This event series brings students and faculty together to discuss innovative faculty research on the important issues of our day.
In each session, faculty deliver short presentations on cutting-edge work — often in progress — and then invite conversation, reflections, and questions from attendees. These informal gatherings present a rare opportunity for the Stanford community to engage directly with the ideas and scholarship shaping today’s issues.
Featured Speakers
Announcing Our 2025-26 Calendar
Join us this academic year for a new slate of informal and engaging conversations exploring the latest faculty research. While topics are still being finalized, the following dates are confirmed—so mark your calendars and stay tuned for more details.
September 12, 2025 (for MBA1s only)
Winter Quarter – February 12, 2026
Spring Quarter – May 7, 2026
*All events begin at 12:00 PM.
Event Summaries
Anat Admati, Kate Casey, Saumitra Jha
Democratic Backsliding in the U.S. and Abroad
Mohammad Akbarpour
Clicks and Tricks: The Reality of Deceptive Ad Auctions
Susan Athey
Using the Tech Toolkit for Social Good
Peter DeMarzo, Arvind Krishnamurthy, Amit Seru
SVB, First Republic and Beyond
Rebecca Diamond
Is the Bay Area Really Unaffordable? Local Prices and the Geography of Consumption
Amir Goldberg, Andy Hall, Neil Malhotra
Silicon Valley and Politics
Guido Imbens
Experimentation in Online Marketplaces
Rebecca Lester
The International Tax Landscape
Jonathan Levav
Creativity in the 13” Office
Hanno Lustig
Junior Doesn’t Vote: How Governments in Advanced Economies Shift the Fiscal Burden to Future Generations
Neil Malhotra
Does Social Media Increase Political Polarization?
Matteo Maggiori
The New Age of Geoeconomics
Ashley Martin
Why Everyone Should Care About Gender: From Organizational Challenges to Technological Change
Michael Ostrovsky
Ending Traffic Jams: Lessons from New York City’s Congestion Pricing Program





