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Smart Cookies

Smart Cookies

Written by: Zaza
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Host Zaza talks to some of the SMARTEST PEOPLE on the planet, getting his greedy hands on as many topics as he can 😋🧠

Matjaz Juren 2022
Philosophy Social Sciences World
Episodes
  • The old ECONOMIC ORDER is dead - but what is REPLACING it? | With Prof. Branko Milanovic
    Jan 2 2026

    The era of neoliberal globalisation that has dominated economies 90's and early 2000's is coming to an end. But what comes next?

    Renowned economist and inequality researcher Branko Milanovic believes the world is entering a much more precarious phase, one in which countries bet on nationalist interests instead of free trade, but also a world in which China is rising and the West if falling.

    But what are the underlying drivers of this new order? And how will it play out in the real world? More in my conversation with Branko!

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    1 hr
  • From SAMURAI to SHINKANSEN - the Rise, Fall and Stagnation of MODERN JAPAN, with Prof. Christopher Harding
    Dec 21 2025

    As someone who moved to Japan not too long ago I was always fascinated with the country's unique history, particularly with the question of how did a country so completely isolated from the industrial revolution become a global superpower in just a few short decades? How did it manage to totally transform its society, military and culture? And finally, where did it all go wrong?

    Join me and historian Christopher Harding, author of A History of Modern Japan, as we explore Japan's journey from the Edo period's isolation to the transformative Meiji Restoration, discussing how Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War marked its emergence as a modern power, only to later slide into the shadows of World War II fascism... But also, how the country faces new challenges today, balancing tradition with modernity in a world primarily marked by the rise of China.

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    1 hr and 8 mins
  • The alluring MYSTERIES of Göbekli Tepe - the OLDEST monumental site in the world, with Jens Notroff
    Nov 29 2025

    The old version of the story went something like this - Homo Sapiens appeared in Africa around 2 to 300.00 years ago and for most of that time, we lived in small hunter gatherer communities, competing with other animals, sometimes more, and sometimes less successfully. That was, until one day we had a gnarly idea to start growing crops, build settlements and settle down for good.

    However, the mind-boggling discovery of the dazzling Gobekkli Teppe, has thrown this attractively simple narrative into question. But how is it possible that such an impressive complex of monuments, built 12.000 years ago (thousands of years before the first cities ever appeared), was put there by "simple" hunter gatherers... and most of all, why?

    To tackle these question I turn to Jens Notroff, a German archeologist who actually worked on the site for many years.

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    1 hr and 1 min
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