Join the Hoover Book Club for engaging discussions with leading authors on the hottest policy issues of the day. Hoover scholars explore the latest books that delve into some of the most vexing policy issues facing the United States and the world. Find out what makes these authors tick and how they think we should approach our most difficult challenges.
In our latest installment, watch a discussion between Bill Whalen, the Virginia Hobbs Carpenter Distinguished Policy Fellow in Journalism and Russ Roberts, the John and Jean De Nault Research Fellow and author of Wild Problems: A Guide to the Decisions That Define Us on Tuesday, December 20, 2022 at 10AM PT/1:00PM ET.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Russ Roberts, who is the John and Jean De Nault Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, founded the award-winning weekly podcast EconTalk in 2006. Past guests include Milton Friedman, numerous other Nobel prize winners, historians, novelists, philosophers, and business leaders. All 850+ episodes remain available free of charge at EconTalk.org and reach an audience of over 120,000 listeners around the world. In 2021, he moved to Israel to become president of Shalem College in Jerusalem.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Algorithms and apps analyze data and tell you how to beat the traffic, what books to buy, what music to listen to, and even who to date—often with great results. But what do you do when you face the big decisions of life—the "wild problems" of who to marry, whether to have children, where to move, how to forge a life well-lived—that can’t be solved by measurement or calculation?
In Wild Problems, beloved host of EconTalk Russ Roberts offers puzzled rationalists a way to address these wild problems. He suggests spending less time and energy on the path that promises the most happiness, and more time on figuring out who you actually want to be. He draws on the experience of great artists, writers, and scientists of the past who found creative ways to navigate life’s biggest questions. And he lays out strategies for reducing the fear and the loss of control that inevitably come when a wild problem requires a leap in the dark.
Ultimately, Roberts asks us to see ourselves and our lives less as a problem to be solved than a mystery to be experienced. There's no right decision waiting to be uncovered by an app or rational analysis. Reality is harder than that and, perhaps, a little more interesting.
