Conversations with Tyler

2025 Retrospective

A curated selection of the episodes, books, and ideas that defined Tyler Cowen's year in review.

Top Episodes

Jonny Steinberg

ON SOUTH AFRICA
"One of my favorite episodes. I thought all of his answers were deep and thoughtful, and it was good to focus on South Africa."

Any Austin

THE YOUTUBER
"One of my three or four favorite episodes for the year... I thought it was excellent and magical at times."

Donald Lopez

ON BUDDHISM
"One of my favorites of the year, he just had excellent answers to all questions and spit it out immediately. No BS."

Cass Sunstein

ON LIBERALISM
"It's like Cass at his very peak, and it's a great episode... He was really up for it and felt challenged."

Gaurav Kapadia

INVESTOR
"You're either the most underrated unknown person or the most unknown underrated person... that was excellent."

Ian Leslie

ON THE BEATLES
"On John and Paul in the Beatles... That's truly a popular culture topic, but that was very good."

David Robertson

CLASSICAL CONDUCTOR
"He was very good, and I quite liked the episode."

Rick Rubin

CHORAL MUSIC SET
"It's one of the things I did this year that I'm happiest about."

Books & Articles

The English and Their History

Robert Tombs

"That was probably the clear winner for best book of that year, and everyone should read it. Utterly compelling."

Submission

Michel Houellebecq

"The most classic work of fiction of the last 20 years... It rewards rereads and it's just incredible."

Margaret Thatcher: At Her Zenith

Charles Moore

"One of the best biographies of the last 10 years. Just quality of book, it's unbelievable."

The Hive Mind

Garett Jones

"It's held up very well, and I think it's become a seminal work. I'm glad I picked it."

Elon Musk

Ashlee Vance

"You do say the ones that you think are the best are Ashlee Vance's book on Elon Musk."

The Meursault Investigation

Kamel Daoud

"The retelling of Camus has become a classic book."

The Midas Paradox

Scott Sumner

"A very thorough book that Scott worked on for something like 20 years."

Misbehaving

Richard Thaler

"There should be more books about economics and economists, and that was a good one."