Guest post by Jeff Mosenkis of Innovations for Poverty Action.

• The next UN Secretary General will be Antonio Guterres of Portugal, former UN High Commissioner for Refugees. UN Dispatch seems optimistic based on his record for managing in difficult times and not being afraid of confrontation.
• What it takes to make a conflict-free smartphone in the DRC.
• TJ Maxx stimulates demand in its food section by deliberately creating a sense of scarcity.
• Dean Karlan explains why he wrote a book about his failures.
• Good podcasts:
  • Seconding Chris’ recommendation of the interview between Ezra Klein and sociologist Arlie Hochschild, who was in rural Louisiana during Trump’s rise. It’s worth listening for both the findings and a methodology lesson of how she puts herself in other people’s shoes. (A separate written interview with her is here.)
  • A great follow-up is “The Poverty Tour,” a collaboration between On The Media and WNET on persistent myths about poverty and social safety nets in the rural U.S. (iTunes link)
  • Planet Money’s all request show looks for the product responsible for the most wars, and why it costs the same to mail something to Canada and Sri Lanka. (And if you liked that, you’ll love the Surprisingly Awesome ep on postal systems in places without formal addresses).
• How to write a conclusion to an academic paper, by Marc Bellemare.

The real reason to get a Ph.D.: