Chicago Booth Review Podcast

People with a net worth at least $5m are heavily overrepresented in politics. That enables them to bend the law to benefit themselves. Many tend to be business owners, and some have used policymaking to make their companies more profitable. How have they done that, and what should we do about it? Welcome to the Chicago Booth Review podcast, where we bring you groundbreaking academic research in a clear and straightforward way. I'm Hal Weitzman, and today, I'm talking with Chicago Booth's Eric Zwick about the book he's written with Owen Zidar, The Everywhere Millionaire: Who Is Really Rich in America and How They Got There. This is our second conversation about the book. If you missed last week's episode, it might be useful to start there. Today, we're looking at how these "Everywhere Millionaires" shape our political system. In some cases, what are touted as "small businesses" turn out to be multibillion dollar enterprises that manipulate the tax code and other policy tools to reap ever-bigger profits.

When you think of someone who's rich, who comes to mind? The billionaires of Silicon Valley, AI entrepreneurs or the titans of Wall St? But what about toilet paper and toothbrush manufacturers, chicken processors and burger chain owners? Chicago Booth's Eric Zwick talks about his book, "The Everywhere Millionaire: Who Is Really Rich in America and How They Got There." This is the first of two episodes about the book, which chronicles the rise of a class of mainly business owners with a net worth of at least $5m, and who are typically worth around $25m. How did Zwick discover them? How do they make their money? And what does their emergence as a group tell us about the American dream?

Imagine it's 1 o'clock. Would you rather wait for 30 minutes or until 1:30? They're the same, but research suggests that people tend to feel that 30 minutes will take longer. What does that tell us about how our brains think about time? Chicago Booth's Kristin Donnelly talks about her research on time-duration asymmetry. Why is it that we think differently about waiting times depending on how they're presented?

How was school today? What did you have for lunch? Any parent who's asked these questions consistently has probably been met with a single-word response or even just a grunt. How do we make those conversations better? Ariel Kalil of the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy thinks many of us have been thinking wrong about how to encourage parents to talk and read with their children. Do parents just need better conversation starters?

The Peter Principle observes that employee tend to rise to their level of incompetence. It's a sarcastic take on corporate culture, but many of us have seen technically brilliant people get promoted into nontechnical roles where they struggle to manage people and teams. Chicago Booth's Christine Carpenter shares her insights on people skills and leadership. Can technical experts become successful people managers? And what are the key skills that can help to promote transparency, innovation and effective communication within teams?

For many decades, the Pentagon has bought most of its equipment from five big defense contractors: Lockheed Martin, RTX, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and General Dynamics. Is all that about to change? Chicago Booth's Marc Knez talks about how Anduril, a tech startup, is threatening to disrupt the defense industry. Could it ultimately lead to cheaper and more effective systems for the military?

Do accountants merely measure company activity, or do they actually make it better? Chicago Booth's Mike Minnis talks about his research on auditing and productivity. Do audits make companies perform better, or do effective managers choose to get audited?

Americans use buses and trains much less than their European counterparts. Yet while they sit in their cars, they are subsidizing buses that run mostly empty. Could the system be tweaked to make everyone better off? Chicago Booth's Milena Almagro talks about her research on public transit. Is it possible to make the system more sustainable both financially and environmentally?

Americans' self-reported rates of happiness plummeted during COVID and haven't recovered since. Will they ever? Chicago Booth's Sam Peltzman talks about his research on happiness. Before 2020, Peltzman says, the US was a "reasonably happy country" for nearly 50 years. But in the past six years, everything has changed. So are we in a permanent happiness slump?

Sometimes information is freely available and would be useful, but we choose to avoid it. Why do we do that, and does it make any sense? Chicago Booth's Jane Risen talks about her research on willful ignorance. As small children most of us are permanently curious and never stop asking why, but older children are more likely to avoid certain information. Why is that, and is our ignorance helping or harming us?

Vulnerability is typically perceived as a weakness in professional settings. Chicago Booth's Christine Carpenter wants us to think of it as a strength when it comes to leadership. So when is it appropriate to be vulnerable? And how can you show vulnerability without coming across as out of your depth or incompetent?

Software as a Service has boomed in recent decades, but now it faces an existential threat from AI. Chicago Booth's Marc Knez gives us his take on the SaaS Apocalypse. Which companies will survive? Are businesses really going to stop subscribing to software applications housed in the cloud to run their businesses, and what will they do instead?

The value of the US economy is increasingly accounted for by intangibles – things like intellectual property, brands and customer relationships. How is that changing finance and business? Chicago Booth's Amir Sufi talks to us about the rise of the intangible economy. Should advance economies abandon the idea of reviving manufacturing, and instead continue to chase intangible value?

Many US cities are highly racially segregated. Explicit segregation is illegal today, but some patterns of settlement haven't fundamentally changed. So why does housing segregation persist? Chicago Booth's Milena Almagro tells us about her research on racial housing covenants. What do the racist housing rules of the 1940s tell us about housing policy today?

Much of the world's economy is informal, with transactions taking place in street markets. How does business credit operate in that environment? Chicago Booth's Rimmy Tomy talks about her research on the huge Iewduh bazaar in Shillong, the largest and oldest market in northeast India. Tomy finds that vendors often prefer not to share business metrics with lenders. So how do they get credit?

Do you ever find yourself scrolling through videos on your phone? If so, does watching the same video on repeat change the way you think about it? Chicago Booth's Kristin Donnelly talks about her research on the "replay illusion." Why does seeing video of spontaneous events more than once make them seem rehearsed or premeditated?

College-educated mothers spend about 300 more hours a year in intensive childcare than mothers with only a high school diploma, yet they enjoy it less. So what's prompting them to spend so much time with their kids? Ariel Kalil of the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy talks about her research on the parenting time gap. All parents say that childcare is emotionally rewarding, so how can we reduce the gap in how they spend their time?

Do you trust your bank? What would it take for you to lose that trust? Chicago Booth's Rimmy Tomy talks about her research on trust in the financial system. It turns out that you might lose trust in your bank even if it hasn't done anything wrong. So how should banks, regulators and customers think about the role of trust?

Private credit is in the news, with Wall St. titans including JP Morgan chief Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs president John Waldron among those expressing concerns about the sector. How worried should we be? Chicago Booth's Amir Sufi about his views on where private credit is going. Many investors want their money back, and some funds are limiting withdrawals. Are the worries justified or overblown?

We've all been in a conversation in which our goal is to prove ourselves right and someone else wrong. But even if you win the argument, how much is the other person really won over? Chicago Booth's Jane Risen about her research on dialogue and debate. When does it make sense to hear people out rather than explicitly try to win them over, and if you find yourself in a debate, how can you steer the conversation more towards dialogue?

How can we have deeper conversations, connect more with others and ultimately, be happier? This is the second episode about the book "A Little More Social: How Small Choices Create Unexpected Happiness, Health, and Connection" by Chicago Booth's Nick Epley. What can we do to be more social, and what effects could it have on our happiness, wellbeing and perhaps, on society at large?

Trust in American institutions is at an all-time low. But nowhere has trust eroded more than in political institutions. Sixty years ago, 75 percent of Americans trusted the government to do what is right. Today, it's just 20 percent. What happened? Chicago Booth's Sam Peltzman discusses his research on American attitudes towards government. When did we lose faith in our political leaders, and which parts of the population are driving the decline?

Do you ever find yourself on a crowded train, surrounded by people all looking at their phones? What do you think would happen if you tried to strike up a conversation with the person next to you? Chicago Booth's Nick Epley tells us about his book, "A Little More Social: How Small Choices Create Unexpected Happiness, Health, and Connection." This is the first of two podcast episodes about the book. Epley says if we chose to have that conversation, it'd be more pleasant than we expect. So why do we set up our lives to avoid talking to others?

Most of want to be seen as moral, likeable and smart. But beyond that, how does our identity share the way we interact with, manage and lead others? Chicago Booth's Chris Collins tells us about his approach to identity and leadership. What is that connection, why does it sometimes hold us back, and how can we use it to improve our work?

The Marshmallow Test famously gauges children's ability to wait for a bigger reward. A body of research suggests that the happier we are, the more likely we are to be patient. But many of those studies were undertaken in the US and Europe. So how universal is that conclusion? Chicago Booth's Oleg Urminsky, whose research examines the connection between emotions and economic decisions around the world.

Have you ever pushed so hard to make a change in your organization that you ended up damaging your own ability to make that very change? Chicago Booth's Lisa Stefanac tells us how to think about effecting change. How hard should you push, and when can you know if you've gone too far?

You can earn a fortune in private equity. But how do you get started in the PE world? Chicago Booth's Scott Meadow explains how to plan for a lucrative career as a PE professional.

Most of us have been trained to keep our emotions out of the workplace. We think emotions can cloud decision-making, lead to irrational behavior, and make others uncomfortable. But can getting in touch with your emotions actually make you a better leader? Chicago Booth's Chris Collins tells us how treating your emotions as data can help you to manage people and situations better.

Parent companies of supermarket chains often delegate the authority to set prices down to the local level. Is that a good idea, and what does it mean for shoppers? Chicago Booth's Pradeep Chintagunta about his research on organizational structure and retail prices.

Do consumers care about corporate social responsibility? And what kind of CSR do consumers think companies should be doing? Chicago Booth's Abigail Sussman talks about her research on corporate social responsibility. What kinds of actions can companies take to make consumers more willing to spend money with them?

When things get challenging at work, how you change your behavior? Does the stress show, or do you remain cool, focused and productive? Chicago Booth's Lisa Stefanac tells us how to handle high-stakes situations.

When you search the internet or use AI, do you want it to agree with you, or are you open to having your mind changed? Chicago Booth's Oleg Urminsky tells us about his research, which suggests that we often search in a narrow way that ends up giving us results that confirm our views. Should search engines instead aim to open us up to opposing opinions?

Is our increasing obsession with numerical data a bad thing? Chicago Booth's Erika Kirgios and her coauthors came up with the term "quantification fixation" to describe how we tend to overweight numbers compared to qualitative evidence. What are the risks to that tendency? And how can you use quantification fixation to your advantage?

Doom-scrolling, social media cat videos and Youtube rabbit holes – you might well think that technology is more mind-numbing than mind-boosting. But could tech actually make us smarter? Chicago Booth's Pradeep Chintagunta tells us about his research on the effect of technology on small business owners. Could using apps help us to think in new ways and make better decisions?

Do you have both a credit-card balance and a savings account? Would you use your savings to pay down your credit-card balance if it would save you money on fees? Chicago Booth's Abigail Sussman talks about her research that suggests that about one in five people holds a credit-card balance and a savings account, which effectively means they are paying to borrow their own money. What would it take to change their behavior?

Getting into the venture-capital industry is hard. So how can you plan to break in if you don't have the relevant experience? Chicago Booth's Scott Meadow shares his advice for becoming a venture capitalist.

The stereotypical good negotiator is tough, assertive and dominant. When we think of those traits, we may well think of certain stereotypical kind of people who we think fit with that—and who doesn't fit. So how do people respond differently depending on who they think they're negotiating with? Chicago Booth's Erika Kirgios tells us about her research on stereotypes and negotiation in the used-car market.

In recent decades, US pension and endowment funds have increasingly allocated funds to alternative investments such as private equity and venture capital. Will those investments pay off? Chicago Booth's Joe Pagliari tells us about his research on real-estate private-equity funds, and explains his concerns that they may not generate the returns that they expected to earn.

The US supermarket business is cut-throat, but amid it all Trader Joe's has been able to carve a distinct role. Chicago Booth's Ram Shivakumar explains how it has thrived, and what it tells us about business strategy in a highly competitive market.

Schools are trying to restrict or at least identify the use of AI, and colleges are attempting to catch students who cut and paste generated text to use in their assignments. How effective are the tools they're using? Chicago Booth's Brian Jabarian about his research on AI detection tools. Jabarian points out that it's not just education that's affected, but also the reviews that drive consumer purchases. So can online tools help you detect if that restaurant review was written by ChatGPT?

New York, LA, Chicago, Boston and other big US cities have traditionally been a good bet for real-estate investors. But that view is changing. Chicago Booth's Joe Pagliari explains why those traditional markets are riskier investments, and why more and more real-estate investors are looking at cities such as Atlanta, Dallas, Denver and Houston.

For the 30 years leading up to the COVID pandemic, productivity in US restaurants was essentially flat. Since the pandemic, restaurant productivity has soared—because of the rise of take-out and delivery. Chicago Booth's Chad Syverson about his research into the restaurant productivity boom. How has take-out and delivery transformed the economics of the food industry?

Critics of social welfare programs often talk about how payments can disincentivize work. But is that always the case? Chicago Booth's Rebecca Dizon Ross talks about her research on how parents of disabled children think about the social safety net and investing in their kids' human capital. Could giving them better information help shape their thinking and behavior?

It's a cliché for organizations to say that their people are their most important asset, but how important is the person at the top? Can we measure the impact of a CEO or a manager? Chicago Booth's Mike Gibbs gives us a survey of economic research on leadership and management. How much of a difference does a good leader make? And why do "manager-types" so often struggle when they get promoted to leadership roles?

Economics is all around us. At least, that's what Chicago Booth's Ram Shivakumar believes, and he's on a mission to demonstrate that economics is not about numbers or theoretical models, but is at play in many everyday decisions, like whether to order a pizza, where to buy it from and what toppings to get. If economics isn't about numbers, what is it about?

A warmer world is here. Now what? Listen to Shocked, from the University of Chicago's Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth, and hear journalist Amy Harder and economist Michael Greenstone share new ways of thinking about climate change and cutting-edge solutions: https://lnk.to/shockedpodcast!boothreview

In the west, we are more likely to choose our friends and dropping them is relatively easily done. In other cultures, people tend to stick with the same social network for their whole lives. But does the ability to choose and to drop your friends make you happier? Chicago Booth's Thomas Talhelm tells us about his research on social circles and happiness. Why do friendships endure more in Japan than in the US? Who's happier? And how important is happiness anyway?

Most companies talks about the importance of innovation and collaboration, but the connection tends to be more of a hunch than a demonstrable fact. So can we measure whether collaboration really produces better ideas? Chicago Booth's Mike Gibbs talks about his research on social networks and innovation. Does having a bigger network make you more likely to come up with new and better ideas? And how has remote work affected networking and innovation?

Would you work if you weren't being paid for it? Social media is full of people criticizing companies for exploiting interns and prospective hires by underpaying or not paying them. Is that a universal feeling, or does it reflect western values and attitudes that aren't replicated elsewhere in the world? Chicago Booth's Thomas Talhelm talks about his research on what motivates people around the world to work.

The median home price in the US in 1970 was approximately $23,400, less than 2.5 times the median family income at the time of about $9,870. By last year, the median home price was more than $400,000, about 5 times the median family income of about $80,000. No surprise that people are warning about a housing affordability crisis. To what extent is that driven by the increasing cost of building homes? Chicago Booth's Chad Syverson talks about his research on the weak link between building costs and home prices. What's really behind the price increases in residential real estate?

In the perfect world of economic models, investors make perfectly rational decisions using perfect information and earn the best possible returns. They never get distracted or confused. Of course, in real life it doesn't always work that way. Investors can get bamboozled by management drivel, or besotted with charismatic founders. What if we could use AI to make better investment decisions? In this episode of the Chicago Booth Review podcast, we explore how researchers are using machine-learning models to improve how investors allocate their funds.

Many of us have observed how social media shapes or warps our behavior. Some people are more willing to get into disagreements or show off more. The rest of us see these behaviors and can assume that that's just how other people behave, even though in reality algorithms may be directing us to the most controversial or explosive content. In this episode, Jeff Cockrell, editor of the Chicago Booth Review website, meets Chicago Booth's Joshua Jackson to discuss his research on the effects of social media on "social learning."

For decades, income inequality has been on the rise around the world. Is that mainly because those at the very top are getting paid more, or are they increasingly passively collecting the income produced by their accumulated wealth? In this episode of the Chicago Booth Review podcast, we ask what makes the rich so rich, with Chicago Booth's Luigi Zingales and Eric Zwick, and the University of California at Berkeley's Gabriel Zucman.

Ben Baldanza ran Spirit Airlines from 2006 to 2016, and transformed it into a ultra low-cost carrier, abandoning all frills and charging for any extras. In this episode of the Chicago Booth Review podcast, he debates Chicago Booth's John Paul Rollert, one of our adjunct professors, who had just written an article entitled, "A business school professor studies the world's worst airline."

Thanks to the growth of index funds, more and more of us own passive investments. To what extent are we responsible for what goes into those index funds? In this episode of the Chicago Booth Review podcast, Chicago Booth's John Paul Rollert asks if there really is such a thing as a truly "passive" investment.

Regulators have trained their sights on Big Tech companies. Many Americans think Big Tech should be more tightly regulated, and politicians across the aisle agree. But what exactly should be done? In this episode of the Chicago Booth Review podcast, we explore three possible options: break up the biggest companies, regulate them more forcefully, or wait and see.

The Showtime series Super Pumped told the story of the rise of Uber in a swirl of excess and intrigue. But many startups seem to be run by charismatic CEOs with a big vision, which sometimes turns out to be nothing but an illusion fueled by investor cash. In this episode of the Chicago Booth Review podcast, we present a conversation about startup culture with New York Times reporter Mike Isaac, whose book inspired the TV series, and two experts on entrepreneurship, Chicago Booth's Steve Kaplan and Starr Marcello.

How does the experience of poverty shape decision-making? Research suggests that, rather than bad decisions leading to poverty, being poor can lead to some poorer decisions. At the same time, research also indicates that the stark financial choices faced by poor people can actually make them better at assessing the trade-offs involved in some decisions.

Stakeholder capitalism is the idea that business should be about more than just making money. That seems a world away from the brash financial types of Bret Easton Ellis's 1991 novel 'American Psycho,' or the 1987 movie 'Wall Street.' But in this episode of the Chicago Booth Review podcast, Chicago Booth's John Paul Rollert asks how much we have really moved on, and reflects on the continuing relevance of Easton Ellis's novel.

Airport bookstores are full of volumes claiming to reveal the secrets of effective leadership, and yet business leaders often don't seem to be getting any better at actually leading. Some people seem to be born leaders, but many executives really struggle with exercising authority, connecting with, and motivating their workforces, and many ultimately fail to do so. In this episode of the Chicago Booth Review podcast we present a discussion from 2017 how leaders can work on their leadership skills featuring, when we invited Chicago Booth's Harry Davis, George Wu, and Nancy Tennant.

It's no revelation that the language we use often says more about us than whatever it's describing. But what about the number of words? The more we're surprised by something, the more we're likely to say about it, and that can reveal all sorts of prejudices that we might not be aware of. In this episode, we chat to Ayelet Fishbach, a professor of behavioral science at Chicago Booth, about her recent paper on "surprised elaboration."

Rajat Gupta was one of America's most successful Indian-born businessmen. In 1994, he became McKinsey's youngest chief executive and the first who had been born outside of the US. Duing his nine-year leadership, McKinsey's revenues grew from $1.5 billion to $3.4 billion, its number of consultants went from 3,300 to 7,700, and from having 58 offices in 24 countries, it expanded to 81 offices in 44 countries. But in 2010, Gupta was charged with insider trading, a crime for which he was convicted in 2012, and for which he spent two years in jail. Gupta told his side of the story in his 2019 book Mind Without Fear. In this episode, we bring you audio from 2019, when Gupta spoke to John Paul Rollert, an adjunct associate professor of behavioral science, and a columnist for Chicago Booth Review.

Most of us find it hard to achieve our goals. So how can we set better goals and follow through on them? We put that question to two experts on motivation, Chicago Booth's Ayelet Fishbach and the University of Pennsylvania's Katy Milkman.

How carefully do you tend your professional network? How does your network shape your ideas and your behavior? Understanding network theory can both help you become more successful professionally, and to explain political and sociological trends such as polarization, nationalism, and anti-globalization.

As hybrid work becomes increasingly common, organizations and managers are trying to come to grips with the challenges of a partly remote workforce. We consider how hybrid work will shape the labor market with three experts in the theory and practice of hybrid work: Chicago Booth's Steve Davis and Mike Gibbs, and the University of Chicago's Melina Hale.

What should the uber wealthy do with their money? How can they leave a lasting legacy? And what responsibilities do they have to society at large? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, Booth's John Paul Rollert reflects on the role of those at the very top of the 1 percent.

Many economists agree that inequality has risen in recent decades, but that's where the agreement ends. Measuring the trend is contentious, and it's more than just a methodological squabble. How severe one sees the problem informs the policies proposed, from no change to a host of new taxes aimed at correcting the imbalance. In this special episode of the Chicago Booth Review podcast, we present a conversation between two economists who take very different views on inequality: Chicago Booth's Steve Kaplan and UC Berkeley's Emmanuel Saez.

Academic models often built on the assumption of how rational utility-maximising individuals would behave. But as behavioral scientists have long pointed out, real people don't actually behave that way. Does that mean that we behave irrationally, and if so why? Or is our behavior actually more rational than it may appear? In this special episode, we present Chicago Booth's Richard Thaler, an economics Nobel laureate, in conversation with Harvard's Steven Pinker.

Do stock prices reflect all publicly available information? Are they entirely a reflection of the fundamental values of their respective companies? Or is there something else that helps to explain episodes of surprisingly high volatility, from market-wide plunges to the sudden surges of meme stocks? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, we explore the inelastic markets hypothesis, which suggests that fund flows and investor demand play an important role in market behavior.

The buzz around artificial intelligence has led to a surfeit of funding for A.I. startups—and, consequently, less funding to go around for other young companies. Is the hype around this technology creating a bubble? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, Hal Weitzman speaks with a panel of experts to explore what underlies the valuations of A.I. startups, and what those valuations mean for entrepreneurs and investors more broadly.

The loss of faith in free markets that followed the 2007–10 financial crisis was followed up by a number of political developments that suggested the ascendency of populism and a more skeptical attitude toward democracy among many people. What can be done to protect democracy from this erosion of trust? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, we feature a conversation, held at Chicago Booth's London campus, between Booth's Raghuram G. Rajan and Martin Wolf of the Financial Times, in which they discuss the health of democracy, why it has come under pressure, and why the middle class is crucial to preserving it.

Individuals acting in their own self-interest are, according to classical economics, an important part of a productive, efficient economy. And yet, selfishness is among the personality traits best known for impeding healthy human relationships. How do we separate the two concepts? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, Booth's John Paul Rollert explores how we define the line between them, and why that line matters.

Lying is wrong, right? And yet, almost everyone lies sometimes, and most of us see lying as not only acceptable but preferable in some situations. How does context affect the importance of the truth? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, we examine the findings of research into how lying is perceived.

Total household debt in the United States is in the neighborhood of $17 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Who's funding that debt? One theory is that ultrawealthy Americans are, through their excess savings, and that the result is a destabilizing cycle of inequality. This episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast looks at the research behind this argument and what this dynamic could mean for the US economy.

Facebook and Google are each facing antitrust scrutiny in the United States, and they have come under the gaze of European regulators as well. But most people don't pay money to ei-ther company for the services they provide, so can Facebook and Google really be said to have monopolies? And if they do, does it matter? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Pod-cast, we revisit a debate between Booth's Luigi Zingales and George Mason's Tyler Cowen about the price of the tech giants' dominance.

When a business's customers object to its conduct, they generally have two options: exit (vote with their wallets and cut ties with the company) and voice (boycott, protest, or otherwise raise awareness of their complaint). Social media has changed the calculus behind this choice for both individuals and companies. On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, Booth's John Paul Rollert considers the impact of this change and how the relative appeal of exit and voice have evolved over time.

Algorithms are everywhere. They curate our music playlists, guide our online shopping—and, increasingly, dominate the news. But while most of us have accepted the idea of algorithms making, or helping make, some of the mundane decisions in our day-to-day lives, when do we prefer human discretion to the inscrutable judgment of A.I.? And how do we keep algorithms, some of which are tasked with making predictions that are far from mundane, from exacerbating existing problems of bias and inequality? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, we explore questions about the role of A.I. in society.

Many of us have a tendency to attach labels to the money flowing into and out of our hands—"wages," "windfall," "bills," "leisure," and so on—and to treat the money differently depending on where it came from or how we're using it. In behavioral economics this is called mental accounting, and it can lead to some irrational personal-finance choices. On this episode, the Chicago Booth Review Podcast looks at how researchers are mapping the mental connections we're making between various expenses, and how those research insights can help consumers and marketers make better decisions.

What are the qualities of a good CEO? What differentiates CEOs from other executives? How do companies seek them out, and should those recruiting practices adapt as corporate America seeks to improve diversity at its highest levels? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, Chicago Booth's Steve Kaplan and a trio of experts in executive search discuss the business world's preeminent position with host Hal Weitzman.

What is within the power of free markets? What can capitalism do for society, what can't it do, and what should it do? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, Booth's John Paul Rollert explores how many people came to have an unshakeable faith in capitalism's broad ability to solve nearly any problem, while the experience of others has left them skeptical. In the era after "the end of history," capitalism's defenders need to reckon earnestly with a series of questions about what the system may leave unresolved, he says.

It may be in the nature of taxation that it should suffer a bad public image—but US law, with its convoluted tax code, doesn't help make it any more palatable. Why is it so complicated, particularly when simplifying it is one of the rare ideas that enjoys bipartisan support? And apart from making it more straightforward, how else might lawmakers improve it? This episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast examines three CBR articles exploring research around taxation from different angles.

Much has been said and written about the wealth concentrated in the highest-earning 1 percent of US households. But wealth and income are also similarly concentrated within that small slice of the US economy, with the 1 percent's 1 percent—that is, the .01 percent—far outpacing the rest of that elite group in terms of income and wealth share, according to some economists. Who makes up this small fraction of households, how rich are they, and how did they end up with so much wealth? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, host Hal Weitzman revisits a CBR feature probing the contours of wealth and income inequality in the US.

Good communication is widely recognized as a cornerstone of high-functioning organizations—and yet, it can be hard to achieve consistently for many businesses and other groups. How and why do we fall short at conveying our messages to others, and what can we do to fix it? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, host Hal Weitzman revisits a conversation he had with three behavioral scientists—Booth's Nicholas Epley and Ayelet Fishbach, and UCLA's Heather M. Caruso, who was then at Booth—about the roots of and solutions to workplace miscommunication.

What does it mean to sell out? What should we make of the tradeoffs we accept between our personal aspirations and professional successes? At what point do such tradeoffs become ethically problematic? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, columnist and Booth adjunct associate professor John Paul Rollert considers what makes someone a sellout—and whether being one really matters.

Are prices in financial markets fair and accurate? Or do they reflect human biases? These questions, and variations on them, represent one of the most divisive topics in finance: just how efficient markets really are. To explore this subject at the highest level, on this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast we revisit a conversation from 2016 with two of Booth's Nobel laureates in economics: Eugene F. Fama and Richard H. Thaler.

The gender pay gap in the United States—wherein women earn about 82 percent of what men do—has been both well-documented and stubbornly durable. Although there's no single explanation for the gap, economics research is demonstrating that some of its roots lie well outside the workplace, in family dynamics, choices about educational investment, and similar areas. How is the gender gap defined by these forces? And what can we do to narrow it?

On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, we explore these questions with three articles investigating the economics of gender and professional outcomes.

Climate change appears set to kick off a massive human upheaval as changing sea levels, weather patterns, and other forces alter the places we live. How will policy makers respond to this population movement? Who will be moving, how will they be received in their new homes, and what impact will they have there? For clues, we can look to an earlier period of migration: that of the 1930s Dust Bowl era in the United States.

On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, we turn to the research of Booth's Richard Hornbeck to understand how Dust Bowl migrants differed from other migrants of the time, and what that could tell us about migration induced by climate change in the 21st century.

The Chicago Booth Review Podcast is the audio companion to CBR's coverage of the latest academic research in business, policy, and markets. Each week we dig into CBR articles and videos to examine a different topic in depth, from inflation to artificial intelligence. Join host and CBR editor-in-chief Hal Weitzman for groundbreaking research, explained in a clear and straightforward way.

Have you had an AI job interview? Would you prefer to be interviewed by AI than by a human? And how would you expect AI interviewers to perform compared to their human counterparts? Chicago Booth's Brian Jabarian talks about his research on AI interviews. Will they make human-to-human job interviews a thing of the past?

One way health policymakers can get people to exercise more is to pay them. But should we pay greater amounts to people who exercise more, and smaller sums to those who do less? Rebecca Dizon Ross tells us about her research on personalizing incentive payments to try to encourage exercise. Does getting people to choose their own exercise targets and financial compensation encourage them to walk more?

AI is untrustworthy. It hallucinates, making up information or extrapolating by itself. That might make it frustrating to use, but could it prove more of a feature than a bug? Chicago Booth's Veronika Ročková uses statistical methods that exploit the randomness in AI responses to improve medical diagnoses, and even to classify galaxies more efficiently.

Technology is typically thought of as driving humans apart. But could it be used to promote a sense of empathy with others? Chicago Booth's Alex Imas tells us about an experiment he ran using an immersive virtual-reality installation. Virtual reality, Imas reckons, could be used to help us relate to other people in real life.

We typically think of self-awareness as being a good thing. But if someone behaves badly and is aware that they're behaving badly, is that worse than if they're blissfully unaware? Chicago Booth's Shereen Chaudhry has conducted research into the effects of self-awareness. When should we express self-awareness, and when should we convey that we weren't as self-aware as we should have been?

Almost all companies borrow money – some of secured by assets they own, other debts unsecured. But is that distinction meaningful in the real world? Chicago Booth's Raghuram Rajan talks about his research into corporate debt. In the past century, the amount of unsecured debt has soared. What's the significance of that, and is it really unsecured?

What do startup founders need to do to get venture capitalists to invest? Do VCs invest in the right team, or the right idea? Do they invest where they can add value, or do they try to pick new businesses that are going to be winners from the start? Chicago Booth's Steve Kaplan has surveyed venture capitalists to find out what they look for in startups, and he has a framework he uses to advise both founders and funders on how to pick winning companies.

When students are asked if they use AI to do their work, many say they don't. But when they're asked if other students re using AI, many more say that they do. Should we conclude that they're not being honest about their own AI use? Chicago Booth's Alex Imas has conducted research on students and AI. Why is using AI such a taboo? And how should schools and colleges respond to its inevitable creep?

It's hard to say sorry, and it can be even harder to say sorry without following it up with whatever the other person did wrong. Why are apologies so hard? Chicago Booth's Shereen Chaudhry has conducted research into the strategy of apologizing and blaming. Why do we care so much about others accepting their share of the blame? And when we know that we've done wrong, what's holding us back from apologizing?

The Trump administration has gutted central government, lashed out at the Federal Reserve, and is attempting to dismantle the international trading order. Can America's institutions survive? We hear from Chicago Booth's Raghuram Rajan about the role of institutions in political economy. Are we seeing a reversal of fortunes, in which the US is looking more and more like a caricature of a poor country with poorly regarded institutions, growing inequality and a looming sovereign debt crisis?

Private equity investments are typically locked up for many years, which means investors don't know at any point in time how much their stakes are worth. Should they take at face value the valuations that PE firms provide? Chicago Booth's Steve Kaplan has detected patterns in private equity valuation reports that reveal whether the company will be sold at a premium, and when that exit might happen. So how can investors get a better sense of when and how big their payoffs will be?