When Alex Tabbarok and Tyler Cowen launched Marginal Revolution in August of 2003, they saw attracting a few thousand academic-minded readers as a runaway success. To their astonishment, the blog soon eclipsed that goal, and within a decade had become one of the most widely read economics blogs in the world. Just as remarkably, the blog maintained its relevance in its second decade, bringing in a new generation of readers without a dip in the pace or quality of the posts. As Alex and Tyler jest, only the onset of senility could possibly rein them in.
To mark MR's entrance into its third decade, long-time readers Ben Casnocha, Vitalik Buterin, and Jeff Holmes joined Alex and Tyler to talk about MR's legacy, including the golden age of blogging in mid-2000s, the decline of independent blogs and the rise of social media, why Tyler usually has a post at 1 AM, the consistent design of the site, the peak of the blogosphere in the Great Recession, the robust community—and even marriage—forged through MR, the site's most underrated feature, Alex and Tyler's favorite commenters, how MR catalyzed separate real-world pandemic responses by each of them, the cessation of book clubs, Alex and Tyler's distinct writing style, iconic MR memes, what's happened to Tyrone, whether the site's popularity has tempted them into self-censoring, why it was Alex and Tyler who paired up amongst the other Mason econ bloggers, and more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
Recorded August 5th, 2023.
Other ways to connect
Photo credit: Lathan Goumas/Office of Communications and Marketing at GMU
Margalit Fox on Life, Death, and the Best Job in Journalism
Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters
Cass Sunstein on Judicial Minimalism, the Supreme Court, and Star Wars (Live at Mason)
Camille Paglia on her Lifestyle of Observation (Live at Mason)
Jonathan Haidt on Morality, Politics, and Intellectual Diversity on Campus
Nate Silver on the Supreme Court and the Underrated Stat for Finding Good Food (Live at Mason)
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Fighting Bruce Lee, Growing Up in Harlem, and Basketball (Live at Mason)
Cliff Asness on Comics and Why Never to Share a Gym with Cirque du Soleil (Live at Mason)
Dani Rodrik on Premature Deindustrialization and Why the World is Second Best at Best
Luigi Zingales on Italy, Google and Conglomeration, and Donald Trump (Live at Mason)
Jeffrey Sachs on Charter Cities and How to Reform Graduate Economics Education (Live at Mason)
Peter Thiel on Stagnation, Innovation, and What Not to Call your Company (Live at Mason)
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Positive Thinking Mind
In the Great Khan’s Tent
Visualize Meditations
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
The Mel Robbins Podcast