Russ Roberts

My new book, WILD PROBLEMS comes out August 9--how to face the big life decisions that define us, decisions where so-called rationality either misleads or is irrelevant. Pre-order now: amazon.com/gp/product/059…

@HappyCamperLAX I like Zvi Mowshowitz’s. You can find him here and on Substack I think.

Side note, just listened to your podcast re intuition yesterday. I loved it. Thank you. Side note, you mentioned you subscribe to a couple AI newsletters to keep up to date on the technology. Would you kindly be willing to share a couple recommendations? This gen x woman doesn’t know where to start! 🌺

My short essay on what we can learn from Tom Stoppard's Arcadia about the nature of progress and the worldview of science vs. the humanities. Loved writing this.

In a few days, antisemites, under the slogan "Kufiyahs in #Buchenwald" plan to defame and trivialize the memory of the Holocaust. They are planning actions in front of the memorial site, which includes an information center and guided tours of the former concentration camp run by the Nazis and the Soviet Army. I would like to give a counter-speech there. Please support me so that I can stay overnight and finance my protest. Thank you very much. 🧶

@steelcompass Dean Ball is coming soon to EconTalk

“Even in the narrowest supply-chain risk designation, the government…will treat you like a foreign adversary…. Simply for having different ideas, expressing those ideas in speech, and actualizing that speech in decisions about how to deploy and not deploy one’s property.”

Thinking this morning about Hillaire Belloc's poem, The Pacifist: Pale Ebenezer thought it wrong to fight, But Roaring Bill (who killed him) thought it right. A lot of people here on X mourning the loss of Larijani as a potential negotiating partner as if he was Pale Ebenezer, despite all the evidence he was Roaring Bill.

I am also with Saleh. Hoping @nntaleb is too.

@johntamny It’s not by me. A different Russ Roberts.

This was a good, informative piece on flying then and now by @EconTalker. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/…

@ScottPerry23639 Just a way of mentioning "most" as in HRs. Teddy Ballgame was undoubtedly the greatest hitter who ever lived...

@EconTalker Hank Aaron over Teddy Ballgame? Come on now, Russ...

This week's EconTalk episode with Mike Munger (the Babe Ruth/Hank Aaron/Barry Bonds of EconTalk with 51 appearances and counting) marks the 20th anniversary of the program. EconTalk has been supported from the beginning by Liberty Fund, an Indianapolis-based foundation started by an Indianapolis businessman, Pierre Goodrich, who believed in great books, conversations around the ideas in those books, and the importance of liberty. So while LF was started long before the internet, EconTalk (conversations around ideas) seemed very much in his spirit. When I started, I didn't know how hard it would be to do. Early on, I realized we had to come out every week. In the early years, we took off a week or two for the holiday break of Christmas and New Year's. But we stopped doing that long ago. We haven't missed a Monday for something like 850 weeks. LF pays me to produce the podcast and then we give it away which is wonderful. And being a Hoover Fellow also allows me to put in the time necessary to produce the podcast. So I am grateful to both organizations for the freedom to create EconTalk over the last 20 years. And now Hoover will be releasing episodes on YouTube as they come out. You can head over to the Hoover Institution page on YouTube and find EconTalk every Monday morning along with other video Hoover produces: @HooverInstitution/videos" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">youtube.com/@HooverInstitu… All 1041 episodes are available without charge at the EconTalk.org website, and at my website, russroberts.info. Most (if not all) podcast sites like Spotify or the iPhone podcast app have all the past episodes as well. You can also find all the past episodes at EconTalk's YouTube page, @econtalkwithruss" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">youtube.com/@econtalkwithr…, which is a little complicated now that Hoover is also distributing them but I assume you will figure it out. The older episodes don't always have video... Doing 1041 EconTalk episodes over 20 years has been an extraordinary experience. I have grown tremendously. My interests have widened. It has shaped me in ways I'm sure I don't completely appreciate. I like to think EconTalk has stoked my curiosity about the world around me. When I was younger, I wondered if I would hit some goal like the 1000th episode and stop. Now I think I will only stop when I can't do the job the way I think it should be done. So as long as I can keep reading, hearing, thinking, an speaking, and I can have a good internet connection, I hope to continue. What a privilege it has been to speak to smart, interesting people every week for 20 years and to be able to share that with my listeners. I am grateful to everyone at EconTalk who supports the program and helps me get this done. These days that's Lauren Landsburg, Rich Goyette, Les Cook, Katie Flavin, Marla Goldfinger, Sarah Skwire, Shelly Rogers, Cassandra Karnick, Blake Van Der Kamp, Pat Lynch, and Sean Shelby. And many thanks to those who started with me at Liberty Fund way back at the beginning or nearly so, Emilio Pacheco, Jim Cote, and Amy Willis. And now there is a new team at Hoover who is working on the YouTube side: Shana Farley, Jonathan Movroydis, Vy Nguyen, and Imagine Gonzales. I apologize if I have forgotten anyone. And of course, I am grateful to all of you who listen and who have stuck with the program even as we moved away from focusing on economics. I always enjoy hearing from you. Thanks for being part of the journey. See you next Monday.

@LughSpear Coming soon...

@EconTalker Very nice work. What are the episodes that first spring to your mind when thinking at the episodes ?

@Sheps71 Goyette.

@EconTalker One day we should hear from Rich Gouyet (?spelling), whose name must be next only to Roberts, Munger, Boettke, Hayek and Stigler in the list of references

So grateful to Liberty Fund for their support and commitment to excellence over the years.

Tranquility Base here. The episode has landed. econtalk.org/the-economics-… With all best wishes to my friend @EconTalker for another....well, some years.

On March 16, 2006, I released the first episode of EconTalk, The Economics of Parenting. The guest was the very funny always insightful Don Cox: econtalk.org/the-economics-… It was just under 35 minutes long. At some point not long after, I realized I had to release an episode every week and settled on the length of 60 minutes. At some point after that, I realized I could go longer than an hour, though only a handful approach the two hour mark. Twenty years later, and 1040 episodes later, here is the 20th anniversary episode with the great @mungowitz who has effortlessly graced the program a record-setting 51 times. Audio here: econtalk.org/the-economics-… Video on the @HooverInst YouTube channel (a new distribution channel for us!): youtu.be/BDTHOrB6KvQ?si… Enjoy and thanks to all of you who listen.

Why does Duke University give away tickets to the hottest game in college basketball instead of making millions selling them? @EconTalker Russell Roberts talks with Michael @mungowitz, Duke professor and frequent guest, about the legendary Duke–North Carolina men's basketball rivalry and what it reveals about scarcity, pricing, and why institutions sometimes choose community over profit. Watch EconTalk on X:

@GarettJones Thank you.

He's giving a great gift to world with this podcast

@LevatterRoss Interesting. I'd like to see the rest of it.

@EconTalker This obituary struck me as very much tongue in cheek. The gift of understatement in an obituary should not go unacknowledged.

Don't give the NYT your money. Don't subscribe. Don't play their puzzles. Don't pay for The Athletic. We can return if they return someday to their purported purpose of informing and not just proselytizing. (And yes I know about Walter Duranty. But what was once occasional is now the mode.)

Babe, wake up, @mungowitz is on @econtalker.

Having just been in a bomb shelter 30 minutes ago here in Jerusalem filled with children, you might want to mention the next time you write about this that both the US and Israel are trying to avoid killing children and that this tragedy you rightly lament was an accident. Iran is trying to kill children here indiscriminately. You don't need to write an entire column on the evil that is Iran (I'm sure you've written many), but an aside about the difference between the two sides might be worth including. Like you, I deeply hope the side I am on avoids war crimes. The other side clearly doesn't care and has no journalists at home to make the case. So pitch in.

What would we think if Iran bombed an American school? My column looks at how Trump and Hegseth are undermining the rules of war -- not clear war crimes but getting into territory that is horrifyingly ambiguous. Please read: nytimes.com/2026/03/14/opi…

@FeedTechILUncen Thank you.

@EconTalker 🎉 Few things have expanded my thinking as much as listening to EconTalk over the years. Not just because of the content, but also the way you conduct the conversations. Thank you for 20 years of thoughtful discussions, Russ.

The 20th anniversary episode of EconTalk lands in a few hours.