Conversations with Tyler 20th year of MR anniversary episode

CWT producer Jeff Holmes is the moderator, the panel of guests is Tyler, Alex, Vitalik Buterin, and Ben Casnocha — self-recommending!

Here is the audio, video, and transcript.  Topics include:

…the golden age of blogging in the mid-2000s, the decline of independent blogs and the rise of social media, why Tyler usually has a post at 1 AM, the consistent design of the site, the peak of the blogosphere in the Great Recession, the robust community — and even marriage — forged through MR, the site’s most underrated feature, Alex and Tyler’s favorite commenters, how MR catalyzed separate real-world pandemic responses by each of them, the cessation of book clubs, Alex and Tyler’s distinct writing style, iconic MR memes, what’s happened to Tyrone, whether the site’s popularity has tempted them into self-censoring, why it was Alex and Tyler who paired up amongst the other Mason econ bloggers, and more.

And here is one excerpt:

COWEN: There’s an MR marriage.

CASNOCHA: There is an MR marriage.

COWEN: Kathleen and Eric, who at the time lived in the state of Texas. I think they still do. It turns out it’s legal in Texas, that if you pledge marriage through a backtrack feature of blogging which goes back, that it counts as a legally binding pledge, and they literally legally married on Marginal Revolution…

BUTERIN: Wow, you guys are almost beating the blockchain here.

And this excerpt:

COWEN: We have no plans to change.

Tyrone seconds that claim.