Jonathan shares his upbringing in France and educational journey that led him from music studies to economics and finance, including his academic work on option pricing and financial theory. Jonathan describes his risky decision to fly to Los Angeles with few resources and little English. He relates how his enrollment in a local community college began his awakening to learning and led to success in college, graduate school, and a Ph.D. in economics. His mastery of finance theory and his experience working in the private sector gave him the ability to build his own firm managing funds. Jonathan came to recognize how the blending of theory, real-world uncertainties, and behavioral economics should be used to understand the financial world.

Carl Gershman is an American political activist and democracy advocate who served as the president of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) from its founding in 1984 until his retirement in 2021. Under his leadership, NED became a prominent organization supporting democratic movements and civil society groups worldwide. Carl describes the evolution of his career, from his work after college as a VISTA volunteer, to his work with Bayard Rustin, and to his leadership of the NED. You can hear his perspective on the Social Democrats movement and their ability to penetrate the Democratic party. He mentions the positive role of NED in a wide range of countries.

Doug Besharov describes his upbringing in Queens, New York, raised by a widowed single mother. Working his way through college and law school, he landed a position within the New York City government dealing with child abuse and child support cases. Doug explains how he became the first director of the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. After discussing his work at the center, Doug talks about his time at the Brookings Institution, where he wrote the first of the 14 books he authored or edited. In his subsequent career at the American Enterprise Institute and the University of Maryland, he testified many times before Congress and published articles in the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. Doug concludes the interview with his perspectives on European social policy.

Though born in the UK, Chris moved to the US at age 8 and attended high school in Larchmont, NY. He entered MIT in 1963 in time to work on the early computers, learning how to program and later how to create computer compilers (translating programs using high-level languages to machine language). Chris recounts his early career at MIT and his subsequent work in gaming and supercomputers. His interview ends with a discussion about where artificial intelligence (AI) and it will be more revolutionary than other aspects of the computer revolution.

David begins by highlighting the background of his parents, how they met in Mexico, and their careers. He discusses his elementary and high school experience in San Antonio and his first national award. He describes how he chose Harvard among other schools at a time when Harvard was not a dominant brand. David provides examples of his intellectually stimulating time at Harvard and then turns to his subsequent decision to enter law school instead of medical school. His early career as an attorney contributed to his finding his wife Ellen and convincing her to marry. David makes interesting points about enjoying courtroom litigation and the jury system. The session concludes with David's innovative practice of taking each child to countries with special histories but only after the children did their homework in reading about the countries.

William Raduchel describes growing up in Houghton County, Michigan, as it evolved from a prosperous to a declining area. Starting from a local college, Michigan Tech, a school focused on engineering, on to Michigan State and then to many roles at Harvard, Bill gained a mastery of economics, computer science, and engineering. His career made fascinating transition from automating Harvard's admissions, to creating special software for economic analysis, to achieving top positions at McGraw Hill, Xeros, Sun Microsystems and AOL Time Warner. He explains why some companies grew with technology while others were unable to make technology work for their business success. Bill concludes with perspectives on the growth of Artificial Intelligence and its likely impacts. He explores these and other issues in his forthcoming book, The New Technology State.

State Senator Jim Rosapepe describes where and how he grew up, his heritage, his early interest in politics, and the beginnings of his business career and entrepreneurship. He then turns to the relationships he built in politics, business, and foreign affairs. Jim's role in the Italian support for President Bill Clinton is one of his many interesting stories. Finally, he explains his success in the legislative process in Maryland and his renewed interest in apprenticeships for America.

Eytan Sheshinski describes growing up in Haifa, Israel with parents who emigrated from Germany and Switzerland in the 1930s to a kibbutz.  While initially joining a kibbutz and understanding economics from a Marxist perspective, Eytan talks of his excitement in learning modern economics first at Hebrew University under famed Israel economist Don Patinkin and later at MIT.  After building a strong research record in public economics as a highly respected professor of economics, he served without pay as the head of two commissions to ensure that the Israeli public obtained its fair share of profits from oil, gas, and potash resources.  Eytan discusses the challenges he faced and the ultimate satisfaction he derived from his public service.

Diane Jones describes coming from a Baltimore family of modest means, attending a state college, and becoming a community college professor as she followed her deep interest in science.   Her experience at the National Science Foundation led to new programs and ultimately productive years as a Congressional staffer.  In her last public position, Diane served as Deputy Secretary of Education.

Stephen Goss describes his transition from a math major in college with an interest in economics to his career as an actuary.  He discusses the approach used by the Social Security Administration to estimate long-term costs and outlays for benefits based on trends in the economy and in the demographic make-up of the US.

Nathan Lewin describes his family's escape from Poland soon after the 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom against Jews through Japan to the US.  He recounts how his father, an important rabbi in Poland, transitioned to become a noted writer and professor and influenced the UN resolutions on freedom of religion.  We hear of Mr. Lewin's decision to attend Harvard Law school and work on the law review.  He discusses how he faced explicit discrimination but ended up helping him become a clerk to Supreme Court Justice John Harlan and ultimately important positions in the Department of Justice headed by Robert F. Kennedy.  Nat recalls some of his important cases, nearly 30 of which he argued in the Supreme Court.

Don Ezra describes growing up in Calcutta with a Bhagdadi Jewish heritage.   He is grateful for the Catholic school he attended, especially how the teachers pushed students to investigate issues deeply.  He naturally followed this approach, asking why and then asking why again.  Don's education moved quickly, earning a BA by 18, studying economics and math at Cambridge University.  He highlights the role of luck in helping him become an actuary, transferring to Canada, and leading a major practice at Russell Investments.  Don discusses a range of his innovations analyzing and writing about the assets and liabilities sides of defined benefit pensions.  As the interview concludes, Don talks about his post-full-time work activities in what he calls Life 2.   His website, donezra.com,  offers a wealth of material for the public on retirement planning, from dealing with longevity and inflation risks to improving sleep patterns.

Paula Hogan describes her early experience with finance, growing up with a father who pioneered concepts of variable annuities.  After graduating college, Paula thought she would enter a health policy field, but came to begin financial advising while living in Texas.  Learn how Paula chose to embrace ideas developed by co-host Zvi Bodie, how she built her own personal financial advising practice and ultimately sold the practice while continuing to provide financial advice to clients.  Her publications and her efforts to promote fiduciary responsibilities of advisers have contributed to improving the financial futures of Americans.

Theo Kocken describes how his upbringing in a large family encouraged his independence.  He drew on that experience to rethink the nature of risks by banks and pension funds.  He discusses how he came to start Cardano Development in response to the need to account for scenarios that generate serious risks.  He points out how his company built models that use derivatives to hedge long-term risks in pension funds.  Theo highlights his work with banks, many of which become far more interested in risk management in the aftermath of the financial crisis. He has combined theory with practice, publishing a number of scholarly articles while working on the practical problems faced by pension funds and more recently with development banks helping developing countries.

Professor Friedman describes his upbringing in Louisville, Kentucky, including the influences of his father and the family business as well as a special English teacher's contributions to his ability to write well.   He recounts his introduction to economics as a Harvard graduate, his gravitating toward economics at Cambridge University, and his early and continuing interest in macroeconomics.  He discusses the changing controversies relating to monetary and fiscal policy.   Professor Friedman highlights how his early experiences at Morgan Stanley influenced his understanding of the bond market's role in the macroeconomy.  Recognizing the limited literature on why economic growth is important, Professor Friedman decided to write The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth.  His latest book is Religion and the Rise of Capitalism.

Bob Lerman describes how his parents and upbringing in a family of nine brothers and one sister influenced his path in life.  After growing up in South Bend, Indiana with a focus on sports and music, he became attracted to the world of ideas at Brandeis University and subsequently at MIT.  His career spanned jobs at four universities, a Congressional committee, a research institute in Israel, and now Urban Institute, a policy research organization.   Bob discusses some of his ideas and policy proposals for helping people avoid poverty, for family cohesion, and for building skills for a rewarding career.  He explains why he became a strong advocate for scaling apprenticeship in the US and gives brief impressions of the current political landscape.

Zvi Bodie describes his lifelong interest in ideas and learning.  From his birth and high school in Brooklyn and his evolution from a socialist/Zionist and kibbutz life to becoming a noted financial economist, Zvi recalls how his thinking evolved and how he luckily encountered much help from teachers and friends.  Zvi explains the importance of finance and of financial innovation that drives much of the world economy.

Hear about Rabbi Tzvi Marx's fascinating upbringing, career, and ideas.  Rabbi Marx describes his development from his birth in occupied France to his schooling and university experience in New York, to his role in building the Sholem Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, and to his leadership of an institute for Jewish learning in the Netherlands.  Along the way, Rabbi Marx explains how he came to confront key questions, such as how the modern state of Israel is recasting the Jewish experience.

Alair Townsend describes her journey from growing in Elmira and attending Elmira College, the London School of Economics, and the University of Wisconsin to a career at the highest level of public service.  She describes her role as staff director of the Subcommittee on Fiscal Policy and how it produced the first set of studies of the combined cash and in-kind welfare programs in the US.  Alair tells stories of subsequent leadership positions at the first House Budget Committee and then as  Assistant Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.  This was only the beginning.  Hired as the budget director of New York City, she explains how she was determined to keep the budget in balance.  Asked to become Deputy Mayor for finance and economic development by Mayor Ed Koch, Alair led the effort to retain jobs in the city and to reach the outer boroughs.  She capped her career by becoming publisher of Crain's Business Daily and now serves on many boards of directors.

William Sharpe describes how he became interested in economics and how shifting his UCLA dissertation topic while working at the RAND corporation ultimately led to his work in finance and his derivation of the widely known and widely used Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM).  Dr. Sharpe was awarded the 1990 Nobel prize in economics was awarded for his theoretical contributions to finance, especially CAPM.  He credits his time at RAND for his interest in combining theory with practice.  He discusses the unfortunate divide between economics and finance while pointing to economists increasingly using concepts in finance.  His blogs, interviews, and satirical videos are on his website, https://web.stanford.edu/~wfsharpe/