Pradyumna Prasad Podcasts

I spoke with Devashish Dhar, the author of the excellent book India's Blind Spot which talks about India's urbanisation crisis and solutions to it. We talk about Why does India have a much lower reported rate of urbanisation than the rest of the world? Explaining the global bias against cities “Extremely high levels of traffic is caused by poor lan…

I interviewed one of the most interesting thinkers today, Tyler Cowen. We talked about Why there are such few Singaporean famous people What Singapore can do to get more weird Why he's sceptical of an AI-driven singularity What happens to kids in a post-GPT world What happens to public intellectuals in a post-GPT world Why he's optimistic on Kenyan…

I spoke to Rohit Krishnan the author of the blog Strange Loop Canon about why he is sceptical about the idea that AI will kill us all We talked about Why he’s sceptical of AI regulation proposals Why AI “timelines” are not as meaningful as you think AI deployment is harder than you think! The value of incrementalism in AI policy Why he thinks instr…

I spoke to Soham Sankaran who runs PopVax, an Indian mRNA vaccine company. Their goal is to build low-cost broadly-protective vaccines to protect against the entire sarbecovirus species. Read Soham's experience here (https://chronicles.popvax.com/p/three-meetings-and-six-million-funerals) as a complement to this episode. Also check out their jobs p…

I talked to Dwarkesh Patel of the Lunar Society Podcast about many topics. We talked about: Why do AI researchers and rationalists disagree about existential risk? What would happen if Robert Moses ran San Francisco? Is localism overrated? What does Effective Altruism get right and wrong? Which politicians would he like to interview --- Send in a v…

I spoke to Trevor Chow about existential risks from AI and techniques to align artificial intelligence with human goals. Specifically we talked about An introduction to existential risk from Artificial Intelligence Existing methods for alignment of AI models Why RLHF might fail in large language models Whether interpretability research might scale?…

I talked to Faris Abdurrachman about Indonesia and it's nickel boom. We talked specifically about Why Indonesia banned exports of raw nickel Who gets the value from nickel exports Indonesia's new sovereign wealth fund --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pradyumna-sp/message…

I spoke to Kartik Akileswaran who runs Growth Teams - an initiative which helps build state capacity for economic growth in developing countries. We talked about - Why implementation is a binding constraint for economic policy - How industrial policy helps reduce information constraints for investors - Underrated growth reforms --- Send in a voice …

I spoke to Matt Korda who works at the Federation of American Scientists on nuclear weapon policy. We have an exciting discussion about the role of nuclear weapons, their growth and the dangerous arms races that are starting Some highlights of the show: The advent of “exotic” nuclear weapon systems China’s nuclear strategy has changed dramatically!…

I talked to Anupam Manur, a professor of economics about India's trade policy before 1991. We talked about: The scarcity mindset about foreign exchange reserves The controversial 1966 devaluation How did the pre-1991 import licensing system work? “The financial account was almost non existent” “Hindustan Motors and Toyota were set up at the same ti…

I spoke to Professor Richard Jones, about how science funding in the UK could improve. Some interesting questions we talked about are “Penny wise, pound foolish” in science funding Creating markets for technological advances How he’d invest a billion £ to accelerate scientific innovation? --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/…

I talked to Tiago Santos, a diplomat, about his book Why Not Parliamentarism. Tiago and I explore some questions here What makes parliamentary democracies superior to presidential ones? The creeping presidentialisation of parliamentary democracies The optimal rate of constitutional amendments --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.…

I talked to Amit Varma who runs one of my favourite podcasts - The Seen and the Unseen about politics, economics and public policy. We talked about Libertarianism within the Indian canon Cultivating your audience Being a public intellectual The differences between generations --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/prad…

I spoke to Jason Crawford of The Roots of Progress about the new movement of Progress Studies. We talked about Building a culture of economic progress Why are developed countries more averse to progress? Is there a tradeoff between economic progress and existential risk? What is the main constraint for the movement today? --- Send in a voice messag…

I talked with Mayank Seksaria of Liberty Mutual Investments about investing on macroeconomic views. We talked about Translating macro views into investing allocations A bottom up view of the macroeconomy Evaluating macro talent Why does institutional research cost so much? --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pradyum…

I spoke to Mary Childs who is the author of the exceptional book The Bond King. We talked about How finance became an interesting profession How do you build institutions that succeed at investing? Can we automate the Fed? Financial history being undervalued --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pradyumna-sp/message…

I spoke to Steven Hamilton professor of Economics at George Washington University about Australian economic policy, and their upcoming elections. We talk about Why was Australian COVID policy so strict? Australia as a nation of prison guards Economic issues of the Australian election “Australia is a mine with a parliament” Dutch disease in Australi…

What is the labour market like? What are the largest barriers in the labour market? Nathan Young and I spoke to economist Bryan Caplan about his new book Labor Econ Versus The World. We also talk about Censorship and dictatorships Bets he is willing to take Malengo and international migration DALLE-2 and writing graphic novels The literature on edu…

I spoke to David Manehim who works on reducing existential threats to humanity at the Technion. We talked about The biggest threats to humanity Preventing all future pandemics Is working on X-risk even tractable? How you can work on reducing existential risk Very fun on an underrated topic! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.co…

I spoke to the very very talented Trevor Chow about the history of long run growth. Topics include Wishlist of economic history topics Getting over vetocracy Qualities of the best economic blogs Why more economics graduates should join a VC firm! Meme theory of money Highly highly recommended --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.…

I spoke with Jamie Catherwood who writes and teaches financial history at Investor Amnesia. We had a lot of fun talking about The relevance of financial history Formation of bubbles Investing during a war Surprising stories behind the 1907 financial panic The influence of Twitter --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/…

I talked to Puja Mehra, a journalist and author of the book The Lost Decade about India's economic history of the years 2008-2018. We talked about The reasons for India's jobs crisis Should the Finance Ministry be split into two? The farming crisis Has India's Big Government really receded? --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.co…

I spoke to Michael Norris, a commentator on Chinese technology industries and research manager at AgencyChina. We talked about Understanding the motivations of Chinese antitrust enforcement The 'low hanging fruit' of antitrust The false dilemma of hard tech and software Chinese tech companies he is bullish on English language news sources for China…

I talked to Jamie Powell who is a financial journalist at the Financial Times. We had lots of fun talking about: The economics of short selling Can bubbles be good for the economy? Issues with Web3 The story around tesla Highly recommended! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pradyumna-sp/message…

I talked to Ben Reinhardt about new models for funding science and innovation. Ben's pieces on DARPA and his proposal for a private DARPA-like research funding organization are foundational pieces in the field and should be read by anyone who wants to understand them. We talked about: The Big Man Theory of History What makes good DARPA program mana…

I spoke with Matt Clifford, the co-founder and CEO of Entrepreneur First a pre-idea investing firm. We talked about some very exciting topics! They are: Personality types of successful founders Founders with high agency The race between politics and technology The most underrated impactful historical event --- Send in a voice message: https://podca…

I talked to Duncan Weldon a former Britain economics correspondent for The Economist and the writer of the substack Value Added. We talked about his book Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through. Topics include How did the road to riches change through centuries? Why does Britain have no tech giants? How did Britain survive with high levels of debt in…

I talked to Sam Bowman, the Director of competition policy at the Law and Econ Center. He was previously Executive Director of the Adam Smith Institute and has been a constant advocate for saner housing policy. I talked to him about housing policy and adjacent topics: How housing affects everything! How do we incentivize NIMBYs into allowing more b…

I talked to Michael Green who is Chief Strategist and Portfolio Manager at Simplify ETFs. He previously was Chief Strategist and Portfolio Manager at Logica and even before that he was portfolio manager at Thiel Capital. Mike is extremely smart and very fun to talk to. We had an interesting conversation about How do passive flows change the stock m…

I talked to Alex Tabarrok, Professor of Economics at George Mason University about the FDA's response on COVID along with a variety of other topics. We talked about What happens if the public wants an inefficient COVID response? What mistakes did zero-COVID countries make? What are bottlenecks to Indian growth? Why he thinks investing in life exten…

I spoke to Joey Politano, who writes the popular newsletter Apricitas . We did a deep dive into monetary policy where Joey talked about Quantitative Easing, Yield Curve Control and stablecoins. Other topics include Measuring the stance of monetary policy Which country would benefit from using dogecoin as currency? What can economists learn from pol…

I talked to Tom Spencer a law student at City Law School and Chief Organizer of London New Liberals. Tom's interests lie on the edge of law and economics where he does work on housing policy and anti trust. We had a lively conversation on Solving the UK's housing crisis What lawyers and economists can learn from each other Brexit and its consequenc…

I talked to Michael Bishop, who worked at DARPA's Replication Markets project. We talked about Why was there a replication crisis in science? How do you design a market for predicting replication attempts? Is there alpha in replication market trading? --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pradyumna-sp/message…

I talked to Kevin Erdmann, a visiting fellow at the Mercatus Center about his upcoming book Building From the Ground Up which is about myths surrounding the housing bubble and the Great Recession. We talked about The myth of a 'housing bubble' How American policymakers self induced a recession His research process Preorder Keivn's new book here! --…

I talked to Matt Darling, an Employment Policy Fellow at the Niskanen Institute We talked about Cognitive tax of poverty Behavioural economics and the replication crisis What question does he wish people asked him? --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pradyumna-sp/message…

I talked to Rohit Krishnan, a venture capitalist and writer of the newsletter Strange Loop Canon. In my view he is among the most underrated writers in the public sphere today. I talked to him about a variety of topics. They are: The real meaning of ambition Why people misunderstand optionality Rohit’s favourite Indian cuisine Why you can’t replica…

I talked to the very popular @EGirlMonetarism about the political economy of Argentinian populism. It was a very informative conversation. We talked about: The political economy of Latin American populism The most underrated economic concept How to fix the Argentine economy --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pradyu…

Samuel Hammond is the Director of Poverty and Welfare Policy at the Niskanen Center. We had an excellent conversation on How policies actually get passed “libertarian think tanks exist for rich people to feel like they're smart and smart people to feel like they’re rich” Nonprofits and the lack of market incentives His most controversial opinion on…

I talk to Joshua Miller, an extremely smart 16 year old on Nominal GDP Targeting What he disagrees with Milton Friedman the most on The theory behind market monetarism --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pradyumna-sp/message

I talked to the very popular Noah Smith on a variety of topics. We talked about Is America too insular? Indian cultural exports to the US Is economic growth zero-sum at the country level? Where does he disagree with @jdcmedlock the most? What are the deep causes of partisanship in America? The moral coordination problem of going vegan The political…

I spoke to Michael Fritzell who writes the substack Asian Century Stocks about high-quality stock ideas around Asia. Michael is a CFA charterholder and has worked as an equity analyst in Asia for over a decade. We talk about Common characteristics of successful CEOs Why Chinese real estate prices are due for a fall How do you read an annual report …

I spoke to Pranay Kothasthane who is the Deputy Director of Takshashila Institution, a think tank based in Bengaluru. We talk about India’s vaccine diplomacy Why Pranay’s an optimist on Indian growth What he learnt running a Hindi podcast --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pradyumna-sp/message…

Mark Lutter is the Founder and Executive Director of the Charter Cities Institute. CCI's aim is to build an ecosystem for charter cities We talk about - The basic concepts of charter cities - What is the biggest misconception about charter cities? - What personality type does it take to run a non profit? --- Send in a voice message: https://podcast…

For this Indian Independence day I talked to Shruti Rajagopalan about the Indian economic reforms. How was Nehruvian socialism different from socialism under Indira Gandhi? Why didn't land reform work in India? Does Shruti believe in the Great Man theory of history? --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pradyumna-sp/m…

Karol is a financial sector specialist at the World Bank. I speak to him about Why doesn't America have 24/7 payment systems? Was shock therapy in Poland a mistake? Bangladesh’s growth miracle What do the World Bank’s critics get wrong? A highly enjoyable episode! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pradyumna-sp/mes…

I talk to Srivatsan Prakash - the host of the Market Champions podcast - about his experience podcasting, investing and some thoughts about the stimulus We talk about - The most surprising thing about being on a podcast - Is there a wrong way to invest - Why ‘Austrian investing’ is the wrong way to invest - The Biden stimulus isn’t going to lead to…

Alfonso Peccatiello is the Head of Fixed Income Portfolio Management at ING Deutschland. I talked to him about Why is Italy in trouble economically? How should you size positions while trading? Why do so many European institutions buy negative yielding bonds? Alfonso gives some very good career advice at the end of the interview! --- Send in a voic…

Hemantha is a student at Harvard, who is currently working at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He has worked with the India CEA and the RBI. We talk about What makes certain government schemes successful? Does being a debater make you more adversarial? How would he change RCTs? --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/s…

Mike is starting at The Economist as Asia business and finance editor. We talk about - What is the biggest flaw of journalists? - How Hong Kong's land policy hurts its tech companies - Why asset price "inflation" is nonsense - Why Mike's not an MMTer but would like to see it tried anyways BONUS: Mike reveals who he thinks will win the Euros! --- Se…

We talk about - Do think tanks actually have an impact? - Should we loosen accredited investor regulations? - Should more companies invest in public policy roles? - What would he do if he could remake American federal regulation? You can read Eli's writing at https://elidourado.com/ You can read my writing at http://brettongoods.substack.com/ --- S…