#AcademicRunPlaylist - 8/8/25

Author

Ben Waber
August 08, 2025

A selfie of me in a well-lit Japanese shopping district hallway leading to a train station entrance. A few meters behind me a lot of people are walking, most carrying bags or umbrellas. I'm a bald, middle-aged, white man with a red beard flecked with white. I'm wearing glasses with thick black rims and a black t-shirt with a black backpack strap over my right shoulder.

My family members were a bit under the weather today, but after getting everyone situated I was able to go out for a bit and listen to books for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was "The Curse of Bigness" by Tim Wu. Believe the hype - this book is extremely compelling. Wu reviews the history of antitrust in the US and its fundamental concern with excessive corporate power, then shows how the Chicago school worked to systematically subvert and dismantle that motivation. He then argues for an approach that in some ways brings antitrust back to those original goals, and despite being written 7 years ago these exhortations seem even more relevant today. Highly recommend https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/602170/the-curse-of-bigness-by-tim-wu/

Last was "Empty Vessel" by Ian Kumekawa. Kumekawa doggedly follows the twists and turns in the life of a particular large vessel - its use as worker housing, as a prison, as military housing, and as a financial asset. Importantly Kumekawa uses these instantiations as an entry point to interrogate the legal, economic, and political dimensions of these different uses and international shipping's connective role in enabling rapid flexibility (for better or worse) under the now quickly-disappearing neoliberal regime. For anyone interested in economics or international law this is a must read. Highly recommend https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/741342/empty-vessel-by-ian-kumekawa/