The Economics Show: What economics gets wrong about human behaviour, with Richard Thaler

Economists like to model people as rational creatures who make self-interested decisions. But humans don’t act that way. Why do investors, politicians and ordinary people act against their best interests – and how can they be nudged into making better decisions? To find out, FT economics commentator Chris Giles speaks to Richard Thaler, the founding father of behavioural economics. Thaler is a professor at the University of Chicago who won the 2017 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on how humans make (often irrational) decisions.

This is a repeat of an episode published on The Economics Show, a sister podcast of Behind the Money, on November 7, 2025. Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple (podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-economics-sh…), Spotify (open.spotify.com/show/64rPqCkSSBkuSJpkMLRe9i?s…), Pocket Casts (pca.st/6ysdzw0j) or wherever you listen.

Presented by Chris Giles. Produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music by Breen Turner. Sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco. Our broadcast engineer is Andrew Georgiades.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.