217 episodes

Tyler Cowen engages today’s deepest thinkers in wide-ranging explorations of their work, the world, and everything in between. New conversations every other Wednesday. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Conversations with Tyler Mercatus Center Podcasts

    • Education
    • 5.0 • 22 Ratings

Tyler Cowen engages today’s deepest thinkers in wide-ranging explorations of their work, the world, and everything in between. New conversations every other Wednesday. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

    Marc Andreessen on AI and Dynamism

    Marc Andreessen on AI and Dynamism

    In this interview, recorded at a16z’s 2024 American Dynamism Summit, Tyler and Marc Andreessen engage in a rapid-fire dialogue about the future of AI, including the biggest change we’ll see in the next five years, who will gain and lose status with the rise of LLMs, why open-source is important for national security, the best and worst parts of Biden’s AI directive, the most underrated energy source, what the US can do to speed up AI deployment, what gives Marc optimism about Gen Z, which thinker helps him make sense of American capitalism, and more.
    To hear more conversations from a16z’s American Dynamism Summit, please go to www.a16z.com/adsummit.
    Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.
    Recorded January 30th, 2024.
    Other ways to connect
    Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Follow Marc on X Sign up for our newsletter Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here.

    • 27 min
    Marc Rowan on Financial Market Evolution and University Governance

    Marc Rowan on Financial Market Evolution and University Governance

    Marc Rowan, co-founder and CEO of Apollo Global Management, joined Tyler to discuss why rising interest rates won't hurt Apollo's profitability, why liabilities have traditionally been the weak spot in insurance, why the concept of liquidity needs a rethink, the meaninglessness of the term "private credit", what role crypto will play in American finance, why Marc bought a brutalist apartment, which country has beautiful new neighborhoods, what motivated Apollo's office redesign, what he looks for in young hires, the different kind of decision-making required in debt versus private equity, the biggest obstacle to doing business in India, how university governance can be improved, what he's learned from running restaurants, the next thing he'll learn, and more.
    Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.
    Recorded February 5th, 2024.
    Other ways to connect
    Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Sign up for our newsletter Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here.

    • 56 min
    Masaaki Suzuki on Interpreting Bach

    Masaaki Suzuki on Interpreting Bach

    A conductor, harpsichordist, and organist, Masaaki Suzuki stands as a towering figure in Baroque music, renowned for his comprehensive and top-tier recordings of Bach's works, including all of Bach's sacred and secular cantatas. Suzuki's unparalleled dedication extends beyond Bach, with significant contributions to the works of Mozart, Handel, and other 18th-century composers. He is the founder of the Bach Collegium Japan, an artist in residence at Yale, and conducts orchestras and choruses around the world. 
    Tyler sat down with Suzuki to discuss the innovation and novelty in Bach's St. John's Passion, whether Suzuki's Calvinist background influences his musical interpretation, his initial encounter with Bach through Karl Richter, whether older recordings of Bach have held up, why he trained in the Netherlands, what he looks for in young musicians, how Japanese players appreciate Bach differently, whether Christianity could have ever succeeded in Japan, why Bach's larger vocal works were neglected for so long, how often Bach heard his masterworks performed, why Suzuki's  favorite organ is in Groningen, what he thinks of Glenn Gould’s interpretations of Bach, what contemporary music he enjoys, what he'll do next, and more.
    Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. 
    Recorded October 18th, 2023.
    Other ways to connect
    Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Follow Masaaki on X Sign up for our newsletter Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here.

    • 56 min
    Ami Vitale on Photojournalism and Wildlife Conservation

    Ami Vitale on Photojournalism and Wildlife Conservation

    Ami Vitale is a renowned National Geographic photographer and documentarian with a deep commitment to wildlife conservation and environmental education. Her work, spanning over a hundred countries, includes spending a decade as a conflict photographer in places like Kosovo, Gaza, and Kashmir.
    She joined Tyler to discuss why we should stay scary to pandas, whether we should bring back extinct species, the success of Kenyan wildlife management, the mental cost of a decade photographing war, what she thinks of the transition from film to digital, the ethical issues raised by Afghan Girl, the future of National Geographic, the heuristic guiding of where she'll travel next, what she looks for in a young photographer,  her next project, and more.
    Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. 
    Recorded November 1st, 2023.
    Other ways to connect
    Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Sign up for our newsletter Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here.  

    • 54 min
    Rebecca F. Kuang on National Literatures, Book Publishing, and History in Fiction

    Rebecca F. Kuang on National Literatures, Book Publishing, and History in Fiction

    Rebecca F. Kuang just might change the way you think about fantasy and science fiction. Known for her best-selling books Babel and The Poppy War trilogy, Kuang combines a unique blend of historical richness and imaginative storytelling. At just 27, she’s already published five novels, and her compulsion to write has not abated even as she's pursued advanced degrees at Oxford, Cambridge, and now Yale. Her latest book, Yellowface, was one of Tyler’s favorites in 2023.
    She sat down with Tyler to discuss Chinese science-fiction, which work of fantasy she hopes will still be read in fifty years, which novels use footnotes well, how she'd change book publishing, what she enjoys about book tours, what to make of which Chinese fiction is read in the West, the differences between the three volumes of The Three Body Problem, what surprised her on her recent Taiwan trip, why novels are rarely co-authored, how debate influences her writing, how she'll balance writing fiction with her academic pursuits, where she'll travel next, and more.
    Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. 
    Sign up for our Live Event in Miami with Peter Thiel. 
    Recorded September 15th, 2023.
    Other ways to connect
    Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Follow Rebecca on X Sign up for our newsletter Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here. Image credit: John Packman

    • 1 hr 3 min
    Patrick McKenzie on Navigating Complex Systems

    Patrick McKenzie on Navigating Complex Systems

    Few can measure the impact of a blog post they wrote, in the millions of dollars a year, but Patrick McKenzie has the receipts. His 2012 post on salary negotiation is read hundreds of thousands of times each year, and he has a Gmail folder brimming with success stories. This achievement is just of his many contributions, which include starting several businesses, advising Stripe and other software companies, and spearheading the launch of VaccinateCA. Lately he's been writing Bits about Money, a biweekly newsletter on the intersection of tech and finance.
    Tyler sat down with Patrick to discuss signature fields on the back of credit cards, whether bank tellers or waitstaff are more trustworthy, the gremlins behind spurious credit card declines, how debt collection and maple syrup heists should change your model of the world, Twitter’s continued success as the message bus for government and civil society, crypto vs traditional money transfers, the intended desolation of bank parking lots, why he moved to Japan and how it affected his ambition, why Tether hasn't collapsed, the internet as a Great Work, how he's experiencing reverse culture shock after returning to the US, what he'll learn about next, and more.
    Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. 
    Recorded October 26th, 2023.
    Other ways to connect
    Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Follow Patrick on X Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here.

    • 54 min

Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5
22 Ratings

22 Ratings

GerC1 ,

I learn so much

Brings such variety in perspectives and personalities but the high quality of conversation is consistent.

Pr_lim ,

High-Quality Converstions

Extremely well-researched, thoughtful, educational, inspirational, and often quite funny. This podcast has many of the best conversations I’ve ever heard and it’s clear that Tyler puts a lot of effort into preparing for them.

Bearyphotography ,

Educational & informative

Some of the best conversations around ... I enjoy these immensely

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