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Episode 447

How Much Do We Really Care About Children?

They can’t vote or hire lobbyists. The policies we create to help them aren’t always so helpful. Consider the car seat: parents hate it, the safety data are unconvincing, and…

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EXTRA

What if Your Company Had No Rules?

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings came to believe that corporate rules can kill creativity and innovation. In this latest edition of the Freakonomics Radio Book Club, guest host Maria Konnikova talks…

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Episode 35

Are More Expensive Hospitals Better?

For lots of things, price is an indicator of quality. But what about in health care? Bapu Jena gets some clues from Steve Levitt’s wine tasting experiment, and looks at…

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Episode 15

The Most “Unique, Excellent, and Promising” Episode

Studies by men published in scientific journals are more likely to include glowing, hyperbolic terms. Bapu talks about this “groundbreaking” research (see what we did there?) in a wide-ranging discussion…

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Episode 209

Why Do We Settle?

Why does the U.S. use Fahrenheit when Celsius is better? Would you quit your job if a coin flip told you to? And how do you get an entire country…

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Episode 284

Is Income Inequality Inevitable?

In pursuit of a more perfect economy, we discuss the future of work, the toxic remnants of colonization, and whether giving everyone a basic income would be genius — or…

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Episode 190

Time to Take Back the Toilet

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

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Episode 75

Self-Help for Data Nerds

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz combs through mountains of information to find advice for everyday life….

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Episode 37

Can Fear Be Good Medicine?

Fear is a popular tool in public health campaigns. But is it an effective one? Bapu Jena discusses new research on whether we can — and should — scare people…

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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….

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Episode 20

Do Our Politics Need a Doctor?

Bill Frist was a transplant surgeon before serving in the Senate, where he drove controversial legislation on embryonic stem cells and end-of-life care. Did he change politics? Or did politics…

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Episode 120

Why Are Rich Countries So Unhappy?

How does comparing yourself to others affect your well-being? What do you do when there’s no one left to blame? And should we all just move to Finland?…

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Episode 361

Freakonomics Radio Live: “Jesus Could Have Been a Pigeon.”

Our co-host is Grit author Angela Duckworth, and we learn fascinating, Freakonomical facts from a parade of guests. For instance: what we all get wrong about Darwin; what an iPod…

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Episode 116

Abraham Verghese Thinks Medicine Can Do Better

Abraham Verghese is a physician and a best-selling author — in that order, he says. He explains the difference between curing and healing, and tells Steve why doctors should spend…

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Episode 298

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Money (But Were Afraid to Ask)

The bad news: Roughly 70 percent of Americans are financially illiterate. The good news: All the important stuff can fit on one index card. Here’s how to become your own…

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Episode 141

Is Greed Good?

…What’s the difference between betting on sports and entering a charity raffle? And does Angela know the name of her city’s football team? Take the Seven Deadly Sins survey: freakonomics.com/nsq-sins/…

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Episode 16

An Exit Interview with N.I.H. Director Dr. Francis Collins

The National Institutes of Health is the backbone of health research in the U.S., and Collins has been in charge for more than a decade. Now that he’s stepping down,…

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Episode 218

The Harvard President Will See You Now (Replay)

How a pain-in-the-neck girl from rural Virginia came to run the most powerful university in the world.

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Episode 171

There’s No Such Thing as a Free Appetizer

Is it really in a restaurant’s best interest to give customers free bread or chips before they even order?

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Episode 471

Mayor Pete and Elaine Chao Hit the Road

…his immediate predecessor — to see if a massive federal infrastructure package can put America back in the driver’s seat. (This is part of the Freakonomics Radio American Culture series)….

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Episode 69

Home Sweet … Hospital?

We take it for granted that, when people are acutely ill, they should be in the hospital. Is there a better way?…

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Episode 488

Does Death Have to Be a Death Sentence?

In this special episode of People I (Mostly) Admire, Steve Levitt speaks with the palliative physician B.J. Miller about modern medicine’s goal of “protecting a pulse at all costs.” Is…

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Episode 62

Dr. Ashish Jha Anticipated a Pandemic. He Didn’t Think It Would Look Like This.

Bapu talks to White House Covid Czar Dr. Ashish Jha about becoming a household name, studying pandemics, and the frustrations of politics. Also, when will he be out of a…

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EXTRA

UPDATE: John Green’s Reluctant Rocket Ship Ride

Author and YouTuber John Green thought his breakout bestseller wouldn’t be a commercial success, wrote 40,000 words for one sentence, and brought Steve to tears….

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Episode 18

Freakonomics FAQ, No. 1

Levitt and Dubner field questions from the public and hold forth on everything from dating strategies and rock-and-roll accordion music to whether different nations have different economic identities. Oh, and…

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Episode 70

Why Are There Still So Few Female Surgeons?

Success and failure are hard to measure in medicine. Bapu looks at how surgeons are judged after a bad outcome — and whether men and women are treated the same….

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…to us by logging into your Account and changing that information. Address: Renbud Radio, LLC d/b/a “Freakonomics Radio Network” c/o Stitcher 5 Bryant Park New York, NY 10018 Email: info@freakonomics.com…



A Freakonomics Roundtable

…commentaries above on Freakonomics, that I gained a great deal of self-awareness from reading them. It was a surprising reaction for me. There have been many published reviews of Freakonomics,…



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Episode 25

Would You Rather See a Computer or a Doctor?

Well, which is better at predicting your risk of having a heart attack? Bapu Jena explores the promise — and perils — of artificial intelligence in medicine….

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Episode 36

Bad News — It’s Your Surgeon’s Birthday

Distractions are everywhere — including in the operating room. So, what happens if a surgeon loses focus? A tap dancer, a health researcher, and a surgeon help Bapu Jena find…