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Children

 
Date
Length

Do Baby Girls Cause Divorce?

Even American parents have a strong “son preference” — which means that a newborn daughter can be bad news for a marriage.

8/1/13
23:14

Think Like a Child

When it comes to generating ideas and asking questions it can be really fruitful to have the mentality of an eight year old.

5/22/14
29:41

Why Do People Keep Having Children? (Replay)

Even a brutal natural disaster doesn’t diminish our appetite for procreating. This surely means we’re heading toward massive overpopulation, right? Probably not.

11/26/15
40:00

Think Like a Child

Season 5, Episode 14

On this week’s episode of Freakonomics Radio: Why would anyone want to think like a child? Aren’t kids just sloppy, inchoate versions of us? Hardly. As Stephen Dubner and Steve Levitt describe in their book Think Like a Freak, it can be very fruitful like a child.

And then: How can we get kids to eat healthier food? Educational messaging sounds like a good idea, but kids don’t respond to it. So why not bribe them?

1/22/16

Why Do People Keep Having Children? (Replay)

Season 6, Episode 6 First up: what are the factors that make a given person more or less likely to have children? And is the global population really going to double by the next century? Probably not. And then: “That’s a great question!” You hear this phrase in all kinds of media interviews, during the Q&A portion of tech and . . .

10/14/16

Think Like A Child (Replay)

Season 6, Episode 7 On this week’s episode of Freakonomics Radio: Why would anyone want to think like a child? Aren’t kids just sloppy, inchoate versions of us? Hardly. As Stephen Dubner and Steve Levitt describe in their book Think Like a Freak, it can be very fruitful to think like a child. And then, how can we get kids to eat healthier . . .

10/21/16

Why Is My Life So Hard?

Season 6, Episode 40 This week on Freakonomics Radio: most of us feel we face more obstacles than everyone else — which breeds resentment. We also undervalue the tailwinds that help us — which leaves us ungrateful and unhappy. Stephen J. Dubner asks, “How can we avoid this trap?” To find out more, check out the podcasts from which this hour . . .

6/8/17

When Helping Hurts

Season 6, Episode 47 This week on Freakonomics Radio: Stephen J. Dubner investigates one of the most fascinating and troubling research findings in the history of social science. To find out more, check out the podcast from which this hour was drawn: “When Helping Hurts.” You can subscribe to the Freakonomics Radio podcast at Apple Podcasts or elsewhere, or get . . .

7/27/17

Season 8, Episode 31

Good intentions are nice, but with so many resources poured into social programs, wouldn’t it be even nicer to know what actually works? To find out more, check out the podcast from which this hour was drawn: “When Helping Hurts.”

4/4/19

Season 8, Episode 41

Humans have been having kids forever, so why are modern parents so bewildered? The economist Emily Oster marshals the evidence on the most contentious topics — breastfeeding and sleep training, vaccines and screen time — and tells her fellow parents to calm the heck down. To find out more, check out the podcast from which this hour was drawn: “The . . .

6/13/19

Season 9, Episode 19

Humans have been having kids forever, so why are modern parents so bewildered? The economist Emily Oster marshals the evidence on the most contentious topics — breastfeeding and sleep training, vaccines and screen time — and tells her fellow parents to calm the heck down. To find out more, check out the podcast from which this hour was drawn: “The . . .

1/9/20

Season 10, Episode 47

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 new evidence suggests an unintended consequence that is as anti-child as it gets. To find out more, check out the podcasts from which this hour was drawn: “How Much Do . . .

7/22/21

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