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Episode 440

Does Advertising Actually Work? (Part 1: TV)

Companies around the world spend more than half-a-trillion dollars each year on ads. The ad industry swears by its efficacy — but a massive new study tells a different story….

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Episode 25

Sam Harris: “Spirituality Is a Loaded Term.”

…Making Sense podcast and helps people discover meditation through his Waking Up app. Sam explains to Steve how to become spiritual as a skeptic and commit to never lying again….

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Episode 169

Failure Is Your Friend

In which we argue that failure should not only be tolerated but celebrated.

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Episode 135

How to Grow a White Rhino

Thomas Hildebrandt is trying to bring the northern white rhinoceros back from the brink of extinction. The wildlife veterinarian tells Steve about the far-out techniques he employs, why we might…

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Episode 446

“We Get All Our Great Stuff from Europe — Including Witch Hunting.”

We’ve collected some of our favorite moments from People I (Mostly) Admire, the latest show from the Freakonomics Radio Network. Host Steve Levitt seeks advice from scientists and inventors, memory…

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Episode 43

What Do We Really Learn From Failure?

Also: What is teasing supposed to accomplish?

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Episode 112

Is It Okay to Hate Highbrow Culture?

Are Europeans more sophisticated than Americans? What’s wrong with preferring Taylor Swift to Puccini? And is Steve Levitt “Team Edward” or “Team Jacob”?

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Episode 288

Are the Rich Really Less Generous Than the Poor?

A series of academic studies suggest that the wealthy are, to put it bluntly, selfish jerks. It’s an easy narrative to swallow — but is it true? A trio of…

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Episode 341

Why We Choke Under Pressure (and How Not To)

It happens to just about everyone, whether you’re going for Olympic gold or giving a wedding toast. We hear from psychologists, economists, and the golfer who some say committed the…

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Episode 340

People Aren’t Dumb. The World Is Hard.

You wouldn’t think you could win a Nobel Prize for showing that humans tend to make irrational decisions. But that’s what Richard Thaler has done. The founder of behavioral economics…


The Office-onomics?

…ask the resident expert on all things economic, my brother Steven Levitt. I recited the accountant’s dialog to Steve (also a fan of The Office, as it turns out) and…



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Episode 77

Can Games Prepare Us for Catastrophes? (Part 2)

Many of us hate to think about future crises. Game designer Jane McGonigal wants to make it fun….

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Episode 70

Eating and Tweeting

Does the future of food lie in its past — or inside a tank of liquid nitrogen? Also: how anti-social can you be on a social network? This is a…

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EXTRA

People Aren’t Dumb. The World Is Hard. (Update)

You wouldn’t think you could win a Nobel Prize for showing that humans tend to make irrational decisions. But that’s what Richard Thaler has done. In an interview from 2018,…

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Episode 68

The Power of the President — and the Thumb

How much does the President of the United States really matter? And: where did all the hitchhikers go? A pair of “attribution errors.” This is a “mashupdate” of “How Much…

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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…

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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 136

The World’s Most Controversial Ornithologist

Richard Prum says there’s a lot that traditional evolutionary biology can’t explain. He thinks a neglected hypothesis from Charles Darwin — and insights from contemporary queer theory — hold the…

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Episode 143

Why Are Boys and Men in Trouble?

…health. Richard Reeves, author of the book Of Boys and Men, has some solutions that don’t come at the expense of women and girls. Steve pushes him to go further….

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Episode 6

Nathan Myhrvold: “I Am Interested in Lots of Things, and That’s Actually a Bad Strategy”

…the world with clean energy and how to optimize pizza-baking. Find out what makes Nathan Myhrvold’s fertile mind tick, and which of his many ideas Steve Levitt likes the most….


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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 14

Do More Expensive Wines Taste Better?

They should! It’s a cardinal rule: more expensive items are supposed to be qualitatively better than their cheaper versions. But is that true for wine?

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Episode 114

How to Think About Guns

No one wants mass shootings. Unfortunately, no one has a workable plan to stop them either.

O’Reilly Transcript

…really important. Because you know, Steve and I between us, we have six kids. I do all that stuff that Steve says is hocus, because I love it, I believe…



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Episode 391

America’s Math Curriculum Doesn’t Add Up

Most high-school math classes are still preparing students for the Sputnik era. Steve Levitt wants to get rid of the “geometry sandwich” and instead have kids learn what they really…

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Episode 60

Save Me From Myself

A commitment device forces you to be the person you really want to be. What could possibly go wrong?

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Episode 191

Can You Change Your Personality?

Are you the same person you were a decade ago? Do we get better as we age? And is your sixth-grade class clown still funny?…

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EXTRA

Why Are Stories Stickier Than Statistics? (Replay)

Also: are the most memorable stories less likely to be true? Stephen Dubner chats with Angela Duckworth in this classic episode from July 2020….