Jared Diamond on Whether Leaders Make History

Yascha Mounk and Jared Diamond discuss the age-old question of structure versus agency—and when individual leaders truly change the course of events.

Jared Diamond is a professor of geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. His books include Guns, Germs, and Steel, The Third Chimpanzee, and Profits, Prophets, Coaches and Kings: (When) Do Leaders Make a Difference?

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Jared Diamond discuss how to measure the true impact of individual leaders, why the institutional environment determines how much difference a leader can make, and whether societies are better served by systems that constrain leaders or empower them. 

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Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay.

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