Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Cross-tradition philosophy–economics dialogues • social theory classics (Plato, Durkheim, Simmel, Orwell, Kafka) • culture politics (woke, cancel culture, activism, protest) • reasoning, persuasion, values, disagreement • modernity, money, state power, war, technology/futures (cryonics, prediction markets)
This podcast centers on extended conversations between an economist and a philosopher who approach shared questions with different intellectual tools and assumptions. Across the episodes, they use that contrast to examine how societies organize themselves, how cultures change, and how people justify beliefs and choices. Many discussions take up classic works in social theory, political thought, literature, and philosophy, treating them as prompts for analyzing institutions such as the state, markets, education, and the division of labor, as well as concepts like money, modernism, and socialism.
A recurring focus is the dynamics of disagreement and persuasion: what it means to argue versus fight, why people fear being persuaded, and how norms around speech, protest, activism, “woke” politics, and cancel culture shape public life. The show also returns to questions about expertise, elites, and legitimacy—how authority is earned, challenged, or maintained—and how collective behavior can produce stability, conflict, or large-scale social change, including war.
Alongside these big-picture topics, the conversations often pivot to everyday and intimate domains—love, romance, resentment, nostalgia, rituals, status, and “weirdness”—to explore how values form and whether they can be revised. Episodes also touch on contemporary internet culture and popular cultural objects, using them to think through meaning-making, identity, and social coordination. Some installments include guests, broadening the discussion to additional perspectives while keeping the core format of rigorous, cross-disciplinary dialogue.
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Episodes:
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Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2026-Jul-12
57 minutes
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Simmel, Philosophy of Money, Ch. 1 (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2026-Jun-28
61 minutes
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Seeing Like A State (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2026-Jun-14
62 minutes
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Esotericism (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson, with Oliver Traldi)
2026-May-31
64 minutes
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Can We Change Values? (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2026-Feb-01
57 minutes
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Continuing Education (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson, with Arnold Brooks)
2026-Jan-25
67 minutes
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War (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2026-Jan-18
59 minutes
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The Crisis of Culture (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2025-Oct-23
61 minutes
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The World of Yesterday (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2025-Sep-28
61 minutes
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Taylor Swift's Engagement (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2025-Sep-11
62 minutes
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Orwell and Socialism (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2025-Aug-10
54 minutes
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Weird (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2025-Jul-31
61 minutes
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Plato's Republic (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard, with Arnold Brooks)
2025-Jul-24
72 minutes
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Ritual (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2025-Jul-17
62 minutes
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Bullsh*t (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2025-Apr-03
57 minutes
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Kafka's 'The Castle' (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2025-Mar-20
61 minutes
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Fertility again (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard, with Lyman Stone)
2025-Feb-27
72 minutes
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On woke (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson, with Werner Zagrebbi)
2025-Feb-20
67 minutes
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Two Cultures again (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard, with Alok Singh)
2025-Feb-13
68 minutes
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Open Socrates (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2025-Jan-30
65 minutes
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Perfection vs. greatness (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2025-Jan-23
59 minutes
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Fighting vs. arguing (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2024-Dec-05
61 minutes
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Activism (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2024-Nov-21
63 minutes
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Potential vs. achievement (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2024-Nov-07
60 minutes
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Polls vs. prediction markets (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard, with Arnold Brooks)
2024-Oct-31
63 minutes
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Modernism (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2024-Oct-10
60 minutes
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Fear of persuasion (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2024-Sep-12
63 minutes
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Cancel culture (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2024-Aug-28
59 minutes
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Romantic validation (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2024-Aug-08
63 minutes
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Cryonics (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2024-Jul-31
65 minutes
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Taylor Swift (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2024-Jul-24
63 minutes
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Love triangles (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2024-Jul-17
53 minutes
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Color (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2024-Jul-03
57 minutes
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Power (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2024-Jun-26
65 minutes
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Experts vs. elites [Revisited] (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2024-Jun-19
62 minutes
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Protest (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2024-Jun-12
64 minutes
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Internet culture (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard, with Katherine Dee)
2024-Jun-05
69 minutes
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Meta (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2024-May-29
59 minutes
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The Two Cultures (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2024-May-02
67 minutes
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Multiculturalism (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2024-Apr-24
66 minutes
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Cultural evolution (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2024-Apr-17
60 minutes
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3 Body Problem (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson, with Arnold Brooks)
2024-Apr-11
64 minutes
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Corpses (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2024-Apr-03
63 minutes
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Nostalgia (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2024-Mar-27
61 minutes
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Resentment (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2024-Mar-20
60 minutes
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Social miracles (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2024-Mar-14
66 minutes
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Consumerism (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2024-Mar-07
59 minutes
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Disagreement and alienation (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson, with Berislav Marušić)
2024-Feb-28
67 minutes
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Evidence order bias (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2024-Feb-21
63 minutes
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Theoretical vs. Practical Reason (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson, with Laura Deming)
2023-Nov-16
66 minutes
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Psychoanalysis (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard, with Jamieson Webster)
2023-Nov-09
55 minutes
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Inspiration (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2023-Nov-02
59 minutes
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Respect (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2023-Oct-12
62 minutes
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Fighting (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2023-Oct-05
61 minutes
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Contrarians (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard, with Aella)
2023-Sep-28
62 minutes
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Robin's Birthday (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson, with Arnold Brooks)
2023-Sep-21
62 minutes
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Fertility (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2023-Sep-13
62 minutes
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Advice (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2023-Aug-30
58 minutes
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Interpretation (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard, with Arnold Brooks)
2023-Aug-24
62 minutes
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vibecamp (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2023-Jun-21
55 minutes
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God (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2023-Jun-14
55 minutes
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Moore's Paradox (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2023-Jun-07
66 minutes
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AI Risk (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard, with David Duvenaud)
2023-May-31
68 minutes
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Partiality (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2023-May-24
57 minutes
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Alignment and Competition (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2023-May-17
75 minutes
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The Urge to Rebel (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2023-May-10
60 minutes
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The Etiquette of Equality (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2023-May-03
50 minutes
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Transformative Choices (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2023-Apr-26
59 minutes
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Edgelord Energy (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard, with Rory from The Violet Hour)
2023-Apr-19
69 minutes
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Management (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2023-Mar-30
62 minutes
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Apology (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2023-Mar-22
65 minutes
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Experts vs. Elites (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2023-Mar-15
63 minutes
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Sarcasm (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2023-Mar-08
57 minutes
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Who Must Be Persuaded By Explanations (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2023-Jan-04
70 minutes
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Utopia (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2022-Dec-29
56 minutes
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The Intellectual vs. The Social (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2022-Dec-21
66 minutes
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Passion (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard, with Joshua Fox)
2022-Dec-15
73 minutes
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Intellectuals (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2022-Dec-07
66 minutes
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Wanting to be Wanted (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard)
2022-Dec-01
64 minutes
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For Its Own Sake (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson)
2022-Nov-23
61 minutes
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Why is Truth Good? (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard, with William Eliot)
2022-Nov-16
75 minutes
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The Sacred (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson, with Arnold Brooks)
2022-Nov-09
75 minutes
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Is Life Worth Living? (Robin Hanson & Agnes Callard, with William Eliot)
2022-Nov-02
62 minutes
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What is Sex? (Agnes Callard & Robin Hanson, with Audrey Pollnow)
2022-Oct-26
76 minutes
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Human Sacrifice
2022-Jul-17
62 minutes
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Glory
2022-Jul-17
69 minutes
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Frontstage / Backstage
2022-Jul-17
79 minutes
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Free Speech
2022-Jul-17
61 minutes
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Fraud
2022-Jul-17
64 minutes
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William James vs William Clifford
2022-Jul-17
71 minutes
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Belief Constraints
2022-Jul-17
67 minutes
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'Inadequate Equilibria'
2022-Jul-17
63 minutes
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'The Sentiment of Rationality'
2022-Jul-17
71 minutes
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Asceticism
2022-Feb-01
66 minutes
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Autodidact
2022-Feb-01
58 minutes
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Rot
2022-Feb-01
60 minutes
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Foreplay
2022-Feb-01
60 minutes
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Reform
2022-Feb-01
57 minutes
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Aliens
2022-Feb-01
62 minutes
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Purposes
2022-Feb-01
60 minutes
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Curiosity
2022-Feb-01
64 minutes
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Distant Signals
2021-Nov-09
48 minutes
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Hidden Motives
2021-Nov-09
65 minutes
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Prediction Markets
2021-Nov-09
62 minutes
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Aspiration
2021-Nov-09
65 minutes
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Pink and Purple
2021-Nov-09
66 minutes
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Punishment
2021-Nov-09
69 minutes
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Paternalism
2021-Nov-09
68 minutes
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Future Generations
2021-Nov-09
63 minutes
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Plagiarism
2021-Nov-09
60 minutes
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Paradox of Honesty
2021-Nov-09
70 minutes
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