Curated playlist
University of Chicago faculty
- Kevin M. MurphyIn 2023, Google's expert witness Kevin M. Murphy said Apple gets 36% of its Safari default-search revenue.
- Muzaffar AlamHistorian Muzaffar Alam reads the Mughal empire's own records in the original Persian.
- Antonin ScaliaAntonin Scalia won confirmation to the United States Supreme Court on the 17th of September 1986 by a vote of 98-0. Not one senator voted no. Later, Joe Biden, a committee member who became a president, said he regretted not opposing…
- Robert Lucas Jr.Robert Lucas's divorce deal gave his ex-wife half of any Nobel Prize awarded before October 31, 1995.
- Roger EbertRoger Ebert typed his last blog post two days before he died. He signed off with "I'll see you at the movies."
- Enrico FermiEnrico Fermi won a Nobel Prize partly for new elements that were really fission products.
- Saul BellowSaul Bellow learned he had entered the U.S. illegally as a child when he tried to enlist. He became a citizen in 1941.
- Kenneth PomeranzWhy did industrialization happen in Europe and not in China? Historian Kenneth Pomeranz answered in a 2000 book.
- Rudolf CarnapRudolf Carnap argued that most deep philosophical questions were meaningless.
- Friedrich HayekThree days before the 1929 Wall Street crash, Friedrich Hayek wrote that no sudden collapse was expected.
- Milton FriedmanMilton Friedman argued the Federal Reserve let the money supply shrink by one-third between 1929 and 1933.
- Jan GondaJan Gonda became a leading scholar of Asian languages without ever visiting Asia.
- Edward TellerEdward Teller stood and watched the Trinity test while nearly everyone else lay face-down.
- Marshall HodgsonMarshall Hodgson coined "Islamicate" for culture tied to Muslim societies but not religious.
- Hannah ArendtHannah Arendt's name is printed on journals, schools, scholarly prizes, humanitarian prizes, think-tanks and street signs. It also appears on stamps and monuments. She was born Johanna Arendt, and she grew into one of the most influential…
- Gary BeckerEconomist Gary Becker argued that criminals are not irrational. He said they weigh the risks and rewards of a crime.
- Ronald CoaseRonald Coase faced twenty skeptical senior economists in 1960 and gradually won them over.
- James HeckmanAre people who join a program different from those who don't? James Heckman won a Nobel Prize for fixing that problem.
- Richard ThalerEconomist Richard Thaler played himself in the 2015 film The Big Short.
- Bertrand RussellAt 89, philosopher Bertrand Russell went to jail for an anti-nuclear protest. Asked to behave, he said, "No, I won't."
- James Samuel ColemanJames Coleman was arrested at a whites-only amusement park outside Baltimore with his family and a Black family.
- Charles RosenPianist Charles Rosen wrote his first book because a record sleeve note embarrassed him. It won a National Book Award.
- Subrahmanyan ChandrasekharSubrahmanyan Chandrasekhar sailed from India to England in 1930, and on that first sea voyage he worked out a number that would outlive him. The number was 1.44. It is the greatest mass, counted in suns, that a white dwarf star can have. A…
- John DeweyJohn Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont, and over his lifetime he published more than 700 articles in 140 journals and roughly 40 books. In 1888, while still at the University of Michigan, he wrote a line that would organize all that…
- Dallin H. OaksDallin H. Oaks once explained a change of career with a metaphor borrowed from Thomas Jefferson. Standing at the edge of a courtroom life, he said: "Many years ago, Thomas Jefferson coined the metaphor, 'the wall between church and state.'…