Capitalisn't

University of Chicago Podcast Network

We investigate how capitalism is—or more often isn’t—working in our world today.

Hosted by economist Luigi Zingales and business journalist Bethany McLean, our podcast explains why capitalism can go wrong and what we can do to fix it.

Send us your questions or comments by emailing capitalisntpod@gmail.com

Cover photo attributions: https://www.chicagobooth.edu/research/stigler/about/capitalisnt.

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247 episodes
Updated Thursday

Episodes247

Newest first

Dec 18, 2025 · 52 min
How Capitalism Became Global ft. Sven Beckert
Is capitalism a force of nature, or a human-made order that we have the power to shape? In this episode, Luigi and Bethany sit down with Sven Beckert, a Harvard historian and author of the new book A Global History of Capitalism, to tackle a question that seems basic but remains surprisingly difficult to answer: what exactly is capitalism? Beckert argues that capitalism is not defined simply by the existence of markets—which are found in all human societies—but rather by a specific economic log
Dec 11, 2025 · 56 min
How to Stop “Ensh*ttification” Before It Kills the Internet - ft. Cory Doctorow
There’s a word that’s gained a lot of popularity in the last year: “ensh*ttification”. It refers to a trajectory many see with digital platforms: they initially offer immense value to users, only to systematically degrade that quality over time in order to extract maximum surplus for shareholders. We invited the coiner of this term, science fiction author and activist Cory Doctorow, on the podcast to discuss whether he thinks this decline is an inevitable feature of digital markets or a conseq
Dec 4, 2025 · 57 min
Why Matthew Yglesias Is Skeptical Of Anti-Monopoly Policies
A recent proposal by Lina Khan, co-chair of Zohran Mamdani's mayoral transition team, to cap the price of beer at stadiums in New York City sparked a debate on X last month. At the center of that debate was Matthew Yglesias, editor and author of the Slow Boring newsletter, who argued that the modern antitrust movement has become "slipshod" and is ignoring basic economic trade-offs in favor of political wins. In this episode, Yglesias joins Luigi and Bethany to discuss his views on the theoretic
Nov 20, 2025 · 1 hr 2 min
Are Big Tech’s Regulators “Cowards”? ft. Tim Wu
Did you know Amazon makes $37 billion a year—more than double the revenue of all the newspapers in the world combined—from its sponsored results alone? Yes, the same, spammy, sponsored results at the top of a search that bilk shoppers with fake or low-quality items and can starve legitimate businesses of traffic and revenue. This is one of the many insights shared by our guest this week, Tim Wu, in his new book, “The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our F
Nov 6, 2025 · 46 min
Why Economists Should Care About Inequality, with Branko Milanovic
Recently, Bethany and Luigi joined economist and wealth inequality expert Branko Milanovic in front of a live audience at the Aspen Ideas Festival to explore how capitalism, democracy, and income inequality interact. Together, the three discussed the pervasiveness of income inequality around the world, its connections with democracy and political stability, if the inequality that really matters is that between countries, and if capitalism and democracy aren't as intricately connected as we thoug
Oct 30, 2025 · 45 min
Nobel Economist Reveals Why Economic Models Keep Failing Us, ft. Richard Thaler
Standard economic theory informs how we think about business strategy and the economy and presumes that people are selfish, have well-defined preferences, and consistently make welfare-maximizing choices. In other words, we are rational. But what if that is not the case? Nobel Prize-winning economist Richard Thaler is out with an updated edition of his bestselling 1991 book, "The Winner's Curse: Paradoxes and Anomalies of Economic Life." In the new edition, he and his co-author Alex Imas (both
Oct 16, 2025 · 48 min
What Everyone’s Getting Wrong About AI, with Arvind Narayanan
Every major technological revolution has come with a bubble: railroads, electricity, dot-com. Is it AI’s turn? With investments skyrocketing and market valuations reaching the trillions, the stakes are enormous. But are we witnessing a genuine revolution—or the early stages of a spectacular crash? Princeton professor Arvind Narayanan joins Luigi Zingales and Bethany McLean to explain why he believes AI’s transformative impact is overstated. Drawing on his book AI Snake Oil, co-authored with Say
Oct 2, 2025 · 47 min
Why Capitalism Stopped Working In Japan, with Takeo Hoshi
The Japanese economy was once the envy of the world. By the 1980s, it looked set to surpass the United States in size. Real estate prices were high, the stock market was booming—the entire world was asking if Japan had found a superior model of economic growth and recovery after World War II, one grounded in industrial policy. However, the bubble burst in the early 1990s, and what followed was not a quick recession and rebound as we have often seen in the U.S., but decades of stagnation. Near-z
Sep 18, 2025 · 48 min
How Profit and Politics Hijacked Scientific Inquiry, with John Ioannidis
Why does a podcast about capitalism want to talk about science? Modern capitalism and science have evolved together since the Enlightenment. Advances in ship building and navigation enabled the Age of Discovery, which opened up new trade routes and markets to European merchants. The invention of the spinning jinny and cotton in the 18th century spurred textile production. The United States’ Department of Defense research and development agency helped create the precursor to the internet. The in
Sep 4, 2025 · 44 min
Will Privatizing The Mortgage Giants Solve The Housing Crisis?
This week, the Trump administration announced it would sell around 5% of mortgage giants and government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The sale would begin to reintroduce the two firms to private markets after 17 years of government conservatorship. The decision to re-privatize two of the largest mortgage firms in the world, and a prominent reason why the United States is one of the only countries where people can get 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, will have enormous imp
Aug 21, 2025 · 54 min
Trump's Great Private Equity Bailout, with Dan Rasmussen
For decades, private equity has been the darling of pension funds, university endowments, and sovereign wealth funds, promising high returns and low volatility. Now, President Donald Trump has made it possible for everyday investors to get in on the magic with his executive order, "Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors.” The order relieves regulatory burdens that limit the access of defined contribution plans, like 401(k)s, to alternative assets such as private equity (
Aug 7, 2025 · 44 min
Should Chatbots Teach Our Children? With Khan Academy CEO Sal Khan
What is the right way, if there is one at all, to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) technology into our education system? For Sal Khan, CEO of one of the world’s largest nonprofit education technology platforms, the answer is to take a step back and ask: Where can AI best complement current pedagogy? If a problem can be solved by pencil and paper, should we really be using AI instead? Khan joins Bethany and Luigi to discuss his recent book, “Brave New Words: How AI Will Revolutionize Educa
Jul 24, 2025 · 57 min
Can The Dollar Be Dethroned?, with Ken Rogoff
Americans are often told that they benefit from the privilege of the dollar serving as the world's currency. A strong dollar makes imports cheaper, facilitates demand for American companies, and is tied to cheap government borrowing. But what happens when this powerful privilege weakens? What does it even mean for the dollar to be “strong” or “weak” as a medium of exchange and investment? Why should Americans care that the dollar serves as the reserve currency for the world’s central banks? In
Jul 10, 2025 · 49 min
Revealing the Secret Architects of Capitalism, with Chris Hughes
After the 2008 financial crisis, and especially after the COVID pandemic of 2020, an increasing number of Americans are questioning the wisdom of unregulated markets and envisioning a more active role for the state. Scholars have coined a panoply of neologisms to capture this view of the political economy, including political scientist Steven Vogel’s “marketcraft.” The term indicates that the state not only lays the foundation for markets through the protection of the rule of law and property ri
Jun 26, 2025 · 49 min
How The Democrats Lost Labor And Found Capital, with David Sirota
The Democratic Party has become too focused on appeasing its billionaire donors and has failed to communicate its commitment to the working class, argues long-time political journalist David Sirota. The question moving forward, he says, is if the party can ever refocus its brand orthodoxy from prioritizing social and cultural issues to economic populism. Sirota joins Bethany and Luigi to dissect the outsized role of money in American politics and how it has rendered Democratic messaging incoher
Jun 12, 2025 · 51 min
Why Cliff Asness Believes Markets Are Getting Dumber
Are financial markets becoming less efficient? Famous investor Cliff Asness certainly thinks so. In his paper published last year, “The Less-Efficient Market Hypothesis,” Asness argues that social media and low interest rates, among other factors, have distorted market information so that stocks have become disconnected from their true values. This distortion has directed funds toward undeserving assets and firms and staved off necessary market corrections. Asness is the founder, managing princ
May 29, 2025 · 43 min
How Democrats Forgot To Be Normal, with Joan Williams
Back in 2016, Joan Williams, distinguished professor of law (emerita) at UC Law San Francisco, wrote an essay for the Harvard Business Review on why President Donald Trump attracted so many non-college voters. It went viral with almost four million views, becoming the most-read article in the 90-year history of the publication. Williams’ new book, Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back, outlines how the seemingly common view that her fellow progressives must ab
May 15, 2025 · 47 min
Lina Khan's Vision of Capitalism
Lina Khan recently concluded her term as one of the Biden administration’s most controversial leaders. Her tenure as chair of the Federal Trade Commission raised the profile of the relatively obscure antitrust agency charged with protecting competition. Her anti-monopoly outlook and more aggressive enforcement strategies, particularly toward Big Tech market power and protecting workers, earned the ire of the business community and the dedicated vitriol of the Wall Street Journal editorial board.
May 1, 2025 · 48 min
The Economics of Law Firms’ Resistance to Trump, with John Morley
The rule of law is essential to the flourishing of liberal democracy and capitalism. Yet, it is now under pressure in the United States, and corporate law firms are in the eye of the storm. Over the last few weeks, President Donald Trump has issued executive orders against several prominent law firms that represented his political adversaries and promoted diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Some of these law firms have caved into the administration’s demands to end such practices
Apr 17, 2025 · 47 min
Profit or Purpose? OpenAI's $300 Billion Question, with Rose Chan Loui
All too often, capitalism is identified with the for-profit sector. However, one organizational form whose importance is often overlooked is nonprofits. Roughly 4% of the American economy, including most universities and hospital systems, are nonprofit. One prominent nonprofit currently at the center of a raging debate is OpenAI, the $300 billion American artificial intelligence research organization best known for developing ChatGPT. Founded in 2015 as a donation-based nonprofit with a mission

Capitalisn't

How Capitalism Became Global ft. Sven Beckert

How to Stop “Ensh*ttification” Before It Kills the Internet - ft. Cory Doctorow

Why Matthew Yglesias Is Skeptical Of Anti-Monopoly Policies

Are Big Tech’s Regulators “Cowards”? ft. Tim Wu

Why Economists Should Care About Inequality, with Branko Milanovic

Nobel Economist Reveals Why Economic Models Keep Failing Us, ft. Richard Thaler

What Everyone’s Getting Wrong About AI, with Arvind Narayanan

Why Capitalism Stopped Working In Japan, with Takeo Hoshi

How Profit and Politics Hijacked Scientific Inquiry, with John Ioannidis

Will Privatizing The Mortgage Giants Solve The Housing Crisis?

Trump's Great Private Equity Bailout, with Dan Rasmussen

Should Chatbots Teach Our Children? With Khan Academy CEO Sal Khan

Can The Dollar Be Dethroned?, with Ken Rogoff

Revealing the Secret Architects of Capitalism, with Chris Hughes

How The Democrats Lost Labor And Found Capital, with David Sirota

Why Cliff Asness Believes Markets Are Getting Dumber

How Democrats Forgot To Be Normal, with Joan Williams

Lina Khan's Vision of Capitalism

The Economics of Law Firms’ Resistance to Trump, with John Morley

Profit or Purpose? OpenAI's $300 Billion Question, with Rose Chan Loui