In this episode, Eric sits down with Tyler Cowen to discuss how/why a Harvard educated chess prodigy would choose a commuter school to launch a stealth attack on the self-satisfied economic establishment, various forms of existential risk, tech/social stagnation and more. On first glance, Tyler Cowen is an unlikely candidate for America's most influential economist. Since 2003, Cowen has grown his widely read and revered economics blog Marginal Revolutions with lively thought, insight and prose resulting in a successful war of attrition against traditional thinking. In fact, his well of heterodox thinking is so deep that there is an argument to be made that Tyler may be the living person with the most diverse set of original rigorous opinions to be found in any conversation. The conversation takes many turns and is thus hard to categorize. We hope you enjoy it.  Wine Access: Get $100 off your first purchase of $250 or more wineaccess.com/PORTAL ExpressVPN: Get an extra three months of ExpressVPN for free when you signup at expressvpn.com/PORTAL Lamps Plus: Get up to 50% off HUNDREDS of lights, furniture and décor between November 25 and December 24 lampsplus.com/PORTAL Four Sigmatic: Get 15% discount on all orders placed on foursigmatic.com/PORTAL