In the midst of the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sat down to a meal that cost less than eight cents. On this episode of “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know,” you’ll learn what thrifty foods made up that meal. You’ll also hear about the history of ice cream, the textural allure of super-colloids and the dulcet tones of a surprisingly versatile musical instrument.
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.
Did you know the army once tried to replace its mules with camels? Join author Simon Winchester, social-media scholar danah boyd and comedian Chris Gethard for more tales from the natural world, including marine animals that will either live forever or kill you (or both), as well as the wonders of poop soup.
Our podcast "The Truth Is Out There…Isn’t It?” showed that even very smart people can fool themselves into confirming their own beliefs, especially when surrounded by peers with the same beliefs. PSMag.com reports on new research that shows young Americans self-identify as more conservative than they actually are:“Commentators...
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?
This BONUS Freakonomics Radio episode is an old one we thought you might want to hear in light of our very dramatic and surprising Presidential election. It’s called “How Much Does the President Really Matter?” The U.S. president is often called the “leader of the free world.” But if you ask an economist or a Constitutional scholar how much […]
Did you know there is one particularly dangerous time of day to vote? If not, you're not alone. Neither did the celebrity panelists on the first episode of Tell Me Something I Don't Know: Debora Spar, president of Barnard College; Anthony Marx, president of the New York Public Library; and Andy Zaltzman, comedian.
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.
A while back, we tried out a new idea on a special edition of Freakonomics Radio — a game show we called Tell Me Something I Don’t Know. You might remember it. It was so much fun that we decided to launch a whole new podcast series. It’s been in the works for a while […]
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.
Has our culture’s obsession with innovation led us to neglect the fact that things also need to be taken care of?
Neuroscientists still have a great deal to learn about the human brain. One recent MRI study sheds some light, finding that 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.