Is Business Broken?

jayfei@bu.edu

For verified host and producer emails, sign up to view.

What transforms an idea into an economy?

June 25, 2026

Where does innovation begin? What are the critical factors driving innovation today and tomorrow? And what happens when federal funding gets shaky, the IPO market stalls, and political uncertainty rattles an entire industry? A century and a half after Boston University Professor Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone, questions around the innovation economy are more urgent than ever. At a live show, recorded at the WBUR Festival in Boston, host Curt Nickisch sits down to explore these...

Does the Future of Sustainability Lie in the Shipping Industry?

April 23, 2026

Ocean shipping carries close to 90% of global trade, and it accounts for about 3% of global emissions. The International Maritime Organization has set ambitious targets to reduce those by 20% by 2030, by 70% by 2040, and reach net zero by 2050. Ships are expensive and pay for themselves over decades, and the technology for green fuels is still developing. What are you supposed to do if you're a shipping company? Do you invest early and take on the risk? Do you drag your feet? And why should ...

Can Private Equity Be a Force for Good?

April 16, 2026

We are living through a massive migration of wealth. More and more capital is leaving public markets and flowing into private equity. There's even a growing push to let everyday investors put their retirement savings into private markets. But as private equity's footprint expands, so does the debate over who actually benefits. Has private equity made the economy more efficient, innovative, and productive — or has it become a system for extracting wealth at the expense of workers, consumers, ...