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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. Join the Freakonomics Radio Plus membership program for weekly member-only episodes of Freakonomics Radio. You’ll also get every show in our network without a ...
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Seventeen-year-old soccer nut Solomon Dubner tries to educate his father Stephen (host of Freakonomics Radio) — and the rest of the world — about futbol.
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The rule-breaking authors of Freakonomics are back with their latest book, Think Like a Freak. Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner share how they challenge conventional wisdom and answer questions about thinking differently. Whether you're interested in the best way to improve your odds in penalty kicks, or in major global reforms, here's a blueprint for an entirely new way to solve problems. Hosted at the Apple Store, Regent Street in London.
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Journalism wrapped in a game-show package. Host Stephen J. Dubner (of “Freakonomics Radio”) and a celebrity co-host invite guests on stage in front of a live audience to tell us something we don’t know. The co-hosts — a mix of leaders in science, academia, sports, media, and comedy — grill the guests, and by the end we’ve all gotten a bit smarter. Each episode has a new topic, a new co-host, and new guests. There’s also a real-time human fact-checker to keep everyone honest. Think of the mos ...
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591. Signs of Progress, One Year at a Time
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Every 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 steadfast belief in progress. Should we also believe? SOURCES: Tom Whitwell, managing consultant at Magnetic. RESOURCES: "Supercentenarian and Re…
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EXTRA: The Opioid Tragedy — How We Got Here
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An 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, professor and chair of emergency medicine at the Yale School of Medicine and chief of emergency services at Yale-New Haven Health. Keith Humph…
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590. Can $55 Billion End the Opioid Epidemic?
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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.) SOURCES: Keith Humphreys, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University. Stephen Loyd, chief medical officer of Cedar Recovery and chair of the Tennesse…
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589. Why Has the Opioid Crisis Lasted So Long?
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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 series.) SOURCES: David Cutler, professor of economics at Harvard University. Travis Donahoe, professor of health policy and management at the University of Pi…
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Presenting 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 enthusiast. Zachary Dickens, executive vice president and chief investment officer of Extra Space Storage. Mark Gutjahr, global head of design …
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The 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, professor of economics at Brown University and host of The Glenn Show. RESOURCES: Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative, by Glen…
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587. Should Companies Be Owned by Their Workers?
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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 senior fellow at The Democracy Collaborative. Corey Rosen, founder and senior staff member of the National Center for Employee Ownership. Pete S…
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586. How Does the Lost World of Vienna Still Shape Our Lives?
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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, the historian Richard Cockett explores all those ideas — and how the arrival of fascism can ruin in a few years what took generations to build…
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Extra: Why Is 23andMe Going Under? (Update)
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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 update includes an additional interview with the Wall Street Journal reporter who has been investigating the firm’s collapse. SOURCES: Rolfe Wi…
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585. A Social Activist in Prime Minister’s Clothing
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Justin 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 work? SOURCE: Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada. RESOURCES: 2024 Canadian Federal Budget. "Canada to Set First-Ever Cap on Temporary Resi…
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So 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 Institute of Technology. Zoe Cullen, professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. Marina Gertsberg, senior lecturer in finance at …
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Extra: The Men Who Started a Thinking Revolution (Update)
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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 decision-making. The journalist Michael Lewis told the Kahneman-Tversky story in a 2016 book called The Undoing Project. In this episode, Lewis explains …
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Why Are There So Many Bad Bosses? (Update)
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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, professor of economics at Stanford University. Katie Johnson, freelance data and analytics coach. Kelly Shue, professor of finance at the Yale Un…
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583. Are We Living Through the Most Revolutionary Period in History?
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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 and author. RESOURCES: Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present, by Fareed Zakaria (2024). "The Ultimate Election Y…
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Extra: How Much Do You Know About Immigration?
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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 listeners and quizzed them. SOURCES: Zeke Hernandez, professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. RESOURCES: The Truth About Immi…
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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 series.) SOURCES: Zeke Hernandez, professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. William Kerr, professor of business administr…
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581. What Both Parties Get Wrong About Immigration
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The 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 three-part series.) SOURCES: Zeke Hernandez, professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. David Leonhardt, senior writer a…
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Extra: Madeleine Albright’s Warning on Immigration
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She 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 present moment. SOURCE: Madeleine Albright, U.S. Secretary of State under President Bill Clinton and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nat…
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580. The True Story of America’s Supremely Messed-Up Immigration System
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How 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 series.) SOURCES: Leah Boustan, professor of economics at Princeton University. Zeke Hernandez, professor at the Wharton School at the University of P…
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579. Are You Caught in a Social Media Trap?
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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 at the University of Chicago. Benjamin Handel, professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley. RESOURCES: "When Product Ma…
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Extra: What Is Sportswashing — and Does It Work? (Update)
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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 PGA Tour. Can a sporting event really repair a country’s reputation — or will it trigger the dreaded Streisand Effect? Also: why the major U.S. sports leagues are warming up to the idea of foreign investment. S…
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578. Water, Water Everywhere — But You Have to Stop and Think
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What 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 take for granted. SOURCES: Brian Beach, professor of economics at Vanderbilt University. Marc Johnson, professor of molecular microbiology an…
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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 engines”? SOURCES: Marissa Mayer, co-founder of Sunshine; former C.E.O. of Yahoo! and vice president at Google. Ryan McDevitt; professor of economics a…
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Extra: Mr. Feynman Takes a Trip — But Doesn’t Fall
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A 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 Haley, friend of Richard Feynman. Debby Harlow, friend of Richard Feynma Sam Stern, content creator at the Esalen Institute. EXTRAS: Richard …
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In 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 series.) SOURCES: Alan Alda, actor and screenwriter. Barbara Berg, friend of Richard Feynman. Helen Czerski, physicist and oceanographer at University College L…
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