Freakonomics Radio is a weekly podcast that is adapted for broadcast on public radio stations around the U.S. (check your local station’s schedule). If you heard our show on the radio and want to hear it again, or read a transcript of the original podcast episode, you can find your way to all of that in this archive. And if your public-radio station doesn’t carry Freakonomics Radio, give them a friendly nudge!
Season 8, Episode 13 The U.N.’s World Happiness Report — created to curtail our unhealthy obsession with G.D.P. — is dominated every year by the Nordic countries. We head to Denmark to learn the secrets of this happiness epidemic (and to see if we should steal them). Also, Kenji Lopez-Alt became a rock star of the food world by bringing . . .
Season 8, Episode 12 Economists have a hard time explaining why productivity growth has been shrinking. This week on Freakonomics Radio, Stephen J. Dubner examines one theory: that true innovation has gotten much harder – and much more expensive. So what should we do next? Also, Freakonomics co-author Steve Levitt answers your questions about highway-merging, crime, real-estate agents, and being . . .
Season 8, Episode 11 The Ford Motor Company is ditching its legacy sedans, doubling down on trucks, and trying to steer its stock price out of a long skid. But C.E.O. Jim Hackett has even bigger plans: to turn a century-old automaker into the nucleus of a “transportation operating system.” Is Hackett just whistling past the graveyard, or does he . . .
Season 8, Episode 10 We all know our political system is “broken” — but what if that’s not true? Some say the Republicans and Democrats constitute a wildly successful industry that has colluded to kill off competition, stifle reform, and drive the country apart. So what are you going to do about it? To find out more, check out the . . .
Season 8, Episode 9 You said, “I’m sorry,” but somehow you haven’t been forgiven. Why? Because you’re doing it wrong! A report from the front lines of apology science. To find out more, check out the podcasts from which this hour was drawn: “Is the Government More Entrepreneurial Than You Think?” and “How to Optimize Your Apology.”
Season 8, Episode 8 The World Trade Organization is the referee for 164 trading partners, each with their own political and economic agendas. Lately, those agendas have gotten more complicated — especially with President Trump’s tariff blitz. Roberto Azevêdo, head of the W.T.O., tells Stephen J. Dubner why it’s so hard to balance protectionism and globalism; what’s really behind the . . .
Season 8, Episode 7 It happens to just about everyone, whether you’re going for Olympic gold or giving a wedding toast. Stephen J. Dubner talks to psychologists, economists, and the golfer who some say committed the greatest choke of all time. To find out more, check out the podcast from which this hour was drawn: “Why We Choke Under Pressure (and . . .
Season 8, Episode 6 We are in the midst of a historic (and wholly unpredicted) rise in urbanization. But it’s hard to retrofit old cities for the 21st century. Enter Dan Doctoroff. The man who helped modernize New York City — and tried to bring the Olympics there — is now C.E.O. of a Google-funded startup that is building, from . . .
Season 8, Episode 5 There are a lot of factors that go into greatness, many of which are not obvious. A variety of Olympic and professional athletes tell us how they made it and what they sacrificed to get there. And if you can identify the sport most likely to get a kid into a top college — well then, . . .
Season 8, Episode 3 Dollar-wise, the sports industry is surprisingly small, about the same size as the cardboard-box industry. So why does it make so much noise? Because it reflects — and often amplifies — just about every political, economic, and social issue of the day. Introducing a new series, “The Hidden Side of Sports.” To find out more, check . . .
Season 8, Episode 2 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. Joining Stephen J. Dubner as co-host is the linguist John McWhorter; Bari Weiss (The New York Times) is the real-time fact-checker. To find out more, check . . .
Season 8, Episode 1 You wouldn’t think you could win a Nobel Prize for showing that humans tend to make irrational decisions. But that’s what Richard Thaler has done. The founder of behavioral economics describes his unlikely route to success; his reputation for being lazy; and his efforts to fix the world — one nudge at a time. To find . . .
Season 7, Episode 52 When you want to get rid of a nasty pest, one obvious solution comes to mind: just offer a cash reward. But be careful — because nothing backfires quite like a bounty. To find out more, check out the podcasts from which this hour was drawn: “The Cobra Effect” and “Who Owns the Words That Come . . .
Season 7, Episode 51 This week, we look at whether spite pays — if it even exists — and how peer pressure (or good, old-fashioned shame) can push people to do the right thing. To find out more, check out the podcasts from which this hour was drawn: “What Do Medieval Nuns and Bo Jackson Have in Common?” and “Riding . . .
Season 7, Episode 50 What happens to your reputation when you’re no longer around to defend it? And since the beginning of civilization, we’ve thought that human waste was worthless and dangerous. What if we were wrong? To find out more, check out the podcasts from which this hour was drawn: “Legacy of a Jerk” and “The Power of Poop.”
Season 7, Episode 49 Clever ways to not waste our waste, and there’s a nasty secret about hot-button topics like global warming: knowledge is not always power. To find out more, check out the podcasts from which this hour was drawn: “Weird Recycling” and “The Truth Is Out There…Isn’t It?”
Season 7, Episode 48 He was once the most lionized athlete on the planet, with seven straight Tour de France wins and a victory over cancer too. Then the doping charges caught up with him. When he finally confessed to Oprah, he admits, “it didn’t go well at all.” That’s because he wasn’t actually contrite yet. Now, five years later, . . .
Season 7, Episode 47 A commitment device forces you to be the person you really want to be. What could possibly go wrong? To find out more, check out the podcast from which this hour was drawn: “Save Me From Myself.”
Season 7, Episode 46 Is booing an act of verbal vandalism or the last true expression of democracy? And: when you drive a Prius, are you guilty of “conspicuous conservation”? To find out more, check out the podcasts from which this hour was drawn: “Hey, Baby, Is That a Prius You’re Driving?” and “Boo … Who?”
Season 7, Episode 45 There are more than twice as many suicides as murders in the U.S., but suicide attracts far less scrutiny. Stephen J. Dubner digs through the numbers and finds all kinds of surprises. To find out more, check out the podcast from which this hour was drawn: “The Suicide Paradox.”
Season 7, Episode 44 Think you know how much parents matter? Think again. Economists crunch the numbers to learn the R.O.I. on child-rearing. To find out more, check out the podcast from which this hour was drawn: “The Economist’s Guide to Parenting.” You can subscribe to the Freakonomics Radio podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or elsewhere, or get the RSS feed.
Season 7, Episode 43 We all like to throw around terms that describe human behavior — “bystander apathy” and “steep learning curve” and “hard-wired.” Most of the time, they don’t actually mean what we think they mean. But don’t worry — the experts are getting it wrong, too. To find out more, check out the podcasts from which this hour . . .
Season 7, Episode 42 Corporate Social Responsibility programs can attract better job applicants who’ll work for less money. But they also encourage employees to misbehave. Don’t laugh — you too probably engage in “moral licensing,” even if you don’t know it. To find out more, check out the podcasts from which this hour was drawn: “Does Doing Good Give You . . .
Season 7, Episode 41 For soccer fans, it’s easy. For the rest of us? Not so much, especially since the U.S. team didn’t qualify. So here’s what to watch for even if you have no team to root for. Because the World Cup isn’t just a gargantuan sporting event; it’s a microcosm of human foibles and (yep) economic theory brought . . .
Season 7, Episode 40 Humans, it has long been thought, are the only animal to engage in economic activity. But what if we’ve had it exactly backward? To find out more, check out the podcasts from which this hour was drawn: “The Invisible Paw” and “There’s No Such Thing as a Free Appetizer.” You can subscribe to the Freakonomics Radio . . .
Season 7, Episode 38 Sure, medical progress has been astounding. But today the U.S. spends more on healthcare than any other country, with so-so outcomes. Atul Gawande — cancer surgeon, public-health researcher, and best-selling author — has some simple ideas for treating a painfully complex system. To find out more, check out the podcast from which this hour was drawn: . . .
Season 7, Episode 37 When Harvard professor Latanya Sweeney Googled her name one day, she noticed something strange: an ad for a background check website came up in the results, with the heading: “Latanya Sweeney, Arrested?” But she had never been arrested, and neither had the only other Latanya Sweeney in the U.S. So why did the ad suggest so? . . .
Season 7, Episode 36 They are the most-trusted profession in America (and with good reason). They are critical to patient outcomes (especially in primary care). Could the growing army of nurse practitioners be an answer to the doctor shortage? The data say yes but — big surprise — doctors’ associations say no. To find out more, check out the podcast . . .
Season 7, Episode 35 Three former White House economists weigh in on the new tax bill. Also, every 12 years, there’s a spike in births among certain communities across the globe, including the U.S. Why? Because the Year of the Dragon, according to Chinese folk belief, confers power, fortune, and more. We look at what happens to Dragon babies when . . .
Season 7, Episode 34 Kevin Hassett, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, explains the thinking behind the controversial new Republican tax package — and why its critics are wrong. We’ll also hear from the critics. To find out more, check out the podcasts from which this hour was drawn: “Why the Trump Tax Cuts Are Awesome/Terrible (Part 1)” and . . .
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