I enjoyed this conversation with Peyton Bowman.   Can you remember the names of any Swiss Prime Ministers? Peyton couldn’t. I couldn’t, and neither, I’m guessing, can you.? The answer is a few minutes in.  More generally, what do we get and what do we lose from politics being as entertaining as it is? And why are some of the most dysfunctional social institutions of ours

highly theatrical — like politics and court cases?  What’s driving all the dysfunction and what tweaks could be made to improve the situation?   We explore these issues, and go on a couple of interesting diversions — Around ‘ground-truthing’ in arguments and the way gender plays out in the recognition of expertise.  Also available as a video here.