Why do we find it so hard to care about the rights of other people? with economist William Easterly

Can the language of "helping" be used to justify conquest? And when development raises incomes but removes agency, has anything actually improved?

In this episode of Our Long Walk, Johan Fourie and Jonathan Schoots speak with Bill Easterly, Professor Emeritus of Economics at New York University. Bill has spent much of his career challenging the idea that development is primarily a technical problem with a technical solution. His new book, Violent Saviors, traces a recurring pattern through history: how the promise of progress and prosperity has repeatedly been used to justify outsiders taking control over other societies — and why that logic still shows up in modern debates.

Some of Bill's work mentioned:

Violent Saviors

This podcast is produced with the help of Voice Note Productions. Our producer is Vasti Calitz with editing done by Andri Burnett. Kelsey Lemon provided helpful research assistance.

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