The Price of Air Travel
…fare aggregators like Orbitz and Kayak. Network reliability, on the other hand, is largely a shrouded attribute, insalient to consumers who cannot readily compare the reliability of competing itineraries ex…
Also: why do we pad our speech with so much filler language?…
Can a little dishonesty be a good thing? How many fibs does Angela tell every day? And why does Stephen have a forehead?…
Researchers are trying to figure out who gets bored — and why — and what it means for ourselves and the economy. But maybe there’s an upside to boredom?
…fare aggregators like Orbitz and Kayak. Network reliability, on the other hand, is largely a shrouded attribute, insalient to consumers who cannot readily compare the reliability of competing itineraries ex…
…feel compelled to check this out further until someone comes up with contrary evidence that’s more reliable than Wikipedia. But if you do, I’ll be happy to research further, or…
…the number meaningful by comparing it to another large, famous spill: the Exxon Valdez. Its size is imprinted in my memory as 11 million gallons, which is about 250,000 barrels….
The restaurant business model is warped: kitchen wages are too low to hire cooks, while diners are put in charge of paying the waitstaff. So what happens if you eliminate…
What’s the difference between narcissism and high self-esteem? Does social media fuel arrogance or self-consciousness? And do people get less toxic with age?
In a special episode of People I (Mostly) Admire, Steve Levitt talks to Cat Bohannon about her new book Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human…
…learned to be skeptical of common sense, especially when it is invoked as the solution to complex social problems. Sociology, of course, has its own conflicted history with common sense….
Why do we mirror other people’s accents? Does DJ Khaled get tired of winning? And also: life is good — so why aren’t you happy?…
From politics and economics to psychology and the arts, many of the modern ideas we take for granted emerged a century ago from a single European capital. In this episode…
From politics and economics to psychology and the arts, many of the modern ideas we take for granted emerged a century ago from a single European capital. In this episode…
…the Road to Victory in Professional Sports. A lot of sports fans are just like George Costanza, watching their favorite teams make the same mistakes over and over again, while…
…has been (and is) a co-owner of two minor-league baseball teams; has managed a very successful mutual fund; has been a professional gambler; has been an assistant professor of dramatic…
(Courtesy of Skeptic.com) Michael Shermer is perhaps the world’s only professional skeptic. As the founding publisher of Skeptic magazine and executive director of the Skeptics Society, Shermer has turned his…
Tania Tetlow, a former federal prosecutor and now the president of Fordham University, thinks the modern campus could use a dose of old-fashioned values….
When COVID hit, telemedicine use in the U.S. exploded. But how are we using it now? Bapu Jena explores the consequences of this evolving technology….
It’s hard enough to save for a house, tuition, or retirement. So why are we willing to pay big fees for subpar investment returns? Enter the low-cost index fund. The…
Artist Wendy MacNaughton knows the difficulty of sitting in silence and the power of having fun. She explains to Steve the lessons she’s gleaned from drawing hospice residents, working in…
…and they receive nothing. Should that change? Also: why doesn’t contemporary art impact society the way music and film do? (Part 2 of “The Hidden Side of the Art Market.”)…
In a special episode of The Economics of Everyday Things, host Zachary Crockett explains what millennials do to show they care, how corrugated cardboard keeps your food warm, and why…
Also: How do you recover from a bad day?…
…everything else around them: “These bridges are so overbuilt, traffic’s like an ant on an elephant,” [said Jerry Del Tufo, who managed the bridges for the Port Authority]. In the…
…professional coach than with a random person grabbed from the stands (or no one at all). But it doesn’t appear that the choice of professional coach matters much. Such an…
By some estimates, medical error is the third-leading cause of death in the U.S. How can that be? And what’s to be done? Our third and final episode in this…
Are we using technology to make ourselves numb? What’s the downside of air conditioning? And was Angela the most annoying person in her college classes?…
What’s the difference between being popular and being cool? How has social media changed the trend cycle? And what do Taylor Swift and Walmart have in common?…
What’s more stressful, divorce or jail? Are you in the middle of a “lifequake”? And should we all be taking notes from Martha Stewart?
Will Angela finally break up with Philadelphia? Is New York really the unhappiest city in the U.S.? And are there trash tornadoes in the metaverse?…
