My Conversation with the excellent Kyla Scanlon

 [[{“value”:”Here is the audio, video, and transcript.  Here is the episode summary: Kyla Scanlon has made it her personal mission to bring economics education to a larger audience through social media. She publishes daily content across TikTok, YouTube, Substack, LinkedIn and more, explaining what is happening in the economy and why it is happening. Tyler
The post My Conversation with the excellent Kyla Scanlon appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.”}]] 

Here is the audio, video, and transcript.  Here is the episode summary:

Kyla Scanlon has made it her personal mission to bring economics education to a larger audience through social media. She publishes daily content across TikTok, YouTube, Substack, LinkedIn and more, explaining what is happening in the economy and why it is happening. Tyler calls her first book In This Economy? How Money & Markets Really Work a “good and bracing shock to those who have trained their memories on some weighted average of the more distant past.”

Tyler and Kyla dive into the modern state of economics education and a whole range of topics like if fantasy world building can help you understand economics, what she learned trading options at 16, why she opted for a state school over the Ivy League, lessons from selling 38 cars over summer break, introversion as an ingredient for social media success, if she believes in any conspiracy theories, Instagram scrolling vs TikTok scrolling, the decline of print culture, why people are seeking out cults, modern nihilism, how perspective can help with optimism, the death of celebrity and the rise of influencers, why econ education has gone backward, improving mainstream media, YIMBYism and real estate, nuclear pragmatism versus utopian geothermalists, investing advice for young people, why she thinks about the Great Depression more than Rome, creating the next Free to Choose, and more.

Excerpt:

COWEN: Putting aside your own work, what kind of economics do you think young people are learning from TikTok?

SCANLON: [laughs] Concerning.

COWEN: Is it conspiratorial? Is it leaning in some particular direction?

SCANLON: I would say it’s definitely conspiratorial. There’s a lot of desire to pin inflation onto companies, which I don’t know if that’s the best thing to do. There’s a lot of desire to have a scapegoat. I think a lot of people are frustrated with their economic situation, and so they look at TikTok videos, and somebody is telling them that, yes, Blackrock is conspiring against them, and that’s very soothing. I think that’s where we have ended up with TikTok and econ.

And this:

COWEN: Yes, in a way, they’re making a deal with you. They promise to listen and give you numbers, and you promise to let them abuse you. That’s the exchange. That’s what they want.

SCANLON: Yes, exactly.

COWEN: It’s the right to selectively abuse.

Definitely recommended.  And here is the earlier David Beckworth podcast with Kyla.

The post My Conversation with the excellent Kyla Scanlon appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.

 Economics, Education, Uncategorized