Rational and Religious (with Ross Douthat)

Welcome to Econ Talk, Conversations for the Curious, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty. I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Shalem College in Jerusalem and Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Go to econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this episode, and find links and other information related to today's conversation. You'll also find our archives with every episode we've done going back to 2006. Our email address is mail at econtalk.org.

We'd love to hear from you. Today is March 19, 2025, and my guest is author and journalist Ross Dowtett. He is an opinion columnist for the New York Times, and our topic for today is his latest book, Believe, Why Everyone Should Be Religious. Ross, welcome to Econ Talk. Thanks for having me.

It's a pleasure. Before we begin, I want to mention this conversation may cover some themes inappropriate for young children. Feel free to screen this if you are a parent. As most Econ Talk listeners know, I'm a religious Jew. Some listeners, when discovering that, uh, write me and say they're surprised because they've always thought I was intelligent.

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