The Making of the Modern Muslim State: Professor Malika Zeghal
The Making of the Modern Muslim State: Professor Malika Zeghal by Dr Alice Evans
Mar 22, 2025•1 hr 1 min
ROCKING OUR PRIORS
Dr Alice Evans and leading experts discuss growth, governance, & gender inequalities.
Alice is a Senior Lecturer at King's College London, and Faculty Associate at the Harvard Kennedy School.
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Episodes
What caused the Islamic Revival? Professor Jared Rubin
Professor Jared Rubin has authored two superb books, “Rulers, Religion and Riches” and “How the World Became Rich”. He joined my podcast, to discuss: - Why did the Middle East Fall Behind? - What caused the shift to Scriptural Literalism? - What explains the Rise and Decline of Sufism? - How important was Wahhabism and Saudi Petrodollars? - Why were Liberalising Reforms Short-Lived? - Why has Digital Technology been More Disruptive in MENA? - What’s Constraining Middle East Economic Growth?
Mar 20, 2025•1 hr 44 min
"Raised to Obey": Agustina Paglayan
Professor Agustina Paglayan has a fascinating new book: “Raised to Obey”! She contends that mass primary education systems were primarily established to consolidate state authority and maintain social order. But what about industrialisation, democratisation or the Protestant Reformation? And why should education experts consider Political Economy? Book: https://www.amazon.com/Raised-Obey-Education-Princeton-Economic/dp/069126127X/
Nov 19, 2024•1 hr 16 min
How does Low Fertility Affect Economic Growth, Worldwide? Jesús Fernández-Villaverde
How exactly does low fertility affect economic growth, are UN population predictions accurate, what’s driving the decline in fertility, and what can be done? To answer these questions, I’m joined by the brilliant macro-economist, Jesús Fernández-Villaverde Read his recent paper: The Wealth of Working Nations https://www.nber.org/papers/w31914
Oct 02, 2024•1 hr 48 min
Daron Acemoglu, V4.0: Rebooting Culture & Economics!
Professor Daron Acemoglu is famous for his careful empirical research, demonstrating the economic importance of institutions. But actually, he’s done a 180 to embrace culture! In this podcast we discuss his new theory of culture, what drives liberty and prosperity, the limits of democracy, and the importance of geography!
Sep 01, 2024•1 hr 8 min
How did East Asia Get Rich?
Dr Oliver Kim has completed his PhD at Berkeley, recently appointed at Open Philanthropy. He does awesome research, carefully examining the drivers of structural transformation. We discussed: Why do you think East Asia is the only world region to have converged with the West? How have big data and computational tools changed our understanding of structural transformation? Oliver's website: https://oliverwkim.com/ His substack: https://www.global-developments.org/
Aug 30, 2024•1 hr 17 min
Netflix and Change: Tracking Cultural Flux in Autocracies
“Vikings is no. 1 from all the Saudi men 😂”. Leila chuckled as we browsed top hits on Netflix. For only 30 Riyals (8 USD) a month, Saudis can tune into stories about uncovered pagans. A global feast of delights are now on offer - from Western films to women’s football. Rapid cultural change is afoot in Saudi Arabia, a unique experiment in top-down secularisation. But how can we as social scientists study such rapid cultural evolution in real-time, especially in an autocracy? In this podcast, I’...
Jul 26, 2024•37 min
Culture isn't a fossil, it's a fist-fight!
Culture is not a static inheritance, but a dynamic arena of ongoing struggle. From the mosques of Jakarta to the classrooms of Louisiana, from TikTok feeds to university lecture halls, ideological warfare rages. This podcast explores the complex interplay of several crucial factors shaping our cultural landscape: Contestation: Culture is a battlefield where competing ideologies clash, merge, and evolve. Prestigious actors and institutions are especially influential, as others look to them as suc...
Jul 22, 2024•33 min
PRESTIGE BIAS
Imagine: Elon Musk's tweet causes a cryptocurrency frenzy. Kim Kardashian’s outfit becomes an overnight fashion sensation. Daron Acemoglu and colleagues’ paper on settler mortality reshapes economic thinking. The Pope’s words influence millions globally. What links these diverse events? They’re all powerful manifestations of prestige bias. Psychologically, we seek guidance from those who’ve achieved success, looking to emulate their paths to prosperity and social approval. This creates a dynamic...
Jul 18, 2024•28 min
Why Is Management So Male?
Senior management remains heavily male, and honestly I’m not entirely sure why. Economist Ingrid Haegele finds that junior men are more likely to apply for promotions, primarily due to a greater desire for team leadership. Paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2404.07750.pdf Haegele: https://www.ingridhaegele.com/
Jul 11, 2024•23 min
How Do Men Come To Value Female Talent?
During the World War I, the US federal government was short on civil servants and actively recruited women. Abhay Aneja, Silvia Farina, and Guo Xu find that men with multiple female colleagues were subsequently more likely to marry working women and father careerist daughters! Crucially, the effect is larger when men have many female colleagues and it becomes perfectly conventional. Paper: https://www.nber.org/papers/w32639
Jul 09, 2024•18 min
"Mission-Driven Bureaucrats": Dan Honig
How can we improve government capacity and public services? In “Mission-Driven Bureaucrats”, Dan Honig argues that civil servants are often deeply committed, yet hobbled by strict rule books. Trapped by top-down strictures, civil servants may even become disillusioned. Unable to help, they quit. Government ministries can be so much more effective if motivated civil servants actually have the autonomy to be creative, independent, and fix local problems. How do we know this? 4 million individual o...
Jul 03, 2024•1 hr 31 min
What Explains The Great GAY Divergence?
Imagine a world where love knows no boundaries, where two people can marry regardless of their gender. Now open your eyes. In some parts of the globe, this is reality. In others, it's a distant dream. Twenty years ago, a mere 26% of Americans supported same-sex marriage. Today, that figure has skyrocketed to 69%. That is extremely rapid cultural change in favour of love and liberalism. But hold your applause, because here’s the plot twist: most of the world is not joining the parade. When asked ...
Jun 29, 2024•26 min
The Islamic Revival: Professor Aaron Rock-Singer
Aaron Rock-Singer is a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative. He has published two fantastic books, “Practicing Islam: Egypt’s Islamic Revival” and “In the Shade of the Sunna: Salafi Piety in the Twentieth-Century Middle East”. Aaron is truly brilliant, connecting both the macro and the micro. By examining structural shifts in education and urbanisation as well as Islamic print media, he shows how modernisation triggered counter-mobilisation. We discuss: How did coloniali...
Jun 24, 2024•1 hr 29 min
Modern Threats and Religious Backlash
The Ten Commandments must now be displayed in all Louisiana’s public school classrooms. The law, signed by Republican Governor Jeff Landry, requires poster-sized copies with easily readable text. Why is this happening? Is it unprecedented? Actually, it echoes the 1970s global religious revival. Threatened by liberal modernity, conservatives worldwide leveraged new technologies and defensively mobilised to institutionalise piety. In this podcast, I draw on my comparative research to highlight par...
Jun 20, 2024•16 min
"Islam And Citizenship in Indonesia": Robert Hefner
Professor Robert Hefner has a tremendous new book, “Islam and Citizenship in Indonesia: Democracy and the Quest for an Inclusive Public Ethics”. It’s one of my favourite books of the year, drawing on thirty years of ethnographic research. Today, he joins “Rocking Our Priors”. We discuss: Indonesia’s religious history Why have Hinduism and Buddhism have largely faded in Indonesia? Why were madrasas were rare until the 19th century? What explains the rise in normative Islam? - Economic development...
Jun 10, 2024•2 hr 33 min
"A History of the Muslim World": Michael Cook
Michael Cook's "A History of the Muslim World" is my favourite book of 2024. Together, we discussed: - Did Islamic science weaken due to religious authoritarianism? - Why, in the Middle East and North Africa, were there so few peasant rebellions? - Theologically, how important was Ghazali? - What determined the rate at which people converted to Islam? - Why was there so much religious syncretism and diversity in the Ottoman Empire? - Why did the Muslim world fall behind economically? - Did the O...
May 29, 2024•1 hr 31 min
What's Driving the Global Decline in Trust?
Trust is down, worldwide. In India, Iran, Indonesia and Nigeria, less than 15% say that ‘most people can be trusted’. What’s going on? I suggest several likely mechanisms: 1) Generalised distrust is correlated with strong family bonds 2) Poorer countries have rapidly urbanised at a lower level of income 3) Rule of law varies worldwide 4) Political contestation and growing polarisation 5) Online connectivity has boomed, and is increasingly negative My Substack has graphs, data and further resourc...
May 23, 2024•30 min
What led to the demise of foot-binding?
What led to the demise of foot-binding? by Dr Alice Evans
Apr 22, 2024•7 min
Who are the world's most influential philosophers?
Who are the world's most influential philosophers? by Dr Alice Evans
Apr 09, 2024•23 min
What prevents Hindu-Muslim conflict? Saumitra Jha
Saumitra Jha (Associate Professor of Political Economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business) joins me to discuss what prevents Hindu-Muslim conflict. We discuss his paper on "Trade, Institutions, and Ethnic Tolerance: Evidence from South Asia" https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/trade-institutions-and-ethnic-tolerance-evidence-from-south-asia/534E0018C1431E7A7615B4FAD26DEB3E
Apr 05, 2024•38 min
Is Pakistan becoming more Patriarchal?
Over the 20th century, the entire world became more gender equal. Or so I thought. But Pakistan has rocked my priors. Female employment has slightly risen. Meanwhile, young Pakistani women are more sexist than their grandmothers. What is going on? Charts and graphs are on my Substack: https://www.ggd.world/p/is-pakistan-becoming-more-patriarchal
Mar 29, 2024•12 min
The Patriarchal Political Order: Soledad Artiz Prillaman
The Patriarchal Political Order: Soledad Artiz Prillaman by Dr Alice Evans
Mar 23, 2024•1 hr 34 min
Slave-Raiding, Solidarity and Status in Africa
Slave-Raiding, Solidarity and Status in Africa by Dr Alice Evans
Mar 18, 2024•33 min
Sub-Saharan Africa's Economic Stagnation
Sub-Saharan Africa's Economic Stagnation by Dr Alice Evans
Mar 14, 2024•9 min
What Would Reduce Female Genital Cutting?
What Would Reduce Female Genital Cutting? by Dr Alice Evans
Mar 14, 2024•7 min
Why is female employment low in India? How might that change? Suhani Jalota & Lisa Ho
Why is India's female labour force participation so low? And how might that change? Suhani Jalota and Lisa Ho share insights from their brilliant work in Mumbai and West Bengal. This discussion is superbly insightly and great fun. Stay tuned for jokes & data. Paper on Mumbai: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/z3v4gxqpkvc4p9ntjy0ie/h?dl=0&e=1&preview=Jalota_Suhani_WhatWorksForHer.pdf&rlkey=ca71mbrtewdo92exnmop1q0b8 Paper on West Bengal: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/vyzkrzwv2xlce1wo...
Mar 10, 2024•1 hr 13 min
Does Egalitarianism enable more Gender Equality?
If everyone is equal, it’s much more acceptable for women to get to the top. In societies where no one is special, men seem much more accepting of female leadership. Whereas in hierarchical cultures, where subordinates must bow to their bosses, female managers and politicians are more strongly disliked. They may even trigger backlash. This is a novel theory of gender inequality. I believe it helps explain why Russia and Nigeria’s parliaments are almost entirely male, just like Korean and Japanes...
Mar 09, 2024•22 min
Romantic Love is an Under-Rated Driver of Gender Equality
Patriarchy is reinforced by fraternal solidarity. The Athenian demos, German guilds, Tswana kgotla, Chinese imperial dynasties, Muslim Brotherhood and Indian caste panchayats all reinforced male dominance. As long as men are united, bound in collective loyalty, women are secondary. How might this change? On International Women’s Day, I’d like to highlight a hugely important (but widely overlooked) driver of gender equality. In fact, this mechanism is so powerful that it is actively suppressed by...
Mar 08, 2024•28 min
What’s the Future of the US Labor Movement? Suresh Naidu
What’s the Future of the US Labor Movement? Suresh Naidu by Dr Alice Evans
Mar 01, 2024•54 min
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