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Episode 578

Water, Water Everywhere — But You Have to Stop and Think

What surprises lurk in our sewage? How did racist city planners end up saving Black lives? Why does Arizona grow hay for cows in Saudi Arabia? Three strange stories about…

Episode 277

No Hollywood Ending for the Visual Effects Industry

In their chase for a global audience, American movie studios spend billions to make their films look amazing. But almost none of those dollars stay in America. What would it…

Episode 98

Is Having Children Worth It?

Why have fertility rates dropped so dramatically? Do fathers or mothers get more happiness from parenting? And how does birth order affect a child’s future?…

Episode 265

The White House Gets Into the Nudge Business

A tiny behavioral-sciences startup is trying to improve the way federal agencies do their work. Considering the size (and habits) of most federal agencies, this isn’t so simple. But after…

Episode 39

Houseplants

Interest in houseplants has exploded in recent years. But what causes floral trends, and prices, to grow? Zachary Crockett sows a few seeds….

Episode 339

The Future of Freakonomics Radio

After eight years and more than 300 episodes, it was time to either 1) quit, or 2) make the show bigger and better. We voted for number 2. Here’s a…

Episode 190

Time to Take Back the Toilet (Replay)

Public bathrooms are noisy, poorly designed, and often nonexistent. What to do?

Extreme Locavorism

…store. Marty Reinhardt, the lead researcher for the Decolonizing Diet Project, explains how the experiment is related to locavorism: Yeah, in fact we have folks who are part of the…



Episode 183

Tell Me Something I Don’t Know

The debut of a live game show from Freakonomics Radio, with judges Malcolm Gladwell, Ana Gasteyer, and David Paterson….

Acceptable Biases, and Unacceptable Ones

…is inherently about a clash of cultures, I was pretty shocked to read the following: Some parents at J.H.S. 22 … were suspicious, viewing Mr. Waronker as too much an…



Episode 553

The Suddenly Diplomatic Rahm Emanuel

The famously profane politician and operative is now U.S. ambassador to Japan, where he’s trying to rewrite the rules of diplomacy. But don’t worry: When it comes to China, he’s…

Water Around the World

March 22 was World Water Day, and two excellent photo essays draw attention to the issue. Foreign Policy shows images of water crises in places like China, Pakistan and Iraq,…





Episode 412

What Happens When Everyone Stays Home to Eat?

Covid-19 has shocked our food-supply system like nothing in modern history. We examine the winners, the losers, the unintended consequences — and just how much toilet paper one household really…


Episode 300

Why Don’t We All Speak the Same Language?

There are 7,000 languages spoken on Earth. What are the costs — and benefits — of our modern-day Tower of Babel? (Part 3 of the “Earth 2.0” series.)…

Episode 49

Mathematician Sarah Hart on Why Numbers are Music to Our Ears

Playing notes on her piano, she demonstrates for Steve why whole numbers sound pleasing, why octaves are mathematically imperfect, and how math underlies musical composition. Sarah, a professor at the…

Freakonomics Radio Live: “The World’s a Mess. But Oysters, They Hold it Down.”

Celebrity chef Alex Guarnaschelli joins us to co-host an evening of delicious fact-finding: where a trillion oysters went, whether a soda tax can work, and how beer helped build an…

Episode 51

Max Tegmark on Why Treating Humanity Like a Child Will Save Us All

How likely is it that this conversation is happening in more than one universe? Should we worry more about Covid or about nuclear war? Is economics a form of “intellectual…

I Hear England Is Lovely This Time of Year

…the U.K. Here’s the schedule: June 20: Birmingham Town Hall, 7:30 pm (tickets). June 21: Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, 7:30 pm (tickets). June 22: Brighton Corn Exchange, 8:00 pm (tickets). June…




Episode 42

The Upside of Quitting (Replay)

You know the saying: A winner never quits and a quitter never wins. To which Freakonomics Radio says … Are you sure?…

Episode 520

The Unintended Consequences of Working from Home

The last two years have radically changed the way we work — producing winners, losers, and a lot of surprises.

Episode 270

Bad Medicine, Part 3: Death by Diagnosis (Replay)

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…

Episode 39

The Economist’s Guide to Parenting

Think you know how much parents matter? Think again. Economists crunch the numbers to learn the ROI on child-rearing.


Quotes Uncovered: Death and Statistics

…Permissive Society” (lecture), March 22, 1972. I am sure that Megarry did not originate the England-Germany-France triad. Bev Smith asked: “One death is a tragedy. A million deaths are a…



Has American Pop Music Displaced Local Culture?

…we provide stylized facts about the global music consumption and trade since 1960, using a unique data on popular music charts from 22 countries, corresponding to over 98% of the…



Episode 183

Tell Me Something I Don’t Know (Replay)

The debut of a live game show from Freakonomics Radio, with judges Malcolm Gladwell, Ana Gasteyer and David Paterson….