Adam Smith's Warning About Wealth, Fame, and Status (with Ross Levine)

2026-04-20 · 64 min · episode 1046 · 20 entities

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Asserted relationships

→ appeared on EconTalk podcast

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evidence rules-v4
Adam Smith's Warning About Wealth, Fame, and Status (with Ross Levine)
→ appeared on EconTalk podcast

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Adam Smith's Warning About Wealth, Fame, and Status (with Ross Levine)
→ hosted by Russ Roberts person

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Feed author/publisher: Russ Roberts
→ hosted by Library of Economics and Liberty person

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Feed author/publisher: Library of Economics and Liberty
→ discusses Society & Culture concept

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→ discusses Science concept

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→ discusses Philosophy concept

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→ discusses Education concept

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→ discusses Courses concept

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→ discusses Social Sciences concept

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Feed category: Social Sciences

Entities found in this episode

concepts 12

mentioned Society & Culture concept

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evidence rules-v4
Feed category: Society & Culture
mentioned Science concept

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evidence rules-v4
Feed category: Science
mentioned Philosophy concept

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evidence rules-v4
Feed category: Philosophy
mentioned Education concept

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evidence rules-v4
Feed category: Education
mentioned Courses concept

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evidence rules-v4
Feed category: Courses
mentioned Social Sciences concept

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evidence rules-v4
Feed category: Social Sciences
discusses Society & Culture concept

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evidence rules-v4
Feed category: Society & Culture
discusses Science concept

0.40

evidence rules-v4
Feed category: Science
discusses Philosophy concept

0.40

evidence rules-v4
Feed category: Philosophy
discusses Education concept

0.40

evidence rules-v4
Feed category: Education
discusses Courses concept

0.40

evidence rules-v4
Feed category: Courses
discusses Social Sciences concept

0.40

evidence rules-v4
Feed category: Social Sciences

persons 6

mentioned Ross Le person

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evidence rules-v4
Adam Smith's Warning About Wealth, Fame, and Status (with Ross Levine)
mentioned Russ Roberts person

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evidence rules-v4
Feed author/publisher: Russ Roberts
mentioned Library of Economics and Liberty person

0.70

evidence rules-v4
Feed author/publisher: Library of Economics and Liberty
mentioned Adam Smith's Warning person

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evidence rules-v4
Adam Smith's Warning About Wealth, Fame, and Status (with Ross Levine)
hosted by Russ Roberts person

0.55

evidence rules-v4
Feed author/publisher: Russ Roberts
hosted by Library of Economics and Liberty person

0.55

evidence rules-v4
Feed author/publisher: Library of Economics and Liberty

podcasts 2

appeared on EconTalk podcast

0.68

evidence rules-v4
Adam Smith's Warning About Wealth, Fame, and Status (with Ross Levine)
appeared on EconTalk podcast

0.63

evidence rules-v4
Adam Smith's Warning About Wealth, Fame, and Status (with Ross Levine)

Episode description as stored

What can Adam Smith teach us today? In this conversation between Ross Levine of Stanford's Hoover Institution and EconTalk's Russ Roberts, Smith emerges as a penetrating psychologist who understood that our deepest hunger isn't for wealth but for respect--and that this hunger, left unexamined, leads individuals and societies alike into serious trouble. The discussion moves from the personal (why do highly successful people keep grinding long after they've "won"?) to the political: Smith's sobering warning that when a society admires wealth and power for their own sake, it breeds servility and undermines freedom. Along the way, there's a Marxist father reading Smith during COVID, a Nobel-adjacent economist who couldn't understand why anyone would bother with a 1759 book, and a childhood story about loyalty and friendship that cuts to the heart of what we may have lost in modern culture. This is a conversation about how to live well--using one of history's greatest thinkers as a guide.