Tim Harford is joined by Jacob Goldstein to answer your questions. Does winning the lottery make you unhappy? Is Bitcoin bad for the economy? When does correlation imply causation? And what will Tim and Jacob do when the robot overlords come for their jobs? Enjoy this episode from Cautionary Tales, another Pushkin podcast.

Tim Harford is joined by Jacob Goldstein to answer your questions. Does winning the lottery make you unhappy? Is Bitcoin bad for the economy? When does correlation imply causation? And what will Tim and Jacob do when the robot overlords come for their jobs? Enjoy this episode from Cautionary Tales, another Pushkin podcast.

Every week on What’s Your Problem, entrepreneurs and engineers talk about the future they’re trying to build – and the problems they have to solve to get there.

How do you take a drone delivery service you’ve built in Rwanda and make it work in North Carolina? How do you convince people to buy a house on the Internet? How do you sell thousands of dog ramps to weiner dogs all across America when a pandemic breaks the global supply chain? 

Hosted by former Planet Money host Jacob Goldstein, What’s Your Problem helps listeners understand the problems really smart people are trying to solve right now.

iHeartMedia is the exclusive podcast partner of Pushkin Industries.

What's Your Problem?

When the Robots Take Over… from Cautionary Tales

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/3bc4a494-825d-474c-baed-b18000f56a96/transcript

As demand for clean energy grows, engineers around the U.S. are working on a new generation of nuclear reactors. These designs reflect how nuclear energy could fit into the power grid – and our lives – in new ways. Yasir Arafat is the Chief Technology Officer at Aalo Atomics. Yasir’s problem is this: How do you mass produce nuclear reactors that are safe, scalable, and cheap?

As demand for clean energy grows, engineers around the U.S. are working on a new generation of nuclear reactors. These designs reflect how nuclear energy could fit into the power grid – and our lives – in new ways. Yasir Arafat is the Chief Technology Officer at Aalo Atomics. Yasir’s problem is this: How do you mass produce nuclear reactors that are safe, scalable, and cheap?

Creating the Second Atomic Age

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/a06c2355-42a5-4cda-97f1-b18d01563e71/transcript

This week on Risky Business, Nate and Maria discuss whether Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor should retire, the perils of sports betting among professional athletes, and what the return of Roaring Kitty means for traditional market analysis. 

Further Reading:

“Sonia Sotomayor Should Retire Now” from The Atlantic

“Should Sonia Sotomayor Retire?” from Slate

“MLB bans Padres’ Tucupita Marcano permanently for betting on baseball” from the NYT

“Lifetime bans and careers in tatters – recent sports betting scandals show how fringe players are vulnerable” from CBC

For more from Nate and Maria, subscribe to their newsletters:

“The Leap” from Maria Konnikova

“Silver Bulletin” from Nate Silver

This week on Risky Business, Nate and Maria discuss whether Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor should retire, the perils of sports betting among professional athletes, and what the return of Roaring Kitty means for traditional market analysis. 
Further Reading:
<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/03/sonia-sotomayor-should-retire/677764/">“Sonia Sotomayor Should Retire Now”</a> from The Atlantic
<a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/04/justice-sotomayor-retirement-calls-sexism.html">“Should Sonia Sotomayor Retire?”</a> from Slate
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5539792/2024/06/04/tucupita-marcano-permanent-ban-mlb-sports-betting/">“MLB bans Padres’ Tucupita Marcano permanently for betting on baseball”</a> from the NYT
<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sports-gambling-scandal-fringe-players-1.7227653">“Lifetime bans and careers in tatters – recent sports betting scandals show how fringe players are vulnerable”</a> from CBC
For more from Nate and Maria, subscribe to their newsletters:
<a href="https://mariakonnikova.substack.com/">“The Leap”</a> from Maria Konnikova
<a href="https://www.natesilver.net/">“Silver Bulletin”</a> from Nate Silver

Lifetime Terms, Lifetime Bans, and the Return of Roaring Kitty from Risky Business

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/2a382952-29d0-44b8-b13c-b18d0180f3cf/transcript

Palm oil is a cheap and remarkably versatile vegetable oil. It’s in a ton of products, from food to cosmetics, detergent, and chewing gum. But producing so much palm oil is really bad for the planet. Shara Ticku is the co-founder and CEO of C16 Biosciences. Shara's problem is this: Can you get yeast to make an oil that is just as useful as palm oil – without clearing land to grow palm trees?

Palm oil is a cheap and remarkably versatile vegetable oil. It’s in a ton of products, from food to cosmetics, detergent, and chewing gum. But producing so much palm oil is really bad for the planet. Shara Ticku is the co-founder and CEO of C16 Biosciences. Shara's problem is this: Can you get yeast to make an oil that is just as useful as palm oil – without clearing land to grow palm trees?

Making Palm Oil Without Palm Trees

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/5d29481f-2088-4299-b9de-b17801156c23/transcript

When the Robots Take Over… from Cautionary Tales

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