Brilliantly interesting discussion between Nobel laureate Joel Mokyr and Tyler Cowen, mostly on the differences between Europe and China across the entire second millennium. Additionally, Mokyr attributes Britain’s lead in the industrial revolution to its apprenticeship system, which allowed youths choose their ‘master’. On the continent, guilds predominated the trades, which meant less choice and competition. Somewhat ironic given that Britain has for decades bemoaned the inferiority of its current apprenticeship system to that of Germany’s.
Jul 8, 2026 Conversations with Tyler | Full Episodes
Joel Mokyr co-won the 2025 economics Nobel for exploring the question that traces back to the beginning of economics: how did sustained economic growth suddenly become normal? For nearly all of human history, cleverness didn’t compound. What changed, according to Mokyr, was twofold: first, you need to know why something works, so that one advance can seed the next; second, you need a culture willing to tolerate the disruption.
His new book contrasts Europe with China, showing how Europeans learned to cooperate with people they weren’t related to, in guilds, monasteries, cities, and universities, while China organized itself around the extended clan. One path led to internal stability and peace; the other, more restless and outward-looking, was the one that decided the world could always be made better.
Tyler and Joel discuss European corporations vs. Chinese clans, why the Catholic Church became obsessed with cousin-marriage, how persistent cultural trends really are, why Chinese cities became so populous relative to Europe, why it took so long for European living standards to surpass China’s, why sinified invaders kept getting swallowed by the dynasties they conquered, how geography kept Europe fragmented and China unified, where India fits into the story, why the Romans never made spectacles, why British soldiers stood two inches taller than the French, what powered the sudden rise of 19th-century German science, how disruptive winning a Nobel is, and much more. Recorded February 20th, 2026 This episode was made possible through the support of the John Templeton Foundation. Transcript and links: https://conversationswithtyler.com/ep…
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