#AcademicRunPlaylist - 10/1/25

I guess it's officially Halloween season! And while admiring this impressive display I listened to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an important discussion with Rachel Heath on the effects of increasing women's labor force participation on the VoxDev podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxZvv8vNKbM

Next was an insightful talk by Jonathan Sallet with an inside view of the Google Search antitrust case and why particular remedies were adopted at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Tqj5WYuPPM

Next was a fantastic conversation between Ann Lipton and Michael Levin on the SEC's new position on mandatory arbitration for securities claims and how it intersects with recent changes in Delaware law on the Shareholder Primacy podcast. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tL8BfiTjjY

Next was an intriguing talk by Adam Klivans on efficient algorithms for learning with distribution shift at The Institute for Learning-enabled Optimization at Scale (TILOS) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiYxNaUDEbw

Next was an interesting talk by Tejas Srinivasan on adapting prediction systems to user trust at the USC Information Sciences Institute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QfLkObzWl8

Next was "The Hundred Years' War on Palestine" by Rashid Khalidi. Khalid combines a macro and first person view of the decades of Palestinian interactions with Zionism, starting with the Balfour Declaration and continuing to 2017. This is obviously a biased perspective since Khalid was deeply involved with the PLO. This comes out mostly from omission of PLO attacks against civilians and the occurrence and implications of the Yom Kippur War, as well as when flaming a few diplomats he interacted with (the disdain for Madeleine Albright was bizarre). This book shines most when zooming away from Khalidi's personal experiences and working through the chain of immense injustices and international players arrayed against Palestinian interests, why these conditions have continued or intensified, and the need for solutions that treat Israelis and Palestinians as equals. Highly recommend https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781627798556/thehundredyearswaronpalestine/

Last was "What Tech Calls Thinking" by Adrian Daub. Daub takes aim at Silicon Valley ideology, as well as his own institution's responsibility in influencing it, deconstructing and skewering the half-baked philosophy that underlies much of it. This book traces how some tech darlings drew inspiration from specific sources and Stanford courses, later recycling this content in public statements with a thin veneer. Daub's merciless ridicule of Ayn Rand and the appeal of her philosophy to irresponsible teenagers alone is worth the price of admission. Highly recommend https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374721237/whattechcallsthinking/