Human Nature and Potato Salad

Many have sung songs of change, from Charles Bradley to David Bowie to Tupac Shakur. The pace of social and economic changes -- and the way they make us feel -- is the subject of constant debate. Jonah is joined on today's episode by Tom Standage, a historian and the deputy editor of The Economist, to make the case that rapid change caused by innovation is nothing new in the annals of history. Jonah and Tom consider why man always jumps to doomsday when new technologies emerge, debate the merits of an organic diet, and discuss the storied history of brews and lager. Plus: the mythologization of the Medieval Age, a soliloquy to honor the historical lynchpin that is the potato, and the supernatural powers of a good cocktail.