Public bathrooms are noisy, poorly designed, and often nonexistent. What to do?
Imagine that both substances were undiscovered until today. How would we think about their relative risks?
Most people blame lack of time for being out of shape. So maybe the solution is to exercise more efficiently.
Influenza kills, but you’d never know it by how few of us get the vaccine.
Verbal tic or strategic rejoinder? Whatever the case: it’s rare to come across an interview these days where at least one question isn’t a “great” one.
As Kevin Kelly tells it, the hippie revolution and the computer revolution are nearly one and the same.
It’s a centerpiece of U.S. climate policy and a sacred cow among environmentalists. Does it work?
The White House is hosting an anti-terror summit next week. Summits being what they are, we try to offer some useful advice.
Jim Yong Kim has an unorthodox background for a World Bank president — and his reign thus far is just as unorthodox.
Advertisers have always been adept at manipulating our emotions. Now they’re using behavioral economics to get even better.
Every year, Edge.org asks its salon of big thinkers to answer one big question. This year’s question borders on heresy: what scientific idea is ready for retirement?
Sure, we all want to make good personal decisions, but it doesn’t always work out. That’s where “temptation bundling” comes in.
Thick markets, thin markets, and the triumph of attributes over compatibility.
If you are driving and kill a pedestrian, there’s a good chance you’ll barely be punished. Why?
A lot of the conventional wisdom in medicine is nothing more than hunch or wishful thinking. A new breed of data detectives is hoping to change that.
The practice of medicine has been subsumed by the business of medicine. This is great news for healthcare shareholders — and bad news for pretty much everyone else.
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.
America’s favorite statistical guru answers our FREAK-quently Asked Questions, and more.
When it comes to generating ideas and asking questions it can be really fruitful to have the mentality of an 8 year old.
Zappos C.E.O. Tony Hsieh has a wild vision and the dollars to try to make it real. But it still might be the biggest gamble in town.
Dubner and Levitt are live onstage at the 92nd Street Y in New York to celebrate their new book “When to Rob a Bank” — and a decade of working together.
In which we argue that failure should not only be tolerated but celebrated.
The debut of a live game show from Freakonomics Radio, with judges Malcolm Gladwell, Ana Gasteyer, and David Paterson.
Sure, markets generally work well. But for some transactions — like school admissions and organ transplants — money alone can’t solve the problem. That’s when you need a market-design wizard like Al Roth.
We seem to have decided that ethnic food tastes better when it’s served by people of that ethnicity (or at least something close). Does this make sense — and is it legal?
Takeru Kobayashi revolutionized the sport of competitive eating. What can the rest of us learn from his breakthrough?
Could a lack of sleep help explain why some people get much sicker than others?
The comedian, actor — and now, author — answers our FREAK-quently Asked Questions.
In this episode, we try to answer a few questions: Why is soccer the best sport? How has Harlan Coben sold 70 million books? And why does “Apollo 13” keeps you enthralled even when you know the ending?
There are all kinds of civics-class answers to that question. But how true are they? Could it be that we like to read about war, politics, and miscellaneous heartbreak simply because it’s (gasp) entertaining?
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