Awards Are Meaningless Except When They're Not
…our readers, who are as engaged and engaging as any online readers I’ve come across. Here’s the complete list of Time.com’s top blogs and, at the end, its list of…
Also: are the most memorable stories less likely to be true? Stephen Dubner chats with Angela Duckworth in this classic episode from July 2020….
What is the evolutionary purpose of laughter? What’s the difference between Swedish depression and American depression? And why aren’t aliens interested in abducting Mike?…
Why do we use “literally” figuratively? Does conveying an “emotional truth” justify making things up? And are Angela’s kids really starving or just hungry?…
…our readers, who are as engaged and engaging as any online readers I’ve come across. Here’s the complete list of Time.com’s top blogs and, at the end, its list of…
Are those travelers on their laptops just showing off? Why does V8 taste better at 35,000 feet? And why won’t Angela chat with her seatmate?…
When are negative emotions enjoyable? Are we all a little masochistic? And do pigs like hot sauce?
The war on cigarettes has been fairly successful in some places. But 1 billion humans still smoke — so what comes next?
Can long-term relationships do more harm than good? Where is the line between intimacy and codependence? And should we all try to be more like Mike’s parents?…
David Keith has spent his career studying ways to reflect sunlight away from the earth. It could reduce the risks of climate change — but it won’t save us.
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…
…customers with attractive poor customers. Though these are by no means a new phenomena, a website has recently come to our attention that uses a dating website platform to ask…
Is there any scientific basis for the law of attraction? Are people who believe in “cosmic collaboration” more successful? And what happens when you write yourself a check for $10…
…very topic that several of you raised: his plans to start a new football league to compete with the NFL. Here are a couple of relevant passages: “It’s a pretty…
…the rollout of the New PointsPlus system. The tagline “Because it works” is not well supported by the data.? (You can see the phrase in the background in?this television commercial,…
The road to success is paved with failure, so you might as well learn to do it right. (Ep. 5 of the “How to Be Creative” series.)…
…mentor Chuck Schumer, who won election to the U.S. Senate. Weiner now sits on the Judiciary Committee and the wide-reaching Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees telecommunications, public health, energy…
…over 5,000 private airports in the U.S., compared to 500 commercial airports. New pricing models and very light jets are lowering the barrier to entry. We’re doing our bit with…
Also: How do you recover from a bad day?…
In yesterday’s New York Times, Mike McIntyre writes about the reasons crime has fallen in New York City. Most of the article is about how Mayor Bloomberg claims credit for…
…maintained a passion for introducing new ideas to staid debates. Levitt finds out what makes Romer a serial “quitter,” why you can’t manufacture big ideas, and what happened when Romer…
It isn’t easy to separate the guilty from the innocent, but a clever bit of game theory can help.
Time is precious. How can doctors and patients make the best use of it — especially when there isn’t much left?…
It may seem like winning a valuable diamond is an unalloyed victory. It’s not. It’s not even clear that a diamond is so valuable.
The dean of Yale’s School of Management grew up in a small village in Guyana. During his unlikely journey, he has researched video-gaming habits, communicable disease, and why so many…
He’s been an engineer, a surgeon, a management consultant, and even a boxer. Now he’s a physician focused on the science of longevity. Peter Attia talks with Steve Levitt about…
Photo: iStockphoto A couple weeks ago we solicited your questions about More Than Good Intentions: How a New Economics Is Helping to Solve Global Poverty, the new book by Freakonomics…
What risks are worth taking? When should you ignore feedback and go with your gut? And what did Stephen learn on a fishing trip with the town barber?…
…some interesting new research on real-estate sales (more on this later today). I know what you’re thinking: more Realtor bashing! Well, no. Even though we’ve written various things about the…
The gist: the Nobel selection process is famously secretive (and conducted in Swedish!) but we pry the lid off, at least a little bit.
…be as important.? When it comes to commitments, there’s safety in numbers. Indeed, on the same New Year’s morning when Justin was committing to go to church, Andy Mayer, an…
