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City Journal Audio

Managing Risk in Unexpected Places

City Journal Audio

Manhattan Institute

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.7656 Ratings

🗓️ 22 May 2019

⏱️ 20 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Economist Allison Schrager joins City Journal editor Brian Anderson to discuss her new book, An Economist Walks Into A Brothel: And Other Unexpected Places to Understand Risk.

Risk is a universal fact of life, but some of us manage more of it than others. Schrager examined how a broad cross section of people handle it: horse breeders in Kentucky, members of an elite tank unit during the Gulf War, paparazzi who stalk celebrities, prostitutes in Nevada brothels. She lays out five principles for dealing with risk and explains how financial tools can help guide people through uncertainty.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome back to the Ten Blocks Podcast. This is Brian Anderson, the editor of City Journal.

0:06.0

Coming up on the show today, I talk with economist and writer Alison Schrager about her wonderful

0:11.2

new book, An Economist Walks Into a Brothel and other unexpected places to understand risk.

0:18.4

Just a couple of announcements, though, before we get started. The City Journal team

0:22.5

is very sad to announce the loss of a dear friend to the magazine and to the Manhattan Institute,

0:29.6

the great, indeed legendary criminologist George Kelly, the originator with James Q. Wilson

0:35.6

of the Broken Windows Theory of Public Order,

0:38.6

which is something City Journal has written about quite extensively over the years.

0:43.6

You can find an comprehensive piece on George Kelly on the City Journal website

0:49.3

by our own Heather McDonald, talking about his contribution and his life.

0:55.9

Lastly, let me also announce next week's episode of 10 Blocks, which you should stay tuned for.

1:02.6

Kay Heimowitz, our longtime contributing editor, will join me to discuss her latest piece from the magazine.

1:08.6

It's on the epidemic of loneliness afflicting not just

1:12.6

Americans, but people in developed societies across the world. I'm sure you'll find it interesting.

1:18.5

That's it for now. After the break, we'll start my conversation with Alison Schrager. We hope you

1:24.4

enjoy it. Hello again, everyone. This is Brian Anderson, the editor of City Journal.

1:41.2

Joining us in the studio now is Allison Schrager.

1:46.1

She's an economist, a personal finance specialist, a writer at Quartz, and co-founder of Lifecycle Finance Partners. You can

1:52.8

follow her on Twitter at Allison Schrager, that's S-C-H Schrager, and she's here today to talk

2:00.3

about her fascinating new book. An economist walks into

2:03.5

a brothel and other unexpected places to understand risk. It's published by Portfolio Books.

2:10.6

You can find it on Amazon, and we'll link to it in the description. Allison, thanks for joining

...

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