Sports fans experience incredible highs and lows, and spend loads of money on a product over which they have no control. But for a long time, no one bothered to study the minds or impulses of fans. Michael Lewis finds out how that's changing as writers and academics learn more about the powerful psychology of fandom. Just in time for technology to exploit fandom more than ever.

For further reading:

Eric Simons’ book The Secret Lives of Sports Fans

Research by Murray State University psychology professor Daniel Wann on fandom: https://murraystate.academia.edu/DanielWann

The Henry Tajfel Experiments

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The role of AI in the classroom is evolving rapidly. When students and teachers embrace this technology, it has the ability to democratize access to education through programs like IBM SkillsBuild. In this episode of Smart Talks with IBM, Dr. Laurie Santos, host of Pushkin’s The Happiness Lab podcast, spoke with two innovators in the space. Justina Nixon-Saintil is Vice President and Chief Impact Officer, IBM Corporate Social Responsibility, and April Dawson is an Associate Dean of Technology and Innovation and a professor of law. They discuss the importance of lifelong learning, upskilling, and the ethical implications of AI in education.

This is a paid advertisement from IBM. The conversations on this podcast don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.

Visit us at https://ibm.com/smarttalks

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Harvard epidemiologist and recurring guest Marc Lipsitch discusses what we can learn from omicron surge. Lipsitch also addresses some common omicron myths and discusses the possibility of a “master vaccine.”

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Zachary Karabell, financial executive and historian, discusses his recent book Inside Money: Brown Brothers Harriman and the American Way of Power, outlining the formation of American capitalism told through the history of one often-overlooked bank. He explains how the evolution of trust in financial systems has shaped American capitalism today and informs where it could go in the future.

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Jamal Greene, co-chair of the Facebook Oversight Board, an independent governing body reviewing Facebook’s content moderation decisions and issuing binding rulings, explains the inner workings of the Board. Greene is the Dwight Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, where he focuses on constitutional law and American federal courts.

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Erik Voorhees, founder of crypto management platform ShapeShift, makes a case for decentralized autonomous organizations, known as DAOs. Earlier this year, ShapeShift became a DAO, “moving from a centralized, closed-source application with bank accounts, governed and owned by shareholders, to a decentralized, open-source application without bank accounts, governed and owned by holders of the FOX Token.” Voorhees explains how DAOs works could reshape business, economics, and politics. .

Read Erik Voorhees’ Medium post about moving to a DAO structure here:

https://erikvoorhees.medium.com/shapeshift-is-decentralizing-639bb4c82fc8

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Hannah Kain, CEO of supply chain management company Alom, shares her analysis of how we got into the supply chain crisis and the larger story it reveals about trade wars, labor shortages, and the need for better automation systems.

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Political strategist and media commentator James Carville shares his frank concerns about the Democratic party’s strategy and leadership. Carville discusses the risks of party disunity in this crucial time, the false equivalency of the far left and right, and why the Democratic party needs better salespeople.

Harvard political scientist Theda Skocpol’s 2021 report on political organizing in Georgia and North Carolina can be read here.

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