Although William Bernstein has an MD and a PhD in Chemistry, he began his career in neuroscience before deciding to become a financial investor and an author of historical books. Safe to say, he’s exactly the sort of guest we love to have on The Bryan Callen Show. Although he’s written several books, today’s podcast focuses primarily on The Birth of Plenty: How the Prosperity of the Modern World was Created. In the last few hundred years, the average wealth of a resident of planet earth has increased astronomically. Bernstein lays out for us the four factors that he argues drove that innovation. In today’s episode, Dr. Bernstein (aka Bill), Hunter and Bryan discuss how the world achieved its modern prosperity and how we can use these four factors to drive further prosperity generation around the world. Dr. Bernstein (aka Bill) is the author of three of the best history books you’ll ever read: The Birth of Plenty: How the Prosperity of the Modern World was Created, A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World from Prehistory to Today, Masters of the Word: How Media Shaped History. He’s also the author of an investing book called The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio that Big Mike “Bryan’s Dad” Callen “best investment book ever produced for the lay person.” Pretty impressed right now. Dr. Bernstein (aka Bill) is on the web at http://www.efficientfrontier.com/.