Forward Thinking

Co-host Janet Bush talks with Ed Glaeser, the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics and the chairman of the Department of Economics at Harvard University. His latest book, coauthored with health economist David Cutler, is Survival of the city: The future of urban life in an age of isolation, written to make sense of[...]

Co-host Janet Bush talks with Marco Buti. Buti holds the Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa Chair in European Economic and Monetary Integration at the European University Institute. They cover topics including the following: The evolution of European policy coordination European competitiveness Whether Europe’s business model is sustainable The need of more speed among European companies in frontier technologies[...]

Co-host Michael Chui talks with Nan Ransohoff. Ransohoff is the head of climate at Stripe and leads Frontier, an advanced market commitment for carbon removal. She answers questions including: Is carbon removal a get out of jail free card for emitters? What are the most promising carbon removal technologies? Is it possible to scale up[...]

Co-host Michael Chui talks with Andy McAfee. McAfee is a principal research scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management, co-founder and co-director of MIT’s initiative on the digital economy, and the inaugural visiting fellow at the Technology in Society organization at Google. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Co-host Janet Bush talks with Stephen King. King is a senior economic advisor to HSBC, having served as the bank’s group chief economist from 1998 to 2015. His latest book, very prescient in timing, is We Need to Talk About Inflation: 14 Urgent Lessons from the Last 2,000 Years. In this podcast, he covers topics[...]

Co-host Janet Bush talks with Homi Kharas. Kharas is a senior fellow in the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution and also cofounder of World Data Lab. He studies policies and trends influencing developing countries, the emergence of the world's middle class, and global governance. He's collaborated with the McKinsey Global Institute on[...]

Co-host Janet Bush talks with Ann Mettler. Mettler is Vice President, Europe, at Breakthrough Energy, working on cleantech innovation in pursuit of a net-zero-emissions future. Before her current role, she worked for many years in European public policy. She was head of the European Political Strategy Center, the in-house think tank of the European Commission,[...]

Co-host Janet Bush talks with Justin Yifu Lin. Lin is dean of the Institute of New Structural Economics, dean of the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development, and professor and honorary dean of the National School of Development at Peking University. He served as chief economist at the World Bank from 2008 to 2012, and[...]

Co-host Janet Bush talks with Andrew J. Scott. Scott is professor of economics at London Business School; his work focuses on the economics of longevity. He's co-founder of the Longevity Forum and a member of the World Economic Forum's Council on Healthy Aging and Longevity, topics that are very much the focus of the McKinsey Health[...]

Cohost Janet Bush talks with Carlos Lopes. He is a professor in the Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town. He’s also an affiliate professor at Sciences Po, Paris, an associate fellow in the Africa Program at Chatham House, and a member of the African Union reform team. Lopes was the[...]

Cohost Michael Chui talks with Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, both professors of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan. They cover topics including the following: Subjective well-being How the labor market has evolved since the pandemic A decline in inequality The potential impact of AI Why write a new economics text book?[...]

Co-host Michael Chui talks with business professor Ethan Mollick. He is an associate professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Mollick covers topics including the following: What is generative AI? How substantial are the performance improvements workers can gain from using generative AI How to use human management skills to get better[...]

Co-host Michael Chui talks with economist Hans-Helmut Kotz who is a visiting professor of economics at Harvard University, a senior policy fellow at the Leibniz Institute for financial research at Goethe University, Frankfurt, and on the economics faculty of Freiburg University. Kotz covers topics including the following: Parallels between the 2007–09 global financial crisis and[...]

Co-host Janet Bush talks with economist Dany Bahar. He is an associate professor of practice of international and public affairs at Brown University’s Watson Institute and a senior fellow of the Growth Lab at the Harvard Center for International Development. He’s also a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution and the Center for Global Development.[...]

Co-host Michael Chui talks with Nouriel Roubini. Roubini is professor emeritus of economics at the Stern School of Business at New York University, and CEO of Roubini Macro Associates, a global macroeconomics consultancy. He covers topics including the following: The “mother of all” debt crises and what to do about it Likely future trends in[...]

Co-host Michael Chui talks with Justin Adams. Adams is the head of partnerships at Just Climate, a climate-led investment business. he answers questions, including: How does nature or the ecosystem provide services to the economy? How much needs to be invested in nature? What role can capitalism play in addressing issues around sustainability? What kind[...]

In this podcast, economist Alan Taylor covers how history can provide a lens into trends in globalization and wealth and the long-term impact of pandemics.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

In this episode, co-host Michael Chui talks with Nicholas Bloom. Bloom is the William Eberle Professor of Economics at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. He covers topics including the following: The history of remote work How remote work can enhance productivity What practices make hybrid work most[...]

Janet Bush talks with Chad P. Bown. Bown is Reginald Jones Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. They cover topics including: How contentious current trading relationships are in the context of history Is the world deglobalizing or not? The economic and human cost of decoupling See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, co-host Michael Chui talks with Jayshree Seth, a corporate scientist and the chief science advocate at the 3M company. She covers topics including: How the human context can be brought into the practice of science and engineering Expanding talent pipelines into STEM fields The[...]

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, Janet Bush talks with Jessica Fanzo. Fanzo is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Food Policy and Ethics at the Berman Institute of Bioethics, the BloombergSchool of Public Health, and the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in the United[...]

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, Michael Chui talks to Tyler Cowen, Holbert L. Harris Chair of Economics at George Mason University, who serves as chairman and general director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. With colleague Alex Tabarrok, Cowen is coauthor of the popular economics blog Marginal[...]

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, co-host Michael Chui talks with Alec Stapp, co-CEO of the Institute for Progress, a Washington, DC, think tank he co-founded in January 2022. Progress is a policy choice, its founders say, and they have chosen to focus initially on three topics—meta-science, high-skill immigration, and[...]

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, co-host Janet Bush talks to Edwin Keh, the CEO of the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel. It was set up in 2006, with the aim of becoming a center of excellence in research and development in the fashion and textiles industry.[...]

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, co-host Janet Bush talks to Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, Princesa de Asturias Chair and a professor of economic geography at the London School of Economics. Between 2015 and 2017, he was president of the Regional Science Association International. He won the European Regional Science Association Prize[...]

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, co-host Janet Bush talks to leading French economist Jean Pisani-Ferry. He holds the Tommaso Padoa Schioppa chair at the European University Institute. He's a senior fellow at Bruegel, the European think tank, and a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute in Washington, DC.[...]

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, co-host Michael Chui talks with Avinash Collis, professor of digital economy at The University of Texas at Austin, and Digital Fellow at Stanford and MIT. He covers topics including: — One of the greatest inventions of the 20th century — How to run economics[...]

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, guest interviewer Acha Leke talks with Ngozi-Okonjo-Iweala. Acha Leke is a McKinsey senior partner in Johannesburg and is chairman of McKinsey’s Africa region. Okonjo-Iweala became director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in March 2021—the first woman and the first African to serve in[...]

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, Janet Bush talks with British mathematician and technologist Anne‑Marie Imafidon, co-founder of Stemettes, a social initiative dedicated to inspiring and promoting the next generation of young women in STEM sectors. Imafidon invokes the “herstory” of stellar female technologists, such as Gladys West, who contributed[...]

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, co-host Janet Bush speaks with Claire O’Neill. While serving as a minister in the British government, O’Neill led the United Kingdom’s winning bid to host the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26, in 2021. After leaving politics, she joined the World Business Council for[...]

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, Michael Chui talks with Benedict Evans, an independent technology analyst. Evans covers topics including the following: ● The generational shifts in technology that occur every 15 years or so ● What characterizes a “universal product” ● Why Web3 generates the most polarizing views among[...]

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, guest interviewer Jonathan Woetzel talks with Ron O’Hanley, president and CEO of State Street Corporation, a major servicer and manager of institutional assets. State Street has committed to making its portfolios carbon neutral by 2050, and O’Hanley talks about how his own organization is[...]

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, Michael Chui talks with David Autor, Ford Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Autor talks about the paradoxes created for labor markets by the pandemic, the effect of trade globalization, the rise of China as a world economic power, and the[...]

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, guest interviewer Jonathan Woetzel talks with two leading economists spanning Europe and Asia. Baroness Minouche Shafik is director of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Andrew Sheng is distinguished fellow at the Asia Global Institute at the University of Hong Kong. The[...]

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, co-host Janet Bush talks with Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake. Jonathan Haskel is professor of economics at Imperial College Business School at Imperial College London and an external member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. Stian Westlake is chief executive[...]

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, co-host Michael Chui talks with Matthew J. Slaughter, Paul Danos Dean and Earl C. Daum 1924 Professor of International Business at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Slaughter takes the temperature of globalization, discussing ways of tackling distributional challenges and ensuring it[...]

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, co-host Janet Bush talks with Hayaatun Sillem. She is the chief executive officer of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the United Kingdom—the first woman to serve in that role—and of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. She also serves as chair of judges[...]

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, Michael Chui talks to Byron Auguste and Beth Cobert whose professional life is dedicated to fostering a more skills-based labor market. Their focus is on the United States, but their diagnostic can just as easily apply to other countries and regions. Both worked at[...]

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, co-host Janet Bush speaks with Guntram Wolff, the director of Bruegel, which is regularly ranked one of the top global think tanks. In early 2021, he was appointed to a new G-20 panel on pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response. Wolff discusses the challenge of[...]

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, co-host Janet Bush speaks with distinguished economist Michael Spence. He is professor of economics and dean emeritus at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, senior professor at SDA Bocconi, and Nobel laureate in Economic Sciences, 2001.[...]

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, co-host Michael Chui speaks with Mary “Missy” Cummings, one of the first female fighter pilots in the US Navy and now a professor in the Duke University Pratt School of Engineering and the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, as well as the director of[...]

We’d like to share a special interview from our friends at McKinsey’s Inside the Strategy Room podcast. In this episode, you’ll hear Brian Chesky, the co-founder and CEO of Airbnb, in discussion with McKinsey Global Institute co-chairman James Manikya. The theme of their conversation centered around how to build companies capable of thriving in the[...]

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, co-host Anna Bernasek speaks with Jeffrey Seller, producer of Broadway hits Hamilton, In the Heights, Rent, and more about the tumultuous year-plus Broadway and live performances have endured. Ahead of Broadway reopening in September 2021 and live performances coming back across the United States[...]

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, host Michael Chui speaks with Laura Tyson, Distinguished Professor of the Graduate School at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. Tyson shares her journey in economics, from discovering Econ 1 in college to chairing the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. She[...]

In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, hosts Michael Chui and Anna Bernasek speak with Daron Acemoglu. Daron is a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a coauthor (with James A. Robinson) of Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty, and the author of[...]

In this episode of Forward Thinking, host Michael Chui speaks with Jeffrey Ding, researcher and founder of the ChinAI newsletter, about information asymmetry in artificial intelligence between China and the West. They cover why data may not be like oil, the Chinese industry adage on products, platforms, and standards, “unsexy AI” and more. There’s a[...]

We’ve been hearing for a long time that robots are coming for our jobs. Now, with widespread global unemployment due to COVID-19, that sounds even more ominous. But what if robots and AI could, in fact, help with recovery? Well, it’s possible. For instance, in some rural parts of the US, artificial intelligence and machine[...]

“Digital is changing the way that we create value in society. Where in value chains does that happen? Who gets the benefits? And is there a gap between what we measure in dollars and the economic welfare, the benefits, that people can get from these digital services? There's a wedge opening up between the categories[...]

You’ve heard about the Industrial Revolution and the digital revolution. But now, we’re heading into a Bio Revolution. And this is going to transform the economy and society in many ways—even beyond health and agriculture. And we need to understand both the potential for good and how to avoid the pitfalls. In this episode, we[...]

As part of Black History Month, MGI co-chair James Manyika had an open, candid conversation with Mellody Hobson and an audience of McKinsey colleagues in the San Francisco office. “You can almost pick any arena you want in American business, society, and community, and I think you’ll probably find Mellody involved, playing some important pioneering[...]

The Bio Revolution has the potential to transform our lives, and genome editing—the ability to change the DNA sequence in a targeted way using CRISPR-Cas9, is one of the key innovations that has sparked imaginations while also raising its fair share of controversy. What is the origin of this technique? How do we weigh the[...]

Millions of people have lost their jobs over the past year, and the jobs that are going to be available coming out of the pandemic might be really different from those that were available even a few years ago. Just think about some of the jobs that employed a lot of people before: in-person services[...]

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 00:90) >  Forward Thinking is a new podcast series hosted by Michael Chui and Anna Bernasek. We want to inform and provoke your thinking by interviewing names you may know—like Nobel prizewinners Jennifer Doudna and Sir Christopher Pissarides—and by introducing up-and-comers you should know. We ask[...]

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 28:53) >  We speak with two leaders on the forefront of applying AI techniques such as automation and machine learning in the business world. How can CEOs stay ahead of the curve in training and developing their workforce for using this technology? Since companies are doing[...]

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 35:55) >  We’ve explored McKinsey Global Institute’s research on the future of work in this podcast series. What do other experts have to say? We sat down with Zoe Baird, CEO of the Markle Foundation, and Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media, at the Churchill Club[...]

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 32:14) >  Automation will displace many jobs over the next 10-15 years, but many others will be created, and even more will change. Jobs of the future will use different skills and may have higher educational requirements. In this episode, we ask experts how we can[...]

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 21:22) >  In this episode, we examine how technology has affected employment and incomes in manufacturing and other sectors in the United States and other advanced economies in the recent past and discuss whether automation could widen the gap between high and low-income jobs.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for[...]

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 31:53) >  New technologies such as artificial intelligence and automation are reshaping the workplace globally, but there are likely to be significant differences from country to country. In this podcast, we look at automation’s likely impact in China, Europe, and India.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 34:59) >  This is not the first time the world has experienced significant shifts in employment due to new technology. History tells us that in the long run, technology is a net creator of jobs. But with AI and automation's rapid advances, could this time be[...]

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 26:38) >  James Manyika of the McKinsey Global Institute and Matthew Taylor of the RSA discuss how new workplace trends such as automation, AI, and the gig economy are creating a need for policies that create not just jobs, but work that is more satisfying and[...]

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 22:45) >  New technology has the potential to drastically change work. How can we prepare today for the shifts that are coming tomorrow?See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information