Why has autism gone up so much? Has autism gone up so much?
…I’ve been asking myself lately whether an economist could bring anything useful to the study of these questions? So far I’m not sure what the answer is to that question….
Also: why do we hoard? (Rebroadcast From Ep. 28)…
…I’ve been asking myself lately whether an economist could bring anything useful to the study of these questions? So far I’m not sure what the answer is to that question….
The human foot is an evolutionary masterpiece, far more functional than we give it credit for. So why do we encase it in “a coffin” (as one foot scholar calls…
How do you know when it’s the right time to retire? What does a “good” retirement look like? And will Stephen and Angela ever really hang up their hats?…
…31 Power Forward 0.331 Kawhi Leonard 25 Small Forward 0.257 Kevin Durant 27 Small Forward 0.200 James Harden 26 Shooting Guard 0.267 Paul George 26 Shooting Guard 0.202 Chris Paul…
Sarah Stein Greenberg runs Stanford’s d.school, which teaches design as a mode of problem solving. She and Steve talk about what makes her field different from other academic disciplines, how…
In a word: networks. Once it embraced information as its main currency, New York was able to climb out of a deep fiscal (and psychic) pit. Will that magic trick…
…of $125.9 million, while the Tampa Bay Rays had the lowest payroll in baseball, spending only $34.4 million. In 2011, the Yankees spent nearly $203 million on players. Meanwhile, Tampa…
…like my life back” and Christine O’Donnell‘s “I’m not a witch.” I would welcome suggestions of notable quotations from 2011, particularly ones from politics or popular culture or entertainment or…
…Christine O’Donnell‘s “I’m not a witch.” I would welcome suggestions of notable quotations from 2011, particularly ones from politics or popular culture or entertainment or sports or business or technology….
What do gamblers and referees have in common? When do machines make better decisions than people? And has Stephen been replaced by a computer?
(Photo: momopeche) Dan Johnson, an economist at Colorado College, has been predicting Olympic medal counts for years with a model that uses metrics like population count, income per capita, and…
Humans, it has long been thought, are the only animal to engage in economic activity. But what if we’ve had it exactly backward?…
Humans, it has long been thought, are the only animal to engage in economic activity. But what if we’ve had it exactly backward?
Stephen Dubner’s conversations with members of the San Francisco 49ers offense, recorded for Freakonomics Radio episode No. 350, part of the “Hidden Side of Sports” series….
What do dogs know about their own names? And is there any science about what to name them? Alexandra talks to a researcher with some answers, and takes a walk…
…rather creative methods they were using to control them — namely banning public feedings and consigning all panhandling to 3-by-15-foot “panhandling zones” painted on sidewalks. Turns out the solutions have…
It’s a remarkable ecosystem that allows each of us to exercise control over our lives. But how much control do we truly have? How many of our decisions are really…
Once considered noble and heroic, pigeons are now viewed as an urban nuisance — one that costs cities millions of dollars a year. Zachary Crockett tosses some crumbs….
We hear you. And we are trying to work out a solution. There have been a lot of changes in the migration to NYTimes.com, there are a lot of details…
What surprises lurk in our sewage? How did racist city planners end up saving Black lives? Why does Arizona grow hay for cows in Saudi Arabia? Three strange stories about…
Architect Carolyn Steel‘s TED talk, posted this week, discusses how ancient food routes shaped the cities we live in today and the future of food in our world. Steel believes…
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…
Bestselling author James Nestor believes that we can improve our lives by changing the way we breathe. He’s persuasive enough to get Steve taping his mouth shut at night. He…
It used to feel like magic. Now it can feel like a set of cheap tricks. Is the problem with Google — or with us?…
It used to feel like magic. Now it can feel like a set of cheap tricks. Is the problem with Google — or with us? And is Google Search finally…
Educational messaging looks good on paper but kids don’t respond to it — and adults aren’t much better.
…official population counts. And second, it produced a 1-in-20 sub-sample of these responses, which it made available for analysis by researchers. Just about every economist I know has used this…
Charles Koch, the mega-billionaire C.E.O. of Koch Industries and half of the infamous political machine, sees himself as a classical liberal. So why do most Democrats hate him so much?…
He’s one of the world’s leading neuroscientists, with a focus on the physiological effects of stress. (For years, he spent his summers in Kenya, alone except for the baboons he…
