…thing about the 1964 election was Johnson’s treatment of the press. He remarked to an aide that “reporters are puppets,” and had his people feed them misleading information about the…
[omny:https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/aaea4e69-af51-495e-afc9-a9760146922b/14a43378-edb2-49be-8511-ab0d000a7030/043d4702-62ed-441b-af3d-ab0d001bd58f/audio.mp3] (Photo: Argonne National Laboratory) Our latest Freakonomics Radio on Marketplace podcast is called “The Patent Gap.” (You can download/subscribe at iTunes, get the RSS feed, listen via the media…
If we could reboot the planet and create new systems and institutions from scratch, would they be any better than what we’ve blundered our way into through trial and error?…
We often look to other countries for smart policies on education, healthcare, infrastructure, etc. But can a smart policy be simply transplanted into a country as culturally unusual (and as…
Advertisers have always been adept at manipulating our emotions. Now they’re using behavioral economics to get even better.
Americans are so accustomed to the standard intersection that we rarely consider how dangerous it can be — as well as costly, time-wasting, and polluting. Is it time to embrace…
…go in though. There were meetings. Who was going to make the website for Sex and the City? But I couldn’t get out of bed in the morning. TheStreet.com I…
What’s the difference between being introverted and being shy? What are extroverts so cheerful about? And does Angela’s social battery ever run out? Take the Big Five inventory: freakonomics.com/bigfive…
…and gives them access to technologies such as ultrasound, parents are making sure that at least one of their children is a boy. As a result, sex-selective abortion has left…
People who sleep better earn more money. Now all we have to do is teach everyone to sleep better.
In addition to publishing best-selling books about pregnancy and child-rearing, Emily Oster is a respected economist at Brown University. Over the course of the pandemic, she’s become the primary collector…
Educators and economists tell us all the reasons college enrollment has been dropping, especially for men, and how to stop the bleeding. (Part 4 of “Freakonomics Radio Goes Back to…
John Mayer has recently been criticized for?crude remarks he made in an interview, suggesting that he was not sexually attracted to African-American women.? Tiger Woods‘s alleged actions suggest a similar…
Tania Tetlow, a former federal prosecutor and now the president of Fordham University, thinks the modern campus could use a dose of old-fashioned values….
…trade.” But in Turkey, where our book has recently been published, the book alone clearly did not have enough sex appeal. So the publisher had to sex it up with…
Physician Peter Attia returns to the show to talk about the science of longevity — which focuses not only on extending life but on maintaining good health into old age….
Even a brutal natural disaster doesn’t diminish our appetite for procreating. This surely means we’re heading toward massive overpopulation, right? Probably not.
…Fast forward five years to Dr. Phil. Before my research, oxytocin was known solely as a reproductive hormone, released during sex and childbirth and sometimes called the “cuddle hormone.” Testosterone…
Recently I spoke about condom use at TEDxYale. It’s based on the article “A Separate Crime of Reckless Sex” I co-authored with Katharine K. Baker. http://youtu.be/FObjpPyOUgA…
…political; others are emotional. We generally look over such critiques to see if they contain worthwhile feedback, or point to an error in need of correction. But for the most…
Recorded live in San Francisco. Guests include the keeper of a 10,000-year clock, the co-founder of Lyft, a pioneer in male birth control, a specialist in water security, and a…
…to predict whether a certain part of India has a high murder rate, indeed, is to look at its sex ratio. Even a high poverty rate doesn’t correlate as strongly….
…was being sentenced for using a prostitute, the judge asked him why a man like him would have to pay for sex. And Sheen reportedly replied: “I don’t pay them…
Why are people so inconsistent? Is there such a thing as character? And did Stephen once have the world’s longest chain of gum wrappers?…
The online universe doesn’t have nearly as many rules, or rulemakers, as the real world. Discuss.
They — along with a great many other high-achieving women — were all once Girl Scouts. So was Sylvia Acevedo. Raised in a poor, immigrant family, she was told that…
The consequences of our low marriage rate — and if the old model is less attractive, how about a new one?
…something incredibly rare for an academic economist: she has admitted she was wrong. In places like India and China, there are many “missing women.” In other words, the sex ratios…
…using hormonal contraception may feel more protected against pregnancy, and so take fewer precautions against other risky sexual behaviors, leading to increased transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases….
