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Episode 141

How to Raise Money Without Killing a Kitten (Replay)

The science of what works — and doesn’t work — in fundraising

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EXTRA

How Much Do You Know About Immigration?

The political debates over immigration can generate a lot of fuzzy facts. We wanted to test Americans’ knowledge — so, to wrap up our special series on immigration, we called…

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Episode 68

The Power of the President — and the Thumb

How much does the President of the United States really matter? And: where did all the hitchhikers go? A pair of “attribution errors.” This is a “mashupdate” of “How Much…

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Episode 396

Why Does Tipping Still Exist?

It’s an acutely haphazard way of paying workers, and yet it keeps expanding. We dig into the data to find out why.

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Episode 252

Confessions of a Pothole Politician

…he must first master the small stuff. He’s also a polymath who relies heavily on data and new technologies. Could this be what modern politics is supposed to look like?…

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Episode 392

The Prime Minister Who Cried Brexit

In 2016, David Cameron held a referendum on whether the U.K. should stay in the European Union. A longtime Euroskeptic, he nevertheless led the Remain campaign. So what did Cameron…

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Episode 141

How to Raise Money Without Killing a Kitten

The science of what works — and doesn’t work — in fundraising.

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Episode 398

The Truth About the Vaping Crisis

A recent outbreak of illness and death has gotten everyone’s attention — including late-to-the-game regulators. But would a ban on e-cigarettes do more harm than good? We smoke out the…

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Episode 47

Should We Trust Hospital Rankings?

Hospitals compete for prime spots on the U.S. News rankings — but could those lists be doing more harm than good?…

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Episode 416

How Do You Reopen a Country?

We speak with a governor, a former C.D.C. director, a pandemic forecaster, a hard-charging pharmacist, and a pair of economists — who say it’s all about the incentives. (Pandemillions, anyone?)

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Episode 210

Is It Okay for Restaurants to Racially Profile Their Employees?

We seem to have decided that ethnic food tastes better when it’s served by people of that ethnicity (or at least something close). Does this make sense — and is…

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Episode 96

Why Is Chick-fil-A Such a Big Deal?

How did Chick-fil-A become the third-largest restaurant chain in the U.S.? Why does it serve salad? And can Angie’s moral compass override her craving for a chicken sandwich?…

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Episode 49

How Does Facing Death Change Your Life? (Replay)

Are you more likely to experience post-traumatic stress or post-traumatic growth? How does belief in the afterlife affect how you view death? And why did Angela hike a deadly gorge…

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Episode 329

The Invisible Paw (Replay)

Humans, it has long been thought, are the only animal to engage in economic activity. But what if we’ve had it exactly backward?

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Episode 278

The Taboo Trifecta

Serial entrepreneur Miki Agrawal loves to talk about the bodily functions that make most people flinch. That’s why she’s building a business around the three P’s: periods, pee, and poop.

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Episode 491

Why Is Everyone Moving to Dallas?

When Stephen Dubner learned that Dallas–Fort Worth will soon overtake Chicago as the third-biggest metro area in the U.S., he got on a plane to find out why. Despite getting…

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Episode 8

Peter Attia: “I Definitely Lost a Lot of IQ Points That Day”

He’s been an engineer, a surgeon, a management consultant, and even a boxer. Now he’s a physician focused on the science of longevity. Peter Attia talks with Steve Levitt about…

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Episode 313

How to Be a Modern Democrat — and Win

…business, and made friends with Republicans. She is also one of just 15 Democratic governors in the country. Would there be more of them if there were more like her?…

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Episode 13

When Bapu Met Levitt

Once upon a time, Bapu Jena was a graduate student at the University of Chicago. His most interesting teacher? The economist Steve Levitt. This week on Freakonomics, M.D., a replay…

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Episode 536

Is Your Plane Ticket Too Expensive — or Too Cheap?

Most travelers want the cheapest flight they can find. Airlines, meanwhile, need to manage volatile fuel costs, a pricey workforce, and complex logistics. So how do they make money —…

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Episode 282

Could Solving This One Problem Solve All the Others?

…spend our money and time — that undermine our well-being. An all-star team of academic researchers thinks it has the solution: perfecting the science of behavior change. Will it work?…

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Episode 477

Why Is U.S. Media So Negative?

Breaking news! Sources say American journalism exploits our negativity bias to maximize profits, and social media algorithms add fuel to the fire. Stephen Dubner investigates. (This is part of the…

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Episode 534

Air Travel Is a Miracle. Why Do We Hate It?

It’s an unnatural activity that has become normal. You’re stuck in a metal tube with hundreds of strangers (and strange smells), defying gravity and racing through the sky. But oh,…

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Episode 589

Why Has the Opioid Crisis Lasted So Long?

Most epidemics flare up, do their damage, and fade away. This one has been raging for almost 30 years. To find out why, it’s time to ask some uncomfortable questions….

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Episode 608

Cannabis Is Booming, So Why Isn’t Anyone Getting Rich?

There are a lot of reasons, including heavy regulations, high taxes, and competition from illegal weed shops. Most operators are losing money and waiting for Washington to get out of…

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Episode 624

The Animal No One Loves, Until They Do

To most people, the rat is vile and villainous. But not to everyone! We hear from a scientist who befriended rats and another who worked with them in the lab…

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Episode 190

Time to Take Back the Toilet

Public bathrooms are noisy, poorly designed, and often nonexistent. What to do?

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EXTRA

The Downside of Disgust (Update)

It’s a powerful biological response that has preserved our species for millennia. But now it may be keeping us from pursuing strategies that would improve the environment, the economy, even…

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Episode 485

“I’ve Been Working My Ass Off for You to Make that Profit?”

The more successful an artist is, the more likely their work will later be resold at auction for a huge markup — and they receive nothing. Should that change? Also:…

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Episode 205

Could the Next Brooklyn Be … Las Vegas?!

Zappos C.E.O. Tony Hsieh has a wild vision and the dollars to try to make it real. But it still might be the biggest gamble in town.