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Episode 583

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….

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Episode 21

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….









The History of Taxes

If you’re still fuming over taxes this year, take a look at Mike Duncan and Jason Novak‘s (slightly biased) cartoon explanation of the history of taxes. The income tax really…



April 11: The Most Boring Day in History

Every day, something significant to human history must happen … right? Photo: iStockphoto Wrong. Last year, the computer program True Knowledge concluded that the most boring day in human history



Lightbulb Moment in Food History

…her too by picking up a copy of her just-released book, “Fresh: A Perishable History.” Photo: Stephen Ausmus A White Leghorn hen. Last week’s post talked about early-20th-century “egg gamblers”…



"The Most Bountiful Food in Human History?"

…existed in human history. Who would like to argue against him? And if you attack on the “nutritious” dimension (I suspect you will), be very specific. FWIW, here, from the…



FREAK-TV: An Economic History of … Abs?

Video Today’s installment of FREAK-TV traces the history of male abs in culture and media, from the unveiling of Michelangelo’s “David” to James Dean‘s shirtless pose in Rebel Without a…



Episode 88

Ken Burns on Heroism, Horror, and History

The documentary filmmaker, known for The Civil War, Jazz, and Baseball, turns his attention to the Holocaust, and asks what we can learn from the evils of the past….

The History of "Bling"

Photo: iStockphoto An Atlanta Post article by R. Asmerom traces the cultural and historical origins of “bling” in the African-American community — all the way back to Africa. “Certain areas…



Episode 528

Yuval Noah Harari Thinks Life is Meaningless and Amazing

In this special episode of People I (Mostly) Admire, Steve Levitt talks to the best-selling author of Sapiens and Homo Deus about finding the profound in the obvious….

Episode 62

How Does Historian Brad Gregory Make a Boring Topic So Mind-Blowing?

A leading expert on the Reformation era, Brad, a University of Notre Dame professor, tells Steve about how the “blood gets sucked out of history,” and why historians and economists…

Episode 84

Yuval Noah Harari Thinks Life Is Meaningless and Amazing

The author of Sapiens has a knack for finding the profound in the obvious. He tells Steve why money is fiction, traffic can be mind-blowing, and politicians have a right…

Episode 322

Extra: David Rubenstein Full Interview

Stephen Dubner’s conversation with David Rubenstein, co-founder of the Carlyle Group, one of the most storied private-equity firms in history. We spoke with Rubenstein for the Freakonomics Radio series “The…

Episode 74

Does Reverse Psychology Really Work?

Also: Does knowing your family history affect your identity?…

On This Date in History …

On April 12, 2005, Freakonomics was published. We had high hopes and low expectations. From what I recall, nothing magical happened on that day. But at 12:01 a.m. on the…



The Health Care Mess: A Brief History

Do you regularly read the Marginal Revolution blog? If you care much about actual economics, and especially if you are a student of the same (either literally or figuratively), you…



Visualizing Mortality History

Hans Rosling, a guru of data animation, is at it again. Here is a very cool video showing 200 years of mortality/wealth progress in just four minutes: (HT: Peter Siegelman)…



A History of Facebook's New Search Engine

Steven Levy of Wired provides the “inside story” of Facebook’s new search engine, Graph Search: For years now, Facebook watchers have wondered when the company would unleash the potential of…



The History of Obesity Revisited

(Photo: davidd) We’ve blogged before about the obesity epidemic, and whether or not it is a recent phenomenon; John Komlos and Marek Brabec have argued that obesity rates actually began…



Episode 98

Searching for Our Aquatic Ancestors

Neil Shubin hunts for fossils in the Arctic and experiments with D.N.A. in the lab, hoping to find out how fish evolved to walk on land. He explains why unlocking…

Episode 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…

Episode 268

Bad Medicine, Part 1: The Story of 98.6 (Replay)

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…