Think you know how much parents matter? Think again. Economists crunch the numbers to learn the ROI on child-rearing.
There are more than twice as many suicides as murders in the U.S., but suicide attracts far less scrutiny. Freakonomics Radio digs through the numbers and finds all kinds of surprises
Human beings love to predict the future, but we’re quite terrible at it. So how about punishing all those bad predictions?
You know the saying: a winner never quits and a quitter never wins. To which Freakonomics Radio says … Are you sure?
The world is a more peaceful place today that at any time in history — by a long, long shot.
Did we needlessly scare ourselves into ditching a good thing? And, with millions of cars driving around with no passengers, should we be rooting for a renaissance?
High-stakes testing has produced some rotten apples. But they can be caught.
We are constantly wowed by new technologies and policies meant to make childbirth better. But beware the unintended consequences.
An election cycle brings about more than voting around the world. There are many odd by-products, often inspired by how the incentives line up for those in power.
Is booing an act of verbal vandalism—or the last true expression of democracy?
Our appetite for breast meat renders our holiday birds unable to reproduce.
There’s a nasty secret about hot-button topics like global warming: knowledge is not always power.
Tyler Cowen points fingers. There’s plenty of blame to go around.
The thrill of customization, via Pandora and a radical new teaching method.
We know it’s terribly dangerous to drive drunk. But heading home on foot isn’t the solution.
Levitt and Dubner answer your FREAK-quently Asked Questions about certifying politicians, irrational fears, and the toughest three words in the English language.
We all know the answer is yes. But the data — and Rudy Giuliani — say no.
Education is the surest solution to a lot of problems. Except when it’s not.
A football cheat sheet to help you sound like the smartest person at the party.
A commitment device forces you to be the person you really want to be. What could possibly go wrong?
Do more expensive wines taste better? And: what does one little rodent in a salad say about a restaurant’s future? This is a “mashupdate” of “Do More Expensive Wines Taste Better?” and “A Mouse in the Salad.”
Isn’t it time to admit that the U.S. economy doesn’t have a commander in chief?
Is booing an act of verbal vandalism or the last true expression of democracy? And: when you drive a Prius, are you guilty of “conspicuous conservation”? This is a “mashupdate” of “Hey, Baby, Is That a Prius You’re Driving?” and “Boo … Who?”
Women hold fewer than one in 10 patents. Why? And what are we missing out on?
How much does the President of the United States really matter? And: where did all the hitchhikers go? A pair of “attribution errors.” This is a “mashupdate” of “How Much Does the President Really Matter?” and “Where Have All the Hitchhikers Gone?”
If any other product failed 94 percent of the time, you’d probably stop using it. So why do we put up with burglar alarms?
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