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Episode 420

Which Jobs Will Come Back, and When?

Covid-19 is the biggest job killer in a century. As the lockdown eases, what does re-employment look like? Who will be first and who last? Which sectors will surge and…

$500 not to have an abortion?

A Texas State Senator has been ridiculed for his proposal to pay women $500 if they show up at an abortion clinic, elect not to have an abortion, and then…




Episode 114

How to Think About Guns

No one wants mass shootings. Unfortunately, no one has a workable plan to stop them either.


Episode 100

Chicago’s Renegade Sheriff Wants to Fix Law Enforcement

Tom Dart is transforming Cook County’s jail, reforming evictions, and, with Steve Levitt, trying a new approach to electronic monitoring….

The Great California Prison Experiment

…that this is a hard question. You can’t just look across states and compare incarceration rates and crime rates, because the places with the worst crime problem will also tend…



Episode 238

The United States of Cory Booker

The junior U.S. Senator from New Jersey thinks bipartisanship is right around the corner. Is he just an idealistic newbie or does he see a way forward that everyone else…

Episode 40

Harold Pollack on Why Managing Your Money Is as Easy as Taking Out the Garbage

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…

Zell Miller is wrong, but he isn’t crazy

…is similar to that of my work with John Donohue on legalized abortion and crime. As discussed in Freakonomics, unwanted children are at increased risk for crime, and legalized abortion



Zell Miller is wrong, but he isn’t crazy

…is similar to that of my work with John Donohue on legalized abortion and crime. As discussed in Freakonomics, unwanted children are at increased risk for crime, and legalized abortion



Get Paid $1,500 to Have a Vasectomy?

…to the results of Levitt’s “abortion crime-rate” study, without the need to get into the abortion argument. The unwanted children are never conceived. Third, those people who would be attracted…



Episode 499

Don’t Worry, Be Tacky

The British art superstar Flora Yukhnovich, the Freakonomist Steve Levitt, and the upstart American Basketball Association were all unafraid to follow their joy — despite sneers from the Establishment. Should…


PLUS

The Crime Nerd Behind UChicago’s Crime Lab

The economist Jens Ludwig on the culture of police departments, the politics of gun control, and why there’s no social progress without truth.

This episode is part of the Freakonomics Radio Plus membership program. Members get weekly bonus episodes of Freakonomics Radio and every Freakonomics Radio Network show without ads.

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Campus Crime Junk Stats?

The Education Life supplement in yesterday’s Times included an intriguing article simply called “Data” and subtitled “Law and Order.” It listed crime statistics for roughly 120 urban college campuses across…



Where Is All the Hard-Time Crime?

Despite the recession, the Associated Press reports, U.S. crime rates continue to fall in 2009 compared to last year. Sociologists and crime experts are citing the economic stimulus, people staying…



Global Warming Vs. Street Crime

…conscience: Earlier this year, Joplin, Mo., reported a 47% drop in crime since 2007, when it started adding or replacing more than 1,000 lights throughout the city to reduce crime….





Episode 545

Enough with the Slippery Slopes!

Gun control, abortion rights, drug legalization — it seems like every argument these days claims that if X happens, then Y will follow, and we’ll all be doomed to Z….

Does a "Baby Bonus" Mean More Crime?

…your “Abortion Reduces Crime” study, I wondered whether the BB would demonstrate the inverse scenario. As you will note in this article from my local newspaper, it appears there is…



Episode 116

Women Are Not Men

In many ways, the gender gap is closing. In others, not so much. And that’s not always a bad thing.

Episode 295

When Helping Hurts

Good intentions are nice, but with so many resources poured into social programs, wouldn’t it be even nicer to know what actually works?

Does Military Service Lead to Crime?

…find offsetting impacts on nonviolent crime and hypothesize that “military service may not change an individual’s propensity to commit crime but instead may cause them to commit more-severe crimes involving…




Recession? Check. So Where's the Crime?

Now that New York City has been divested of its Wall Street riches and boomtime economy, it can go back to being a crime-infested war zone, right? Wrong. Violent crime



Crime in The Wilson Quarterly

In the latest issue of The Wilson Quarterly, there’s a “Crime and Punishment” section featuring Philip J. Cook and Jens Ludwig‘s “Economist’s Guide to Crime-Busting” (gated), which considers the most…



Crime as Elevation

What if crime were depicted as elevation? In San Francisco, prostitution would look like two enormous peaks on one side of the city. Doug McCune is the creator of the…



Does the Highway Patrol Keep Us Safe?

…on crime rates, due to what’s called the “simultaneity” of causation. We might suppose police deter crime. But ironically, we often see lots of police in high-crime areas, not because…