#AcademicRunPlaylist - 6/18/25

It wasn't the nicest day out, but while shuttling my youngest to various outdoor activities I was able to listen to some talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was a compelling discussion with Nicole C. Rust on the importance of understanding the brain as a complex, dynamic system on the Brain Inspired podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjGRlhMy7wY

Next was a super-sized Shareholder Primacy podcast with Ann Lipton and Michael Levin discussing the data on attorney contingency fees in Delaware securities litigation and the implications for fee capping with Joseph Grundfest. Next comes a counterpoint from Joel Fleming with the legal industry view on the topic. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L3r9UdBUdM

Last was "Poverty, By America" by Matthew Desmond. "Evicted" this is not. Rather than leaning into his sociological wheelhouse, Desmond instead has penned what is essentially a 300 page opinion piece. There are of course some very good ideas in here, but the lack of expertise around economics is palpable - claiming that the China Shock was intentionally undertaken to increase inequality, for example, is willfully ignorant at best and academic malpractice at worst. For people interested in this topic I'd encourage people to read nearly anything by Piketty, Automating Inequality by Eubanks, When Affirmative Action Was White by Katznelson, and/or Growth by Susskind https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/675683/poverty-by-america-by-matthew-desmond/