Your Spousonomics Questions, Answered
…about friends and activities, worrying about next week’s history test since your kid bombed the last one, wondering if your kids have clean soccer clothes or ate Cool Whip for…
Stephen Dubner appears as a guest on Fail Better, a new podcast hosted by David Duchovny. The two of them trade stories about failure, and ponder the lessons that success…
Dubner and Levitt are live onstage at the 92nd Street Y in New York to celebrate their new book “When to Rob a Bank” — and a decade of working…
…about friends and activities, worrying about next week’s history test since your kid bombed the last one, wondering if your kids have clean soccer clothes or ate Cool Whip for…
…that — … See, but I appreciated the kind of neighborhood it was — good, honest, hard-working people who wanted the best for their kids. They taught their kids some…
…home with a white picket fence and a family with 2.5 kids as their version of gay equality. In 1982, Gallup found that only 32 percent of Americans considered homosexuality…
Do humans need touch to survive? Do any of us get enough touch throughout our lives? And why doesn’t Angela want to hug anyone for eight seconds?…
The legendary venture capitalist believes the same intuition that led him to bet early on Google can help us reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. But Steve wonders why his…
Steve usually asks his guests for advice, whether they’re magicians or Nobel laureates. After nearly 60 episodes, is any of it worth following — or should we just ask listeners…
What’s worse: shame, guilt, or humiliation? Does Angela have psychopathic tendencies? And where’s the worst place to sit at a magic show?…
Amaryllis Fox is a former C.I.A. operative and host of the Netflix show The Business of Drugs. She explains why intelligence work requires empathy, and she soothes Steve’s fears about…
A few weeks ago, I gave a bookstore reading for my new kids’ book, The Boy With Two Belly Buttons. I was sitting on the floor, reading to a bunch…
…groupishness is unethical. If a cigarette maker tries various tricks to get kids to start smoking, it’s evil. They are trying to hook kids into a habit that the kids…
Adam Smith famously argued that specialization is the key to prosperity. In the N.F.L., the long snapper is proof of that argument. Just in time for the Super Bowl, here’s…
…a birthday party for one of my kids. My wife hired a small entrepreneur who runs an outfit called Simply Sports. He organizes summer sports camps, after-school programs, etc. In…
Are we using technology to make ourselves numb? What’s the downside of air conditioning? And was Angela the most annoying person in her college classes?…
How can you strive for excellence without overworking yourself? Why is perfectionism on the rise? And is Angela part of the problem?…
As the U.S. tries to fix its messy immigration system, our neighbor to the north is scooping up more talented newcomers every year. Are the Canadians stealing America’s bacon? (Part…
Is it more important to help society or to help yourself? Does the self-improvement movement do any good for the world? And which podcast episode does Stephen cling to as…
Bryan Caplan, a professor of economics at George Mason University and a blogger for EconLog, has written a new book called “Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids: Why Being a…
…kids about it. It would be an interesting experiment if (in, say, Buffalo) every kid entering the first grade were given a $100 savings deposit (paid for by a private…
When trust in doctors or the healthcare system is lost, it’s really hard to get back. Bapu Jena explores the ripple effects of a C.I.A. operation to catch Osama bin…
Former professional poker player Annie Duke wrote a book about Steve’s favorite subject: quitting. They talk about why quitting is so hard, how to do it sooner, and why we…
How using peer pressure — and good, old-fashioned shame — can push people to do the right thing.
…out to determine. He’s collecting data to measure the utility curves of kids from 7-18 years old, in order to draw some conclusions about children’s attitudes toward risk, time and…
I am scheduled to appear on Good Morning America tomorrow (Wed., Oct. 3), at about 8:30 a.m. E.D.T., to talk about my new kids’ book, The Boy With Two Belly…
Imagine that both substances were undiscovered until today. How would we think about their relative risks?
…little kids—the kids are now ages 15 to 5. I miss having tiny grandchildren, and I know that if another were to come along it would be as much or…
What makes a con succeed? Does snake oil actually work? And just how gullible is Angela?…
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?…
Anne-Marie Slaughter was best known for her adamant views on Syria when she accidentally became a poster girl for modern feminism. As it turns out, she can be pretty adamant…
