An Economist at the Museum
We saw a magnificent art exhibit, The Impressionists in Paris, at the Folkwang Museum in Essen, Germany. It contained paintings from all over the world, including the National Galleries in…
We saw a magnificent art exhibit, The Impressionists in Paris, at the Folkwang Museum in Essen, Germany. It contained paintings from all over the world, including the National Galleries in…
…promised for decades has finally arrived. Will it stick? Will it cut costs — and improve outcomes? We ring up two doctors and, of course, an economist to find out….
…ratio. The true advantage of thinking like an economist is that it can help you make better decisions: To an economist, the choice is still a no-brainer. We think you…
Global demand for beef, chicken, and pork continues to rise. So do concerns about environmental and other costs. Will reconciling these two forces be possible — or, even better, Impossible™?
Markets are hardly perfect, but the results can be ugly when you try to subvert them.
As cities become ever-more expensive, politicians and housing advocates keep calling for rent control. Economists think that’s a terrible idea. They say it helps a small (albeit noisy) group of…
Even a brutal natural disaster doesn’t diminish our appetite for procreating. This surely means we’re heading toward massive overpopulation, right? Probably not.
Sunday’s Oscar night will be different.? First, there are now ten nominees for best picture.? But perhaps more importantly,?the voting system has changed. Interested in figuring out how this changes…
Two European economists have told me of their experiences interviewing for senior, tenured positions in the U.K. In both cases they, and the other two finalists, visited the campus at…
Everyone agrees that massive deforestation is an environmental disaster. But most of the standard solutions — scolding the Brazilians, invoking universal morality — ignore the one solution that might actually…
Photo: dbking Last week, the Supreme Court ordered California to release at least 30,000 prisoners due to poor prison conditions caused by overcrowding. This is what economists call a “natural…
The Washington Post profiles the omnivorous, endlessly fascinating and fascinated Tyler Cowen (best known in these parts as co-proprietor of Marginal Revolution), asking questions about ethnic food (he’s a devotee);…
Photo: HarshLight A few days ago, I appeared on NPR Morning Edition talking about Monopoly (the game, not the market form). Until then I hadn’t thought much about the economics…
A new proposal from the Biden administration calls for a nationwide cap on rent increases. Economists think that’s a terrible idea. We revisit a 2019 episode to hear why….
Imagine that both substances were undiscovered until today. How would we think about their relative risks?
Imagine that both substances were undiscovered until today. How would we think about their relative risks?
…journalism exploits our negativity bias to maximize profits, and social media algorithms add fuel to the fire. Stephen Dubner investigates. (This is part of the Freakonomics Radio American Culture series)….
Paula Szuchman and Jenny Anderson, authors of the new book Spousonomics, are seeking marital advice from economists on their blog. Their “Economists in Love” series asks amusing (yet pragmatic) questions…
Abraham Verghese is a physician and a best-selling author — in that order, he says. He explains the difference between curing and healing, and tells Steve why doctors should spend…
Success and failure are hard to measure in medicine. Bapu looks at how surgeons are judged after a bad outcome — and whether men and women are treated the same….
We take it for granted that, when people are acutely ill, they should be in the hospital. Is there a better way?…
John Ray is an emergency C.E.O., a bankruptcy expert who takes over companies that have succumbed to failure or fraud. He’s currently cleaning up the mess left by alleged crypto…
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Is it really in a restaurant’s best interest to give customers free bread or chips before they even order?
How a pain-in-the-neck girl from rural Virginia came to run the most powerful university in the world.
Well, which is better at predicting your risk of having a heart attack? Bapu Jena explores the promise — and perils — of artificial intelligence in medicine….
Our co-host is Grit author Angela Duckworth, and we learn fascinating, Freakonomical facts from a parade of guests. For instance: what we all get wrong about Darwin; what an iPod…
The debut of a live game show from Freakonomics Radio, with judges Malcolm Gladwell, Ana Gasteyer, and David Paterson….
Author and YouTuber John Green thought his breakout bestseller wouldn’t be a commercial success, wrote 40,000 words for one sentence, and brought Steve to tears….
