Belmont Stakes anyone?
My Preakness picks were not as terrible as usual – I correctly had Afleet Alex to win, but missed my exactas. I guess they were good enough that some readers…
A kitchen wizard and a nutrition detective talk about the perfect hamburger, getting the most out of garlic, and why you should use vodka in just about everything.
My Preakness picks were not as terrible as usual – I correctly had Afleet Alex to win, but missed my exactas. I guess they were good enough that some readers…
It happens to just about everyone, whether you’re going for Olympic gold or giving a wedding toast. We hear from psychologists, economists, and the golfer who some say committed the…
Medicine has evolved from a calling into an industry, adept at dispensing procedures and pills (and gigantic bills), but less good at actual health. Most reformers call for big, bold…
…to help. I thought it was a pretty good column. But I see now where it could have been better. Alex Tabarrok, writing on Marginal Revolution, addresses the law of…
We tend to look down on artists who can’t match their breakthrough success. Should we be celebrating them instead?…
…but not limited to — Alex Guarnaschelli, Alex Wagner, John McWhorter, Angela Duckworth, Hari Kondabolu, Jemele Hill, and Alexandra Petri. If you don’t already subscribe to TMSIDK, you should, right…
It was only in his late twenties that America’s favorite brainiac began to seriously embrace his love of trivia. Jeopardy!’s newest host also holds the show’s “Greatest of All Time”…
Why are women unhappier than men? What can we do to move the needle? And is it better to be happy or to be good?…
Who is likelier to get to the fugitive first? When a fugitive is on the run, it’s not only the police he has to worry about. A bounty hunter could…
Every year, Edge.org asks its salon of big thinkers to answer one big question. This year’s question borders on heresy: what scientific idea is ready for retirement?
Avi Loeb is a Harvard astronomer who argues that we’ve already encountered extraterrestrial technology. His approach to the search for interstellar objects is scientific, but how plausible is his argument?
…allowed for denser settlement. But hunter-gatherers did – and do – specialize, too. An Australian aboriginal tribe called the Kalkadoon specialized in making stone axes from a quarry at a…
It was only in his late twenties that America’s favorite brainiac began to seriously embrace his love of trivia. Now, he holds the “Greatest of All Time” title on Jeopardy!…
There are all kinds of civics-class answers to that question. But how true are they? Could it be that we like to read about war, politics, and miscellaneous heartbreak simply…
Photo: Alex Nisichenko What if a simple ‘nudge’ could massively increase the use of safe water in poor countries? Today is World Water Day, a day to raise awareness for…
…want to thank Andrew Gelman and Alex Tabarrok who together brought my long eccentric paper to Dubner’s attention. I know Andrew from Berkeley, where we taught a freshman seminar on…
Lots of great responses to my Doonesbury puzzler. Implicitly, Alex was arguing, “If you are an independent, then you have a mind of your own.” From which she concludes, “Conversely,…
Alex Guarnaschelli (Iron Chef America and Chopped) is our special guest co-host, with Sean Rameswaram (Radiolab Presents: More Perfect) as real-time fact-checker. (Photo: Lucy Sutton) Joseph Priestley, who you might…
Alex Rigopulos started playing video games at 3 years old on a Magnavox Odyssey console, and has been an avid gamer ever since. He earned his B.S. in music from…
Can a hit single from four decades ago still pay the bills? Zachary Crockett f-f-f-finds out.
I haven’t bought Rolling Stone magazine in lots of years, but I couldn’t resist the recent cover story: “Making ‘Exile’: Myth, Mayhem, and the Stones’ Gritty Masterpiece.” (And written by…
It isn’t easy to separate the guilty from the innocent, but a clever bit of game theory can help.
Public bathrooms are noisy, poorly designed, and often nonexistent. What to do?
Takeru Kobayashi revolutionized the sport of competitive eating. What can the rest of us learn from his breakthrough?
Can a hit single from four decades ago still pay the bills? Zachary Crockett f-f-f-finds out in the third episode of our newest podcast, The Economics of Everyday Things….
Can a hit single from four decades ago still pay the bills? Zachary Crockett f-f-f-finds out.
Patrick Smith, the author of Cockpit Confidential, answers every question we can throw at him about what really happens up in the air. Just don’t get him started on pilotless…
Public bathrooms are noisy, poorly designed, and often nonexistent. What to do?
Curses and other superstitions may have no basis in reality, but that doesn’t stop us from believing.
