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Every book John Kay recommended on podcasts

Guest on EconTalk · 2 books · 1 episode across 1 podcast

John Kay is an economist and writer who appeared on EconTalk to discuss his co-authored work on the nature of uncertainty. During the episode, John Kay and Mervyn King talked about their book Radical Uncertainty. John Kay referred to arguments made within the book regarding biases and rationality, contrasting how human behavior is typically viewed against the economist's concept of perfect rationality. Additionally, John Kay mentioned a specific experiment by Kahneman included in the publication, which tested people on word frequency in the English language to demonstrate cognitive patterns. To further illustrate human attitudes toward unpredictability, John Kay cited an example from the book involving the movie Groundhog Day, using the film to challenge the notion that people genuinely wish to rid themselves of all uncertainty in their lives. Through these discussions, John Kay highlighted the central themes of his book, emphasizing that decision-making often occurs in environments where the future cannot be accurately calculated or anticipated using standard probabilistic models.

Books recommended by John Kay

Who said what is determined automatically. In hand-checked samples, at least 6% of mentions were credited to the wrong speaker — sometimes an interviewer’s line recorded as the guest’s, sometimes the reverse. Every entry below quotes the words and links to the episode, so you can check it.

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  1. Radical Uncertainty

    John Kay; Mervyn King · Discussed · 1 episode

    Discussed
    “we describe and we argue in the book that a lot of the things that are called biases by people who are wedded to the economist's concept of rationality”
    Where to get it
  2. Groundhog Day

    Lynn Peppas · Discussed · 1 episode

    Discussed
    “yeah i'm not sure you were right when you say that uh we'd like to be rid of uncertainty and we use a striking example in the book groundhog day”
    Where to get it

Books John Kay wrote

Appearances

EpisodePodcastDateBooks
John Kay and Mervyn King on Radical UncertaintyEconTalk2020-08-034