Reading About Kids and Economics
…the Fairy Godmother discovered that their vaults were not full of gold, but ordinary straw. All seemed lost until Santa Claus and his helpers, men with implausible fairytale names such…
…the Fairy Godmother discovered that their vaults were not full of gold, but ordinary straw. All seemed lost until Santa Claus and his helpers, men with implausible fairytale names such…
…back catalog of Freakonomics Radio since the show has covered this general topic in the past. Jeremy Johnston, Audio Engineer “Names,” from Off Leash Since my dog doesn’t seem to…
…other endorsements — the players who score or the defensive stoppers? Quick, which of the following set of names is more recognizable? The top five touchdown leaders in NFL history:…
…economics of the NBA, and what role he is playing at the negotiating table. Here are a few highlights: NBA.com: People are familiar with a lot of the names and…
…of witnesses cooperating with the government. The site posts their names and mug shots, along with court documents detailing what they have agreed to do in exchange for lenient sentences.”…
…that focus on programming skills, welding skills, whatever skills employers are looking for. But rather than these being accredited by educational institutions, they will be branded with the names of…
…with the names of 190 all-time leading football players and asked to name their judgment of the five best players of all time. They could either select from the list…
…by telephone and provided her with names and telephone numbers of other legal services provides in the area who might take her case.”) The claimants who were offered representation were…
Levitt and I missed a terrific business opportunity. If we had even an ounce of entrepreneurship between us, we would have parlayed the Freakonomics chapter on baby names into a…
…himself. Another of Hsu’s friends, who goes by dozens of names depending on the situation, tells him “a name is just a dai hao.” In other words, a code name,…
…identity on the Internet.” Still, the concept has one glaring weakness that even a non-computer science expert can figure out: reduce the number of names and passwords you use on…
…by academic co-authors, consider this interesting footnote in Jackson and Bruegmann’s paper: “Note: In the interest of fairness, the ordering of the authors’ names was determined by a coin flip.”…
When the computer scientist Ben Zhao learned that artists were having their work stolen by A.I. models, he invented a tool to thwart the machines. He also knows how to…
Tom Dart is transforming Cook County’s jail, reforming evictions, and, with Steve Levitt, trying a new approach to electronic monitoring….
Neuroscientists still have a great deal to learn about the human brain. One recent M.R.I. study sheds some light, finding that a certain kind of storytelling stimulates enormous activity across…
You know the saying: “There are no shortcuts in life.” What if that saying is just wrong? In his new book Thinking Better: The Art of the Shortcut in Math…
Bill Frist was a transplant surgeon before serving in the Senate, where he drove controversial legislation on embryonic stem cells and end-of-life care. Did he change politics? Or did politics…
The gist: the Nobel selection process is famously secretive (and conducted in Swedish!) but we pry the lid off, at least a little bit.
It’s awkward, random, confusing — and probably discriminatory too.
They’re not always the nicest places to go — but for their owners, portable toilets are a lucrative revenue stream. Zachary Crockett lifts the lid….
Are things really as bad as they seem? Has Gen Z given up hope for the world? And why was the father of positive psychology a lifelong pessimist?…
When Freakonomics co-authors Steve Levitt and Stephen Dubner first met, one of them hated the other. Two decades later, Levitt grills Dubner about asking questions, growing the pie, and what…
Whaling was, in the words of one scholar, “early capitalism unleashed on the high seas.” How did the U.S. come to dominate the whale market? Why did whale hunting die…
Economist Michael D. Smith says universities are scrambling to protect a status quo that deserves to die. He tells Steve why the current system is unsustainable, and what’s at stake…
Game theorist Barry Nalebuff explains how he used basic economics to build Honest Tea into a multimillion-dollar business, and shares his innovative approach to negotiation.
Congress just passed the biggest aid package in modern history. We ask six former White House economic advisors and one U.S. Senator: Will it actually work? What are its best…
We learn how to be less impatient, how to tell fake news from real, and the simple trick that nurses used to make better predictions than doctors. Journalist Manoush Zomorodi…
Dubner and Levitt talk about circadian rhythms, gay marriage, autism, and whether “pay what you want” is everything it’s cracked up to be.
Organized labor hasn’t had this much public support in 50 years, and yet the percentage of Americans in a union is near a record low. A.F.L-C.I.O. president Liz Shuler tries…
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…
