Conversations with Tyler

Katja Hoyer is a German-British historian who has made a career out of explaining Germany to the world—and, just as importantly, to Germans themselves. Born in East Germany in 1985 and now based in Britain, she has written acclaimed histories of the German Empire, the GDR, and most recently the Weimar Republic.
Tyler and Katja discuss why communism made East Germans more loyal to the system while it bred dissidents in Poland and Hungary, how happy or unhappy life in the GDR actually was, Tyler's own bleak day-trip to East Berlin in 1984, the underrated literature of the GDR (Christa Wolf, Brigitte Reimann), whether Good Bye, Lenin! got the era right, why it's no coincidence that Richter and Polke came from the East, the strange coexistence of communist prudishness and Germany's nudist culture, what Merkel's East German background did and didn't give her as a chancellor, why East Germans remain dramatically underrepresented in leadership positions today, what makes Weimar the cultural and spiritual heart of Germany, why relatively few Jews ever settled there, how much the citizens of Weimar knew about Buchenwald, what actually killed the Weimar Constitution, how she'd rewrite the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler's citizenship problem, underrated German thinkers, the complacency behind Germany's current economic decline, which side of the Weißwurstäquator she'd choose to live on, and much more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video on the new dedicated Conversations with Tyler channel.
Recorded March 30th, 2026.
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Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:05:34 - East German Artistic Creations 
00:10:55 - Angela Merkel's East German Background
00:14:08 - East German Underrepresentation Today
00:17:02 - East Germans vs. West Germans
00:20:32 - Goethe and Weimar's Cultural Heritage
00:27:09 - What Weimar Knew About Buchenwald
00:31:10 - Why the Weimar Constitution Failed
00:35:21 - Prussia, Bavaria, and Where Nazism Took Root
00:38:23 - Rewriting the Treaty of Versailles
00:39:59 - Historical Antisemitism in Germany
00:42:27 - Hitler's Citizenship problem
00:45:14 - Weimar's Best Cultural Creations
00:47:02 - The Most Underrated German Thinker
00:49:07 - Improving Weimar
00:52:58 - Germany's Economic Malaise
00:55:38 - Living in Britain as a German Historian
01:00:49 - Outro

Toby Wilkinson is one of the world's leading Egyptologists, whose books have ranged across the full sweep of pharaonic history. His latest, The Last Dynasty: Ancient Egypt from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra, covers the 300-year Ptolemaic period — stranger and more modern-feeling than the Egypt of the pyramids, built around commerce and cosmopolitanism rather than divine kingship, and home to the greatest concentration of scientific talent the ancient world ever saw.
Tyler and Toby cover how Alexander took over the empire almost without a fight, why Alexandria became the Manhattan of the ancient world, whether the era was as philosophically fertile as it was scientifically, whether your ancient doctor's visit had positive expected value, what Egypt was actually exporting and selling, whether living standards rose above subsistence or stayed Malthusian, how the ethnic divide between Greek rulers and Egyptian subjects shaped society, what constrained the Ptolemaic Empire from becoming the next Rome, whether Cleopatra has been overhyped, what Julius Caesar was really thinking when he sided with her over her brother, the new frontiers in archeology, whether Herodotus can be trusted, what ancient Egypt knew about Israel and India, when Egyptian jewelry peaked and why, what triggered the sudden emergence of civilization across the ancient world, why a six-year-old Tyler knew King Tut better than Napoleon, and much more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video on the new dedicated Conversations with Tyler channel.
Recorded March 23rd, 2026.
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Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:04:29 - Intellectual Activity of Alexandria 
00:11:07 - The Alexandrian Economy
00:14:36 - The Ptolemaic Empire
00:21:19 - Unanswered Questions in Ptolemaic Egypt
00:23:32 - Modern Alexandria and the Future of Archaeology
00:26:37 - Other Topics in Ancient Egypt
00:42:10 - Toby's Career
00:45:26 - Outro
Photo Credit: Benjamin Frei

Bob Spitz has written major biographies of the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, and now the Rolling Stones — but also, somehow, Ronald Reagan and Julia Child. In rock, his credentials were hard won: he started out hustling gigs for an unknown Bruce Springsteen for six years, moved on to handling Elton John's American business, and spent long enough in the world to find himself jamming with Paul McCartney and chatting with Bob Dylan on a stoop in the Village. The Reagan and Julia Child books are harder to explain, and perhaps that's the point—Spitz seems to do his best work when he has no business writing the book at all.
Tyler and Bob discuss how the Stones became so great so quickly, what they added to the blues, how their melodies stack up against the Beatles', whether Exile on Main Street deserves its canonical status, which songs are most underrated, what Charlie Watts actually got out of playing in a rock band, the rise and fall of Brian Jones, how the Stones outlasted nearly everyone, the influence of Mick's London School of Economics training, why popular music has lost its cultural influence, what we should still be asking Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, whether the Beatles' breakup was good for the world, how senile Reagan really was in his second term and whether he was ever truly a communist, how good a cook Julia Child actually was, his next book on Lennon's second act, and much more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video on the new dedicated Conversations with Tyler channel.
Recorded April 28th, 2026.
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Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:02:44 - The Sound of the Rolling Stones 
00:05:25 - Underrated Rolling Stones Songs and Albums 
00:09:06 - Charlie Watts and Brian Jones 
00:11:18 - Art Colleges and Rock 'n' Roll
00:13:06 - The Stones' Stability 
00:16:32 - Mick Jagger: Closet Economist? 
00:17:53 - Pop Music's Lack of Relevance 
00:20:10 - The Beatles 
00:28:14 - Led Zeppelin 
00:31:30 - Bruce Springsteen 
00:36:20 - Bob Dylan 
00:39:40 - Julia Child 
00:42:29 - The Knicks 
00:45:21 - Ronald Reagan 
00:49:01 - Robert Caro 
00:52:03 - Writing
00:55:00 - Outro

Craig Newmark's career, in retrospect, looks like a series of deliberate subtractions: he kept Craigslist plain, stepped aside as CEO early on, gave his equity to his foundation, and now funds people and gets out of their way. His theory, arrived at gradually, is that recognizing your limitations and relying on your network is how you get more done.
Tyler and Craig discuss why webpage design has gotten worse for 30 years, what Craig's "obsessive customer service disorder" taught him about human nature, why trusting people and maintaining a nine-second rule for scams aren't as contradictory as they sound, why roommate ads are a better way to find love, why Craigslist never added seller evaluations, why Leonard Cohen speaks to him more than Bob Dylan, what William Gibson's Neuromancer got right about the internet, why Jackson Lamb is now one of his role models, why large foundations lose accountability, what two painful Ivy League grants taught him philanthropy, what he gets from rescuing pigeons, the hard lesson he learned about confronting people who lie for a living, his favorite TV shows and movies, the one genuine luxury he can't go without, what he still needs to learn, and much more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video on the new dedicated Conversations with Tyler channel.
Recorded April 14th, 2026.
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Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:02:41 - Stepping Aside as CEO
00:04:20 - Customer Service and Social Skills
00:16:27 - Restaurants
00:18:06 - Music
00:19:27 - Science Fiction
00:20:14 - TV Shows
00:26:03 - Philanthropy
00:30:20 - Journalism
00:31:55 - Pigeons
00:32:50 - Entrepreneurship
00:35:09 - Craig's Personal Philosophy
00:37:37 - Major Regrets
00:39:17 - Audience Q&A
00:46:23 - Outro

Kim Bowes is an archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania whose book, Surviving Rome: The Economic Lives of the Ninety Percent, Tyler calls perhaps his favorite economics book of 2025. By sifting through the material remains of Roman life — shoes, bricks, ceramics, and the like — she uncovers a picture of ordinary Romans who could evidently afford to buy multiple sets of colorful clothes, use gold coins for daily transactions, and eat peppercorns sourced from thousands of miles away. This vast web of commerce, she argues, both bound the empire together and provided the tax base that kept it running — and when it unraveled, Rome unraveled with it.
Tyler and Kim discuss what would surprise a modern visitor to a Roman elite home, what early Roman Christianity actually looked like on the ground, why Romans never developed formal economic reasoning, what decentralized money-lending reveals about the Roman state, whether there were anything like forward markets, why Romans continued to use coins even as the empire debased them, the economics of Roman slavery, whether Roman recipes taste any good, the Romans as hyper-scalers rather than inventors, what Rome made of China and Egypt, why Kim's not a fan of the Vesuvius challenge, the practicalities of landscape archaeology, how a vast belt of factories along the Tiber Valley went undiscovered until twenty years ago, where to go on a three-week tour of the Roman Empire, what she thinks is ultimately behind Rome's unraveling, and much more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video on the new dedicated Conversations with Tyler channel.
Recorded February 2nd, 2026.
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Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu
Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here.
Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:06 - Roman Housing
00:08:28 - What Early Roman Christians Actually Believed
00:16:29 - Roman Economic Thought
00:18:39 - Roman Banking and Money Practices
00:28:48 - The Economics of Roman Slavery
00:31:56 - What Held The Roman Empire Together
00:36:46 - Roman Cookery
00:39:17 - The Romans as Masters of Scale
00:42:05 - Rome's Contact with Asia
0043:59 - The Vesuvius Challenge
00:45:13 - Ancient Carthage and the Fall of Rome
00:49:43 - The Realities of Doing Archaeology
00:57:15 - Touring the Roman Empire
01:00:42 - Outro