Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.

I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

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This is a special edition of e-contalk with Tyler Cowan, talking about the coronavirus pandemic.

We recorded this on Zoom with video, and you can watch the video version of our conversation on YouTube.

Because of the way it was recorded, the audio of this bonus episode is not up to our usual standards.

Sorry about that. And for those listening with children, there's a brief mention of adult activity you may want to screen.

Thanks for listening.

Okay, welcome everybody. Today is March 18, 2020. This is a special edition of e-contalk to be released more or less simultaneously with conversations with Tyler.

And that's because my guest or co-conspirator in this conversation is long time e-contalk guest Tyler Cowan of George Mason University.

We're streaming this live on the YouTube channel of the Mercatus Center of George Mason.

In general, I try not to do timely episodes, but somehow something felt different this week.

For one, I felt an urge to connect with my audience as we all are hunkering down, sheltering in place, self-quarantine, self-isolating.

I'm releasing e-contalk episodes every Monday, and they were recorded weeks and weeks ago, which is the way I like to do it, because there's nothing particularly timely usually in what I release.

But this seemed that there was a lot to talk and think about. And Tyler, you are a self-described infavor.

You're such a creative thinker. I want to try to learn from you about where we are and to share my thoughts when possible about where I think we are and to try to learn from each other and hope that that's of some value to those you listening out there.

I want to start on a personal note. My father passed away on March 2nd this month.

March 2nd of this year, a little over two weeks ago. The last eight days of his life, he was on a ventilator.

And we removed him from that contraption, and he lived for about an hour with his family in the room. It was a very powerful moment.

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