The Boiling Frog

Seth Rosenblatt and Mark Olbert

Reflections on the intersection of economics, history, politics, psychology, and science

  1. SEP 23

    Ribbiting Disparities

    This podcast explores the notion of income inequality. Although it’s an oft-discussed subject, it’s not always defined well or only discussed in the narrow band of the moral arguments against it. This discussion is meant to go deeper, including examining both the positive and negative aspects of inequality and its role in an economic system. Fundamentally, we’re asking the question as to whether some amount of inequality is a necessary byproduct of capitalism, or perhaps even a desirable outcome of an economic system. Therefore, we hypothesize that there may be an “optimal” amount of inequality in a society.

    23 min

  2. JUN 3

    Frognosis

    This episode examines the political debates around public health and public health policy. It is a perfect case study to illustrate so many of the principles covered in earlier podcasts, such as capitalism, externalities, risk, paranoia, and the dumbing down of America.

    33 min

  3. FEB 14

    Trade Wart

    Welcome to The Boiling Frog reboot! The first 26 episodes were examinations of general topics,  such as understanding capitalism, how social psychology belies the principles of capitalism, and how this all shapes political dialog. The new podcasts will look at specific policies of the new administration and use those as case studies to illustrate the real-life impact of those general concepts. We start with tariffs, a word that Donald Trump loves and is already deploying across multiple sectors and trading partners. The principles we examine go back to two earlier podcasts – our very first one, Laissez Frog, which was about capitalism in general, and our 21st episode, Greenbacks, which was about taxes.

    29 min

  4. 04/17/2023

    Jimmy Hoppa

    This podcast is all about labor unions – why they exist, their history in the U.S., a brief comparison with unions in other countries, the pros and cons of unions, and the larger political implications of their existence. This is a controversial topic in U.S. politics, with many voters (and most elected officials) falling squarely into the “pro-union” or “anti-union” camp. But as with most issues, the truth is much more nuanced and complicated. Labor unions in the U.S. formed – and largely still exist – because of failures in market capitalism. As discussed in our very first podcast, capitalism is based on a number of principles to ensure resources are most efficiently allocated, but in real life those principles are rarely met. This is particularly pronounced in the labor market, which is fraught with friction and often monopsony employers.

    37 min

  5. 02/17/2023

    Jump for Joy

    Building off the prior podcast on learning from the past, this discussion is all about success and failure. We all know the common wisdom that we all learn more from failure than from success, but of course we don’t strive to fail all of the time!

    29 min

  6. 12/31/2022

    The Toad Not Taken

    We all spend a lot of time thinking about the past, often when we're trying to make a decision in the present. Sometimes that reflection ends up complicating our decision-making. Why is that? And if we want to avoid repeating past mistakes while also not preventing ourselves from taking new paths, what's the proper way to use our knowledge of the past?

    34 min

  7. 12/11/2022

    Polliwog Polymath

    What makes someone an expert? And how is expertise different from intelligence? This podcast is all about expertise, how we acquire it, how do people view others’ expertise, and the notion of expertise transference from one domain to another. We touch on a number of psychological phenomena, including the Dunning-Kruger Effect, which is a cognitive bias whereby people with low ability at a task overestimate that ability.

    34 min

  8. 12/02/2022

    It’s Not Easy Paying Green

    This podcast is the sequel to Greenbacks, where we discussed why we have taxes, the different types of taxes, and the pros and cons of each type. In this podcast, we delve into the evolution of the tax system and look at the debates surrounding the level of tax rates, specifically some of the false choices presented in political discussions. And we delve deeply into one of the most famous “tax revolts” in U.S. history, California’s Proposition 13.

    33 min
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5
out of 5
7 Ratings

About

Reflections on the intersection of economics, history, politics, psychology, and science

Information

  • Creator
    Seth Rosenblatt and Mark Olbert
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2025
  • Episodes
    29
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © copyright 2022 Seth Rosenblatt and Mark Olbert
  • Show Website
    The Boiling Frog