The Most Important Podcast
A show about saving the world, because we have to -- and about rock and roll, because I want to.
The Most Important Podcast takes a serious look at a few, simple questions: What is the most important problem in the world? How would we find it, and How do we solve it? It interviews politicians, academics, journalists, musicians, and more, to try to get the answers that will set us, as a species, in the right direction.
Expect occasional swearing.
Episodes
8 episodes
Listen or Die!, Part 2: The Life and Death Importance of Community, with Pete Davis
Listen to Part 1 of this interview, here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2241474/episodes/16716288Pete Davis made an awesome movie about Robert Putnam (Join or Die, now available on Netflix); and I made a podcast about Pete Davis. In it we t...
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21:41
Listen or Die!, Part 1: The Life and Death Importance of Community, with Pete Davis
Pete Davis made an awesome movie about Robert Putnam (Join or Die, now available on Netflix); and I made a podcast about Pete Davis. In it we talk about his mentor, professor, friend, Harvard Professor and National Humanities Medal winner Bob P...
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20:59
Anna Goldfarb Helps You Be a Modern Friend
Anna Goldfarb has been called "the New York Times Friendship correspondent," and with a title like that how could I resist? We talk about her great new book Modern Friendship, which is an extremely practical approach to building and keeping fri...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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50:28
Rosie Cima as Rockstar: The Interview
Finally, some rock and roll! I talk to my old friend and ex-roommate Rosie Cima about her band, her songs, and her love of songwriting workshops. We learn about whether you should tell your band about your breakups, and I get some of the best a...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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48:13
Why We Don't Have Working Class Politicians, w/Prof. Nicholas Carnes: Part 2
In this second half our conversation, Prof. Carnes and I talk about his experience running a candidate training workshop, and what people say they want in a politician. We also talk about my research, which begins to points the way towards iden...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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27:41
An Interview with, and Remembrance of, Robert Altemeyer
Robert Anthony Altemeyer, or "Dr. Bob," was one of my personal heroes. I firmly believe his research on authoritarian psychology, which he studied for over half a century, should be required reading for the world. To my great sadness, and that ...
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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59:30
Why We Don't Have Working Class Politicians, w/Prof. Nicholas Carnes: Part 1
Nicholas Carnes is a professor of political science at Duke, where he studies the reasons there are so few politicians with working class backgrounds, what consequences that has for the country, and what we might be able to do about it. We talk...
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Season 1
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Episode 2
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28:24
The Most Important Problem: Prologue and Introduction
This episode contains the pre-Chapter 1 material from the current draft of my book, The Most Important Problem. It gives the origin story of my current research, including the interviews I do on this show. If you're new, this is a good place to...
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Season 1
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Episode 1
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30:51