WELCOME TO MATT RIDLEY'S BLOG

A month or two ago, I went on a podcast called The Political Orphanage with Andrew Heaton to have what Andrew called a “literary tailgating party”, and discuss both The Rational Optimist and my upcoming book How Innovation Works. Listen on Apple Podcasts I thought it was a really good interview, and enjoyed it so […]

I went on The Glenn Beck Program on BlazeTV for 15 minutes to discuss the pandemic, lockdowns, the NHS, the economy, and more: Full Episode on BlazeTVFull Episode on iTunes (Interview begins at 45:30) To see more of my appearances as soon as they’re available, subscribe to my new YouTube channel. To stay updated, follow […]

From Ebola to Covid-19, many of the deadliest viruses to emerge in recent years have the same animal source. My article for The Wall Street Journal: RaTG13 is the name, rank and serial number of an individual horseshoe bat of the species Rhinolophus affinis, or rather of a sample of its feces collected in 2013 […]

My article for The Telegraph: When the pandemic passes, which it will, there will be a reckoning to determine who could have stopped it early and did not. Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, has suggested that it would have to be carried out by the World Health Organisation: “Obviously, after the crisis has abated I […]

My article for The Spectator: Despite what Corbynites like to claim, Britain’s National Health Service has always relied heavily on the private sector for lots of things. The food it serves to patients is not grown on state-owned farms, nor are the pills it prescribes manufactured in state-owned factories. Yet when it comes to diagnostic […]

My article for The Telegraph: ‘This pestilence was so powerful that it was transmitted to the healthy by contact with the sick” wrote Giovanni Boccaccio of the Black Death, in his preface to The Decameron. The trouble with the coronavirus is almost exactly the opposite – it is transmitted to the sick by contact with […]

I spent an hour talking to philosophy expert, business expert and Ayn Rand Institute Chairman Yaron Brook about my upcoming book, and the painful yet important lessons that the epidemic is teaching us about innovation. Please check it out, and consider sharing and subscribing: To stay updated, follow me on Twitter @mattwridley and Facebook, or subscribe to my new […]

Why does it affect the generations differently? My article for Spectator: The generational effect of the corona-virus is cunning and baffling. By often being so mild in the young and healthy it turns people into heedless carriers. By often being so lethal in the old and sick, it makes carriers into potential executioners of friends […]

Now Coming 25th June Because of the global coronavirus crisis, I have agreed with my publisher’s request to delay publication of the UK edition of my new book How Innovation Works from 14 May till 25 June. The US edition will be published on 19 May as planned, because printing has already begun. The book […]

My article for the Telegraph: In 1934, in their spare time, two American biologists, Pearl Kendrick and Grace Eldering, developed a vaccine for whooping cough, then the biggest killer of children in the United States. Within four years their vaccine was being used throughout Michigan and within six it was being used nationwide. Whooping cough […]