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Episode 111

Can a Moonshot Approach to Mental Health Work?

Obi Felten used to launch projects for X, Google’s innovation lab, but she’s now tackling mental health. She explains why Steve’s dream job was soul-destroying for her, and how peer…

Episode 489

Is “Toxic Positivity” a Thing?

In this special episode of No Stupid Questions, Stephen Dubner and Angela Duckworth discuss the consequences of seeing every glass as at least half-full….

Episode 94

What to Do When Everything Looks Like a Catastrophe?

What is the relationship between “catastrophizing” and anxiety? How did Angela react when her mother came close to drowning? And how can you gain perspective when the worst-case scenario is…

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…

Will Congestion Pricing Fly in New York?

…Paterson’s former district hasn’t been sympathetic to the mayor’s congestion pricing plan — many fear Harlem will become a commuter parking lot — but with his first rough week, Paterson…



Fare's Fair?

…are wealthier workers who commute to jobs in city centers where parking is expensive. The other group consists of the very poor. Unlike the “choice riders,” who could drive if…





Is a Down Economy Good for Grandparents?

…season, we’ve all been struck by how everywhere seems to be more crowded than usual. Parks, beaches, even stores are jammed. We could barely find a parking space at our…




Today Only: Buy Your Own Town

…Wireless cellular tower with lease, and parking area previously used by an overnight shipping company for night time trailer switches. The online auction starts at 2 p.m., E.S.T. The opening…



FREAK Shots: Nudging the Calorie Counters

…an Israeli park encourages people to walk the long distance from the parking lot to a cave. As Flickr user goldberg explains, a series of signs along the route tell…



Freakonomics Experiments Lottery Winners

…to have the car retrieved from valet parking. All of the sudden, we found ourselves smack in the middle of the annual Chicago naked bike ride. I don’t think I…





Happy Birthday, Dad

…some wag had taken the phrase “A man can plan,” and anagrammed it into “Panama Canal.” I look again at Dad, striding through the frigid parking lot, balaclava on his…



Dubai's Dark Side

…for it. His wife hasn’t abandoned her car; she’s living in it, in a hotel parking lot. It’s the dark side of Dubai, though at least one Dubai-based blogger thinks…



Satellite of Profit

A Chicago company called Remote Sensing Metrics LLC has been using satellite images to track the number of cars in Wal-Mart parking lots, as a means of helping forecast earnings…



Mixed Messages on Auto Use

…mile. It struck me though how much this flat reimbursement subsidizes our driving choices somewhat similarly to the free parking hypotheses. It’s interesting that while at the same time the…



How NYC Govt. Causes Its Own Traffic Jams

…an even higher percentage than construction workers. So why is that? According to the article, the government workers have a very simple and powerful incentive: “because they have free parking.”…



How Can We Stop Handicap Fraud?

…isn’t alone. This Washington Post article suggests that the practice is common place.? In some cities, parking with a placard not only gives you access to handicap spots, but also…



FREAK-Shots: Tequilanomics, and Fenway Gas

…of gas-station workers? Hardly. The occasion was nothing more dramatic than a Red Sox home game. The station’s real estate is apparently more valuable for parking than for selling gas:…




Bruce Schneier Blazes Through Your Questions

…looking for patterns of communication or keywords that might indicate a conversation between terrorists. Many airports collect the license plates of every car in their parking lots, and can use…



FREAK-est Links

Israel’s folding car can park in a motorcycle parking spot. (HT: Yehuda Simon) The economics of online dating: an economist explains the marketplace of online love. The perverse incentives of…



What's the Driving Force Behind Less Driving?

…lot (though probably not all) of the cross-national differences in vehicle miles traveled may indeed be attributable to government policies, including restrictions on parking, high gas taxes, stiffer registration fees,…



Meet the Profit-Maximizing DJ

…deter local youths from late-night loitering and noise-making. Essentially, a combination of Barry Manilow’s greatest hits and classical music were blasted from a local parking lot that was typically overrun…





The Prius Driver’s Conundrum

…that impels complementary reductions in-car use–say, the physical elimination of traffic lanes, or the conversion of existing roadways into bike or bus lanes, ideally with higher fuel taxes, parking fees,…