How Can You Stop Comparing Yourself With Other People? (NSQ Ep. 13)
Also: how can we stop confusing correlation with causation?
The endless pursuit of G.D.P., argues the economist Kate Raworth, shortchanges too many people and also trashes the planet. Economic theory, she says, “needs to be rewritten” — and Raworth has tried, in a book called Doughnut Economics. It has found an audience among reformers, and now the city of Amsterdam is going whole doughnut.
Also: how can we stop confusing correlation with causation?
Steve Levitt has spent decades as an academic economist, “studying strange phenomena and human behavior in weird circumstances.” Now he’s turning his curiosity to something new: interviewing some of the most interesting, unorthodox people around — from actresses to athletes, authors to inventors. Levitt’s new podcast, "People I (Mostly) Admire" premieres August 21st.
From today's Times: Mayor Bloomberg has approved a major facet of Roland Fryer's program for making learning "cool" for inner-city kids.
Aisle upon aisle of fresh produce, cheap meat, and sugary cereal — a delicious embodiment of free-market capitalism, right? Not quite. The supermarket was in fact the endpoint of the U.S. government’s battle for agricultural abundance against the U.S.S.R. Our farm policies were built to dominate, not necessarily to nourish — and we are still living with the consequences.
Also: how effective is the placebo effect?
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 work.
Also: why do we habituate to life’s greatest pleasures?
Most Americans agree that racial discrimination has been, and remains, a big problem. But that is where the agreement ends.
Also: are the most memorable stories less likely to be true?
The racial wealth gap in the U.S. is massive. We explore the causes, consequences, and potential solutions. Also: another story of discrimination and economic disparity, this one perpetrated by an international sporting authority. The first of a two-part series.
Also: how do you avoid screwing up your kids?