Some great interviews coming up for the Progress Studies For Young Scholars speaker series, dubbed “The Torch of Progress”:

• Tyler Cowen: this Tue, Jun 9, 12n

• Patrick Collison: Wed, Jun 17, 5pm

• Max Roser: Wed, Jun 24, 10am

• Deirdre McCloskey: Thu, Jul 2, 10am

(All times Pacific)

See the full list of events here. More to come, including Joel Mokyr and Anton Howes!

For more about Progress Studies for Young Scholars, see my announcement.

Video of Matt Bateman on the life, career and philosophy of Maria Montessori

Many people know the name Montessori; few know about the woman—her life, philosophy and career. She was not only an innovative educator, she was also an advocate of understanding and teaching the history of human progress.

Learn more about her from Dr. Matt Bateman, VP of Pedagogy at Higher Ground Education and head of the Progress Studies for Young Scholars program, in this first episode of “The Torch of Progress”.

Pasteur's quadrant

In my recent post on the case study of the transistor, we saw that the research that led to its invention did not fall neatly into the categories of “basic” vs. “applied”, but in fact cycled rapidly between them.

An entire book—Pasteur’s Quadrant, by Donald Stokes—is dedicated to the thesis that “basic” vs. “applied” is a false dichotomy that is harming science funding.

Read the full post: https://rootsofprogress.org/pasteurs-quadrant