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The Irrational Investor

The Irrational Investor

By: Nathan Pali
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About this listen

The Irrational Investor is a personal finance and behavioral investing podcast about why smart investors make bad decisions—and how human psychology quietly shapes markets, bubbles, crashes, and long-term wealth.

Markets aren’t driven by logic. They’re driven by people.

This podcast explores investing psychology, behavioral finance, and the mental forces behind how individuals and institutions buy, sell, panic, speculate, and repeat the same mistakes across centuries.

Each episode blends financial history, neuroscience of decision-making, market psychology, and clear explanations of how the financial system works to uncover:

  • Why intelligent investors consistently underperform
  • How fear, greed, and overconfidence drive market behavior
  • How the brain misreads risk, probability, and loss
  • Why bubbles, crashes, and manias keep repeating
  • How incentives distort financial markets
  • Why timing the market fails but feels irresistible
  • How to build better investing behavior through better thinking

This isn’t a stock-picking podcast or a day-trading show. It’s a story-driven guide to behavioral investing, financial decision-making, market psychology, and understanding why the biggest threat to your portfolio is usually your own brain.

If you’re interested in investing, behavioral finance, psychology of money, market bubbles, financial history, decision-making under uncertainty, wealth building, and learning how to become a calmer, smarter investor—this podcast is for you.

The Irrational Investor Because the market isn’t your biggest risk. You are.

© 2026 The Irrational Investor All rights reserved.
Economics Hygiene & Healthy Living Personal Finance Psychology Psychology & Mental Health
Episodes
  • Before Markets Existed: The Emotional History of Wealth
    Jan 24 2026

    Before prices and portfolios, wealth was emotional, social, and fragile. Discover how the emotional foundations of money were built long before financial systems existed.

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    17 mins
  • Unpacking the Tulip Mania Bubble
    Feb 14 2026

    In this episode, we explore the historical phenomenon of Tulip Mania in the 17th-century Dutch Republic, examining how a market for exotic flowers transformed into a speculative bubble driven by contract trading. We discuss the societal conditions that enabled such speculation and the key factors that led to its eventual, yet contained, collapse.

    Chapters

    00:00 Tulip Mania's Beginnings

    00:00 The Dutch Republic Market

    02:04 Tulips as Status Goods

    03:20 The Rise of Tulip Contracts

    05:00 Low Entry, High Hype

    08:25 The Logic of Bubbles

    10:12 The Bubble Bursts

    13:02 Lessons from Tulip Mania

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    12 mins
  • Spanish Silver and Europe's Price Revolution
    Feb 13 2026

    In this episode, we explore how overwhelming quantities of silver from the Americas reshaped 16th-century European economies and triggered the 'Price Revolution.' We also discuss how this surge in global money resulted in widespread inflation, economic paradoxes for Spain, and a silent redistribution of wealth across society.

    Chapters

    00:00 Introduction to New World Silver

    01:55 The Price Revolution Begins

    04:46 Silver's Journey and Spain's Paradox

    08:46 Impact on Contracts & Society

    11:52 Spain's Struggles and Global Reach

    15:23 Lessons from Abundant Money

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    12 mins
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