How Safe Is Your Job? (Rebroadcast)
Economists preach the gospel of "creative destruction," whereby new industries -- and jobs -- replace the old ones. But has creative destruction become too destructive?
Mar 23, 2017•33 min
Freakonomics Radio
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
279. Why Is My Life So Hard?
Most of us feel we face more headwinds and obstacles than everyone else — which breeds resentment. We also undervalue the tailwinds that help us — which leaves us ungrateful and unhappy. How can we avoid this trap?
Mar 16, 2017•31 min•Ep. 279
278. Chuck E. Cheese’s: Where a Kid Can Learn Price Theory
The pizza-and-gaming emporium prides itself on affordability, which means its arcade games are really cheap to play. Does that lead to kids hogging the best games — and parents starting those infamous YouTube brawls?
Mar 09, 2017•31 min•Ep. 278
277. The Taboo Trifecta
The serial entrepreneur Miki Agrawal loves to talk about the bodily functions that make most people flinch. That's why she's building a business around the three P's: periods, pee, and poop.
Mar 02, 2017•32 min•Ep. 277
276. No Hollywood Ending for the Visual-Effects Industry
In their chase for a global audience, American movie studios spend billions to make their films look amazing. But almost none of those dollars stay in America. What would it take to bring those jobs back -- and would it be worth it?
Feb 23, 2017•56 min•Ep. 276
275. Professor Hendryx vs. Big Coal
What happens when a public-health researcher deep in coal country argues that mountaintop mining endangers the entire community? Hint: it doesn't go very well.
Feb 16, 2017•37 min•Ep. 275
How to Get More Grit in Your Life
The psychologist Angela Duckworth argues that a person's level of stick-to-itiveness is directly related to their level of success. No big surprise there. But grit, she says, isn't something you're born with — it can be learned. Here's how.
Feb 09, 2017•42 min
274. An Egghead’s Guide to the Super Bowl
We assembled a panel of smart dudes -- a two-time Super Bowl champ; a couple of NFL linemen, including one who's getting a math Ph.D. at MIT; and our resident economist -- to tell you what to watch for, whether you're a football fanatic or a total newbie.
Feb 02, 2017•28 min•Ep. 274
273. Did China Eat America’s Jobs?
For years, economists promised that global free trade would be mostly win-win. Now they admit the pace of change has been "traumatic." This has already led to a political insurrection -- so what's next?
Jan 26, 2017•38 min•Ep. 273
Is the American Dream Really Dead?
Just a few decades ago, more than 90 percent of 30-year-olds earned more than their parents had earned at the same age. Now it's only about 50 percent. What happened -- and what can be done about it?
Jan 19, 2017•39 min
272. Trevor Noah Has a Lot to Say
The Daily Show host grew up as a poor, mixed-race South African kid going to three churches every Sunday. So he has a sui generis view of America — especially on race, politics, and religion — and he's not afraid to speak his mind.
Jan 12, 2017•35 min•Ep. 272
271. The Men Who Started a Thinking Revolution
Starting in the late 1960s, the Israeli psychologists Amos Tversky and Danny Kahneman began to redefine how the human mind actually works. Michael Lewis's new book The Undoing Project explains how the movement they started -- now known as behavioral economics -- has had such a profound effect on academia, governments, and society at large.
Jan 05, 2017•35 min•Ep. 271
How to Become Great at Just About Anything (Rebroadcast)
What if the thing we call "talent" is grotesquely overrated? And what if deliberate practice is the secret to excellence? Those are the claims of the research psychologist Anders Ericsson, who has been studying the science of expertise for decades. He tells us everything he's learned.
Dec 29, 2016•50 min
How to Be More Productive (Rebroadcast)
In this busy time of year, we could all use some tips on how to get more done in less time. First, however, a warning: there's a big difference between being busy and being productive.
Dec 22, 2016•39 min
270. Bad Medicine, Part 3: Death by Diagnosis
By some estimates, medical error is the third-leading cause of death in the U.S. How can that be? And what's to be done? Our third and final episode in this series offers some encouraging answers.
Dec 15, 2016•49 min•Ep. 270
269. Bad Medicine, Part 2: (Drug) Trials and Tribulations
How do so many ineffective and even dangerous drugs make it to market? One reason is that clinical trials are often run on "dream patients" who aren't representative of a larger population. On the other hand, sometimes the only thing worse than being excluded from a drug trial is being included.
Dec 08, 2016•45 min•Ep. 269
268. Bad Medicine, Part 1: The Story of 98.6
We tend to think of medicine as a science, but for most of human history it has been scientific-ish at best. In the first episode of a three-part series, we look at the grotesque mistakes produced by centuries of trial-and-error, and ask whether the new era of evidence-based medicine is the solution.
Dec 01, 2016•45 min•Ep. 268
The No-Tipping Point (Rebroadcast)
The restaurant business model is warped: kitchen wages are too low to hire cooks, while diners are put in charge of paying the waitstaff. So what happens if you eliminate tipping, raise menu prices, and redistribute the wealth? New York restaurant maverick Danny Meyer is about to find out.
Nov 24, 2016•44 min
267. How to Make a Bad Decision
Some of our most important decisions are shaped by something as random as the order in which we make them. The gambler's fallacy, as it's known, affects loan officers, federal judges -- and probably you too. How to avoid it? The first step is to admit just how fallible we all are.
Nov 17, 2016•36 min•Ep. 267
Introducing Stephen J. Dubner's new podcast, "Tell Me Something I Don't Know"
"Tell Me Something I Don't Know" is a live game show hosted by Stephen J. Dubner of "Freakonomics Radio." He has always had a mission: to tell you the things you thought you knew but didn't, and things you never thought you wanted to know, but do. Now, with "TMSIDK," he has a new way of doing just that. This new show is still journalism, still factual -- but disguised in the most entertaining, unexpected, and occasionally ridiculous conversation you're likely to hear. Audience contestants come o...
Nov 15, 2016•53 min
266. Trust Me
Societies where people trust one another are healthier and wealthier. In the U.S. (and the U.K. and elsewhere), social trust has been falling for decades -- in part because our populations are more diverse. What can we do to fix it?
Nov 10, 2016•28 min•Ep. 266
How Much Does the President Really Matter? (Rebroadcast )
The U.S. president is often called the "leader of free world." But if you ask an economist or a Constitutional scholar how much the occupant of the Oval Office matters, they won't say much. We look at what the data have to say about measuring leadership, and its impact on the economy and the country.
Nov 09, 2016•33 min
265. The White House Gets Into the Nudge Business
A tiny behavioral-sciences startup is trying to improve the way federal agencies do their work. Considering the size (and habits) of most federal agencies, this isn't so simple. But after a series of early victories -- and a helpful executive order from President Obama -- they are well on their way.
Nov 03, 2016•42 min•Ep. 265
264. In Praise of Incrementalism
What do Renaissance painting, civil-rights movements, and Olympic cycling have in common? In each case, huge breakthroughs came from taking tiny steps. In a world where everyone is looking for the next moonshot, we shouldn't ignore the power of incrementalism.
Oct 27, 2016•49 min•Ep. 264
263. In Praise of Maintenance
Has our culture's obsession with innovation led us to neglect the fact that things also need to be taken care of?
Oct 20, 2016•42 min•Ep. 263
262. This Is Your Brain on Podcasts
Neuroscientists still have a great deal to learn about the human brain. One recent MRI study sheds some light, finding that a certain kind of storytelling stimulates enormous activity across broad swaths of the brain. The takeaway is obvious: you should be listening to even more podcasts.
Oct 13, 2016•45 min•Ep. 262
How To Win A Nobel Prize (Rebroadcast)
The process is famously secretive (and conducted in Swedish!) but we pry the lid off at least a little bit.
Oct 06, 2016•45 min
261. Why Are We Still Using Cash?
It facilitates crime, bribery, and tax evasion -- and yet some governments (including ours) are printing more cash than ever. Other countries, meanwhile, are ditching cash entirely. And if Star Trek is right, we won't have money of any sort in the 24th century.
Sep 29, 2016•43 min•Ep. 261
260. Has the U.S. Presidency Become a Dictatorship?
Sure, we all pay lip service to the Madisonian system of checks and balances. But as one legal scholar argues, presidents have been running roughshod over the system for decades. The result? An accumulation of power that's turned the presidency into a position the founders wouldn't have recognized.
Sep 22, 2016•48 min•Ep. 260
259. Ten Signs You Might Be a Libertarian
Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party's presidential candidate, likes to say that most Americans are libertarians but don't know it yet. So why can't Libertarians (and other third parties) gain more political traction?
Sep 15, 2016•51 min•Ep. 259
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