666. This Is How Progress Happens

3/6/202653 min

Economists don’t usually talk about “culture.” But Joel Mokyr argues that it’s the engine of innovation — and the Nobel Prize committee agreed. Stephen Dubner sits down for a thousand-year conversation (including advice!) with the new Nobel laureate.

SOURCES:
- Joel Mokyr, economic historian at Northwestern University.

RESOURCES:
- Two Paths to Prosperity: Culture and Institutions in Europe and China, 1000–2000, by Avner Greif, Joel Mokyr, and, Guido Tabellini (2025).
- "The Outsize Role of Immigrants in US Innovation," by Shai Bernstein, Rebecca Diamond, Abhisit Jiranaphawiboon, Timothy McQuade, and Beatriz Pousada (NBER, 2023).
- A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy, by Joel Mokyr (2016).
- Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson (2012).
- "The Economics of Being Jewish," by Joel Mokyr (Critical Review, 2011).

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Clips

Immigration: America’s Unforced Error

Today’s Real Asteroid

GDP Can’t Measure Progress

AI’s Promise And Pitfalls

Failing Your Way To Progress

Tempered Optimism, Grandchildren Worries

Progress From The Upper Tail

Culture And Institutions, Entwined

Nobel Surprise And A Zinger

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First 90 seconds

Stephen Dubner· Host0:00
[music] Freakonomics Radio is sponsored by Claude from Anthropic. Enjoy finding the hidden logic underneath things? Claude is built for that kind of thinking. It doesn't hand you a tidy answer and move on. It helps you work through the complexity, challenges your assumptions, and surfaces what the data actually says. Deep research digs across dozens of sources so you can trace the reasoning yourself. Try Claude for free at claude.ai/freakonomics and see why problem solvers choose Claude as their thinking partner. [music] Freakonomics Radio is sponsored by LinkedIn Ads. When you wanna reach the right professionals, use LinkedIn Ads, the platform that has the highest B2B ROAS of all online ad networks. Spend two hundred and fifty dollars on your first campaign on LinkedIn Ads and get a free two hundred and fifty dollar credit for the next one. Just go to linkedin.com/freakonomics. Terms and conditions apply. [music] I am sometimes surprised at how quickly we humans habituate to progress. We're given something wonderful, and we immediately want more of it and complain that we don't get it quickly or cheaper. How do you think about it?
Joel Mokyr· Guest1:22
Well, as an economic historian, I think it is my mission to tell people how good they have it.

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