Dr. Russ Roberts

Russ Roberts (Ph.D., University of Chicago) is the John and Jean De Nault Research Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Roberts hosts the weekly podcast EconTalk–hour-long conversations with authors, economists, and business leaders. His two rap videos on the ideas of John Maynard Keynes and F.A. Hayek, created with filmmaker John Papola, have had more than nine million views on YouTube. His latest book is How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness (Portfolio/Penguin 2014).

Are there any books that were important to your development as an economist or that you would recommend to aspiring economists?

Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman, Individualism and Economic Order by F.A. Hayek, anything by Ronald Coase.

What is the best (or worst) advice you ever got about becoming an economist?

Economics is very beautiful but if it is only beautiful, it's not worth doing because it isn't beautiful enough. It has to be useful for understanding the world. (That's a paraphrase from Milton Friedman...)