Harvard professor Roland Fryer on studying difficult questions with economics

The Invisible Men

This week, Ian and Nique launch a two-part discussion with Harvard professor, MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, and early-stage investor Roland Fryer on Roland’s journey to academia (part 1) and why his principled approach to research has disrupted long-held assumptions within the social sciences about policing, mobility, and race (part 2). In this first part of the conversation, Roland shares how his exposure to economics in college sparked an academic passion in him that had lay dormant until that point. Roland became enthralled with economics because it empowered him to use the best research tools available to study the most important and difficult social questions — topics such as policing, education, health, and the drug epidemic. Later, Roland shares how a pivotal encounter with one of his economics professors at the University of Chicago, in which he engaged in a “no holds barred” debate on race, inspired the intellectual honesty he approaches his research with today, as well as the teaching methods he has used in his classroom. Watch the full episode to learn more about Roland’s story and to hear his words of advice for “Darryl.