More and more Americans rely on prostheses. They’re custom-fitted, highly personal, and extremely expensive. Zachary Crockett investigates….
He’s a law professor with a Ph.D. in economics and a tendency for getting into fervid academic debates. Over 20 years ago, he and Steve began studying the impact of…
He graduated high school at 14, and by 23 had several graduate degrees and was a research assistant with Stephen Hawking. He became the first chief technology officer at Microsoft…
Kate Douglass is a world-class swimmer and data scientist who’s used mathematical modeling to help make her stroke more efficient. She and Steve talk about why the Olympics were underwhelming,…
…“Quick College Cost Estimator” calculator. “The conversation that takes place around college costs is largely misguided,” Phillip B. Levine, an economics professor at Wellesley, told David Leonhardt of the Times….
Some people argue that sugar should be regulated, like alcohol and tobacco, on the grounds that it’s addictive and toxic. How much sense does that make? We hear from a…
How do you know when it’s the right time to retire? What does a “good” retirement look like? And will Stephen and Angela ever really hang up their hats?…
The dean of Yale’s School of Management grew up in a small village in Guyana. During his unlikely journey, he has researched video-gaming habits, communicable disease, and why so many…
The?Brookings Panel on Economic Activity is pretty much my favorite conference each year.? (It better be!? I?took over running the Panel with?David Romer in early ’09.)? I’ve found that the…
What does social media do to our self-esteem? How is envy affecting our politics? And should you go to your high school reunion? Take the Seven Deadly Sins survey: freakonomics.com/nsq-sins/…
It’s hard to know whether the benefits of hiring a celebrity are worth the risk. We dig into one gruesome story of an endorsement gone wrong, and find a surprising…
Stephen Dubner’s conversation with the Virgin Group founder, recorded for the Freakonomics Radio series “The Secret Life of a C.E.O.”…
…producers in history, with a resume including Sweeney Todd, Angels in America, Urinetown, and The Producers. In 1994, Landesman was immortalized in a New Yorker profile by David Owen, which…
…is. In 2000, Lorna A. Greening of the International Resources Group, David L. Greene of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Carmen Difiglio of the International Energy Agency reviewed 22…
Can denial be a healthy way of dealing with the death of a loved one? What do the five stages of grief misrepresent about mourning? And why does Angie cover…
…of awarding a patent to the first person to invent, we will join other nations in awarding patents to the first person to file an invention. David Abrams and Polk…
…by patients who undergo the procedure at the hands of an inexperienced surgeon. This Washington State study, by David R. Flum and E. Patchen Dellinger, shows a strong correlation between…
Last night, I watched the first two parts of HBO’s new seven-part series John Adams, based on the wonderful book by David McCullough. It was very, very good — as…
Photo: David Hilowitz Our minivan is ten years old, so we went out to buy a new one this weekend. In Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics, we write a lot about how…
Even a brutal natural disaster doesn’t diminish our appetite for procreating. This surely means we’re heading toward massive overpopulation, right? Probably not.
…people: David Wessel, in his “Capital” column headlined “Speed and Restraint Are Crucial” (gated, but well worth a read), writes: “To be effective and prudent — and it’s an open…
Also: what is the best question you’ve ever been asked in a job interview?
…of shortly after the test was administered. Some teachers in D.C. are surely wishing there had been a similar lack of storage space in our nation’s capital. (HT: David Clayton)…
…on ESPN, which discussed Ben Roethlisberger‘s appearance on David Letterman‘s talk show last night. ESPN reported that Big Ben “made news” on the show by divulging that he initially thought…
Researcher David Riedman argues that every school shooting is the culmination of a long chain of failures. Could his database be the key to stopping them? To get Plus episodes,…
…10K’s) paired with David (one 5K and one 10K), versus Kevin (a few 10K’s and 5K’s, and two half-marathons) and Eric (four marathons and many 5K and 10K races). We…
…argument that the long-run structural level of unemployment has increased because of the economic crisis? – David (and several others who asked a variant) A. It’s an interesting story, but…
