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…
…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…
A hit like Hamilton can come from nowhere while a sure bet can lose $20 million in a flash. We speak with some of the biggest producers in the game…
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…
How can you strive for excellence without overworking yourself? Why is perfectionism on the rise? And is Angela part of the problem?…
He argues that personal finance is so simple all you need to know can fit on an index card. How will he deal with Steve’s suggestion that Harold’s nine rules…
Jim Yong Kim has an unorthodox background for a World Bank president — and his reign thus far is just as unorthodox.
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.
As Kevin Kelly tells it, the hippie revolution and the computer revolution are nearly one and the same.
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…
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…
…part of my emotional reaction is that, like Obama’s mother, I have forced my kids to get up at ungodly hours to study in the morning. We have been doing…
Jim Yong Kim has an unorthodox background for a World Bank president — and his reign has been just as unorthodox. He has just announced he’s stepping down, well before…
…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…
What’s worse: shame, guilt, or humiliation? Does Angela have psychopathic tendencies? And where’s the worst place to sit at a magic show?…
Ken Ono is a math prodigy whose skills have helped produce a Hollywood movie and made Olympic swimmers faster. The number theorist tells Steve why he sees mathematics as art…
You might think that someone with a 50-50 chance of getting a fatal disease would want to know for sure — but you would be wrong. What does this say…
Are there downsides to “personality plagiarism”? Why did no one buy the Crayola Crayon Carver? And should Stephen feel bad for copying Angela’s email signature?…
How do friendships change as we get older? Should you join a bowling league? And also: how does a cook become a chef?…
Bill Frist was a transplant surgeon before serving in the Senate, where he drove controversial legislation on embryonic stem cells and end-of-life care. Did he change politics? Or did politics…
In this live episode of “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know,” we learn why New York has skinny skyscrapers, how to weaponize water, and what astronauts talk about in space….
Are things really as bad as they seem? Has Gen Z given up hope for the world? And why was the father of positive psychology a lifelong pessimist?…
They used to be the N.F.L.’s biggest stars, with paychecks to match. Now their salaries are near the bottom, and their careers are shorter than ever. We speak with an…
Sixty percent of the jobs that Americans do today didn’t exist in 1940. What happens as our labor becomes more technical and less physical? And what kinds of jobs will…
Playing notes on her piano, she demonstrates for Steve why whole numbers sound pleasing, why octaves are mathematically imperfect, and how math underlies musical composition. Sarah, a professor at the…
…their kids, or live totally apart from them. Fathers who live with their children have become more intensely involved in their lives, spending more time with them and taking part…
You know the saying: A winner never quits and a quitter never wins. To which Freakonomics Radio says … Are you sure?…
…keep their kids in school, like this one: Oregon schools offer free cars to entice kids to class Monday, September 18, 2006 Associated Press – Idaho News PHOENIX, Ore. —…
One man’s attempt to remake his life in the mold of homo economicus.
He graduated high school at 14, and by 23 had several graduate degrees and was a research assistant with Stephen Hawking. He became the first chief technology officer at Microsoft…
We worship the tradition of handing off a family business to the next generation. But is that really such a good idea?
