Search the Site

Search Results for: Why Education and Pandora Should Look Similar

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 342

Has Lance Armstrong Finally Come Clean?

He was once the most lionized athlete on the planet, with seven straight Tour de France wins and a victory over cancer too. Then the doping charges caught up with…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 611

Fareed Zakaria on What Just Happened, and What Comes Next

After a dramatic election, Donald Trump has returned from exile. We hear what to expect at home and abroad — and what to do if you didn’t vote for Trump….

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 142

Is Pride the Worst Sin?

Is pride an emotion? Where’s the line between self-esteem and hubris? And what does Stephen have against peacocks? Take the Seven Deadly Sins survey: freakonomics.com/nsq-sins/…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 147

Is Your Gut a Second Brain?

In her book, Rumbles, medical historian Elsa Richardson explores the history of the human gut. She talks with Steve about dubious medical practices, gruesome tales of survival, and the things…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 31

How Much Do Your Friends Affect Your Future? (Replay)

Also: which professions have the happiest people?…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 178

How to Save $1 Billion Without Even Trying

Doctors, chefs and other experts are much more likely than the rest of us to buy store-brand products. What do they know that we don’t?

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 178

How to Save $1 Billion Without Even Trying (Replay)

Doctors, chefs, and other experts are much more likely than the rest of us to buy store-brand products. What do they know that we don’t?

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 137

Richard Dawkins on God, Genes, and Murderous Baby Cuckoos

The author of the classic The Selfish Gene is still changing the way we think about evolution….

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 292

Why Hate the Koch Brothers? (Part 1)

Charles Koch, the mega-billionaire C.E.O. of Koch Industries and half of the infamous political machine, sees himself as a classical liberal. So why do most Democrats hate him so much?…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 232

The True Story of the Gender Pay Gap

Discrimination can’t explain why women earn so much less than men. If only it were that easy.

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 283

Earth 2.0: What Would Our Economy Look Like?

If we could reboot the planet and create new systems and institutions from scratch, would they be any better than what we’ve blundered our way into through trial and error?…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 362

Why Is This Man Running for President?

In the American Dream sweepstakes, Andrew Yang was a pretty big winner. But for every winner, he came to realize, there are thousands upon thousands of losers — a “war…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 232

A New Nobel Laureate Explains the Gender Pay Gap (Replay)

Claudia Goldin is the newest winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics. We spoke with her in 2016 about why women earn so much less than men — and how…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 140

Is Envy Healthy?

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/…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 11

How Much Does the President Really Matter? (Replay)

…of the Oval Office matters, they won’t say much. We look at what the data have to say about measuring leadership, and its impact on the economy and the country….

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 11

How Much Does the President Really Matter?

…of the Oval Office matters, they won’t say much. We look at what the data have to say about measuring leadership, and its impact on the economy and the country….

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 26

Memory Champion Nelson Dellis Helps Steve Train His Brain

He’s one of the world’s leading competitors, having won four U.S. memory tournaments and holding the record for most names memorized in 15 minutes (235!). But Nelson Dellis claims he…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 111

Can a Moonshot Approach to Mental Health Work?

Obi Felten used to launch projects for X, Google’s innovation lab, but she’s now tackling mental health. She explains why Steve’s dream job was soul-destroying for her, and how peer…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 620

Why Don’t Running Backs Get Paid Anymore?

They used to be the N.F.L.’s biggest stars, with paychecks to match. Now their salaries are near the bottom, and their careers are shorter than ever. We speak with an…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 144

Feeling Sound and Hearing Color

David Eagleman is a Stanford neuroscientist, C.E.O., television host, and founder of the Possibilianism movement. He and Steve talk about how wrists can substitute for ears, why we dream, and

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 141

Is Greed Good?

Who’s greedier — gamblers or casinos? What’s the difference between betting on sports and entering a charity raffle? And does Angela know the name of her city’s football team? Take…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 442

Is it Too Late for General Motors to Go Electric?

G.M. produces more than 20 times as many cars as Tesla, but Tesla is worth nearly 10 times as much. Mary Barra, the C.E.O. of G.M., is trying to fix…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 264

In Praise of Incrementalism (Replay)

What do Renaissance painting, civil-rights movements, and Olympic cycling have in common? In each case, huge breakthroughs came from taking tiny steps. In a world where everyone is looking for…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 354

How to Be Creative

There are thousands of books on the subject, but what do we actually know about creativity? In this new series, we talk to the researchers who study it as well…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 97

Are Women Really Less Happy Than Men?

Why are women unhappier than men? What can we do to move the needle? And is it better to be happy or to be good?…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 197

Hacking the World Bank

Jim Yong Kim has an unorthodox background for a World Bank president — and his reign thus far is just as unorthodox.

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 619

How to Poison the A.I. Machine

When the computer scientist Ben Zhao learned that artists were having their work stolen by A.I. models, he invented a tool to thwart the machines. He also knows how to…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 13

How Can You Stop Comparing Yourself With Other People?

Also: how can we stop confusing correlation with causation?

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 50

What Happens When a Hospital Closes?

When a hospital closes in a rural area, it’s a big deal. But are all patients affected equally? We look at new research on the unexpected outcomes of traveling farther…

Episode image
Follow this show
Episode 60

Cassandra Quave Thinks the Way Antibiotics Are Developed Might Kill Us

By mid-century, 10 million people a year are projected to die from untreatable infections. Can Cassandra, an ethnobotanist at Emory University convince Steve that herbs and ancient healing are key…