Matt Ridley, the Rational Optimist, Answers Your Questions
…until 70,000 years ago — had probably been getting into the habit of working for each other, and specializing, by our sexual division of labor. Broadly speaking, men hunting and…
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…
To get a lot of followers on Twitter, do you need to follow a lot of other Tweeps? And if not, why not?
Is it better to be the best player on the worst team or the worst player on the best team? How did Angela cope with her extremely impressive freshman dorm-mates?…
Broadway operates on a winner-take-most business model. A runaway hit like Stereophonic — which just won five Tony Awards — will create a few big winners. But even the stars…
What makes normal people do terrible things? Are there really bad apples — or just bad barrels? And how should you deal with a nefarious next-door neighbor?…
…until 70,000 years ago — had probably been getting into the habit of working for each other, and specializing, by our sexual division of labor. Broadly speaking, men hunting and…
It’s a powerful biological response that has preserved our species for millennia. But now it may be keeping us from pursuing strategies that would improve the environment, the economy, even…
In this special episode of People I (Mostly) Admire, Steve Levitt speaks with the palliative physician B.J. Miller about modern medicine’s goal of “protecting a pulse at all costs.” Is…
The Berlin dance mecca Berghain is known for its eight-hour line and inscrutable door policy. PJ Vogt, host of the podcast Search Engine, joins us to crack the code. It…
Performing at a strip club can be lucrative, but it requires financial and psychological savvy — and an eye for social trends. Zachary Crockett takes a look….
It’s a powerful biological response that has preserved our species for millennia. But now it may be keeping us from pursuing strategies that would improve the environment, the economy, even…
…she sent me; in order to protect the potentially innocent, I will obscure their last names: Eric Wayne XXXXXX — sex charges Nathan Wayne XXXXXX — kidnapping and beating, homicide…
…of quirky exhibits” “Attitudes to (sic) adultery vary in many countries of the world” “Condoleeza Rice’s sexual worries in the White House” “Future technologies may destroy sex” “Celebrities who started…
…to afford fine clothing; and two claimed they were ruined by drink. The Commission called oral sex “pervert methods,” and reported that it was on the increase in the higher-priced…
With the Democrats in control of Congress, and with the prediction markets suggesting a Democratic presidential victory, there has been a lot of talk about ending sexual orientation discrimination in…
…came to be associated with pornography. NC-17 simply means the film is intended for adults only — whether for its depictions of sex, violence, drug use, or other intense situations….
…to choose your child’s sex? The Wall Street Journal reports on a Los Angeles clinic that will soon let parents choose the sex of their unborn children. Their designer options…
…in demand. Her price hikes revealed another surprise: the more she charged, the less actual sex she was having. At $300 an hour, she had a string of one-hour appointments…
…hope. Alcohol “impairs” sex, homework and conversation, putting “social costs” on the rest of us. Do Mad Mothers [i.e. MADD] want to prohibit drinking before sex, drinking while doing homework,…
…how it is going to work for same-sex married couples in community property states like California? My accountant still has no clue… – Paul A. Regarding tax issues faced by…
…sex trade in old- time Chicago . . . A survey like no other . . . The erosion of prostitute pay . . . Why did oral sex get…
…“Substitution and Stigma: Evidence on Religious Competition from the Catholic Sex-Abuse Scandal,” by Notre Dame economist Daniel Hungerman, looks at whether other religious faiths gained from the Catholic Church sex…
…think: Out of the three basic dyadic sexual/romantic relationships — male-female, male-male, and female-female — which one has the lowest incidence of domestic violence? Male-male. Lesbian relationships experience domestic violence…
…not know who they were playing with. They were observed by either someone of the same sex or opposite sex — two physically attractive volunteers, one man and one woman….
Humans have a built-in “negativity bias,” which means we give bad news much more power than good. Would the Covid-19 crisis be an opportune time to reverse this tendency?
Stephen Dubner’s conversation with David Rubenstein, co-founder of the Carlyle Group, one of the most storied private-equity firms in history. We spoke with Rubenstein for the Freakonomics Radio series “The…
In this episode, we speculate what would happen if economists got to run the world. Hear from a high-end call girl; an Estonian who ran his country according to the…
Women hold fewer than one in 10 patents. Why? And what are we missing out on?
The Encyclopedia of Ethical Failures catalogs the fiscal, sexual, and mental lapses of federal workers — all with an eye toward preventing the next big mistake….
