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Episode 40

The Suicide Paradox (Replay)

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…

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Episode 41

The Folly of Prediction (Replay)

Human beings love to predict the future, but we’re quite terrible at it. So how about punishing all those bad predictions?

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Episode 112

Reading Dostoevsky Behind Bars

Reginald Dwayne Betts spent more than eight years in prison. Today he’s a Yale Law graduate, a MacArthur Fellow, and a poet. His nonprofit works to build libraries in prisons…

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Episode 206

Ten Years of Freakonomics

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…

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Episode 529

Can Our Surroundings Make Us Smarter?

In a special episode of No Stupid Questions, Stephen Dubner and Angela Duckworth discuss classroom design, open offices, and cognitive drift….

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EXTRA

Remembering Susan Wojcicki

The former YouTube C.E.O. — and sixteenth Google employee — died on August 9, 2024. Steve talked with her in 2020 about her remarkable career, and how her background in…

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Episode 22

Sal Khan: “If It Works for 15 Cousins, It Could Work for a Billion People.”

…So what does Khan want to do next? How about reinventing in-school learning, too? Find out why Steve nearly moved to Silicon Valley to be part of Khan’s latest venture….

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EXTRA

Sue Bird: “You Have to Pay the Superstars.” (Replay)

…the league’s players. Sue Bird tells Steve Levitt the untold truth about clutch players, her thoughts about the pay gap between male and female athletes, and what it means to…

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Episode 172

How to Screen Job Applicants, Act Your Age, and Get Your Brain Off Autopilot

Dubner and Levitt answer reader questions in this first installment of the Think Like a Freak Book Club….

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Episode 83

What’s Wrong With Cash for Grades?

If we want our kids to thrive in school, maybe we should just pay them.

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Episode 49

Weather Forecasts

With industries relying on them and profits to be made, weather forecasts are more precise and more popular than ever. But there are clouds on the horizon. Zachary Crockett grabs…

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EXTRA

An Update on the Khan World School

Sal Khan returns to discuss his innovative online high school’s first year — and Steve grills a member of the school’s class of 2026 about what it’s really like….

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Episode 563

How to Succeed at Failing, Part 3: Grit vs. Quit

Giving up can be painful. That’s why we need to talk about it. Today: stories about glitchy apps, leaky paint cans, broken sculptures — and a quest for the perfect…

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Episode 310

Are We Running Out of Ideas?

Economists have a hard time explaining why productivity growth has been shrinking. One theory: true innovation has gotten much harder – and much more expensive. So what should we do…

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Episode 144

Who Runs the Internet? (Replay)

The online universe doesn’t have nearly as many rules, or rulemakers, as the real world. Discuss.

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Episode 308

How Can I Do the Most Social Good With $100? And Other FREAK-quently Asked Questions

Dubner and his Freakonomics co-author Steve Levitt answer your questions about crime, traffic, real-estate agents, the Ph.D. glut, and how to not get eaten by a bear.

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Episode 217

Are You Ready for a Glorious Sunset? (Replay)

The gist: we spend billions on end-of-life healthcare that doesn’t do much good. So what if a patient could forego the standard treatment and get a cash rebate instead?

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Episode 46

How Can You Stop Feeling So Irritable?

Also: what’s wrong with being impatient?…

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Episode 256

What Are You Waiting For?

Standing in line represents a particularly sloppy — and frustrating — way for supply and demand to meet. Why haven’t we found a better way to get what we want?…

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Episode 56

Snake Venom

Why does treating a venomous snake bite cost as much as a house? Zachary Crockett slithers over to North Carolina to find out….

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Episode 4

Ken Jennings: “Don’t Neglect the Thing That Makes You Weird”

…Time” title on Jeopardy! Steve Levitt digs into how he trained for the show, what it means to have a “geographic memory,” and why we lie to our children.  …

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Episode 190

Time to Take Back the Toilet (Replay)

Public bathrooms are noisy, poorly designed, and often nonexistent. What to do?

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Episode 9

Moncef Slaoui: “It’s Unfortunate That It Takes a Crisis for This to Happen”

…U.S. government’s Covid-19 vaccine program — Slaoui has overseen the development and distribution of a new vaccine at a pace once deemed impossible. Steve Levitt finds out how the latest…

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Episode 151

Are We Ready to Legalize Drugs? And Other FREAK-quently Asked Questions

Dubner and Levitt talk about fixing the post office, putting cameras in the classroom, and wearing hats.

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Episode 62

How Biased Is Your Media?

The left and the right blame each other for pretty much everything, including slanted media coverage. Can they both be right?

Why Levitt Is Wrong (About Book Tours, Not Oil)

…wondered aloud if the tour was worth the publisher’s money. Steve followed recently with this post, which detailed why, from his perspective, the tour was a waste of his time….



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Episode 68

“No One Can Resist a Jolly, Happy Pig.”

Naturalist Sy Montgomery explains how she learned to be social from a pig, discovered octopuses have souls, and came to love a killer that will never love her back.

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Episode 144

Who Runs the Internet?

The online universe doesn’t have nearly as many rules, or rulemakers, as the real world. Discuss.

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EXTRA

Remembering Daniel Kahneman

Nobel laureate, bestselling author, and groundbreaking psychologist Daniel Kahneman died in March. In 2021 he talked with Steve Levitt — his friend and former business partner — about his book…

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Episode 215

Why Do We Really Follow the News? (Replay)

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…