Editor’s pick All Interviews

A Conversation with Professor Anthony Kaldellis on The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire & the Byzantine Empire

In this interview I speak to Byzantinist Anthony Kaldellis, who argues the Eastern Roman Empire was no absolutism but a polity governed by consent, where rulers who misread the public mood were removed. He examines how…

Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL 26 min read

Read the interview

Latest interviews

Browse the archive →

Voices in the archive

Notable interviewees

See all interviewees

Entrepreneurs

Artists, Creatives, Sports & Entertainers

Thinkers

Nobel Prize Winners

World Leaders

From the archive

Three thousand moments. Three picked at random.

“The shift to impact is like the technological revolution- in fact, it is built on technology. Shifting to impact also doesn't necessarily mean you cannot achieve even greater profits. In todays' world, given consumer, talent and investor preferences – it's actually better to go to risk-return-impact if you want to maximise profits.”
— Sir Ronald Cohen Founder of Social Venture Network & Pioneer of Social Impact Investing
“We can now, more accurately than ever before, view the transactions occurring within our system, identifying the originator(s), beneficiary(ies) and intermediaries along the chain.”
— Not Available
“I'd never even heard the word 'entrepreneur' growing up – I didn't know what that meant. If I go back to my grandfather – he was the real entrepreneur. He developed things… he made spiked running shoes when he was only 15 (in 1895!). My grandfather died in 1933, I was born in 1935 and my grandmother insisted I brought his name with me – so I became the next Joe Foster.”
— Joe Foster

Browse all 3,000+ quotes

The Wisdom Series

Ten essays. Distilled from 600+ conversations.

Insights, themes and patterns from years of long-form interviews — organised around the questions that matter most.

Explore the Wisdom Series

Browse the archive

By topic

All topics
  1. 01 Business & Economics A Conversation with Victor Vescovo: On Exploration, Risk and the Limits of Human Experience 360 interviews
  2. 02 Culture, Society, Sports & Arts A Conversation with Professor Anthony Kaldellis on The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire & the Byzantine Empire 235 interviews
  3. 03 Politics & Policy Incorruptible: Eric Ries on Why Good Companies Go Bad — and How to Build Ones That Don’t 167 interviews
  4. 04 Science & Technology Could Machines Be Conscious? A Conversation with Dr Tom McClelland on Minds, Machines and the Hard Problem of Consciousness 135 interviews
  5. 05 Health & Medicine The Continuum of Mind: A Conversation with Professor Michael Levin on Cognition, Bioelectricity and the Future of Being 74 interviews
  6. 06 Nobel Laureates Markets, Morals and the Road Ahead: A Conversation with Nobel Laureate Professor Alvin Roth 21 interviews

Stay with the ideas

A monthly letter from Thought Economics.

Long-form conversations with world-leading thinkers, delivered to your inbox. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.