Hope and Poverty
(Photo: flippy whale) Is there a role for hope in poverty alleviation programs? According to a recent speech by economist Esther Duflo, there is. Duflo looked at a BRAC program…
What’s the difference between dispositional optimism and agentic hope? Are there benefits to taking a long shot, even if it turns out to be an air ball? And how is…
(Photo: flippy whale) Is there a role for hope in poverty alleviation programs? According to a recent speech by economist Esther Duflo, there is. Duflo looked at a BRAC program…
…“fond memories” of what the newspaper industry once was, and hope that it has a future, Kemp put together a list of the top 10 songs about newspapers and journalism….
…crisply folded. Just enough for an iced coffee. I was grateful to whoever dropped it and I hoped it didn’t represent their last three dollars. I was also grateful that…
The main event of the World Series of Poker gets underway today at the Rio in Las Vegas. Why do I want Phil Gordon to win? It’s not just because…
Congress has taken note of the shortage of donated organs, and has proposed an incentive to increase donation: a commemorative medal to honor organ donors. Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution…
Mercedes-Benz plant in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (Photo: Gary Tramontina/The New York Times) My University of Chicago colleagues Josh Rauh and Luigi Zingales have written an insightful essay on G.M.’s plight and…
One of the less cheery parts of studying transportation is that the activity you have devoted your life to is widely considered an unmitigated downer. Even aside from the external…
I am delighted to report that the economics paper on AC/DC I blogged about yesterday was meant as a joke. It takes a lot of work to run an experiment…
The ethologist and conservationist discusses the thrill of observing chimpanzees in the wild, the value of challenging orthodoxy, and why dying is her next great adventure.
Bill James I sure hope the Red Sox don’t start the season with a wicked slump. If so, people might blame this blog. When we solicited your questions for Bill…
…before Freud and Jung’s famous visit here, American psychiatry was in crisis. There had been hope for treatments like hydrotherapy and electric stimulation, along with asylum care, but cure rates…
…and I hope you’ll come back if we ever resume full feed. In the meantime, we hope you’ll visit the site, but as some of you have made brutally clear,…
He’s the award-winning author of hugely popular books like Guns, Germs, and Steel; Collapse; and Upheaval. But Jared actually started his varied career as an expert on gallbladders and birds….
…in prison. Today he’s a Yale Law graduate, a MacArthur Fellow, and a poet. His nonprofit works to build libraries in prisons so that more incarcerated people can find hope….
…protect it adequately, and hope that they won’t give it all to the government just because the government asks nicely. But you’re certainly right, data loss is the number one…
…of religious activity onto the internet. With faith-based apps, Silicon Valley is turning virtual prayers into earthly rewards. Does this mean sharing user data? Dear God, let’s hope not ……
…come back and answer some of your NFL questions. No, Stephen, I couldn’t help you with a Steelers victory on Sunday, but I hope you don’t hold that against me….
…— does have hope for this next season). Never-ending hope just doesn’t exist for those who follow the NBA.? Fans of the Pistons should have suspected the 2009-10 season was…
Congress just passed the biggest aid package in modern history. We ask six former White House economic advisors and one U.S. Senator: Will it actually work? What are its best…
Khan Academy founder Sal Khan returns to share his vision for a new way to learn — and the conversation inspires Steve to make a big announcement.
It used to be a global capital of innovation, invention, and exploration. Now it’s best known for its messy European divorce. We visit London to see if the British spirit…
The documentary filmmaker, known for The Civil War, Jazz, and Baseball, turns his attention to the Holocaust, and asks what we can learn from the evils of the past….
He’s a pioneer of using randomized control experiments in economics — studying the long-term benefits of a $1 health intervention in Africa. Steve asks Edward, a Berkeley professor, about Africa’s…
Stephen Dubner’s conversation with the former N.F.L. player, union official, and all-around sports thinker, recorded for our “Hidden Side of Sports” series….
In this special episode of People I (Mostly) Admire, Steve Levitt speaks with the palliative physician B.J. Miller about modern medicine’s goal of “protecting a pulse at all costs.” Is…
In this new addition to the Freakonomics Radio Network, co-hosts Stephen Dubner and Angela Duckworth discuss the relationship between age and happiness. Also, does all creativity come from pain? New…
For all the progress made in fighting cancer, it still kills 10 million people a year, and some types remain especially hard to detect and treat. Pancreatic cancer, for instance,…
Chronic fatigue syndrome looks remarkably similar to Long Covid, but has been ignored by the medical community. Could patients finally get some answers to their debilitating illness?…
Must one always strive for excellence? Is perfectionism a good thing? And can Mike have two bad days in a row?
