Dan Ariely is a leading behavioral economist, author, entrepreneur and the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University. Dan is a founding partner of Irrational Capital, an investment research firm that quantifies the impact of corporate culture and employee motivation on financial performance.    My initial conversation with Dan two years ago has been one of the most downloaded episodes of the show, and a recent research piece by JP Morgan entitled The Human Capital Factor that highlights his work got me excited to catch up with him again.   Our conversation covers many aspects of his continuing research to identify positive human capital practices and performance in the workplace, including data collection and assessment, gender differences, goodwill, ESG, and changes during Covid. We then turn to the practical application of the research in the capital markets through two indexes and customized research.  We close by talking about Dan’s new research projects and some of his favorite recent answers to his Ask Ariely column in the WSJ.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

David Salem has been a pioneer, practitioner and student of institutional investing for the last forty years. David was the founding president and CIO of The Investment Fund for Foundations (TIFF), which he led for nearly two decades until 2010. Since then, he has managed a multi-family office, worked and wrote alongside Ben Hunt at Epsilon Theory, and now serves as the Managing Director of Capital Allocation at Hedgeye Risk Management. Along the way, David worked closely with and distilled lessons from David Swensen, Jack Meyer in his time at Harvard Management Company, Charley Ellis, Chuck Feeney from Atlantic Philanthropies, and many other leading CIOs and managers. Our conversation covers David’s journey to investing, including sitting alongside Jeremy Grantham during GMO’s early growth stage and founding TIFF. We dive into manager selection, decision-making, investment committees, and risk management. We then turn to David’s views on China, Japan, private equity, and digital assets. Throughout our conversation, David shares his profound understanding of the unique pressures faced by institutional investors and the principles that guide successful investment strategies and leadership in complex environments. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership