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Episode 108

How Did “Freakonomics” Get Its Name?

Levitt and Dubner answer your questions about driving, sneezing, and ladies’ nights. Plus a remembrance of Levitt’s sister Linda.


Connecting the Flu Dots

…yet been approved by the F.D.A. for children under 5, but based on these articles, that sounds very likely. Dr. Robert B. Belshe, the lead author of the study, is…



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Episode 239

The No-Tipping Point

The restaurant business model is warped: kitchen wages are too low to hire cooks, while diners are put in charge of paying the waitstaff. So what happens if you eliminate…

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Episode 69

Does Death Have to Be a Death Sentence? (Update)

Palliative physician B.J. Miller asks: Is there a better way to think about dying? And can death be beautiful?…

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EXTRA

The Men Who Started a Thinking Revolution (Update)

The psychologist Daniel Kahneman — a Nobel laureate and the author of Thinking, Fast and Slow — recently died at age 90. Along with his collaborator Amos Tversky, he changed…

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Episode 427

The Pros and Cons of Reparations

Most Americans agree that racial discrimination has been, and remains, a big problem. But that is where the agreement ends.

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Episode 56

Why Is “I Don’t Know” So Hard to Say?

Levitt and Dubner answer your FREAK-quently Asked Questions about certifying politicians, irrational fears, and the toughest three words in the English language.


Our Daily Bleg: How to Fairly Divide an Estate?

…trickier and more philosophical estate-dividing problem: (Photo: Jack Hollingsworth) My grandmother is 93 and in decent health. She has 4 biological children, 10 grandchildren, 23 great-grandchildren and a great-great-grandchild is…



Smile Train

…transform a child from this: to this: and that seemed like an awfully good way to spend $250. (You can read about this little girl Shiva’s story here.) I had…



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Episode 547

Satya Nadella’s Intelligence Is Not Artificial

But as C.E.O. of the resurgent Microsoft, he is firmly at the center of the A.I. revolution. We speak with him about the perils and blessings of A.I., Google vs….

A March Surprise?

…leader David Cameron — the likely winner, per the prediction markets, in the yet-to-be called election — has just unleashed a doozy: his wife Samantha is expecting the couple’s fourth…




Paying for a Name Change

As we’ve argued in Freakonomics and in a recent podcast, a child’s first name isn’t nearly as influential on that child’s outcome as many people would like to think. That…



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Episode 181

Fixing the World, Bang-for-the-Buck Edition (Replay)

A team of economists has been running the numbers on the U.N.’s development goals. They have a different view of how those billions of dollars should be spent.

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Episode 494

Why Do Most Ideas Fail to Scale?

In a new book called The Voltage Effect, the economist John List — who has already revolutionized how his profession does research — is trying to start a scaling revolution….

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Episode 387

Hello, My Name Is Marijuana Pepsi!

Research shows that having a distinctively black name doesn’t affect your economic future. But what is the day-to-day reality of living with such a name? Marijuana Pepsi Vandyck, a newly-minted…

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Episode 32

Growing Up Buffett

What’s it like to wake up one day and realize Dad is a multi-billionaire? That’s what happened to Warren Buffett’s son, Peter — who then started to think about whether…

A day in the life of Freakonomics email

like. Shall I use your office address below? Thanks, SJD _________________________ email #2: This next one is hard-nosed and thoughtful — the sort of email that we like to get…



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Episode 19

Do Your Doctor’s Political Views Affect Your Care?

Since doctors are human, they bring their own beliefs and preferences into the examining room. But they’ve also taken an oath to act in the best interest of all patients….


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Episode 73

Who Pays for Multimillion-Dollar Miracle Cures?

The most expensive drugs in the world are treatments for genetic diseases. And more of these cures are on the horizon. How will anyone be able to afford them?…

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Episode 142

The Troubled Cremation of Stevie the Cat (Replay)

We spend billions on our pets, and one of the fastest-growing costs is pet “aftercare.” But are those cremated remains you got back really from your pet?…


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Episode 271

The Men Who Started a Thinking Revolution

Starting in the late 1960s, the Israeli psychologists Amos Tversky and Danny Kahneman began to redefine how the human mind actually works. Michael Lewis’s new book The Undoing Project explains…

Larry Summers for Treasury Secretary

…your child will have, but this range must be centered on an IQ of 100. Any IQ within the range that you choose is equally likely to occur. What range…