My podcast randomization sometimes causes some interesting juxtapositions. Today’s example:

Talk of the Nation interviews a writer about flocking and swarming behavior, where a group of creatures can exhibit complex and intelligent behaviors that the individuals do not have.

Planet Money interviews the inventor of computerized high-speed trading, which now makes up 50% of all stock trades. Includes an interesting anecdotes about using robots in 1987 to work around NASDAQ rules.

I strongly suspect that sociologists later this century will apply the insights of the first story to figure out how we’re screwing up the second.