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Freakonomics 2.0

Just arrived in the mail is a handsome new book called Freakonomics: Revised and Expanded Edition, which should be in stores in a week or two. (Here is the Amazon…



Turbulent Souls 2.0

I’m happy to announce that my first book, a family memoir called Turbulent Souls, has just been republished by HarperCollins. It’s got a new cover, a new essay in the…



Episode 282

Could Solving This One Problem Solve All the Others?

The biggest problem with humanity is humans themselves. Too often, we make choices — what we eat, how we spend our money and time — that undermine our well-being. An…

Episode 343

An Astronaut, a Catalan, and Two Linguists Walk Into a Bar…

In this live episode of “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know,” we learn why New York has skinny skyscrapers, how to weaponize water, and what astronauts talk about in space….

When Earth Attacks Mars

NASA research suggests that there may be life on Mars after all — but that, up ’til now, we’ve been destroying it when we visit. (Does this hurt the case…



Did Celebrating Earth Day Make You Pollute More?

Beware moral self-regulation. Doing good works, it turns out, may make people feel justified in doing ill. A new study from psychologists at Northwestern University suggests that “affirming a moral…



Where on Earth Will All the Cars Go?

Photo: Paul Trafford When wearing my Freakonomics hat, I see my job as giving you the reader the pecan pie of transportation, while shielding you from having to eat your…



Father Earth Is Dead

Oscar Hidalgo/The New York Times Norman Borlaug If you had to point to one person who helped the global population surge over the past several decades to nearly 7 billion…



Episode 72

“Leaving Black People in the Lurch”

Linguist and social commentator John McWhorter explains how good intentions may be hurting Black America — and where the word “motherf*cker” comes from….

Special Series

…to School American Culture The Hidden Side of the Art Market Covid-19 How To Be Creative The Hidden Side of Sports The Secret Life of a C.E.O. Earth 2.0 Series…



Episode 24

Are We Under Threat from a New Kind of Terror? (Replay)

Amaryllis Fox is a former C.I.A. operative and host of the Netflix show The Business of Drugs. She explains why intelligence work requires empathy, and she soothes Steve’s fears about…

Episode 49

Mathematician Sarah Hart on Why Numbers are Music to Our Ears

Playing notes on her piano, she demonstrates for Steve why whole numbers sound pleasing, why octaves are mathematically imperfect, and how math underlies musical composition. Sarah, a professor at the…

Episode 53

The Simple Economics of Saving the Amazon Rainforest

Everyone agrees that massive deforestation is an environmental disaster. But most of the standard solutions — scolding the Brazilians, invoking universal morality — ignore the one solution that might actually…

Episode 66

The Professor Who Said “No” to Tenure

Columbia astrophysicist David Helfand is an academic who does things his own way — from turning down job security to helping found a radically unconventional university….

Episode 104

The Joy of Math With Sarah Hart

Steve is on a mission to reform math education, and Sarah Hart is ready to join the cause. In her return visit to the show, Sarah explains how patterns are…

Episode 428

The Simple Economics of Saving the Amazon Rain Forest

Everyone agrees that massive deforestation is an environmental disaster. But most of the standard solutions — scolding the Brazilians, invoking universal morality — ignore the one solution that might actually…

Episode 158

Is Learning a Foreign Language Really Worth It?

Yes, it expands the mind but we usually don’t retain much — and then there’s the opportunity cost.

Episode 193

Someone Else’s Acid Trip

As Kevin Kelly tells it, the hippie revolution and the computer revolution are nearly one and the same.

Episode 28

Why Can’t We Predict Earthquakes?

We talk to a U.S. Geological Survey physicist about the science — and folly — of predicting earthquakes. There are lots of known knowns; and, fortunately, not too many unknown…

Episode 339

The Future of Freakonomics Radio

After eight years and more than 300 episodes, it was time to either 1) quit, or 2) make the show bigger and better. We voted for number 2. Here’s a…

Episode 183

Tell Me Something I Don’t Know

The debut of a live game show from Freakonomics Radio, with judges Malcolm Gladwell, Ana Gasteyer, and David Paterson….

Episode 10

Why Are Stories Stickier Than Statistics?

Also: are the most memorable stories less likely to be true?

Freakonomics Radio Live: “Where Does Fear Live in the Brain?”

Our co-host is comedian Christian Finnegan, and we learn: the difference between danger and fear; the role of clouds in climate change; and why (and when) politicians are bad at…

Episode 183

Tell Me Something I Don’t Know (Replay)

The debut of a live game show from Freakonomics Radio, with judges Malcolm Gladwell, Ana Gasteyer and David Paterson….

Episode 6

Nathan Myhrvold: “I Am Interested in Lots of Things, and That’s Actually a Bad Strategy.” (Replay)

He graduated high school at 14, and by 23 had several graduate degrees and was a research assistant with Stephen Hawking. He became the first chief technology officer at Microsoft…

The Tennessee Coal-Ash Spill, in Pictures

…into the ground and probably into the community’s ground water.” “The site had trees down, roads and driveways missing, and big boulders of earth, or what looked like gray earth….



Episode 40

Have We All Lost Our Ability to Compromise?

Also: is it better to be right or “not wrong”?…

Episode 381

Long-Term Thinking in a Start-Up Town

Recorded live in San Francisco. Guests include the keeper of a 10,000-year clock, the co-founder of Lyft, a pioneer in male birth control, a specialist in water security, and a…

ClimateGate as Rorschach Test

…you feel like wading into the conversation, you might wish to sample Dot Earth, Watts Up With That, and RealClimate, which presents “climate science from climate scientists.” The discussions at…



Episode 337

How to Build a Smart City

We are in the midst of a historic (and wholly unpredicted) rise in urbanization. But it’s hard to retrofit old cities for the 21st century. Enter Dan Doctoroff. The man…