. Studies have shown that using a goals-based framework in financial planning can lead to an increase in wealth for investors and has the potential to strengthen planner-client relationships; but what goals should you be setting? And why is it often so difficult to make t...