#AcademicRunPlaylist - 11/13/25

I had a great time on my panel with Katri Nousiainen at Harvard Law School where we discussed the intersection of technology policy and antitrust, particularly around quantum computing and AI. While shaking off jet lag the rest of the day I listened to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was a great talk by Aaron Clauset on why understanding networks is central to understanding gender differences in scientific output/prominence at the MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPXlAOwcGT8

Next was the first day of the National Bureau of Economic Research organizational economics conference. I particularly liked the talks by Namrata Kala (impact of managerial discretion vs. worker democracy in bonuses) and Daniel Ferreira (biased promotions) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3sD2Qm54e8

Last was "Continental Reckoning" by Elliott West. West provides an extremely insightful, detailed examination of the formative decades around the full expansion of the US to the West Coast, analyzing how technology, interactions between cultures, economics, and the environment wrought profound changes on this region. These were each powerful forces in their own right, and West gives them their due through methodical chapters that demonstrate how technological change supercharged the dispossessive, commercially expansionist, violent, and environmentally destructive tendencies of the East Coast as its people drove into these already inhabited lands. This book treats this period with nuance and revels in the complexity, and while you'll find some of this research elsewhere I can't think of another book that holistically encapsulates these phenomena so effectively. Highly recommend https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496233585/continental-reckoning/