Thought Economics

‘Stimulating, intelligent and enjoyable discussions of the most important issues of our day.’ STEVEN PINKER


‘From entrepreneurs to athletes, and world leaders to entertainers, this is a fascinating collection of interviews with some of the world’s most influential individuals.’ MARK CUBAN


‘Thought Economics is a fine rebuke to the soundbite culture; these interviews are driven by real curiosity, and there is a wealth of wisdom here.’ EDWARD STOURTON


Since 2007, entrepreneur and philanthropist Vikas Shah has been on a mission to interview the people shaping our century. Including conversations with Nobel prizewinners, business leaders, politicians, artists and Olympians, he has been in the privileged position of questioning the minds that matter on the big issues that concern us all.


We often talk of war and conflict, the economy, culture, technology and revolutions as if they are something other than us. But all these things are a product of us – of our ideas, our dreams and our fears. We live in fast-moving and extraordinary times, and the changes we’re experiencing now, in these first decades of the twenty-first century, feel particularly poignant as decisions are made that will inform our existence for years to come.


What started out as a personal interest in the mechanisms that inform our views of the world, and a passion for understanding, has grown into a phenomenal compilation of once-in-a-lifetime conversations. In this incredible collection, Shah shares some of his most emotive and insightful interviews to date.


Chapters include:


Chapter 1. On Identity: Who We Are

Chapter 2. On Culture: The Context of Humanity

Chapter 3. On Leadership: Bringing Humanity Together

Chapter 4. On Entrepreneurship: The Creators and the Makers

Chapter 5. On Discrimination and Injustice: Them and Us

Chapter 6. On Conflict: War, Peace and Justice

Chapter 7. On Democracy: A 2,500-year Experiment in Power


Interviewees:


Marina Abramovic, Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah, Professor Justin Barrett, Professor Sean Carroll, Professor Deepak Chopra, Professor George Church, Dame Jane Morris Goodall DBE, Sir Antony Gormley, Bear Grylls OBE, Professor Yuval Noah Harari, Sir Anish Kapoor CBE, Rose McGowan, Sam Neill, Professor Steven Pinker, Dr Jordan B. Peterson, Sir Ken Robinson, Professor Carlo Rovelli, Sadhguru, Dr Carl Safina, Dr Elif Shafak, Philippe Starck, Professor Jack Szostak, Dr Maya Angelou (1928-2014), David Bailey CBE, Black Thought, Heston Blumenthal OBE, Ed Catmull, Alain Ducasse, Tracey Emin CBE, George the Poet, Paul Greengrass , Siddharth Roy Kapur, Lang Lang, Ken Loach, Yann Martel, Moby, Sir Andrew Motion, Rankin, Ritesh Sidhwani, Lemn Sissay MBE,.Saul Williams, Hans Zimmer, Carlo Anceltti OSI, Mark Cuban, Professor Stew Friedman, Professor Green, Commander Chris Hadfield, Gary Hamel, Tony Hsieh, Arianna Huffington, Professor John Kotter, General Stanley McChrystal, General Richard Myers, Jacqueline Novogratz, Robert Bernard Reich, Nico Rosberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Stephen Schwarzman, General Sir Richard Shirreff, Hamdi Ulukaya, Jocko Willink, Sophia Amoruso, Steve Ballmer, Sir Richard Branson, Tory Burch, Stewart Butterfield, Steve Case, Dennis Crowley, Weili Dai, Sir James Dyson, Jamal Edwards MBE, Tony O. Elumelu, Scott Farquhar, Naveen Jain, Donna Karan, Kevin O’Leary , Robin Li, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, José Neves , Michael Otto, John Sculley, Gary Vaynerchuk, Jack Welch (1935-2020), will.i.am, Chip Wilson, Jerry Yang , Professor Muhammad Yunus, David Baddiel, Laura Bates, Lord John Bird MBE, Sir Philip Craven MBE, Dexter Dias QC , Melinda Ann Gates, Leymah Gbowee, Matt Haig, Afua Hirsch, Ruth Hunt, Jameela Jamil, L. A. Kauffman, Frederik Willem (F.W.) de Klerk, Iby Knill, Harry Leslie Smith (1923-2018), George Takei , Peter Tatchell, Ai WeiWei, Bertie Ahern, President Martti Ahtisaari, Professor Alexander Betts, Marina Cantacuzino, François Crépeau, Dr Shirin Ebadi, Ben Ferencz, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, Gulwali Passarlay, Professor George Rupp, Lech Walesa, Jody Williams, Catherine Woolard, Alastair Campbell, Noam Chomsky, Vicente Fox, Professor A. C. Grayling, Toomas Hendrik Ilve, Susan Herman, Garry Kasparov, Michael Lewis, Ted Lieu, Moisés Naím, Admiral James Stavridis, Ece Temelkuran, Yanis Varoufakik, Guy Verhofstadt, Lord Woolf, Bassem Youssef