The episode you’ve been waiting for is here: our Top Takeaways of 2024. Listen to some of the world’s smartest, most influential thinkers, business leaders, innovators, technologists, and other newsmakers — including Eric Schmidt, Mellody Hobson, Atul Gawande, Fareed Zakaria, Jill Abramson, Stephen Breyer, Niall Ferguson and others. You don’t want to miss this episode.If you'd like to listen to any of the full episodes: Historian Niall Ferguson is episode 199.Mellody Hobson is episode 184. Former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson is episode 206. Norway's Ine Eriksen Søreide is episode 213.Former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is episode 220. Extraordinary food expert Barb Stuckey is episode 183.Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is episode 225.Negotiation expert William Ury is episode 193.Global health surgeon Dr. Atul Gawande is episode 182. Bioethicist Peter Singer is episode 224.Former Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman is episode 227. Journalist Fareed Zakaria is episode 209. And, executive coach Marshall Goldsmith is episode 221.
What are the top highlights of 2024?
Hi, everyone. I'm Lynn Thoman, and this is Three Takeaways. Today, I'm thrilled to bring you our top highlights of 2024, featuring an incredible lineup of guests who've shared their wisdom and experiences with us this year. In this 2024 Highlights episode, we'll revisit some of the most compelling moments from the following guests. World-renowned historian Neil Ferguson.
Melody Hobson, president and co-CEO of Aerial Investments and former chair of Starbucks. former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson, former defense and foreign minister of Norway Ina Eriksson-Soraida, former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, taste expert and food innovator Barb Stuckey, physicist and award-winning entrepreneur Safi Bakal,
former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, negotiation guru William Ury, renowned global health expert Atul Gawande, Princeton professor and philosopher Peter Singer, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, Fareed Zakaria, political commentator and journalist and host of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS, and finally executive leadership coach extraordinaire marshall goldsmith here we go enjoy the show
My guest today is Neil Ferguson. He is one of the world's most renowned historians. He has extensively studied the rise and fall of civilizations. There were, as you point out, a series of 20th century experiments with the same people and the same cultures. There were two sets of Germany's east and west, two Korea's north and south, two China's mainland China and Taiwan. What happened and why?
Well, the great thing about my theory is that it's quite testable. We ran a series of experiments. They weren't really thought of experiments, but they turned out that way in which we would give the same people different institutions. And you mentioned the classic examples.
There are two Germanys, one of which is essentially integrated into the Western world of democracy and rule of law, limited government and market economics. And then there's East Germany, which is part of the Soviet bloc. Two Koreas, one of which is fully Marxist-Leninist, the other one part of the American alliance system and becomes democratic.
And in each case, with amazing speed, the outcomes diverge. And you could equally make this argument about mainland China and Taiwan. So we see in a great many different places these experiments in which one people is given a couple of different systems. And what proves that ideas and institutions really matter is how quickly the different incentives produce different outcomes.
It doesn't matter how long a cultural tradition you may have. As soon as the institutions are different, then behavior completely changes. We kind of assume that there's a life cycle of empire, of civilization, that they have a sort of vigorous youth and they're in the prime of their lives and then they age and then finally die. But that's what we do as individuals.
It is not actually what polities do. Because civilizations or empires, which are sort of structured civilizations, can vary enormously in their lifespan. I would offer the insight that there is a kind of interplay between those forces that allow a frontier to expand and those forces that cause the core to rot. to corrode. And understanding those dynamics helps us.
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