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EXTRA

What Is Sportswashing — and Does It Work? (Update)

In ancient Rome, it was bread and circuses. Today, it’s a World Cup, an Olympics, and a new Saudi-backed golf league that’s challenging the PGA Tour. Can a sporting event…

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Episode 43

Top-Level Domains

Those letters at the end of web addresses can mean big bucks — and, for some small countries, a substantial part of the national budget. Zachary Crockett follows the links….

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Episode 133

Pay Attention! (Your Body Will Thank You)

Ellen Langer is a psychologist at Harvard who studies the mind-body connection. She’s published some of the most remarkable scientific findings Steve has ever encountered. Can we really improve our…

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Episode 52

Little League

Youth baseball — long a widely accessible American pastime — has become overrun by $10,000-per-year for-profit travel leagues. Zachary Crockett peers inside the dugout….

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Episode 201

Are You Dreaming Too Big?

Are fantasies helpful or harmful? How is daydreaming like a drug? And what did Angela fantasize about during ninth-grade English class?…

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Episode 54

Ghostwriters

Channeling the voices of celebrities can be a lucrative career — one that requires empathy and discretion, as well as literary chops. Zachary Crockett checks the acknowledgements….

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Episode 218

Why Do Parents Overshare on Social Media?

How does social media exploit our evolutionary instincts? How dangerous is it to post about your children online? And does Angela regret talking about her daughters on the podcast?…

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Episode 145

Neil deGrasse Tyson Is Still Starstruck

The director of the Hayden Planetarium is one of the best science communicators of our time. He and Steve talk about his role in reclassifying Pluto, bad teachers, and why…

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Episode 146

Is There a Fair Way to Divide Us?

Moon Duchin is a math professor at Cornell University whose theoretical work has practical applications for voting and democracy. Why is striving for fair elections so difficult?…

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Episode 147

Is Your Gut a Second Brain?

In her book, Rumbles, medical historian Elsa Richardson explores the history of the human gut. She talks with Steve about dubious medical practices, gruesome tales of survival, and the things…

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Episode 573

Can Academic Fraud Be Stopped? (Update)

Probably not — the incentives are too strong. But a few reformers are trying. We check in on their progress, in an update to an episode originally published last year….

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Episode 75

Butchers

Before beef ends up at your favorite steakhouse, it passes through the hands of a trained specialist with an encyclopedic knowledge of bovine anatomy. Zachary Crockett chews the fat….

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Episode 626

Ten Myths About the U.S. Tax System

Nearly everything that politicians say about taxes is at least half a lie. They are also dishonest when it comes to the national debt. Stephen Dubner finds one of the…

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Episode 85

Executive Recruiters

When a Fortune 500 company needs a new leader, it turns to a well-connected headhunter who assesses candidates with psychological tests and mock TV interviews. Zachary Crockett activates his network….

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Episode 52

Little League (Replay)

Youth baseball — long a widely accessible American pastime — has become overrun by $10,000-per-year, for-profit travel leagues. Zachary Crockett peers inside the dugout.

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Episode 639

“This Country Kicks My Ass All the Time”

Cory Booker on the politics of fear, the politics of hope, and how to split the difference….

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EXTRA

Why Does One Tiny State Set the Rules for Everyone? (Update)

Until recently, Delaware was almost universally agreed to be the best place for companies to incorporate. Now, with Elon Musk leading a corporate stampede out of the First State, we…

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Episode 163

The Data Sleuth Taking on Shoddy Science

Uri Simonsohn is a behavioral science professor who wants to improve standards in his field — so he’s made a sideline of investigating fraudulent academic research. He tells Steve Levitt,…

A bargain at $900,000

…$25 to the person who comes up with a great name for his baby due in a few weeks. We’ve got lots of great Freakonomics-approved baby names to give away….



Freakonomics Response #1

…of vulgarity. Or the professed lack of a “unifying theme.” Or the inclusion of first names like OrangeJello, LemonJello, and Shithead, which would surely seem to be no more than…




A Literature Wikipedia

…hundred or so authors’ names, a handful of book titles, and a few recommendations as to where to-or where not to-start. I’m writing to ask you please (please) to go…



The Bookplates are Coming!

…know that I mailed an additional 1500 bookplates this week. Those silly authors finally found the time, between frivolities like writing and researching, to sign their names a couple thousand…



What a Heavenly Name

…from 8 instances in 1999 to 4,457 last year. “Of the last couple of generations, Nevaeh is certainly the most remarkable phenomenon in baby names,” said Cleveland Kent Evans, president…



A day in the life of Freakonomics email

…the refund California officials asked Enron to issue for price gouging. Directly beneath their introduction, the transcripts appear, but now the two traders are “Kevin” and “Bob.” The names Bob…



Book Drive

…If anyone would like to send a book, the following are names and addresses for all six District 214 librarians. You can also send one from here or here. Carrie…



Somebody hates me $5 worth

…feel enough hatred to want to spend $5 to make that hatred known. The current list of the 10 most hated people includes some well known names (I’ve omitted the…



Yourhighness Morgan

Thanks to the section of Freakonomics that dealt with unusual first names, we regularly get e-mails from readers telling us about a particularly good example. (Maybe we should make such…



At Least He’s a Patriot

…accused of putting a friend on the payroll and, more interestingly, of using his office to oversee his personal thoroughbred horse-racing operation. And most interesting of all are the names



Menthol Cigarettes Apparently Too Damn Tasty

…been on Smiley’s show.) We touched on these subjects, albeit glancingly, in Freakonomics. The most detailed discussion of the gap between blacks and whites concerned first names. We also discussed…