Business Talk

In this episode of Business Talk, Deepak Bhatt speaks with Dr. Nidhi Mahajan, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, about her book, Moorings: Voyages of Capital across the Indian Ocean, published by the University of California Press. The conversation explores how wooden trading vessels and the communities that sustain them remain active participants in c...

Professor Susan Stokes, the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, joins us to examine the critical insights of her landmark study, The Backsliders: Why Leaders Undermine Their Own Democracies. In this interview, Professor Stokes examines the mechanics of democratic backsliding, defining it as the simultaneous erosion of vertic...

Dr. Michael Segalla and Dr. Shiva Taghavi unpack the key insights and broader implications of their study, “Is Work an Act of Worship? The Impact of Implicit Religious Beliefs on Work Ethic in Secular vs. Religious Cultures.” In this conversation, Dr. Michael Segalla and Dr. Shiva Taghavi explore how implicit religious beliefs impact work ethic across contrasting societal environments. Their study...

Dr. Erica Bornstein, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Oregon, joins us to discuss the pivotal arguments behind her acclaimed work, A Revolution of Rules: The Regulatory Reform of India’s Nonprofit Sector. Dr. Erica Bornstein examines how the legal and regulatory landscape reshapes India's civil society. She argues that nonprofits are fundamentally defined not merely by their causes,...

In this episode of Business Talk, host Deepak Bhatt speaks with Dr. Guido Alfani, Professor of Economic History at Bocconi University, about his landmark book, As Gods Among Men: A History of the Rich in the West. Drawing on a millennium of archival data, Dr. Alfani examines the historically fragile social compact that bound Western elites to their communities. For centuries, extreme wealth was to...

Professor Francesco Sobbrio, Professor of Economics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and a Research Fellow at CESifo, turns our focus toward one of the defining dilemmas of our digital age, revealing what happens behind the screen in his co-authored research, “Ranking for Engagement: How Social Media Algorithms Fuel Misinformation and Polarization.” In his research, Prof. Francesco Sobbrio de...

Dr. Ramaswamy Ramesh, Professor of Management Science and Systems at the University at Buffalo School of Management, examines his co-authored paper, "Be Ready for the Future? An Economic Analysis of Over-the-Air Software Upgrades in the Automotive Industry." Professor Ramaswamy Ramesh’s research demonstrates that over-the-air (OTA) software upgrades fundamentally reshape durable goods economics as...

Dr. Michael Gurven, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Associate Director of the Broom Center for Demography at UC Santa Barbara, joins the conversation to discuss his book, Seven Decades: How We Evolved to Live Longer. Together, we examine what our evolutionary past teaches an aging world about community resilience and the essential purpose of later life. Drawing on two decades of fieldw...

Dr. Phillip Lieberman, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Texas, explores the central themes of his book, The Business of Identity: Jews, Muslims, and Economic Life in Medieval Egypt, examining how commercial practices shaped religious and communal identities in medieval Egypt. Re-examining Cairo Geniza legal contracts, he reveals how medieval Jewish merchants deliberately structu...

In this episode, Dr. Jeremy Ghez, Associate Professor of Economics and Decision Sciences at HEC Paris, shares practical insights from his book, Architects of Change: Designing Strategies for a Turbulent Business Environment. In this conversation, Dr. Jeremy Ghez outlines how leaders can navigate profound global uncertainty by balancing immediate crisis management with long-term strategic foresight...

Dr. Robert Morrison, Professor of Religion and Middle Eastern and North African Studies at Bowdoin College, shares valuable insights from his book, Merchants of Knowledge: Intellectual Exchange in the Ottoman Empire and Renaissance Europe. Dr. Morrison examines how multilingual Jewish scholars, such as physician Moses Galeano, operated across Venetian and Ottoman networks to drive genuine, recipro...

In this episode, Dr. Saori N. Katada, the Louis G. Lancaster Chair of International Relations at UC Santa Barbara, unpacks the central insights of her book, Japan’s New Regional Reality: Geoeconomic Strategy in the Asia-Pacific. She traces Japan’s transition from post-war neomercantilism to a proactive, state-led liberal strategy driven by domestic stagnation, the rise of China, and regional finan...

In this episode of Business Talk, host Deepak Bhatt speaks with Dr. Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute, about his book, Confessions of an Alien Hunter. Dr. Shostak separates science fiction from reality, explaining how radio telescopes scan the cosmos for engineered signals rather than biological entities. He challenges cinematic tropes, refutes government cover-up myths, and pr...

Dr. Tomasz Mickiewicz, 50th Anniversary Professor of Economics at Aston Business School and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at University College London, offers valuable insights drawn from his research, “Growth Expectations of Entrepreneurs During Crisis: The Role of Social, Environmental, and Economic Motivations.” He examines empirical findings from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor covering...

Dr. Anna Tavis, Clinical Professor and Chair of the Human Capital Management Department at NYU’s School of Professional Studies, shares key insights from her book, The Digital Coaching Revolution. She explains how artificial intelligence is democratizing workplace coaching by turning an exclusive executive privilege into an accessible, 24/7 development tool for employees at all levels. Anchoring p...

In their discussion of the Handbook of Research on Base of the Pyramid Entrepreneurship, Dr. Miguel Rivera-Santos and Dr. Carlos Rufín demonstrate that Base of the Pyramid markets are governed by distinct informal institutions rather than mere institutional voids. Drawing on settings from conflict zones to informal street trading, they show that entrepreneurial success depends on social identity,...

In this insightful discussion, Professor Alexandra Natapoff, the Lee S. Kreindler Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, explores the core themes of America Unfinished: 250 Years of Law and Governance. Marking the semiquincentennial of the Declaration of Independence, this landmark collection of essays from Harvard Law scholars examines American democracy not as a completed monument, but as an on...

In this episode, Dr. Tanya Wilson, Senior Lecturer in Economics at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, President of the Scottish Economic Society, and an IZA Research Fellow, shares key insights from her research, “Unemployment and Domestic Violence: Theory and Evidence.” In her study “Unemployment and Domestic Violence: Theory and Evidence,” Dr Tanya Wilson resolves why prior s...

Dr. Donald Kettl, Professor Emeritus and former Dean of the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, shares key insights from his book, The Divided States of America: Why Federalism Doesn’t Work, exploring how federalism is pulling the nation apart and what reforms could make the system function more effectively. American federalism, originally designed to balance national authority...

Dr. Xuenan Cao, Professor and Co-Chair of General Education at San Francisco Bay University and Adjunct Faculty at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, shares key insights from her book, Chinese Media Improvisations: Thriving on Deficits. She offers a compelling and unexpected perspective on China’s technological rise, showing how deficit-driven improvisation has helped shape innovation across med...

In this Business Talk episode, Dr. Terri Griffith of Simon Fraser University discusses how organizations and professionals can adopt AI responsibly while keeping people, judgment, and learning at the center. She emphasizes that AI adoption is not simply about installing new tools, it requires continuous learning, high-quality data, strong security practices, supportive leadership, and redesigned w...

In 1988, Jeffrey Hollender launched Seventh Generation as a small mail order catalog with a big belief: business must serve a greater good. For years, the market wasn’t ready. Sustainable products didn’t yet exist as a category in most consumers’ minds. Then came two turning points. First, Whole Foods began stocking the brand across all its stores. Next, a partnership with Target brought those pro...

In this episode of Business Talk, Deepak Bhatt speaks with Dr. Arnaldo Camuffo of Bocconi University about using scientific reasoning in entrepreneurship. They discuss how developing theories, testing clear hypotheses, and learning from evidence can help founders make better decisions, pursue focused pivots, and identify unpromising ideas earlier. The conversation highlights that well-informed ter...

Dr. Michael Tarr, the Kavčić-Moura Professor of Cognitive and Brain Science in the Department of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, shares key insights from his research, “When Brains Meet Machines: Primate Vision and Artificial Vision Systems.” This episode explores how biological vision influences artificial intelligence. Dr. Tarr highlights the primate brain’s strengths in generalization...

The podcast with Dr. Ellen Ernst Kossek, Professor Emerita at Purdue University, explored gender inclusion, workplace flexibility, mentoring, STEM diversity, and entrepreneurship. She emphasised that inclusive policies require supportive managers, fair career opportunities, effective mentoring, and flexible work practices. The discussion also highlighted the need to address systemic barriers for w...