#AcademicRunPlaylist - 3/25/25

It was a nice brisk day in Boston, and luckily I was able to get out for a nice run and listen to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an engaging conversation with Carole Turbin and Paul F. Cole on labor history, women's history, and Kate Mullany's legacy at the Burnes Center for Social Change https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihjPtIv8zmg

Next was an intriguing talk by Lee Elliot-Major OBE on the rise and fall of meritocratic elites at the Department of Economics, University of Oxford https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzmRCRFdbhI

Next was an amazing talk by Mel Goodale on differences in size constancy for perception and action at the Psychonomic Society. Through compelling experiments, Goodale demonstrates how different neural processing is for perception vs. action, with implications for a whole variety of fields. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc5tTE_EsSg

Next was a great discussion with Yo-Jud Cheng on the state of corporate governance in the US and the effects of a diverse board on the Stakeholder Podcast https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/show/stakeholdermedia/id/35852030

Next was a fantastic talk by Morgan Barense on an app-based intervention to support memory in older US adults at the Psychonomic Society. The effects here were very impressive, and hopefully future work involves more collaboration with the HCI community. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pki6Ap49swc

Next was an important talk by Achyuta Adhvaryu on the economic impacts of earned wage access for low-income workers at CEPR - Centre for Economic Policy Research. Advaryu demonstrates large reductions in turnover and much higher quantitative performance in a factory environment, a true win-win. This is work everyone in industry should pay attention to. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkK6y537-98

Next was an interesting talk by James A. Robinson with a new interpretation of African society's wealth and successes at the LSE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfyQdLqWCFs

Last was "The Swerve" by Stephen Greenblatt, who traces the journey of various great works of Greek and Roman literature and philosophy through the centuries, examining their geographic flow, challenges in preservation, and hypothesizing about the effects of their reemergence in Europe as a precondition to the Renaissance. The writing here is excellent, but the historical analysis is shakier, with many leaps in reasoning made with no supporting evidence, although the arc of the literary industry through the centuries is well documented and fascinating. Overall, this is an interesting and useful book on a fairly understudied era of Western history. https://wwnorton.com/books/The-Swerve/