Bloggingheads TV

A great benefit of Internet is that it gives everyone access to bright minds. Not only most newspapers, magazines, and academic websites are totally free but extremely smart people have set up high-quality blogs. These blogs are excellent on their own but they also provide links to other equally high-quality blogs. Moreover, Internet's low marginal costs allow creative people to utilize scattered resources, developing innovative experiments. One such an experiment is Bloggingheads, a website that brings together policy wonks of all stripes that share only one thing: they all have a blog. In Bloggingheads case, the innovative individuals were journalists Robert Wright and Mickey Kaus, who in 2005 figured out a way to turn “two not-very-telegenic people into video pundits.” The format is simple, consisting of two bloggers discussing relevant issues on split-screen streaming videos. The result is usually good. Notably, they break up the hour-long debates into shorter segments with a witty descriptive title so you don’t have to watch the whole thing. Also, each debate features relevant links on the side if you want to learn more or follow up the conversation. One of my favorite blogginheads debates is this one between economist Dean Baker and economic journalist Megan McArdle. Their exchange on the "New Deal" (in the video’s second half) is powerful and illuminating. Another great debate is this one between philosopher Peter Singer and economist Tyler Cowen, particularly the segment “Advise for a young utilitarian” in which Cowen shatters Singer’s philosophy. Also, highly recommended are Will Wilkinson's "Free Will" series.