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Latest Episode
Is the world facing a state of permacrisis?
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Leading economists Mike Spence and Mohamed El-Erian talk about the “pretty complicated and disorienting environment” we face.
Recent Episodes
Has the drive toward human development been thrown into reverse?
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The UNDP’s Pedro Conceição talks about today’s global gridlock, uncertainty complex, and a pervasive sense of disempowerment.
Unpacking the mysteries of productivity
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Leading economist Chad Syverson speculates about the ingredients in productivity’s secret sauce.
Delivering services to the public—digitally—with Jennifer Pahlka
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A former US deputy chief technology officer talks about how digitization can be used to create a government that works for the people.
What’s the future for cities in the postpandemic world?
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Leading urban economist Ed Glaeser talks doom loops, hybrid spaces, the 15-minute city, and bumpy roads.
Forward Thinking on Europe’s existential crisis with Marco Buti
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“Europe is drifting away from the technology frontier … from that viewpoint, I think Europe’s business model, looking forward, is not sustainable.” A quintessential insider discusses Europe’s competitiveness.
Forward Thinking on the tricky business of removing carbon from our world with Nan Ransohoff
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A leading market maker for investment in carbon removal believes that tackling climate change has to be done quickly, but that the problem is tractable.
Forward Thinking on how geeks are changing the world with Andrew McAfee
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One of the world’s tech scholars talks geeks, two-pizza teams, the 90 percent syndrome and a whole lot more.
Forward Thinking on why we ignore inflation—from ancient times to the present—at our peril with Stephen King
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“We need to talk about inflation. It’s unfair. It’s not democratic, it’s a terrible thing to unleash on society. And I think many of us have forgotten what damage it can do,” says a leading British economist.
Forward Thinking on the existential issues facing the middle classes in every country with Homi Kharas
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Historically, the middle class has always tried to avoid change and to reduce levels of uncertainty, but it now has to embrace change and write itself a new narrative, says a leading economist.
Forward Thinking on funding a clean world with Ann Mettler
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A leader on funding Europe’s energy transition talks about the three Ss that are necessary: speed, scale, and simplicity.
Forward Thinking on the recipe for Asia’s success story with Justin Yifu Lin
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Asia’s economies will continue to have momentum “because when we know the secret, we are not going to give up that enlightenment” says influential Chinese economist Justin Yifu Lin.
Forward Thinking on how to live our longer lives with Andrew J. Scott
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A British economist talks about longevity and how we can adapt to living for longer.
Forward Thinking on avoiding another false dawn for Africa and finally seizing the continent’s potential with Carlos Lopes
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From growing up in a small village in turbulent postcolonial Guinea-Bissau to a career at the United Nations, a leading African development economist talks about his belief in pan-Africanism and multilateralism.
Forward Thinking on bringing the joy to economics with Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers
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“Our economics, the economics I get to do, my colleagues at the university when I walk down the hallway, this is just the most exciting water-cooler conversation in the world.” Two University of Michigan professors talk about their highly relevant—joyous—take on economics.
Forward Thinking on the brave new world of generative AI with Ethan Mollick
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“I really worry that people are not taking this seriously enough … this fundamentally is going to be a shift in how we work and how we interact at a level that’s as big as anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes.” A leading business school professor talks about why he thinks the technology underlying ChatGPT is so transformative that he is betting his career on it.
Forward Thinking on the rollercoaster of central banking with Hans-Helmut Kotz
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“A boring world might lead us to terrible stagnation, which we don't want. We need innovation in front of all the issues we are dealing with.” A former central banker and economist talks about the difficult balances that need to be struck.
Forward Thinking on people on the move and the technological progress and productivity they bring with Dany Bahar
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Why are some countries rich and some poor? A leading economist finds the answer in the interactions of economies with the rest of the world, through trade, capital flows, and—notably—migration. “I think that migration could be the key to economic development that we haven’t discovered yet,” he says.
Forward Thinking on ‘megathreats,’ ‘polycrises,’ and ‘doom loops’ with Nouriel Roubini
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“Let’s stop putting our heads in the sand like ostriches, pretending that problems don’t exist,” says an economist noted for his early warning about the global financial crisis. “If you don’t address them individually and collectively, eventually they will overwhelm us.”
Forward Thinking on working at the interface of the environment and business with Justin Adams
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“I’m increasingly talking about the need to build a planetary restoration industry,” says a prominent investor in sustainability. “This, to me, is one of the great industries that we need to be building together over the next decades, and indeed beyond—the next centuries.”
Forward Thinking on what deep history might tell us about today’s turbulent times with Alan Taylor
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A leading economist uses a historical lens to gain insights into the economic consequences of pandemics, likely trends in wealth and globalization, and whether current economic turbulence signals the start of a new era.
Forward Thinking on how to get remote working right with Nicholas Bloom
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“There’s a lot of scare stories in the media saying hybrid doesn’t work,” says a leading economist. “My one piece of advice is just be intentional, be organized. Basically, get folks in on two, three days a week … and be really tough about having them come in. And then let them work from home on the other days.”
Forward Thinking on the complicated and contentious state of global trade with Chad P. Bown
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“This is certainly the most exciting, contentious, uncertain time when it when it comes to trade policy, certainly in my lifetime,” says a leading trade economist. “And I just had one of those big, round number—half century—birthdays, and so I’ve been around for a fairly long period of time.”
Forward Thinking on the meeting point of science and humanity with Jayshree Seth
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Persuaded by her parents to study science and engineering, Jayshree Seth retained her humanities mindset while becoming the first chief science advocate at the 3M company.
Forward Thinking on the fragility of the world’s food systems and how to fix them with Jessica Fanzo
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Many people think that hunger and climate change happen to poor people in faraway countries and won’t affect them, says a leading food systems expert. “But that is a naïve perception of the world.”
Forward Thinking on talent, state capacity, and being hopeful with Tyler Cowen
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A prominent economist, author, podcaster, and talent investor discusses how to better match human talent to opportunities, de-bureaucratize philanthropy, achieve higher-quality governance, and identify fields of likely progress, and how to get it all done.
Forward Thinking on progress in science funding, immigration, and biosecurity with Alec Stapp
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The co-founder and co-CEO of a new think tank, the Institute for Progress, talks about its mission to accelerate scientific, technological, and industrial progress while safeguarding the future of humanity.
Forward Thinking on the sustainability revolution in textiles and the fashion industry with Edwin Keh
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The leader of a cutting-edge institute talks about innovative new materials that “eat” carbon and may enable cotton growing without irrigation, as well as the potential for building the world’s shortest supply chain in two 40-foot containers.
Forward Thinking on people, places, and the revenge of places that don’t matter with Andrés Rodríguez-Pose
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A leading economic geographer talks regional growth and inequality, discontent and populism, innovation, migration, and development policies and strategies.
Forward Thinking on war in Ukraine, inflation, and cooperation in a fractured world with Jean Pisani-Ferry
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An eminent European economist discusses the economic challenges arising from the war in Ukraine, the spreading economic turbulence, and the need to work together to nurture global public goods.
Forward Thinking on measuring the value of the digital age with Avinash Collis
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Born in India and now a professor in Texas, Avinash Collis talks about his work on creating a data dashboard that will enable us to measure the true value of the digital age.
Forward Thinking on trade, vaccines, and sustainable and inclusive growth with WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
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The World Trade Organization’s first African—and first female—director-general reflects on the impact of the pandemic on trade, the imperative to ensure that vaccines reach Africa and other emerging economies, and how to ensure that trade is more inclusive in the years ahead.
Forward Thinking on democratizing technology with Anne-Marie Imafidon
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“Having a computer science degree should not be a prerequisite for being one of the only people in control of what happens next. It’s about democratizing. It’s about giving folks agency so we can make collective decisions about what happens next rather than it being that technical power race. I don’t know if we can call it race to the—I’m going to call it the bottom, race to the dystopia.”
Forward Thinking on the growing role of business in the net-zero transition with Claire O’Neill
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The former British politician who led the United Kingdom’s winning bid to host COP26 is now focused on coordinating an effective business contribution to the net-zero transition. She sees momentum building. “CEOs left COP saying, ‘We get it. Net zero is the thing we have to do.’”
Forward Thinking on tech and the unpredictability of prediction with Benedict Evans
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One of the tech world’s sharpest analysts talks about the frontier and how we got here, connecting the metaverse, Web3, and crypto with everyone from industrialist Henry Ford to writer Voltaire to historian Hugh Trevor-Roper.
Forward Thinking on sustainable and inclusive growth with Ron O’Hanley
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A leading US financier discusses the route to carbon neutrality, what the pandemic taught us about resiliency, and the true meaning of stakeholder capitalism.
Forward Thinking on pandemic paradoxes, labor market myths, and ‘cowboy capitalism’ with David Autor
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A leading US economist talks about what has changed in the pandemic, the rise of China, the globalization of trade, and spreading automation.
Forward Thinking on the social contract in a postpandemic world with Minouche Shafik and Andrew Sheng
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“Our social contract is broken. And that is at the heart of why our politics is so divided and so many citizens around the world are disappointed and frustrated.” “Modern society is killing Mother Nature. And if you kill Mother Nature, you kill ourselves. We really need to achieve a social contract between us and other humanity and also Mother Nature. And this conversation is only beginning.” Two stark views on the state of today’s social contract.
Forward Thinking on the transformative role of intangible assets in companies and economies with Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake
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“William Blake talked about the dark Satanic mills, these inhuman pieces of tangible capital. Intangible capital is in some ways about what makes us human. It’s about ideas, and it’s about relationships. It’s about expressiveness. Some people may ask whether we should be making that the basis of the economy. But we would argue that this is actually making those things that matter to us as humans more central to our thriving.”
Forward Thinking on globalization and the evolving role of corporate leadership in the 21st century with Matthew Slaughter
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A leading economist and business school dean reflects on globalization, concluding that “we’ve learned people want to know policies will matter for them”, and that “a lot of us underestimated the possible magnitude of distribution pressures from freer trade and immigration and flows of capital.”
Forward Thinking on the enduring power of engineering in a digitizing world with Hayaatun Sillem
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The first female CEO of the United Kingdom’s Royal Academy of Engineering reflects on the evolving role of engineering in a dematerializing world, its vital role in science and sustainability—and collaborating with a Formula One world champion.
Forward Thinking on making labor markets work smarter—for people and companies—with Beth Cobert and Byron Auguste
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Two US leaders focused on developing a more skills-based labor market explore ways to broaden opportunity for workers while helping companies plug talent gaps.
Forward Thinking on pandemic preparedness, climate risk, and Europe’s recovery with Guntram Wolff
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The director of one of Europe’s most influential think tanks reflects on how to better prepare for the next pandemic, and turns his attention to the challenges of postpandemic economic recovery in an era of rising climate risk.
Forward Thinking on economies beyond COVID-19 with Michael Spence
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A Nobel laureate explores postpandemic prospects, explaining why his cautious optimism about the economic recovery has been replaced by concern related to the slow vaccine rollout in lower-income economies, fragile supply chains, and extreme weather events.
From fighter pilot to robotics pioneer: An interview with Missy Cummings
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One of the US Navy’s first female fighter pilots, the engineering and robotics professor talks about the promise and peril of automation in airplanes and cars, predicting a “very distinct shift away from replacing human reasoning to augmenting human reasoning.”
How Hamilton stayed alive during the pandemic: An interview with producer Jeffrey Seller
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“I’m looking at theater over the course of the next generation. And ensuring that theater is accessible to the many, not just the few.”
Forward Thinking on economic recovery and gender equality with Laura Tyson
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In addition to the moral argument, the former White House economic adviser explains that gender diversity is “a matter of human capital. It’s a matter of talent. It’s a matter of the evidence mounting over time.”
Forward Thinking on technology and political economy with Daron Acemoglu
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The influential economist connects the dots between artificial intelligence, productivity, wages, and inequality, and how to counterbalance the impacts of automation.
Forward Thinking on China and artificial intelligence with Jeffrey Ding
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This researcher is making sure more AI information flows back from China to the West, and his insights are surprising.
Forward Thinking on artificial intelligence with Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott
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How could AI help create jobs even in rural areas, and what would it take? In this podcast episode, Kevin Scott shares his ideas with James Manyika.
Forward Thinking on measuring GDP and productivity with Diane Coyle
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“If you look back at episodes of these periods when there has been technical change, and some big cataclysmic event in the economy, things end up being quite different a bit later.”
Forward Thinking on unemployment with Sir Christopher Pissarides
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The Nobel Prize–winning economist talks job loss and creation after the pandemic, plus what economic researchers should be addressing today.
Forward Thinking on the Bio Revolution with Jason Kelly and Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath
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The leaders of Ginkgo Bioworks and the BIO organization discuss the future of biological technologies, from developing vaccines faster to changing how we produce food.
Programming life: An interview with Jennifer Doudna
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The co-discoverer of CRISPR-Cas9 speaks with partner Michael Chui about how genetics technology can expand coronavirus testing and what the future holds for the Bio Revolution.
Related Research
The Bio Revolution: Innovations transforming economies, societies, and our lives
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Advances in biological science could transform economies and societies, helping to tackle global challenges from climate change to pandemics.
Will productivity and growth return after the COVID-19 crisis?
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Bold innovation by some firms under pressure of the pandemic could deliver a productivity dividend, but that depends on corporate action broadening and robust demand.
The consumer demand recovery and lasting effects of COVID-19
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The pandemic led to an unprecedented consumption shock across countries that upended long-standing consumer habits. But what happens once the pandemic is over?
The future of work after COVID-19
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The pandemic accelerated existing trends in remote work, e-commerce, and automation, with up to 25 percent more workers than previously estimated potentially needing to switch occupations.
Spotlight on other series
The McKinsey Podcast on Business & Management
Welcome to The McKinsey Podcast, a business and management podcast featuring conversations with leading experts. The series features topics ranging from leadership and change management to digital, analytics and deep-dives into specific regions and industries.