#AcademicRunPlaylist - 5/8/25

Wild asparagus is still growing in Boston, and it's absolutely delicious! After snacking on a few sprigs I continued a nice bike ride while listening to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an engaging session on the role of data science in understanding and shaping the public interest at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) with Alison Powell, chris wiggins, and Erin Young https://www.youtube.com/live/tLIV4xglf3c?si=bh1s48PYK8CIcR3j&t=680

Next was a great talk by Pinelopi Goldberg on the role and effect of different industrial policy approaches at the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy & Finance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv2mW25_Dug

Next was an excellent talk by Diego Gomez-Zara on how all-female and female-led teams drive more breakthrough ideas in science and innovation at Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems - NICO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWxoa7b2vuI

Last was "The Age of Capital" by Eric Hobsbawm. This is his follow up to his book on the previous 50 years, and it's structured quite similarly and has similar benefits and flaws. The chapters that focus on the economy are focused and informative, and are probably the least problematic parts of the book. However, the rest of the book is a fairly by-the-numbers review of European history in this time period, with the huge caveat that Hobsbawm is more openly racist about non-Western cultures here. If you drank every time he calls a people/country "backwards," "savage," or the like you'd be drunk by the end of the first chapter https://files.libcom.org/files/Eric%20Hobsbawm%20-%20Age%20Of%20Capital%20-%201848-1875.pdf