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PODCAST

Works in Progress Podcast

Works in Progress

Works in Progress is an online magazine devoted to new and underrated ideas about economic growth, scientific progress, and technology. Subscribe to listen to the Works in Progress podcast, plus Hard Drugs by Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen.

technology

All Episodes

56:14

How to speed up clinical trials

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2026/04/22

Drug development has never been more expensive, in terms of output per dollar spent. This trend, called Eroom's law, is surprising, considering incredible technological advances.Ben and Saloni talk to Ruxandra Teslo about why this has happened and what can be done about it.How can we reform clinical trials to make them more efficient and abundant? Why are so many pharma companies moving early trials to Australia? What's wrong with ethics boards and how can we fix them without compromising

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25:06

How to spot a monopoly: Measuring competition

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2026/04/17

Competition makes capitalism work. A new method for measuring it may be the holy grail of economic regulation. You can see the images, graphs and read the article at https://worksinprogress.co/issue/how-to-spot-a-monopoly/ And you can find the rest of Works in Progress at worksinprogress.co Words by Brian Albrecht Read by Stuart Ritchie Music by David Hackett

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24:33

The death rays that guard life: We can use...

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2026/04/10

We disinfect water before we drink it. Germicidal ultraviolet could make airborne disease as rare as those carried by water. You can see the images, graphs and read the article at https://worksinprogress.co/issue/the-death-rays-that-guard-life/ And you can find the rest of Works in Progress at worksinprogress.co Words by Gavriel Kleinwaks & Karam ElabdRead by Stuart Ritchie Music by David Hackett

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65:42

Issue 23: Egg freezing, Australian refugee policy and...

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2026/04/08

You should freeze your eggs. Contrary to popular myth, egg freezing works very well and if you freeze your eggs in your twenties or early thirties, you have a very good chance of having a child.European leaders are looking to copy Australia's example and cut migration from boat-bound refugees but they are in danger of learning the wrong lessons. Offshore detention was the most widely publicized aspect of their refugee policy but it didn't work. Turnbacks were much cheaper and more

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19:03

Inflatable space stations: Creating artificial...

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2026/04/03

If we ever want to live in space, we need to work out a way of creating artificial gravity.You can see the images, graphs and read the article at https://worksinprogress.co/issue/inflatable-space-stations/ And you can find the rest of Works in Progress at worksinprogress.co Words by Angadh Nanjangud Read by Stuart Ritchie Music by David Hackett

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21:31

The algorithm will see you now: Why radiologists...

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2026/03/27

Radiology combines digital images, clear benchmarks, and repeatable tasks. But replacing humans with AI is harder than it seems. You can see the images, graphs and read the article at https://worksinprogress.co/issue/the-algorithm-will-see-you-now/ And you can find the rest of Works in Progress at worksinprogress.co Words by Deena Mousa Read by Stuart Ritchie Music by David Hackett

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87:47

Did status signaling ruin architecture?

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2026/03/25

There are basically no ugly buildings from before 1930. There are definitely none from before 1830. Why? Is it survivorship bias? Have we demolished all the ugly old buildings and only kept the most beautiful and prestigious buildings? Is it just a matter of taste? Perhaps we haven't come round to liking modern buildings yet but we will. Is it because ornament is too expensive to reproduce now labor costs are too high? Is it because ornament is too cheap because of mass manufacturing and

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22:30

Sunscreen for the planet by Daniele Visioni & Dakota...

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2026/03/20

The world is warming faster than we can cut emissions. Volcanoes are already cooling the planet, with particles that reflect sunlight. Maybe we can too. You can see the images, graphs and read the article at https://worksinprogress.co/issue/sunscreen-for-the-planet/ And you can find the rest of Works in Progress at worksinprogress.co Words by Daniele Visioni & Dakota Gruener Read by Stuart Ritchie Music by David Hackett

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35:05

How to redraw a city by Anya Martin

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2026/03/13

Japan faced some of the world’s toughest planning problems. It solved them by letting homeowners replan whole neighborhoods privately by supermajority vote. You can see the images, graphs and read the article at https://worksinprogress.co/issue/how-to-redraw-a-city/ And you can find the rest of Works in Progress at worksinprogress.co Words by Anya Martin Read by Stuart Ritchie Music by David Hackett

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85:28

Longevity

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2026/03/11

There are some animals that can live for hundreds of years. Do the secrets to human longevity lie in a lobster's ability to regrow felled limbs, in a Greenland shark's ultra-slow metabolism, or in an elephant's extreme cancer resistance? Aria, Ben and Saloni discuss why human (and pet) lifespans have increased so much over the past centuries and what we else we can do to age more slowly.For more, read Aria's piece on longevity:

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29:13

Two is already too many by Phoebe Arslanagic-Little

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2026/03/06

Every hundred South Koreans today will have only six great-grandchildren between them. The rest of the world can learn from Korea’s catastrophe to avoid the same fate.You can see the images, graphs and read the article at https://worksinprogress.co/issue/two-is-already-too-many/And you can find the rest of Works in Progress at worksinprogress.coWords by Phoebe Arslanagic-LittleRead by Stuart RitchieMusic by David Hackett

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174:47

Should everyone be taking statins?

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2026/02/27

Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, but it’s also one of medicine’s biggest success stories. Since the 1950s, the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease has fallen dramatically, thanks to public health efforts, emergency care, medical innovation, and surgeries.In this episode, Jacob and Saloni explore the cholesterol revolution: from statins discovered in fungi to new drugs that cut LDL cholesterol by 60% and last for months, driven by breakthroughs in genetics,

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89:32

Why Europe has stagnated

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2026/02/25

Europe is now much poorer than America. Is it because Europe doesn’t have a big tech giant? Can we blame the bureaucrats in Brussels? What happened to make Germany ban combustion cars? Should we turn Europe into a playground for American and Asian elites? Are the far right going to solve Europe’s energy problems by burning coal to own the libs? Pieter, Sam and Aria discuss why Europe hasn’t grown very much and what we can do to save it.

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77:19

Inflation in Rome, Weimar Germany and Soviet Russia...

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2026/02/11

People hate inflation. It undermines faith in the government so people obstruct policies that require faith in the state, like nuclear power, and in democracies it drives them to vote for extremist parties. Ben and Pieter sit down with economic historian Mark Koyama and discuss the fallout of historical inflation crises from the Roman Empire to Weimar Germany. Ben reveals his hidden libertarian 'Gold Bug' tendencies.

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81:19

The nuclear renaissance

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2026/01/30

In the mid twentieth century, nuclear power was meant to be the cheap and clean energy of the future. Now, nuclear power is expensive, maligned and unpopular. Ben, Sam and Alex discuss what went wrong in most of the world and, surprisingly, what went right in France. Ben delivers a radioactive hot take that meltdowns aren't so bad after all.You can read more about the French nuclear success here: https://www.worksinprogress.news/p/liberte-egalite-radioactivite

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178:47

The first cancer vaccine

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2025/12/22

Hepatitis B is a tiny virus that causes hundreds of thousands of deaths from liver disease and cancer each year. The vaccine against it became the first of many milestones: it was the first viral protein subunit vaccine, the first recombinant vaccine, and the first vaccine to prevent a type of cancer. In this episode, Jacob and Saloni follow the trail of strange jaundice outbreaks that scientists traced to a stealthy liver virus, how scientists turned one viral surface protein into a

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126:23

The history of vaccines

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2025/11/26

Before vaccines became routine, they were risky experiments. In this episode, Jacob and Saloni travel back to the world of smallpox, cowpox, and cow-based “vaccine farms” to see how scientists stumbled toward the first vaccines against infectious diseases: smallpox, rabies, TB, polio, and more. Through the stories of milkmaids and aristocrats, secret lab notebooks, microscopes and cell culture, they explore how trial and error turned gruesome folk practices into the science of immunization,

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79:29

Should we ban ugly buildings?

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2025/11/24

The YIMBY movement is divided about whether there is a tradeoff between building more homes and building beautifully. Ben, Sam and Samuel talk about how aesthetic regulations can make building more popular by generating goodwill from the public and decreasing appetite for historic preservation and how one can differentiate between good-faith complaints and pretextual arguments that make buildings economically unviable.

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83:20

The economics of the baby bust with Jesús...

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2025/11/06

Why are birth rates plummeting across the developing world? Why should we even care about the baby bust? Where can we find the most elastic baby? Jesús Fernández-Villaverde, Professor of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, explains why Japan’s decline might be the best case scenario, the problems with childcare subsidies, why you shouldn’t study David Hume, and why the real fertility crisis isn't in rich countries.You can find Jesús on Twitter (https://x.com/JesusFerna7026/) where

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275:16

Will AI solve medicine?

Works in Progress Podcast ·

2025/10/29

Artificial intelligence is transforming how we discover and develop new medicines. But how far can it really take us? In this episode, Jacob and Saloni trace the path of drug development from discovery to testing, manufacturing, and delivery. They explore where AI could speed things up, and where it still hits the limits of biology, data, and economics. They ask what it would take, beyond algorithms, to actually cure and eradicate diseases.Hard Drugs is a new podcast from Works in Progress

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34 results

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