Freakonomics Poll: Have You Tried a Commitment Device?
(Photo: Alan Cleaver) Our latest podcast, “Save Me From Myself,” is about the use of commitment devices. (You can download/subscribe at iTunes or get the RSS feed.) A commitment device…
(Photo: Alan Cleaver) Our latest podcast, “Save Me From Myself,” is about the use of commitment devices. (You can download/subscribe at iTunes or get the RSS feed.) A commitment device…
…the blog, the books, the movie, the radio project, etc. — under one roof. Welcome! A few blog upgrades: We have a full RSS feed again, so feel free to…
[omny:https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/aaea4e69-af51-495e-afc9-a9760146922b/14a43378-edb2-49be-8511-ab0d000a7030/a2aa80c9-b5c1-443d-a32a-ab0d001a5646/audio.mp3] (Photo: Joel) Our latest Freakonomics Radio on Marketplace podcast is called “The Downside of More Miles Per Gallon.” (You can download/subscribe at iTunes, get the RSS feed, listen via…
Trump says it would destroy us. Biden needs the voters who support it (especially the Bernie voters). The majority of millennials would like it to replace capitalism. But what is…
Indra Nooyi became C.E.O. of PepsiCo just in time for a global financial meltdown. She also had a portfolio full of junk food just as the world decided that junk…
…are in, I simply ignore these numbers. There are many reasons why. To touch on one: they are really easy to manipulate. Just Google “Feed the Children” and see the…
What your disgust level says about your politics, how Napoleon influenced opera, why New York City’s subways may finally run on time, and more. Five compelling guests tell Stephen Dubner,…
Artificial intelligence, we’ve been told, will destroy humankind. No, wait — it will usher in a new age of human flourishing! Guest host Adam Davidson (co-founder of Planet Money) sorts…
What’s wrong with donating to charity for the tax write-off? Should we think less of people who do volunteer work to pad their resumes? And why is Angela stopping women…
The social psychologist Robert Cialdini is a pioneer in the science of persuasion. His 1984 book Influence is a classic, and he has just published an expanded and revised edition….
Kenji López-Alt became a rock star of the food world by bringing science into the kitchen in a way that everyday cooks can appreciate. Then he dared to start his…
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…
…etc. So let me ask you this: is there anything you’d like to see more of in our Twitter feed? Thanks again for pushing us over that big round number….
…in many schools. My prediction: it will not be long before a bunch of NYC high school students are emailing the Freakonomics blog to complain about our partial RSS feed….
…stuff, like distinguishing whether a page is in English or French. But if you feed it enough data, it can approximate whether an op-ed is “conservative” or “liberal” based on…
How does the blood of a 450-million-year-old arthropod help prevent lethal infections in humans? And could we exhaust the supply? Zachary Crockett wades in….
For our latest podcast, “The Economist’s Guide to Parenting,” (you can download/subscribe at iTunes, get the RSS feed, listen live via the media player, or read a transcript here) we…
Our latest Freakonomics Radio podcast, “The Suicide Paradox,” (You can download/subscribe at iTunes, get the RSS feed, or read the transcript here) investigates the mystery of suicide. Photo: The U.S….
How much control do you really have over your body? Could understanding genetics help combat fat-shaming? And why is Mike’s life coach so happy all the time?…
The filmmaker doesn’t want to be known only for his movies. He tells Steve why he considers himself a writer first, how it feels to be recognized for his role…
Making fun of earmarked Congressional spending is easy, feel-good entertainment. In this regard Sen. John McCain‘s Twitter feed, in which he reels off outrageous examples of pork-barrel spending (we especially…
To feed 7 billion people while protecting the environment, it would seem that going local is a no-brainer — until you start looking at the numbers.
…for a second. Forget all about economics. We’re humans who feed families. How do we benefit? We buy stocks, which benefit from bubble behavior. We’re on the right side of…
Where is “the cloud,” anyway? It’s in a bunch of nondescript warehouses all over the country. Zachary Crockett serves up the story….
…give. (Download/subscribe at iTunes, get the RSS feed, listen live via the media player above, or read the transcript.) In Australia, Dick Smith’s electronics empire has afforded him enough success…
…the RSS feed, listen via the media player above, or read the transcript here.) It’s based on a recent working paper called “The Value of Bosses” (abstract; PDF) by Edward…
The public has almost no chance to buy good tickets to the best events. Ticket brokers, meanwhile, make huge profits on the secondary markets. Here’s the story of how this…
The process is famously secretive (and conducted in Swedish!) but we pry the lid off at least a little bit.
In this episode of No Stupid Questions — a Freakonomics Radio Network show launched earlier this year — Stephen Dubner and Angela Duckworth debate why we watch, read and eat…
Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate, likes to say that most Americans are libertarians but don’t know it yet. So why can’t Libertarians (and other third parties) gain more…
