Confessions of a Racecar Driver
…the recent death of Dan Wheldon affected your thinking over whether to quit your racing career? A Dan Wheldon’s death is a true tragedy and a loss for the sport…
In our collective zeal to reform schools and close the achievement gap, we may have lost sight of where most learning really happens — at home.
The mathematician and author sees mathematical patterns everywhere — from DNA to fireflies to social connections….
Under his helm, the TED Conference went from a small industry gathering to a global phenomenon. Chris and Steve talk about how to build lasting institutions, how to make generosity…
Philosopher Will MacAskill thinks about how to do as much good as possible. But that’s really hard, especially when you’re worried about humans who won’t be born for many generations….
Is there any upside to negative emotions? What can comedians teach us about dealing with pain? And why did Angela eat off of a stranger’s plate at a sushi bar?…
Gina Raimondo, the governor of tiny Rhode Island, has taken on unions, boosted big business, and made friends with Republicans. She is also one of just 15 Democratic governors in…
Cecilia Rouse, the chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, is as cold-blooded as any economist. But she admits that her profession would do well to focus on…
And with her book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, she succeeded. Now she’s not so sure how to feel about all the attention….
Gene-editing pioneer Jennifer Doudna worries that humanity might not be ready for the technology she helped develop….
…the recent death of Dan Wheldon affected your thinking over whether to quit your racing career? A Dan Wheldon’s death is a true tragedy and a loss for the sport…
…right. It’s a pity that it took the ongoing Fukushima nuclear tragedy to get to this point, but it would be an even greater pity were they not to have…
America’s top colleges are facing record demand. So why don’t they increase supply? (Part 2 of our series from 2022, “Freakonomics Radio Goes Back to School.”)…
Do you suffer from the sin of certainty? How did Angela react when a grad student challenged her research? And can a Heineken commercial strengthen our democracy?…
…ongoing earthquake/tsunami tragedy but if nothing else, it does point to Japan’s ability and appetite for handling problems in unusual ways. Here’s the paper’s abstract: The practice of adopting adults,…
What do you do when smart people keep making stupid mistakes? And: are we a nation of financial illiterates? This is a “mashupdate” of “Is America Ready for a “No-Lose…
…and Steve talk about what it means to live with a potentially fatal illness, how to talk to people who’ve gone through a tragedy, and ways to encourage medical donations….
…that the verdict will be thrown out upon appeal, discredited as an emotional response to a horrible tragedy. But let’s consider what the verdict represents as of today: scientists and…
There are more than twice as many suicides as murders in the U.S., but suicide attracts far less scrutiny. Freakonomics Radio digs through the numbers and finds all kinds of…
America’s top colleges are facing record demand. So why don’t they increase supply? (Part 2 of “Freakonomics Radio Goes Back to School.”)…
Stephen Dubner’s conversation with the founder and longtime C.E.O. of Bridgewater Associates, recorded for the Freakonomics Radio series “The Secret Life of a C.E.O.”…
…when it exchanged fire with the German HSK Kormoran, and sunk with all 645 crewmen aboard. It was a national tragedy, particularly because nobody knew exactly what happened to the…
When she’s not rescuing chickens from coyotes, Susan Athey uses economics to address real-world challenges — from online ad auctions to carbon capture technology….
That’s what some health officials are saying, but the data aren’t so clear. We look into what’s known (and not known) about the prevalence and effects of loneliness — including…
…in “The Study of Zoology” (1861): “The great tragedy of Science — the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.” Daniel asked: My roommate always uses the phrase…
No — but he does have a knack for stumbling into the perfect moment, including the recent FTX debacle….
How did a freshly looted Egyptian antiquity end up in the Metropolitan Museum of Art? Why did it take Kim Kardashian to crack the case? And how much of what…
…to determine whose tragedy was the best. Audience participation was considered a civic duty. At the Colosseum in Rome, booing, or the lack thereof, often determined whether a gladiator lived…
Liberals endorse harm reduction when it comes to the opioid epidemic. Are they ready to take the same approach to climate change?…
No — but he does have a knack for stumbling into the perfect moment, including the recent FTX debacle. In this installment of the Freakonomics Radio Book Club, we revisit…
Hollywood loves stories of canine heroism. But can ordinary dogs really be heroes? To find out, Alexandra Horowitz talks to a dog-cognition researcher and to Susan Orlean, author of the…
