Description
Freakonomics co-author Stephen J. Dubner uncovers the hidden side of everything. Why is it safer to fly in an airplane than drive a car? How do we decide whom to marry? Why is the media so full of bad news? Also: things you never knew you wanted to know about wolves, bananas, pollution, search engines, and the quirks of human behavior.
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Episodes
- 2024 / 9 / 5601. Multitasking Doesn’t Work. So Why Do We Keep Trying?Only a tiny number of “supertaskers” are capable of doing two things at once. The rest of us are just making ourselves miserable, and less productive. How can we put the — hang on a second, I've just got to...
- 2024 / 8 / 29What Is the Future of College — and Does It Have Room for Men? (Update)Educators and economists tell us all the reasons college enrollment has been dropping, especially for men, and how to stop the bleeding. (Part 3 of our series from 2022, “Freakonomics Radio Goes Back to...
- 2024 / 8 / 26EXTRA: Why Quitting Is Usually Worth ItStephen Dubner appears as a guest on Fail Better, a new podcast hosted by David Duchovny. The two of them trade stories about failure, and ponder the lessons that success could never teach. SOURCES:David...
- 2024 / 8 / 22The University of Impossible-to-Get-Into (Update)America’s top colleges are facing record demand. So why don’t they increase supply? (Part 2 of our series from 2022, “Freakonomics Radio Goes Back to School.”) SOURCES:Peter Blair, professor of education at...
- 2024 / 8 / 15What Exactly Is College For? (Update)We think of them as intellectual enclaves and the surest route to a better life. But U.S. colleges also operate like firms, trying to differentiate their products to win market share and prestige points. In...
- 2024 / 8 / 12EXTRA: Here’s Why You’re Not an Elite Athlete (Update)There are a lot of factors that go into greatness, many of which are not obvious. As the Olympics come to a close, we revisit a 2018 episode in which top athletes from a variety of sports tell us how they...
- 2024 / 8 / 8600. “If We’re All in It for Ourselves, Who Are We?”Tania Tetlow, a former federal prosecutor and now the president of Fordham University, thinks the modern campus could use a dose of old-fashioned values. SOURCE:Tania Tetlow, president of Fordham...
- 2024 / 8 / 1599. The World's Most Valuable Unused ResourceIt’s not oil or water or plutonium — it’s human hours. We've got an idea for putting them to use, and for building a more human-centered economy. But we need your help. SOURCES:Nathan Dietz, research director...
- 2024 / 7 / 29EXTRA: Why Rent Control Doesn’t Work (Update)A new proposal from the Biden administration calls for a nationwide cap on rent increases. Economists think that’s a terrible idea. We revisit a 2019 episode to hear why. SOURCES:Tommy Andersson, professor of...
- 2024 / 7 / 25598. Is Overconsolidation a Threat to Democracy?That’s the worry. Even the humble eyeglass industry is dominated by a single firm. We look into the global spike in myopia, how the Lemtosh got its name, and what your eye doctor knows that you don’t. (Part...
- 2024 / 7 / 18597. Why Do Your Eyeglasses Cost $1,000?A single company, EssilorLuxottica, owns so much of the eyewear industry that it’s hard to escape their gravitational pull — or their “obscene” markups. Should regulators do something? Can Warby Parker steal...
- 2024 / 7 / 15EXTRA: People Aren’t Dumb. The World Is Hard. (Update)You wouldn’t think you could win a Nobel Prize for showing that humans tend to make irrational decisions. But that’s what Richard Thaler has done. In an interview from 2018, the founder of behavioral...
- 2024 / 7 / 11596. Farewell to a Generational TalentDaniel Kahneman left his mark on academia (and the real world) in countless ways. A group of his friends and colleagues recently gathered in Chicago to reflect on this legacy — and we were there, with...
- 2024 / 7 / 4595. Why Don't We Have Better Candidates for President?American politics is trapped in a duopoly, with two all-powerful parties colluding to stifle competition. We revisit a 2018 episode to explain how the political industry works, and talk to a reformer (and...
- 2024 / 6 / 27594. Your Brand’s Spokesperson Just Got Arrested — Now What?It’s hard to know whether the benefits of hiring a celebrity are worth the risk. We dig into one gruesome story of an endorsement gone wrong, and find a surprising result. SOURCES:John Cawley, professor of...
- 2024 / 6 / 20593. You Can Make a Killing, but Not a LivingBroadway operates on a winner-take-most business model. A runaway hit like Stereophonic — which just won five Tony Awards — will create a few big winners. But even the stars of the show will have to go...
- 2024 / 6 / 17EXTRA: The Fascinatingly Mundane Secrets of the World’s Most Exclusive NightclubThe Berlin dance mecca Berghain is known for its eight-hour line and inscrutable door policy. PJ Vogt, host of the podcast Search Engine, joins us to crack the code. It has to do with Cold War rivalries,...
- 2024 / 6 / 13592. How to Make the Coolest Show on BroadwayHit by Covid, runaway costs, and a zillion streams of competition, serious theater is in serious trouble. A new hit play called Stereophonic — the most Tony-nominated play in history — has something to say...
- 2024 / 6 / 6591. Signs of Progress, One Year at a TimeEvery December, a British man named Tom Whitwell publishes a list of 52 things he’s learned that year. These fascinating facts reveal the spectrum of human behavior, from fraud and hypocrisy to Whitwell’s...
- 2024 / 6 / 3EXTRA: The Opioid Tragedy — How We Got HereAn update of our 2020 series, in which we spoke with physicians, researchers, and addicts about the root causes of the crisis — and the tension between abstinence and harm reduction. SOURCES:Gail D’Onofrio,...
- 2024 / 5 / 30590. Can $55 Billion End the Opioid Epidemic?Thanks to legal settlements with drug makers and distributors, states have plenty of money to boost prevention and treatment. Will it work? (Part two of a two-part series.)Â SOURCES:Keith Humphreys, professor...
- 2024 / 5 / 23589. Why Has the Opioid Crisis Lasted So Long?Most epidemics flare up, do their damage, and fade away. This one has been raging for almost 30 years. To find out why, it’s time to ask some uncomfortable questions. (Part one of a two-part...
- 2024 / 5 / 20Extra: Car Colors & Storage UnitsPresenting two stories from The Economics of Everyday Things: Why does it seem like every car is black, white, or gray these days? And: How self-storage took over America. SOURCES:Tom Crockett, classic car...
- 2024 / 5 / 16588. Confessions of a Black ConservativeThe economist and social critic Glenn Loury has led a remarkably turbulent life, both professionally and personally. In a new memoir, he has chosen to reveal just about everything. Why? SOURCE:Glenn Loury,...
- 2024 / 5 / 9587. Should Companies Be Owned by Their Workers?The employee ownership movement is growing, and one of its biggest champions is also a private equity heavyweight. Is this meaningful change, or just window dressing? SOURCES:Marjorie Kelly, distinguished...
- 2024 / 5 / 2586. How Does the Lost World of Vienna Still Shape Our Lives?From politics and economics to psychology and the arts, many of the modern ideas we take for granted emerged a century ago from a single European capital. In this episode of the Freakonomics Radio Book Club,...
- 2024 / 4 / 29Extra: Why Is 23andMe Going Under? (Update)Five years ago, we published an episode about the boom in home DNA testing kits, focusing on the high-flying firm 23andMe and its C.E.O. Anne Wojcicki. Their flight has been extremely bumpy since then. This...
- 2024 / 4 / 25585. A Social Activist in Prime Minister’s ClothingJustin Trudeau, facing record-low approval numbers, is doubling down on his progressive agenda. But he is so upbeat (and Canada-polite) that it’s easy to miss just how radical his vision is. Can he make it...
- 2024 / 4 / 18584. How to Pave the Road to HellSo you want to help people? That’s great — but beware the law of unintended consequences. Three stories from the modern workplace.  SOURCES:Joshua Angrist, professor of economics at the Massachusetts...
- 2024 / 4 / 14Extra: The Men Who Started a Thinking Revolution (Update)The psychologist Daniel Kahneman — a Nobel laureate and the author of Thinking, Fast and Slow — recently died at age 90. Along with his collaborator Amos Tversky, he changed how we all think about...
- 2024 / 4 / 11Why Are There So Many Bad Bosses? (Update)People who are good at their jobs routinely get promoted into bigger jobs they’re bad at. We explain why firms keep producing incompetent managers — and why that’s unlikely to change. SOURCES:Nick Bloom,...
- 2024 / 4 / 4583. Are We Living Through the Most Revolutionary Period in History?Fareed Zakaria says yes. But it’s not just political revolution — it’s economic, technological, even emotional. He doesn’t offer easy solutions but he does offer some hope. SOURCES:Fareed Zakaria, journalist...
- 2024 / 4 / 1Extra: How Much Do You Know About Immigration?The political debates over immigration can generate a lot of fuzzy facts. We wanted to test Americans’ knowledge — so, to wrap up our special series on immigration, we called some Freakonomics Radio...
- 2024 / 3 / 28582. Why Is Everyone Moving to Canada?As the U.S. tries to fix its messy immigration system, our neighbor to the north is scooping up more talented newcomers every year. Are the Canadians stealing America’s bacon? (Part three of a three-part...
- 2024 / 3 / 21581. What Both Parties Get Wrong About ImmigrationThe U.S. immigration system is a massively complicated machine, with a lot of worn-out parts. How to fix it? Step one: Get hold of some actual facts and evidence. (We did this step for you.) (Part two of a...
- 2024 / 3 / 18Extra: Madeleine Albright’s Warning on ImmigrationShe arrived in the U.S. as an 11-year-old refugee, then rose to become Secretary of State. Her views on immigration, nationalism, and borders, from this 2015 interview, are almost strangely appropriate to the...
- 2024 / 3 / 14580. The True Story of America’s Supremely Messed-Up Immigration SystemHow did a nation of immigrants come to hate immigration? We start at the beginning, sort through the evidence, and explain why your grandfather was lying about Ellis Island. (Part one of a three-part...
- 2024 / 3 / 7579. Are You Caught in a Social Media Trap?Economists have discovered an odd phenomenon: many people who use social media (even you, maybe?) wish it didn’t exist. But that doesn’t mean they can escape. SOURCES:Leonardo Bursztyn, professor of economics...
- 2024 / 3 / 4Extra: What Is Sportswashing — and Does It Work? (Update)In ancient Rome, it was bread and circuses. Today, it’s a World Cup, an Olympics, and a new Saudi-backed golf league that’s challenging the P.G.A. Tour. Can a sporting event really repair a country’s...
- 2024 / 2 / 29578. Water, Water Everywhere — But You Have to Stop and ThinkWhat surprises lurk in our sewage? How did racist city planners end up saving Black lives? Why does Arizona grow hay for cows in Saudi Arabia? Three strange stories about the most fundamental substance we all...
- 2024 / 2 / 22Is Google Getting Worse? (Update)It used to feel like magic. Now it can feel like a set of cheap tricks. Is the problem with Google — or with us? And is Google Search finally facing a real rival, in the form of A.I.-powered “answer...
- 2024 / 2 / 19Extra: Mr. Feynman Takes a Trip — But Doesn’t FallA wide-open conversation with three women who guided Richard Feynman through some big adventures at the Esalen Institute. (Part of our Feynman series.) SOURCES: Barbara Berg, friend of Richard Feynman.Cheryl...
- 2024 / 2 / 15The Vanishing Mr. FeynmanIn his final years, Richard Feynman's curiosity took him to some surprising places. We hear from his companions on the trips he took — and one he wasn’t able to. (Part three of a three-part...
- 2024 / 2 / 8The Brilliant Mr. FeynmanWhat happens when an existentially depressed and recently widowed young physicist from Queens gets a fresh start in California? We follow Richard Feynman out west, to explore his long and extremely fruitful...
- 2024 / 2 / 5How the San Francisco 49ers Stopped Being Losers (Update)They’re heading to the Super Bowl for the second time in five years. But back in 2018, they were coming off a long losing streak — and that’s the year we sat down with 49ers players, coaches, and executives...
- 2024 / 2 / 1The Curious Mr. FeynmanFrom the Manhattan Project to the Challenger investigation, the physicist Richard Feynman loved to shoot down what he called “lousy ideas.” Today, the world is awash in lousy ideas — so maybe it’s time to get...
- 2024 / 1 / 25574. “A Low Moment in Higher Education”Michael Roth of Wesleyan University doesn’t hang out with other university presidents. He also thinks some of them have failed a basic test of good sense and decency. It’s time for a conversation about...
- 2024 / 1 / 225 Psychology Terms You’re Probably Misusing (Replay)We all like to throw around terms that describe human behavior — “bystander apathy” and “steep learning curve” and “hard-wired.” Most of the time, they don’t actually mean what we think they mean. But don’t...
- 2024 / 1 / 18573. Can Academic Fraud Be Stopped?Probably not — the incentives are too strong. Scholarly publishing is a $28 billion global industry, with misconduct at every level. But a few reformers are gaining ground. (Part 2 of 2) SOURCES:Max...
- 2024 / 1 / 11572. Why Is There So Much Fraud in Academia?Some of the biggest names in behavioral science stand accused of faking their results. Last year, an astonishing 10,000 research papers were retracted. We talk to whistleblowers, reformers, and a co-author...