#AcademicRunPlaylist - 10/24/25

We had a gorgeous end to the week after some light showers, and to go along with the view I listened to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an interesting talk by Joseph Jay Williams on adaptive experimentation systems at UCL Interaction Centre https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC9I84X7Nw0

Next was a thought-provoking talk by Kevin Zollman on game theory and scientific modeling at the Johns Hopkins University https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybOrRq38PjA

Next was the National Bureau of Economic Research megafirms and the economy symposium. I especially liked the talks by James Bessen on the paucity of firms investing in innovation and Bradley Setzler on the combined effects of labor and product market power https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1auGeDxFi0

Next was a fantastic talk by Nancy Pollard on bringing dexterity to robot hands in the real world at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute. Not only does she show refreshing approaches to improving grasping, she absolutely shreds the question in the Q&A on throwing every problem to large models when the truth matters. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRidNHIkCIA

Next was a short talk by Kevin Roberts on how capital investment impacts workers at NBER https://www.youtube.com/live/PkSczW4WVUg?si=Jh4nGShD72NgT_AW&t=4754

Next was an engaging talk by Lukas Freund on modeling the labor market effects of AI at NBER https://www.youtube.com/live/XCNPNsw9QSU?si=WYkj1hOOIiqx_oor&t=20663

Last was "Simone de Beauvoir: Philosophy & Feminism" by Nancy Bauer. This is very much a philosophical work, but within that genre it's one of the more readable and reasonable books that I've read. Bauer reflects on Beauvoir's work and responds to her critics, taking an even handed approach and importantly not reflexively quoting giants of the field as if they are religious figures. Familiarity with feminist theory is pretty essential, however, and refreshing on some Sartre wouldn't hurt (I had to jog my memory by heading to Wikipedia a few times). Still, if you're looking for a more contemporary analysis of The Second Sex and other formative work in feminist theory, this is a great book. Highly recommend https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/baue11664