![]() ![]() Most of this research is very narrow and esoteric, but Cowen asks a lot of big picture questions, about things like why exactly it is that places far away from the equator are so much richer (in the Dell conversation). countries in Africa that had more slaves taken from them are more mistrustful today. Nunn and Dell are both economists at Harvard, who have both hugely contributed to the research on cultural persistence – effects that persist for hundreds of years, e.g. These episodes were a large part of my inspiration in writing my post about the persistence literature. I’m giving this joint spot to the episodes with Nathan Nunn and Melissa Dell, because of their similar subject matter. Odysseus returns home halfway through the poem – is the rest of it just Homer showing off? Can something from 2,500 years ago still be funny today? Lots to digest in this conversation. ![]() Wilson and Cowen discuss the history of translations of The Odyssey: why did Thomas Hobbes translate it? How did that fit in with his general political philosophy? They also discuss the Homeric question, aka who Homer was, if he/she/they even were a single person. What I love about podcasts like this one is how object-level they are: there are no shortage of podcasts about how people are reacting to X, or how outrageous X is, or how X fits in with some social trend or celebrity drama, but it’s remarkable how little anyone actually talks about X! This really is a conversation about translation and the Greek myths. This conversation is with Emily Wilson, a professor of classics at the University of Pennsylvania and the first woman to translate The Odyssey into English. Some people may say that writing a whole blog post just to get someone to listen to a podcast is excessive, but those people would be wrong. Some of the best episodes are with guests who have been interviewed many times: the questions asked are very different from what you get on other podcasts.ĭespite our many shared interests, my girlfriend has never listened to Conversations with Tyler, and so this is really one extended exercise in trying to get her to listen to it. It can also be difficult to get into, because Tyler does extremely deep research and you won’t understand every detail on the first listening. In it, the economist Tyler Cowen asks detailed (and often rapid-fire) questions of guests, which often include authors, philosophers, scientists and economists.Ĭonversations with Tyler is very information dense, and has a lot of replay value compared to most podcasts. Podcast feed: Website, Apple podcasts, Spotify, RSSĬonversations with Tyler is one of my favourite podcasts. ![]()
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