Is There a Market for "Conscious Capitalists"?
…a commitment to markets, on the one hand, and doing good, on the other. We found that our friends who were market advocates tended to ridicule our commitment to doing…
How did an affable 18th-century “moral philosopher” become the patron saint of cutthroat capitalism? Does “the invisible hand” mean what everyone thinks it does? We travel to Smith’s hometown in…
Humans, it has long been thought, are the only animal to engage in economic activity. But what if we’ve had it exactly backward?
He argues that personal finance is so simple all you need to know can fit on an index card. How will he deal with Steve’s suggestion that Harold’s nine rules…
It’s not oil or water or plutonium — it’s human hours. We’ve got an idea for putting them to use, and for building a more human-centered economy. But we need…
American politics is trapped in a duopoly, with two all-powerful parties colluding to stifle competition. We revisit a 2018 episode to explain how the political industry works, and talk to…
…a commitment to markets, on the one hand, and doing good, on the other. We found that our friends who were market advocates tended to ridicule our commitment to doing…
Trump says it would destroy us. Biden needs the voters who support it (especially the Bernie voters). The majority of millennials would like it to replace capitalism. But what is…
G.M. produces more than 20 times as many cars as Tesla, but Tesla is worth nearly 10 times as much. Mary Barra, the C.E.O. of G.M., is trying to fix…
John Green returns to the show to talk about tuberculosis — a disease that kills more than a million people a year. Steve has an idea for a new way…
America’s top colleges are facing record demand. So why don’t they increase supply? (Part 2 of our series from 2022, “Freakonomics Radio Goes Back to School.”)…
America’s top colleges are facing record demand. So why don’t they increase supply? (Part 2 of “Freakonomics Radio Goes Back to School.”)…
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…
In three stories from our newest podcast, host Zachary Crockett digs into sports mascots, cashmere sweaters, and dinosaur skeletons….
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.
In which we argue that failure should not only be tolerated but celebrated.
In which we argue that failure should not only be tolerated but celebrated.
…all about the age you examine. While we each graduated by age 22, and Brooks probably did too, this isn’t the norm.? In fact, fewer than half of those who…
Bring on the Pain! It’s not about how much something hurts — it’s how you remember the pain. This week, lessons on pain from the New York City subway, the…
…May — 38 June — 25 July — 29 August — 31 September — 26 October — 35 November — 22 December –27 32.4 percent of the players were born…
…In case it is difficult for you to read, the convenience store seems to have renamed itself “We Have 22 Years Left On Our Lease.” When I asked the driver,…
…market in a number of cities for years. Finally, a story of a very niche hitchhiking market comes from reader Chris Gorman, whose email is posted below, along with a…
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.
He was handed the keys to the global economy just as it started heading off a cliff. Fortunately, he’d seen this movie before.
The mathematician and author sees mathematical patterns everywhere — from DNA to fireflies to social connections….
…not fair. However, I’m not sure it’s so black and white. Here are the benefits of making insider trading legal: The more information in a market, any market, the more…
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…
…not the other way around? The answer turns on the particularities of the drug market and the regulatory system drug makers operate in. Generic drugs are those that are copies…
The “beauty premium” is real, for everyone from babies to NFL quarterbacks.
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…
