The Joe Walker Podcast

Apr 02 2025 117 ep. 95 mins 1.4k

The Joe Walker Podcast artwork

Joe Walker hosts refreshingly in-depth conversations with founders, scientists, scholars, economists, and public intellectuals.

(Formerly 'The Jolly Swagman Podcast'.)

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Sam Roggeveen — Why the US Won't Fight China for Dominance (and What it Means for Australia) [Aus. Policy Series - LIVE]

Apr 02 2025 114 mins

This episode is the sixth instalment of my Australian policy series, recorded live in Sydney on February 26, 2025. I speak with Sam Roggeveen—Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program, and a former senior analyst at the Office of National Assessments—about why the United States won’t fight China for dominance in Asia, and what that mean

Peter Tulip — What Will It Actually Take to Solve the Housing Crisis? [Aus. Policy Series - LIVE]

Mar 25 2025 105 mins

This episode is the fifth instalment of my Australian policy series, recorded live in Sydney on February 12, 2025. I speak with Peter Tulip—Chief Economist at the Centre for Independent Studies, and a former senior researcher at both the Reserve Bank of Australia and the US Federal Reserve. We go deep into what's driving Australia's housing crisis, the problems with heritage

Judith Brett — How a Benthamite Political Culture Shaped Australia's Electoral System [Aus. Policy Series - LIVE]

Mar 13 2025 85 mins

Australia stands alone among English-speaking democracies with its compulsory, preferential voting system. But why? This episode is the fourth instalment of my Australian policy series. It was recorded in Melbourne on March 6, 2025. I speak with Judith Brett—Emeritus Professor of Politics at La Trobe University and author of the canonical history of Australia's electoral syst

Richard Holden & Steven Hamilton — How Australia Gets It Done [Aus. Policy Series - LIVE]

Mar 04 2025 117 mins

This episode is the third of my live policy salons. It was recorded in Sydney on February 5, 2025. We explore the concept of state capacity—the ability of governments to achieve their policy goals—and ask why Australia outperforms almost every other country in the world in this domain. For the conversation, I'm joined by two of Australia's great public policy economists

Andrew Leigh — Inequality and Egalitarianism [Aus. Policy Series - LIVE]

Feb 13 2025 89 mins

This episode is the second of my live policy salons. It was recorded in Sydney on January 29, 2025. What is the relationship between economic equality and egalitarianism in the cultural sense? Where does Australia's egalitarian tradition come from? Are we too egalitarian? Is economic inequality increasing? What's been driving it? And does it even matter? We sit down with Andrew Lei

Abul Rizvi — Inside Immigration Policy [Aus. Policy Series - LIVE]

Jan 31 2025 102 mins

This episode is the first of my live policy salons. It was recorded in Melbourne on January 23, 2025. In this salon, we go deep into Australia's immigration policy with Abul Rizvi, former Deputy Secretary of the Department of Immigration. Abul managed Australia’s migration program from 1995 to 2007 and played a crucial role in the 2001 policy changes that massively increased

Behind the Scenes of My Interview Research Process — Andy Matuschak Crashes My Crib

Jan 24 2025 102 mins

This episode is a little different: I’m the one being interviewed—and my interlocutor is Andy Matuschak, an independent applied researcher focused on "tools for thought" (ways to augment human intelligence). Andy founded and led Khan Academy’s Research and Development Lab, and prior to that, he was a senior engineer at Apple where he helped build iOS. I first disc

Eugene Fama — For Whom Is The Market Efficient?

Dec 30 2024 55 mins

Eugene Fama is a 2013 Nobel laureate in economic sciences, and is widely recognised as the "father of modern finance." He is currently the Robert R. McCormick Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago. Full transcript available at: https://josephnoelwalker.com/eugene-fama-156/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Richard Butler — Nuclear Diplomacy at the End of History

Nov 29 2024 151 mins

Richard Butler AC is a retired Australian diplomat. He served as Australia's first Ambassador for Disarmament (1983-1988), Australian Ambassador to the United Nations (1992-1997), and Chair of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) to inspect Iraq for weapons of mass destruction (1997-1999). He also served as Chair of the Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear We

Larry Summers — AGI and the Next Industrial Revolution

Oct 21 2024 48 mins

Larry Summers is a former US Treasury Secretary (1999-2001), Chief Economist at the World Bank (1991-1993), and Director of the National Economic Council under President Obama (2009-2010). He also served as President of Harvard University (2001-2006). Currently, he is the Charles W. Eliot University Professor at Harvard University, and he sits on the board of directors at OpenAI, o