The Jolly Swagman Podcast

About this podcast

The JSP is a weekly exploration of questions that are both important and overlooked. Joe Walker, a former political speechwriter helping to build a Y Combinator-backed startup, hosts refreshingly in-depth conversations. Topics cover capitalism, science, business, culture and politics. Guests include Nobel laureates, former prime ministers, authors, entrepreneurs, investors and thought-leaders. Australia's best long-form podcast. A space for curious contrarians.

The Jolly Swagman Podcast

Episodes

Season 5
#126: The Craft Of Comedy And The Art Of A Lasting Partnership - Andy Lee
Andy Lee is one half of iconic Australian comedy duo Hamish & Andy. Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/andy-lee
March 28, 2021
98 min
#125: The Reign Of Keynes, Part II - Lord Robert Skidelsky
Robert Skidelsky, FBA is a British economic historian. He is the author of a three-volume award-winning biography of British economist John Maynard Keynes. Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/skidelsky
March 21, 2021
87 min
#124: Recollections Of A Wild Man In The Wings - Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky is the father of modern linguistics and one of the most cited scholars in modern history. He is also one of the most influential public intellectuals in the world, having written more than 150 books. Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/chomsky
March 16, 2021
65 min
#123: There Is Such A Thing As Society - Sir Paul Collier
Sir Paul Collier is a British development economist. He is currently a professor of economics at the University of Oxford and was the Director of the Development Research Group at the World Bank between 1998 and 2003. Paul has authored numerous books, including The Bottom Billion, The Plundered Planet, and The Future of Capitalism. His latest book, co-authored with John Kay, is Greed is Dead: Politics After Individualism.
March 8, 2021
71 min
#122: The Reign Of Keynes, Part I - Zach Carter
Zach Carter is a senior reporter at The Huffington Post and the author of the New York Times bestseller The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy and the Life of John Maynard Keynes. Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/zach-carter
February 28, 2021
91 min
#121: The Doyen Of Behavioural Genetics On Untangling Nature And Nurture - Robert Plomin
Robert Plomin is one of the world's leading behavioural geneticists. He is currently MRC Research Professor in Behavioural Genetics at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London.
February 22, 2021
87 min
#120: The Republic Is In Peril - Jack A. Goldstone
Jack A. Goldstone is an American sociologist and is widely regarded as one of the world's leading experts on the subject of revolutions.. Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/jack-goldstone
February 16, 2021
107 min
#119: Hard-Earned Lessons From A Maverick Who Made It - Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban is an American billionaire investor, entrepreneur and TV personality. Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/mark-cuban
February 8, 2021
71 min
#118: The Wisdom Of Frank Wilczek
Frank Wilczek won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2004 and is considered one of the world’s most eminent theoretical physicists. Full transcript available at: josephnoelwalker.com/frank-wilczek
January 31, 2021
112 min
#117: The Moral Causes And Consequences Of Economic Growth - Benjamin M. Friedman
Benjamin M. Friedman is widely recognised as one of the world's leading macroeconomists. He is currently the William Joseph Maier Professor of Political Economy at Harvard University. Read the full transcript at: josephnoelwalker.com/ben-friedman
January 24, 2021
86 min
#116: The Indiana Jones Of Anthropology On The Origins Of Western Psychology - Joe Henrich
Joe Henrich is Professor and Chair of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. He is the author of The Secret of Our Success and The Weirdest People in the World.
January 18, 2021
75 min
#115: Deaths Of Despair And The Future Of Capitalism - Angus Deaton
Sir Angus Deaton is a Nobel Prize-winning economist and coauthor of Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism. Read the full transcript at: josephnoelwalker.com/deaton
January 11, 2021
87 min
Season 4
#114: On Ayn Rand, Cooperation, And Successful Societies - David Sloan Wilson
David Sloan Wilson is an evolutionary biologist.
December 31, 2020
122 min
#113: What I Learned In 2020 - John Hempton
Show notes Selected links Follow John: Blog | Twitter 'Approaches to Studying Policy Representation', paper by David Brockman 'Indebted Demand', paper by Atif Mian, Ludwig Struab and Amir Sufi Topics discussed Lessons from past market cycles. 4:51 Astarra-Trio. 10:43 Retail investors: Welcome to the party. 24:14 When John met Jim (Simons). 28:13 Can you predict market tops? 33:00 Are there any good reasons for believing this time really is different? 40:37 The Dunning-Kruger effect is everywhere. 52:18 A behavioural model of the coronavirus. 55:45 The illusion of the political centre. 1:10:19 How inequality may be distorting monetary policy, and vice versa. 1:23:00 SPAC attack. 1:26:03 The puzzle of Middleby. 1:31:15 Bull masturbating. 1:33:01 2020: a year of puzzles. 1:42:30
December 21, 2020
108 min
Rational Minds Part 5: Heuristics Make Us Smart - Gerd Gigerenzer
Gerd Gigerenzer is a German psychologist and director emeritus of the Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development.
December 21, 2020
110 min
Rational Minds Part 4: The Blind Leading The Blind - David Hirshleifer
David Hirshleifer is a professor of finance and currently holds the Merage chair in Business Growth at the University of California.
December 20, 2020
68 min
Rational Minds Part 3: Rethinking Bubbles - Vernon Smith
Vernon Smith won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2002. This is his second appearance on the show.
December 19, 2020
81 min
Rational Minds Part 2: The Myth Of Tulip Mania - Anne Goldgar
Anne Goldgar is an historian and holds the Van Hunnick Chair in European History at the University of Southern California Dornsife. Show notes Selected links Follow Anne: Website | Twitter Tulipmania: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden, by Anne Goldgar
December 17, 2020
81 min
Rational Minds Part 1: A Nation Of Gamblers - Ed Glaeser
Ed Glaeser is the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard University. Show notes Selected links Follow Ed: Website 'A Nation Of Gamblers: Real Estate Speculation And American History', 2013 Ely Lecture by Ed Glaeser One Hundred Years Of Land Values In Chicago, by Homer Hoyt The Land Boomers, by Michael Cannon '25 years of housing trends' report by Aussie Home Loans Topics discussed A potted history of real estate speculation in the United States. 8:51 How would Ed describe the Great Convulsion of the 2000s to an alien observer? 13:40 Why is real estate well-suited to being a speculative asset? 16:04 If speculators aren't crazy, what are they? 17:00 Was the Great Convulsion primarily driven by credit availability? 20:44 What would a good Bayesian have thought in response to the 2000s housing market in the US? 22:23 Radical uncertainty and its implications for rationality in the context of housing markets. 24:06 Are extrapolative beliefs rational? 26:22 Are housing bubbles irrational? 29:51
December 15, 2020
34 min
#104: Back To The Future - Tyler Cowen
Tyler Cowen is an economist and public intellectual par excellence. Show notes Selected links •Follow Tyler: Website | Twitter | Podcast | Blog •Stubborn Attachments, by Tyler Cowen •Ideal Code, Real World, by Brad Hooker •Utilitarianism and Co-operation, by Donald Regan •Peter Thiel interview, Conversations with Tyler •The Great Stagnation, by Tyler Cowen •The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, by Benjamin Friedman •Fully Growth, by Dietrich Vollrath •'The Nobel Prize Isn't What It Used To Be', Bloomberg article by Tyler Cowen •'Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: 2020' •Superintelligence, by Nick Bostrom •A Tract on Monetary Reform, by John Maynard Keynes •Indian Currency and Finance, by John Maynard Keynes •Individualism and Economic Order, by Friedrich Hayek •The Rise and Fall of American Growth, by Robert Gordon Topics discussed •If God is dead, life is absurd and there are no rules, why shouldn't we just commit suicide? •Why should we care about the distant future? •Does rule utilitarianism collapse into act utilitarianism? •How can we make decisions at all without succumbing to moral paralysis and total uncertainty? •Why isn't the epistemic critique fatal to consequentialism? •Why didn't Tyler donate the proceeds of Stubborn Attachments to an effective charity? •What is the Great Stagnation? •Why was 1973 the breakpoint in western productivity growth? •Is the Great Stagnation overdetermined? •What metric would Tyler look at to determine whether the Great Stagnation had ended? •When did Tyler first become cognisant of the...
November 4, 2020
91 min

The Jolly Swagman Podcast

About this podcast

Categories

About this podcast

Categories

The Jolly Swagman Podcast

Episodes

#126: The Craft Of Comedy And The Art Of A Lasting Partnership - Andy Lee

#125: The Reign Of Keynes, Part II - Lord Robert Skidelsky

#124: Recollections Of A Wild Man In The Wings - Noam Chomsky

#123: There Is Such A Thing As Society - Sir Paul Collier

#122: The Reign Of Keynes, Part I - Zach Carter

#121: The Doyen Of Behavioural Genetics On Untangling Nature And Nurture - Robert Plomin

#120: The Republic Is In Peril - Jack A. Goldstone

#119: Hard-Earned Lessons From A Maverick Who Made It - Mark Cuban

#118: The Wisdom Of Frank Wilczek

#117: The Moral Causes And Consequences Of Economic Growth - Benjamin M. Friedman

#116: The Indiana Jones Of Anthropology On The Origins Of Western Psychology - Joe Henrich

#115: Deaths Of Despair And The Future Of Capitalism - Angus Deaton

#114: On Ayn Rand, Cooperation, And Successful Societies - David Sloan Wilson

#113: What I Learned In 2020 - John Hempton

Rational Minds Part 5: Heuristics Make Us Smart - Gerd Gigerenzer

Rational Minds Part 4: The Blind Leading The Blind - David Hirshleifer

Rational Minds Part 3: Rethinking Bubbles - Vernon Smith

Rational Minds Part 2: The Myth Of Tulip Mania - Anne Goldgar

Rational Minds Part 1: A Nation Of Gamblers - Ed Glaeser

#104: Back To The Future - Tyler Cowen