A conversation about knowledge, commerce and the Western canon with novelist and journalist Alex Beam, author of A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books.

A conversation about the greatest British philosopher of all time with Simon Blackburn, professor of philosophy at Cambridge University and the University of North Carolina and author of How to Read Hume. [download] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about Margaret Thatcher, the most controversial British Prime Minister of the 20th century, with Claire Berlinski, author of There is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters. [download] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about intellectual rigor and intellectual confusion with New York University physicist Alan Sokal, the man behind the "Sokal Hoax" and author of Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy and Culture. [download] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about art markets with Don Thompson, professor emeritus of marketing at York University's Schulich School of Business and author of The $12 Million Dollar Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art. [download] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about what's next for humanity with David Friedman, professor of law at Santa Clara University and author of the classic work of 20th-century political philosophy The Machinery of Freedom. In his new book, Future Imperfect: Technology and Freedom in an Uncertain World, Friedman explores the law, the economics and the very sensory experience of a host of possible futures through the technologies likely to shape them, including universal surveillance, e-cash, designer kids, advanced encryption and nanotechnology. [download] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about technology, philosophy and a beloved American motorcycle journey with Mark Richardson, auto and motorcycle editor of the Toronto Star and author of Zen and Now: On the Trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. [download] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about demographics, punditry and American voting with Andrew Gelman, professor of statistics at Columbia University and author of Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State. [download] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about the red tape of viticulture, huge followings in Japan and Cabernet uprisings in the streets of Indianapolis with wine educator and blogger Tyler Colman, known in the blogosphere as "Dr. Vino", author of Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists and Mobsters Influence the Wines We Drink. [download show] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about the workings of the novel, the world between journalism and academia and literary versus religious belief with James Wood, book critic for the New Yorker and author of How Fiction Works. [download show] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about what's wrong with American education's priorities and how to fix them with the American Enterprise Institute's Charles Murray, author of Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality. [download show] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about econophysics, generating genuine randomness and the rise of blogs with mathematical journalist and blogger Brian Hayes, author of Group Theory in the Bedroom. [download show] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about the dictionary-reader's ultimate challenge, all 21,730 pages of the Oxford English Dictionary, with Ammon Shea, author of Reading the OED. [download show] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about one man, one son, and one D.I.Y. film school with novelist and former CBC film critic David Gilmour, author of The Film Club: A Memoir. [download show] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about art, criticism, literature, philosophy, and a certain Belgian boy reporter with novelist Tom McCarthy, author of Remainder and Tintin and the Secret of Literature. [download show] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about science, aesthetics and the crossing of disciplinary boundaries with David Edwards, Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Biomedical Engineering at Harvard, author of Artscience: Creativity in the Post-Google Generation, and founder of Le Laboratoire. [download show] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about the rise of cultural blogs, using one’s own life as novel source material and the genius of Rupert Thomson with literary blogger Maud Newton, founder of MaudNewton.com. [download] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about the encyclopedic novel, female creativity and Rush Limbaugh with novelist, essayist and poet Alexander Theroux, author of Laura Warholic; or, The Sexual Intellectual. [download] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

Part two of our special series on the future of books and reading: conversations with writer, thinker, entrepreneur and maker of mischief Kevin Smokler [site] and Dave Weich, director of marketing and development at Portland, Oregon's Powell's Books.

A conversation about art school, the Milgram Experient and Andres Serrano photos as bible covers with graphic designer and novelist Chip Kidd, the man responsible for countless bestselling (and some not-quite-bestselling) book jackets. His new novel is The Learners: The Book After The Cheese Monkeys.

Part one of a special Marketplace of Ideas series on the future of books and reading: conversations with Daniel Menaker and Odile Isralson, host and executive producer of Titlepage, the first book-themed internet TV show.

A conversation about the climate change debate, the evolutionary psychology of art and bad academic writing with Denis Dutton [site], founder of Arts & Letters Daily and editor of Philosophy and Literature.

A conversation about swinging, eating, strip clubs, lying, gambling, consumption and pornography with Peter Sagal, host of NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me and author of The Book of Vice: Very Naughty Things (and How to Do Them).

A conversation about experimental philosophy with Kwame Anthony Appiah, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University and author of Experiments in Ethics.

The second part of a conversation about life in film and literature in Japan and America with translator, filmmaker and Japan expert John Nathan, author of Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere.

The first part of a conversation about life in film and literature in Japan and America with translator, filmmaker and Japan expert John Nathan, author of Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere.

A conversation about the art of engineering, the value of jokes and the nuisance of spam with Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer and author of iWoz: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It.

It's The Marketplace of Ideas live in Los Angeles! Come bid farewell to Dutton's Brentwood Books and watch a live taping of The Marketplace of Ideas, featuring a conversation with Mark Sarvas, noted Elegant Variation blogger and author of the upcoming novel Harry, Revised. This all happens on Saturday March 29th at 12:00 noon. Dutton's is located at 11975 San Vicente Boulevard in Los Angeles, CA.

A conversation about speed-dating, the advantages of city life and the fun economists are having with "Undercover Economist" Tim Harford, author of The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World.

A conversation about Generation X, penciling techniques and libertarianism with Peter Bagge, creator of Hate and Apocalypse Nerd.

A conversation about Texan cotton-growing, Chinese manufacturing and African entrepreneurship with Pietra Rivoli, Georgetown business professor and author of The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy.

A conversation about education, urbanism and Abbas Kiarostami with essayist, novelist, poet and film writer Phillip Lopate.

A conversation with Gail Pool, author of Faint Praise: The Plight of Book Reviewing in America.

A conversation about economics, evolutionary biology and Ayn Rand with Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine and author of The Mind of the Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics.

A conversation about the interplay between early modern science and poetry with Angus Fletcher, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the City University of New York Graduate School and author of Time, Space and Motion in the Age of Shakespeare.

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A conversation about bridging the gap between history and prehistory with Daniel Lord Smail, professor of history at Harvard University and author of On Deep History and the Brain.

A conversation about using incentives, eating ethnic food and becoming a cultural billionaire with Tyler Cowen, professor of economics at George Mason University and blogger at Marginal Revolution.

A conversation about publishing, book criticism and LA literary culture with David L. Ulin, editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review.

A conversation about literature, the human brain and umami with Jonah Lehrer, editor-at-large at Seed magazine and author of Proust Was a Neuroscientist.