Hoover Institution (Stanford, CA) — The Hoover Institution is now a partner in the production of EconTalk, an award-winning weekly podcast now celebrating its twentieth year in production.
EconTalk: Conversations for the Curious is hosted by Visiting Fellow Russ Roberts, who also serves as president of Shalem College in Jerusalem.
In collaboration with Liberty Fund and the Library of Economics and Liberty, Hoover will be producing video versions of EconTalk podcasts and distributing them through its stable of social media channels, as well as Hoover.org.
“I am delighted to have the Hoover Institution’s support to further develop video editions of EconTalk and see them reach an even wider audience,” Roberts said. “Hoover has a fabulous team and a proven track record of developing compelling video.”
EconTalk’s eclectic guest list includes authors, doctors, psychologists, Nobel laureates, historians, philosophers, economists, and more. Episodes deal with a wide range of questions on various topics: how the healthcare system really works; the serenity that comes from humility; the challenge of interpreting data; how potato chips are made; what it's like to run an upscale Manhattan restaurant; and what caused the 2008 financial crisis, among others.
In production for the past 20 years, EconTalk is an early pioneer in the field of podcasting. All of the more than one thousand episodes are available in the archive at EconTalk.org, which also includes transcripts, related resources, and comments.
“We are delighted to assist in elevating Russ Roberts, a venerable, early pioneer of the podcast space, with video versions of his engaging conversations with distinguished thinkers,” said Hoover Institution Chief Creative Officer Shana Farley.
With EconTalk, Roberts started the series with an interview with Don Cox of Boston College in March 2006, on the subject of parenting.
Other past guests include Thomas Piketty, Emily Oster, John H. Cochrane, Anne Applebaum, Christopher Hitchens, Bill James, Niall Ferguson, Martha Nussbaum, Sam Harris, Michael Lewis, Jennifer Burns, Susan Cain, Marc Andreessen, Mark Helprin, and Eliezer Yudkowsky.
In one of his two episodes with Nobel laureate and Hoover Senior Fellow Milton Friedman, which aired in September 2006, the pair discussed Friedman’s 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom.
“When it came out, it did not receive a great deal of attention to begin with. It was reviewed in no major newspaper,” Friedman told Roberts.
But with the passage of time, proposals from the book—such as having floating exchange rates or having an all-volunteer army—came to be accepted, and Friedman’s reputation as a profound thinker reached an all-time high.
Friedman, when asked if he was surprised that his book had such long-lasting influence responded: “The basic principles that we believe in are going to stay the same for the next thousand years. That aspect of it will never go out of date. What goes out of date are the particular applications. We still find Adam Smith’s book, Wealth of Nations well worth reading even though it’s published in 1776.”
The first video episode to air on Hoover’s channels will feature Karen Elliott House speaking with Roberts about her latest book, The Man Who Would Be King, which details Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman’s rise to power and his efforts to change Saudi society.
Other episodes slated to air in March 2026 will include author Susan Cain, philosopher and ethicist Hanno Sauer, economist Michael C. Munger, and author and journalist Matti Friedman.
Video episodes will appear exclusively on Hoover.org and Hoover’s social channels for the first two weeks after each episode is released. Audio editions can be found as before on EconTalk.org and on the standard podcast platforms.
For more information, please contact Jeffrey Marschner, assistant director of media and government relations, at jmarsch@stanford.edu or 202-760-3200.
All episodes can be viewed here or on Hoover Institution social channels.
