Season 2, Episode 2
We have just released a series of five one-hour Freakonomics Radio specials to public-radio stations across the country (check here to find your local station), and now they’re hitting our podcast stream as well. If you are a dedicated podcast subscriber, then some of this material will be familiar to you. These new shows are what might best be called “mashupdates” — that is, mashups of earlier podcasts that have also been updated with new interviews, etc.
Today’s episode is called “Show and Yell” (download/subscribe at iTunes, get the RSS feed, listen via the media player above, or read the transcript). It draws from our earlier podcasts “Hey, Baby, Is That a Prius You’re Driving?” and “Boo … Who?”
In a nutshell, here are the questions we seek to answer in today’s program:
Is booing an act of verbal vandalism or the last true expression of democracy? And: when you drive a Prius, are you guilty of “conspicuous conservation”?
You’ll hear how Philadelphia sports fans earned their reputation as the loudest boo-birds, and whether the distinction of high or low culture plays a role. You’ll hear from former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, who admits to booing Santa Claus; and sportswriter/opera buff Robert Lipsyte, who was surprised that more people didn’t boo Pavarotti when he “parked and barked” his way through a performance.
And we look at “conspicuous conservation” – when people go out of their way to engage in “green” activities. While driving a Toyota Prius may do a little bit of good for the planet, being seen driving a Prius may do a lot of good for you. And one more mystery: why some people install solar panels on the shady side of the street.
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