Are climate change politics still stuck in the rut created by a famous 1970s bet about the consequences of ever-increasing population growth and resource use? Is "quality of life" a better focus than "survivability"? Paul Sabin, author of "The Bet: Paul Ehrlich, Julian Simon and Our Gamble Over Earth's Future," discusses these and other questions raised by his book.

That's what Julia Ott, assistant professor in the history of capitalism at The New School, says. In a wide ranging discussion, she describes the not-at-all inevitable path to a broad-based securities market in the United States of the early 20th century. She comments on the tendency of financial reporting to ignore the fact that the development of the market in the U.S. has reflected and continues to reflect the deliberate selection of specific political choices. She also discusses the impact of economic crises in changing (or not changing) the understanding of, and attitudes towards, markets.

A discussion with Kim Phillips-Fein, historian and author of a book that traces the conservative movement in the U.S. as it slowly regrouped in the aftermath of the passage of the New Deal.