Conventional programs tend to be expensive, onerous, and ineffective. Could something as simple (and cheap) as cognitive behavioral therapy do the trick? Also, can a Queen song, played backwards, improve your mind-reading skills? To find out more, check out the podcasts from which this hour was drawn: “‘It’s Fun to Smoke Marijuana’” and “Preventing Crime for Pennies […]
Season 7, Episode 6 This week on Freakonomics Radio: a tiny behavioral-sciences startup in the Obama White House tried to improve the way federal agencies did their work. Considering the size (and habits) of most federal agencies, it wasn’t so simple. Plus: a terrorism summit. Stephen Dubner reviews what we do and don’t know about terrorism; what’s […]
Our latest Freakonomics Radio episode is called “Preventing Crime for Pennies on the Dollar” (You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes or elsewhere, get the RSS feed, or listen via the media player above. You can also read the transcript, which includes credits for the music you’ll hear in the episode.)
Next week, the White House is hosting a Summit on Countering Violent Extremism (known to most laypeople as "terrorism"). It was originally scheduled for last year but got delayed – and then put back on the calendar after the Paris attacks in January. What should we expect from a summit like this? "Alas, I’m expecting very little of a positive nature," Col. (Ret.) Jack Jacobs tells us. "I view this principally as a media event. I hope I’m wrong."
Just in case the summit does turn out to be primarily a media event, we thought we’d take our podcast – which technically, is a media event – and turn it into a terrorism summit. This week's episode is called "Is There a Better Way to Fight Terrorism?" (You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes or elsewhere, get the RSS feed, or listen via the media player above. You can also read the transcript, which includes credits for the music you’ll hear in the episode.)
You know how there are people who get talked about a lot and then there are people who actually do a lot?
It strikes me that the same could be said of cities. And I'd put Chicago near the top of any list of cities that have done a lot. From an East Coast view, or West, it can appear that Chicago is the middle of nowhere. In this week's podcast, we make the argument that Chicago is, in fact, the middle of everywhere. (You can subscribe at iTunes, get the RSS feed, or listen via the media player above. You can also read the transcript below; it includes credits for the music you’ll hear in the episode.)
The episode features Thomas Dyja, the author of several books
