Show Notes
When is the market genuinely irrational, and when have you simply failed to understand what the market understands? Alex Edmans, Professor of Finance at London Business School and author of The Madness of Markets, joins me to talk about market psychology, stories, bubbles and what behavioural finance can actually teach investors. Alex explains his research showing that stock markets tend to fall after a country is knocked out of the World Cup, even though a football result should have little effect on corporate profits. From there we ask what really counts as market “madness”, why collective beliefs can sustain the value of assets such as gold and crypto, and how markets can show both short-term momentum and longer-term reversal. We also discuss why investors still struggle to value intangibles such as culture and employee satisfaction; how share prices can change corporate decisions rather than simply reflect them; and whether professional investors are actually less biased than everyone else. Alex is candid about his own mistakes. He talks about a failed investment in a fitness start-up, the one-minute delay he put on his email outbox to counter his tendency to interpret messages negatively, and why he deliberately seeks out people and evidence that challenge what he already believes. We also cover Neil Woodford, cognitive diversity, sustainability and ESG, misinformation, AI, deep work and Alex’s creative process. At the heart of the conversation is a difficult investing question: if you think the market is wrong, what evidence would convince you that it is actually you who is wrong? Contents 00:00 Meet Alex Edmans 00:35 When are markets really irrational? 01:29 Football results and investor sentiment 07:47 Stories, narratives and bubbles 12:33 Momentum, reversal and behavioural finance 16:17 Why markets misprice intangibles 24:07 How prices change real decisions 33:02 Are professional investors less biased? 39:55 Alex’s failed start-up investment 43:03 Rethinking sustainability 47:48 Overrated / Underrated 56:06 Social media and AI 01:00:06 Deep work and creativity 01:03:36 Final advice Transcript, links and key takeaways: www.thendobetter.com/investing/2026/9/18/alex-edmans-the-madness-of-markets-when-are-markets-really-irrational
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What if Europe falls behind in AI? Alex Petropoulos is Chief of Staff at Arq Foundation and co-author of Europe 2031, a speculative story about Europe's future in a world transformed by artificial intelligence. We discuss why speculative fiction might change policy more effectively than conventional reports, whether AI computing power will become scarce or abundant, and how Europe can compete with the US and China while preserving its values. We explore AI risks, scientific breakthroughs, what becomes scarce when intelligence is abundant, and why institutions need to become better at taking risks and measuring progress. Along the way, we discuss what competitive Overwatch taught Alex about teamwork, how he thinks and writes with AI, and what an ordinary Tuesday in a better future might look like. Episode page, links and full transcript: https://www.thendobetter.com/arts/2026/10/18/alex-petropoulos-europe-2031-ai-power-and-the-future-we-actually-want Contents: 00:00 Europe 2031 and the future of AI 04:01 Why speculative fiction works 10:53 European values and AI competition 20:09 Democracy, speed and institutional reform 25:24 AI catastrophic risks 29:52 Scientific breakthroughs and the limits of AI 36:53 Rethinking a European CERN for AI 43:01 ARIA and ambitious science 48:14 Bottlenecks and comparative advantage 50:40 Overwatch, teamwork and leadership 57:24 Writing and thinking with AI 01:01:22 Overrated / Underrated 01:06:24 A future worth wanting
Fuchsia Dunlop returns to the podcast to discuss Five Tastes: The Magic of Flavour in the Chinese Kitchen. We explore how Chinese cooking thinks about taste, balance and texture: from běnwèi, the essential flavour of an ingredient, and xiānwèi, umami, to qīngdàn, the light, understated dishes that balance a meal. Fuchsia explains why Sichuan food is about far more than heat, how cooks correct unwanted flavours in meat and fish, why soups and plain dishes matter, and how texture can be as important as flavour. We also talk about cooking by smell, sound and instinct, fermented tofu, wood ear mushrooms, jellyfish, menu planning, and why steaming is still underrated in the West. Plus: hot pot, tasting menus, air fryers, and why Chinese cooking is much more accessible than many people think. Transcript: www.thendobetter.com/arts/2026/9/4/fuchsia-dunlop-five-tastes-chinese-flavour-and-the-art-of-balance
Soumaya Keynes joins Ben Yeoh to discuss How to Win a Trade War, co-written with Chad Bown, and what countries should do when economic conflict can no longer be avoided. They explore the weakening of the WTO system, supply-chain vulnerabilities, strategic stockpiles, tariffs, China’s economic power and the return of industrial policy. Soumaya also explains why defence should come before attack, what “winning” might mean for a country such as the UK, and why governments may need to tolerate some failures when building strategic industries. The conversation then turns to obesity, gender and income, the wider effects of GLP-1 medicines, writing in the age of AI, and Soumaya’s unexpected second career as an economics singer-songwriter. Highlights: Understand what tariffs really do Map vulnerabilities without overreacting Rethink industrial policy and strategic resilience Explore the wider effects of GLP-1 medicines Hear Soumaya’s trade-war song
Art historian and author Matt Lodder joins Ben Yeoh to explain why tattoo history is not a niche subject, but a way into art history, class, colonialism, gender, fashion, technology, archives, and the stories societies choose to preserve or forget. Matt argues that tattoos have often been misunderstood because the historical record overrepresents people whose bodies were monitored: sailors, soldiers, prisoners and other surveilled groups. Meanwhile, tattooing among women, the middle classes, queer communities and “ordinary” people was often hidden under clothing, poorly documented, or preserved only in private archives. The conversation moves from Matt’s childhood fascination with tattooing to the art-historical questions that animate his work. Rather than asking only whether tattoos are “art”, why people get tattooed, or what a tattoo “means”, Matt asks what tattoos reveal about style, taste, authorship, technology, reception and power. They discuss myths around Captain Cook, the strange archival afterlives of tattooed skin, the invention of electric tattooing, Instagram’s acceleration of trends, AI-generated tattoo aesthetics, eye tattooing, and why museums still struggle to preserve an art form carried on living bodies. It is a conversation about tattoos, but also about how culture gets remembered, flattened, misread and rediscovered.
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