Sven Beckert, a history professor at Harvard, has written an epic book about the history of capitalism over roughly a millenium: it’s called Capitalism: A Global History. Beckert believes the only way to understand one’s place in the world is through...
We don’t think about commodities very much. They’re all around us: cotton, sugar, oil, gas, chickens, cattle, and so many other things we take for granted. But a closer look at the history of commodities tells a revealing story about the expansion of...
There’s more to employment than just making a living. A leader who works at the nexus of business and international development explores the understudied yet fundamental concept of dignity in the workplace.
Lebanon has been called many different things: a gem of the Middle East, a failed state, a geopolitical Gordian knot (or nightmare). Its financial system has recently collapsed, people cannot find basic services, and residents are still recovering from...
There’s a shadow over World Cup Soccer this year, and it’s become impossible to separate the sports from the politics. Host country Qatar gained notoriety for bribes, exploitation of workers, and antigay laws. In this episode, a group of athletes and...
Green technology has come a long way, to the extent that it can, in theory, be scaled up to solve the world’s energy problems. If this is true, then why does the US lag so far behind in transitioning away from fossil fuels? This episode addresses the...