Freakonomics Radio
-
REBROADCAST: The Hidden Cost of False Alarms
If any other product failed 94 percent of the time, you'd probably stop using it. So why do we put up with burglar alarms?
-
What Do Medieval Nuns and Bo Jackson Have in Common?
A look at whether spite pays -- and if it even exists.
-
It’s Crowded at the Top
Why is unemployment still so high? It may be because of something that happened well before the Great Recession.
-
Running to Do Evil
An interview with Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, whose younger brother turned him in -- and what it says about the Boston bombers.
-
Help Wanted. No Smokers Need Apply
In many states, it is perfectly legal to not hire someone who smokes. Should employers also be able to weed out junk-food lovers or motorcyclists -- or anyone who wants to have a baby?
-
How Much Does Your Name Matter?
A kid's name can tell us something about his parents -- their race, social standing, even their politics. But is your name really your destiny?
-
The Tax Man Nudgeth
Real tax reform may or may not ever happen. In the meantime, how about making the current system work a bit better?
-
100 Ways to Fight Obesity
Freakonomics asks a dozen smart people for their best ideas. Get ready for a fat tax, a sugar ban, and a calorie-chomping tapeworm.
-
How Money Is March Madness?
The NCAA basketball tournament grabs a lot of eyeballs, but turning them into dollars hasn't always been easy -- even when the "talent" is playing for free.
-
Parking Is Hell
There ain't no such thing as a free parking spot. Somebody has to pay for it -- and that somebody is everybody.
-
When Is a Negative a Positive?
Sure, we all like to hear compliments. But if you're truly looking to get better at something, it's the negative feedback that will get you there.
-
Women Are Not Men
In many ways, the gender gap is closing. In others, not so much. And that's not always a bad thing.
-
The Downside of More Miles Per Gallon
The gas tax doesn't work well, and it's only going to get worse. What's next?
-
How to Think About Guns
No one wants mass shootings. Unfortunately, no one has a workable plan to stop them either.
-
Sure, I Remember That
It is startlingly easy to create false memories, especially in politics.
-
Would You Let a Coin Toss Decide Your Future?
Levitt and Dubner go deep on "Freakonomics Experiments," a new research project that lets you take a chance on life.
-
Introducing “Freakonomics Experiments”
Steve Levitt has a novel idea for helping people make tough decisions
-
Who Owns the Words That Come Out of Your Mouth?
The very long reach of Winston Churchill -- and how the British government is remaking copyright law.
-
How to Live Longer
Why do Hall of Fame inductees, Oscar winners, and Nobel laureates outlive their peers?
-
How Did “Freakonomics” Get Its Name? … and Other...
Levitt and Dubner answer your questions about driving, sneezing, and ladies’ nights. Plus a remembrance of Levitt’s sister Linda.
-
How Much Does a Good Boss Really Matter?
It's harder than you'd think to measure the value of a boss. But some enterprising economists have done just that -- and the news is good.
-
The House of Dreams
Dubner's childhood home goes from sacred to profane -- and then back again.
-
Have a Very Homo Economicus Christmas
Who better than an economist to help with your shopping list?
-
The Things They Taught Me
College, at its best, is about learning to think. Stephen Dubner chats up three of his former professors who made the magic happen.
-
Free-conomics
Economists are a notoriously self-interested bunch. But a British outfit called Pro Bono Economics is giving away its services to selected charities.
-
I Consult, Therefore I Am
There are enough management consultants these days to form a small nation. But what do they actually do? And does it work?
-
Mass Transit Hysteria
Adding more train and bus lines looks like an environmental slam dunk. Until you start to do the math.
-
Our 100th Episode!
Turkey sex and chicken wings, selling souls and swapping organs, the power of the president and the price of wine: these are a few of our favorite things.
-
We the Sheeple
Politicians tell voters exactly what they want to hear, even when it makes no sense. Which is pretty much all the time.
-
Lying to Ourselves
We rely on polls and surveys to tell us how people will behave in the future. Too bad they're completely unreliable.
-
The Cobra Effect
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.
-
Why America’s Economic Growth May Be (Shh!) Over
Sure, we love our computers and all the rest of our digital toys. But when it comes to real economic gains, can we ever match old-school innovations like the automobile and electricity?
-
The Tale of the $15 Tomato
Trying to go rustic by baking, brewing, and knitting at home can be terribly inefficient. And that's a wonderful thing.
-
Why Online Poker Should Be Legal
The data show that poker is indeed a game of skill, not chance, and a Federal judge agrees. So why are players still being treated like criminals?
-
Fear Thy Nature
What "Sleep No More" and the Stanford Prison Experiment tell us about who we really are.
-
Can Selling Beer Cut Down on Public Drunkenness?
Binge drinking is a big problem at college football games. Oliver Luck -- father of No. 1 NFL pick Andrew, and the athletic director at West Virginia University -- had an unusual idea to help solve it.
-
How Deep Is the Shadow Economy?
What we know -- and don't know -- about the gazillions of dollars that never show up on anyone's books.
-
There’s Cake in the Breakroom!
If you think working from home offers too many distractions, just think about what happens at the office.
-
Freakonomics Goes to College, Part 2
College tends to make people happier, healthier, and wealthier. But how?
-
The Season of Death
We know that summertime brings far too many fatal accidents. But you may be surprised if you dig into the numbers.
-
Freakonomics Goes to College, Part 1
What's a college degree really worth these days?
-
Olympian Economics
Do host cities really get the benefits their boosters promise, or are they just engaging in some fiscal gymnastics?
-
Legacy of a Jerk
What happens to your reputation when you're no longer around to defend it?
-
What's Wrong With Cash for Grades?
If we want our kids to thrive in school, maybe we should just pay them.
-
Please Steal My Car
Levitt and Dubner answer your FREAK-quently Asked Questions about junk food, insurance, and how to make an economist happy.
-
Star-Spangled Banter?
Once a week, the British Prime Minister goes before the House of Commons for a lightning round of hard questions. Should the U.S. give it a try?
-
Riding the Herd Mentality
How using peer pressure -- and good, old-fashioned shame -- can push people to do the right thing.
-
A Cheap Employee Is … a Cheap Employee
Paying workers as little as possible seems smart -- unless you can make more money by paying them more.
-
You Eat What You Are, Part 2
To feed 7 billion people while protecting the environment, it would seem that going local is a no-brainer -- until you start looking at the numbers.
-
Playing the Nerd Card
The NBA’s superstars are suddenly sporting Urkel glasses -- but is it more than a fashion statement?
-
You Eat What You Are, Part 1
How American food so got bad -- and why it's getting so much better.
-
Retirement Kills
Sure, we all dream of leaving the office forever. But what if it's bad for your health?
-
Soul Possession
In a world where nearly everything is for sale, is it always okay to buy what isn’t yours?
-
A Rose By Any Other Distance
At a time when people worry about every mile their food must travel, why is it okay to import most of our cut flowers from thousands of miles away?
-
Lottery Loopholes and Deadly Doctors
What do you do when smart people keep making stupid mistakes? And: are we a nation of financial illiterates?
-
Is Good Corporate Citizenship Also Good for the Bottom...
A new study says that yes, it is -- but try telling that to the United Nations officials who are preaching sustainability practices.
-
Eating and Tweeting
Does the future of food lie in its past – or inside a tank of liquid nitrogen? Also: how anti-social can you be on a social network?
-
The Hidden Cost of False Alarms
If any other product failed 94 percent of the time, you’d probably stop using it. So why do we put up with burglar alarms?
-
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."
-
The Patent Gap
Women hold fewer than one in 10 patents. Why? And what are we missing out on?
-
Show and Yell
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”?
-
It’s Not the President, Stupid
Isn’t it time to admit that the U.S. economy doesn’t have a commander in chief?
-
The Days of Wine and Mouses
Do more expensive wines taste better? And: what does one little rodent in a salad say about a restaurant’s future?
-
The Dilbert Index?
Measuring workplace morale -- and how to game the sick-day system.
-
How Biased Is Your Media?
The left and the right blame each other for pretty much everything, including slanted media coverage. Can they both be right?
-
Does This Recession Make Me Look Fat?
A look at some non-obvious ways to lose weight.
-
Save Me From Myself
A commitment device forces you to be the person you really want to be. What could possibly go wrong?
-
The Hidden Side of the Super Bowl
A football cheat sheet to help you sound like the smartest person at the party.
-
What Do Hand-Washing and Financial Illiteracy Have in...
Education is the surest solution to a lot of problems. Except when it’s not.
-
Does Money Really Buy Elections?
We all know the answer is yes. But the data -- and Rudy Giuliani -- say no.
-
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.
-
The Perils of Drunk Walking
We know it's terribly dangerous to drive drunk. But heading home on foot isn't the solution.
-
How Is a Bad Radio Station Like Our Public-School...
The thrill of customization, via Pandora and a radical new teaching method
-
How American Food Got So Bad
Tyler Cowen points fingers. There's plenty of blame to go around.
-
Weird Recycling
Clever ways to not waste our waste.
-
What Makes a Donor Donate?
The science of charity, with economist John List.
-
The Truth Is Out There…Isn’t It?
There’s a nasty secret about hot-button topics like global warming: knowledge is not always power.
-
Unnatural Turkeys
Our appetite for breast meat renders our holiday birds unable to reproduce.
-
Boo…Who?
Is booing an act of verbal vandalism—or the last true expression of democracy?
-
Wildfires, Cops, and Keggers
On Election Day, most people focus on the obvious winners and losers -- that is, the candidates. But we went looking for some of the strange side effects that elections produce.
-
Misadventures in Baby-Making
We are constantly wowed by new technologies and policies meant to make childbirth better. But beware the unintended consequences.
-
Those Cheating Teachers!
High-stakes testing has produced some rotten apples. But they can be caught.
-
Where Have All the Hitchhikers Gone?
-
The Decline and Fall of Violence
-
The Upside of Quitting
You know the saying: a winner never quits and a quitter never wins. To which Freakonomics Radio says … Are you sure?
-
The Folly of Prediction
Human beings love to predict the future, but we're quite terrible at it. So how about punishing all those bad predictions?
-
The Suicide Paradox
There are more than twice as many suicides as murders in the U.S., but suicide attracts far less scrutiny. Freakonomics Radio digs through the numbers and finds all kinds of surprises.
-
An Economist’s Guide to Parenting
Think you know how much parents matter? Think again. Economists crunch the numbers to learn the ROI on child-rearing.
-
The Church of “Scionology”
We worship the tradition of handing off a family business to the next generation. But is that really such a good idea?
-
Mouse in the Salad
In restaurants and in life, bad things happen. But what happens next is just as important.
-
Hey Baby, Is That a Prius You’re Driving?
"Conspicuous conservation" is about showing off your environmental bona fides. In other words, if you lean green, there's extra value in being seen leaning green.
-
Live From St. Paul!
Freakonomics Radio hits the road, and plays some Quiz Bowl
-
Things Our Fathers Gave Us
What did Levitt and Dubner learn as kids from their dads?
-
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 or not to join the family business.
-
Gambling With Your Life
Does Las Vegas increase your risk of suicide? A researcher embeds himself in the city where Americans are most likely to kill themselves.
-
Does College Still Matter? And Other Freaky Questions...
In our second round of FREAK-quently Asked Questions, Steve Levitt answers some queries from listeners and readers.
-
Smarter Kids at 10 Bucks a Pop
It won’t work for everyone, but there’s a cheap, quick, and simple way to lift some students’ grades.
-
Why Can’t We Predict Earthquakes?
We talk to a U.S. Geological Survey physicist about the science -- and folly -- of predicting earthquakes. There are lots of known knowns; and, fortunately, not too many unknown unknowns. But it's the known unknowns -- the timing of the next Big One -- that are the most dangerous.
-
Death by Fire? Probably Not
Fire deaths in the U.S. have fallen 90 percent over the past 100 years, a great and greatly underappreciated gain. How did it happen -- and could we ever get to zero?
-
The Health of Nations
For decades, GDP has been the yardstick for measuring living standards around the world. Martha Nussbaum would rather use something that actually works.
-
Is Twitter a Two-Way Street?
To get a lot of followers on Twitter, do you need to follow a lot of other Tweeps? And if not, why not?
-
The Power of Poop
Since the beginning of civilization, we’ve thought that human waste was worthless and dangerous. What if we were wrong?
-
Millionaires vs. Billionaires
Five things you don’t know about the NFL labor standoff
-
Why Cities Rock
Could it be that cities are "our greatest invention" -- that, despite reputation as black-soot-spewing engines of doom, they in fact make us richer, smarter, happier and (believe it!) greener?
Recommended Shows
PROGRAM INFORMATION
- New York, NY
- Business News, Economics, Public Radio
- WNYC
- English
-
WNYC Radio
160 Varick St.
New York, NY 10013212-433-9692 -
Visit the station website
Email the show
Update show info
