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Episode 408

Does Anyone Really Know What Socialism Is?

Trump says it would destroy us. Sanders says it will save us. The majority of millennials would like it to replace capitalism. But what is “it”? We bring in the…

Episode 552

Freakonomics Radio Presents: The Economics of Everyday Things

In three stories from our newest podcast, host Zachary Crockett digs into sports mascots, cashmere sweaters, and dinosaur skeletons….

Episode 79

Solar Geoengineering Would Be Radical. It Might Also Be Necessary.

David Keith has spent his career studying ways to reflect sunlight away from the earth. It could reduce the risks of climate change — but it won’t save us.

Episode 251

Are We in a Mattress-Store Bubble?

You’ve seen them — everywhere! — and often clustered together, as if central planners across America decided that what every city really needs is a Mattress District. There are now…


Episode 177

Regulate This!

Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, EatWith, and other companies in the “sharing economy” are practically daring government regulators to shut them down. The regulators are happy to comply.

Episode 229

Ben Bernanke Gives Himself a Grade

He was handed the keys to the global economy just as it started heading off a cliff. Fortunately, he’d seen this movie before.

Episode 96

Steven Strogatz Thinks You Don’t Know What Math Is

The mathematician and author sees mathematical patterns everywhere — from DNA to fireflies to social connections….


Episode 441

Does Advertising Actually Work? (Part 2: Digital)

Google and Facebook are worth a combined $2 trillion, with the vast majority of their revenue coming from advertising. In our previous episode, we learned that TV advertising is much…


Episode 153

Reasons to Not Be Ugly

The “beauty premium” is real, for everyone from babies to NFL quarterbacks.

How About a Free Market for College Athletes?

…NCAA adopting a free-market approach to college sports, currently works and benefits from a free labor market. And if these people were told that their wages were capped by a…



Episode 35

Are More Expensive Hospitals Better?

For lots of things, price is an indicator of quality. But what about in health care? Bapu Jena gets some clues from Steve Levitt’s wine tasting experiment, and looks at…

Episode 66

Show and Yell

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”? This is a “mashupdate”…

An Interesting New Prediction Market

…about prediction markets and here is the famous Iowa Electronic Market, which will be a very busy place as the upcoming elections unfold. And who doesn’t love a good poker…



Episode 36

Hey Baby, Is That a Prius You’re Driving?

Conspicuous conservation is about showing off your environmental bona fides. In other words, if you lean green, there’s extra value in being seen leaning green.

Why the Market Meltdown is Crazy

…step will be increased lending to the consumer. C) Mark-to-market accounting was removed in March 2009. Guess what? That’s when the market went straight up; and it’s still 90% higher…





Episode 527

Can Adam Smith Fix Our Economy?

Labor exploitation! Corporate profiteering! Government corruption! The 21st century can look a lot like the 18th. In the final episode of a series, we turn to “the father of economics”…

Episode 180

Fitness Apartheid

Markets are hardly perfect, but the results can be ugly when you try to subvert them.

Episode 409

The Side Effects of Social Distancing

In just a few weeks, the novel coronavirus has undone a century’s worth of our economic and social habits. What consequences will this have on our future — and is…

Episode 269

Bad Medicine, Part 2: (Drug) Trials and Tribulations (Replay)

How do so many ineffective and even dangerous drugs make it to the market? One reason is that clinical trials are often run on “dream patients” who aren’t representative of…

Episode 402

The Opioid Tragedy, Part 1: “We’ve Addicted an Entire Generation”

How pharma greed, government subsidies, and a push to make pain the “fifth vital sign” kicked off a crisis that costs $80 billion a year and has killed hundreds of…

Episode 482

Is Venture Capital the Secret Sauce of the American Economy?

The U.S. is home to seven of the world’s 10 biggest companies. How did that happen? The answer may come down to two little letters: V.C. Is venture capital good…

Episode 154

What You Don’t Know About Online Dating (Replay)

Thick markets, thin markets, and the triumph of attributes over compatibility.

What Does $33.6 Million Mean in the Art World?

…the art market in the last three or four years is simply unsustainable. Pundits say it’s because “new world billionaires” like Abramovich have entered the market, but I don’t see…



Episode 154

What You Don’t Know About Online Dating

Thick markets, thin markets, and the triumph of attributes over compatibility.

Episode 522

Is Google Getting Worse?

It used to feel like magic. Now it can feel like a set of cheap tricks. Is the problem with Google — or with us?…