What Businesses Can Learn From the Collapse of Civilizations
Odd Lots
Bloomberg
4.4 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 23 September 2019
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
History is littered with collapsed civilizations ranging from the Maya to Angkor Wat. But what can they tell us about the world today, or doing business in it?. But what can they tell us about the world today, or doing business in it? On this episode, we speak with previous Odd Lots guest, archaeologist Arthur Demarest, often described as the "real Indiana Jones" and who is also Ingram Professor of Anthropology at Vanderbilt University. Demarest has recently been applying business management concepts to his studies of the Mayan economy and the civilization's subsequent collapse. He talks to us about what businesses can learn from these moments in time.
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| 0:00.0 | Business stories aren't just about business. They're also about policy, politics, finance, and more. |
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| 0:25.0 | Bloomberg in-car apps are sponsored by interactive brokers. Hello and I'm Tracy Allaway. |
| 0:43.0 | Hello and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. |
| 0:48.0 | I'm Joe Eisenthal. |
| 0:49.0 | And I'm Tracy Allaway. |
| 0:50.0 | Tracy, do you remember the episode that we did was not long after the 2016 election at the time |
| 0:58.9 | and maybe still is one of our biggest, most popular Oddlots ever? |
| 1:03.0 | Oh, it's definitely one of my personal favorites. |
| 1:05.9 | And it was one of the earliest Oddlots episodes as well. |
| 1:09.3 | Right. |
| 1:10.3 | I guess maybe at the time being the biggest at the time |
| 1:12.1 | was not saying as much but nonetheless |
| 1:14.6 | it was it was very popular we talked to an archaeologist about a |
| 1:19.4 | civilization all collapse right not just any archaeologists, though, one who has been called at various times the real life Indiana |
| 1:27.6 | Jones. |
| 1:28.6 | Right, so I was like right after the election and of course like half the country was really freaked out you |
| 1:34.6 | know half the country was probably thrilled the half the country that was really |
| 1:38.1 | freaking out was very interested in this idea like oh God what is the end of civilization looks like look |
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