People I (Mostly) Admire

Jonathan Levin is an academic economist who now runs one of the most influential universities in the world. He tells Steve how he saved Comcast a billion dollars, why he turned down Steve’s unusual pitch to come to the University of Chicago, and why being a nice guy makes him a better college president. SOURCEJonathan Levin RESOURCES:Income Segregation and Intergenerational Mobility Across Colleges in the United StatesThe Quarterly Journal of Economics, Jonathan Levin: The Most Recent John Bates Clark Medal WinnerFreakonomics Blog, Winning Play in Spectrum AuctionsNBER Working Paper, Information and Competition in U.S. Forest Service Timber AuctionsJournal of Political Economy, EXTRAS:Vintage Pokémon card pack Instagram videoHigher Education Is Broken. Can It Be Fixed?People I (Mostly) Admire How Much Are the Right Friends Worth?People I (Mostly) Admire

Sarah Hart investigates the mathematical structures underlying musical compositions and literature. Using examples from Monteverdi to Lewis Carroll, Sarah explains to Steve how math affects how we hear music and understand stories. SOURCE:Sarah Hart RESOURCES:Once Upon a Prime: The Wondrous Connections Between Mathematics and Literature, Ahab's Arithmetic: The Mathematics of Moby-DickJournal of Humanistic Mathematics, Online Lecture: The Mathematics of Musical CompositionBlack Mirror: Bandersnatch, The Luminaries: A Novel, Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure, Les Revenentes, A Void, Cent Mille Milliards de Poèmes, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, OuLiPo EXTRAS:The Joy of Math With Sarah HartPeople I (Mostly) Admire Mathematician Sarah Hart on Why Numbers are Music to Our EarsPeople I (Mostly) Admire

Sarah Stein Greenberg runs Stanford’s d.school, which teaches design as a mode of problem solving. She and Steve talk about what makes her field different from other academic disciplines, how to approach hard problems, and why brainstorms are so annoying. SOURCE:Sarah Stein Greenberg RESOURCES:Creative Acts for Curious People: How to Think, Create, and Lead in Unconventional WaysNoora HealthCivillaSubstantialRareSarah Stein Greenberg wildlife photography EXTRAS:Feeling Sound and Hearing ColorPeople I (Mostly) Admire Why Are Boys and Men in Trouble?People I (Mostly) Admire What’s Impacting American Workers?People I (Mostly) Admire Richard Dawkins on God, Genes, and Murderous Baby CuckoosPeople I (Mostly) Admire The World’s Most Controversial OrnithologistPeople I (Mostly) Admire How PETA Made Radical Ideas MainstreamPeople I (Mostly) Admire Pay Attention! (Your Body Will Thank You)People I (Mostly) Admire How to Have Great ConversationsPeople I (Mostly) Admire Suleika Jaouad’s Survival MechanismsPeople I (Mostly) Admire Daron Acemoglu on Economics, Politics, and PowerPeople I (Mostly) Admire Nobel Laureate Claudia Goldin on 'Greedy Work' and the Wage GapPeople I (Mostly) Admire A Rockstar Chemist and Her Cancer-Attacking 'Lawn MowerPeople I (Mostly) Admire Daniel Kahneman on Why Our Judgment is Flawed — and What to Do About ItPeople I (Mostly) Admire Why Is Richard Thaler Such a ****ing Optimist?People I (Mostly) Admire

In her book, Rumbles, medical historian Elsa Richardson explores the history of the human gut. She talks with Steve about dubious medical practices, gruesome tales of survival, and the things that medieval doctors may have gotten right. SOURCE:Elsa Richardson RESOURCES:Rumbles: A Curious History of the Gut: The Secret Story of the Body's Most Fascinating OrganMichael Levitt retirement speechWas There Really a Hawthorne Effect at the Hawthorne Plant? An Analysis of the Original Illumination ExperimentsNBER Working Paper, Floating Stools — Flatus versus FatThe New England Journal of Medicine, Factors Influencing Pulmonary Methane Excretion in ManJournal of Experimental Medicine, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, The Levitt Lab Founding School LeaderThe Levitt Lab EXTRAS:An Update on the Khan World SchoolPeople I (Mostly) Admire Is This the Future of High School?People I (Mostly) Admire Sal Khan: ‘If It Works for 15 Cousins, It Could Work for a Billion PeoplePeople I (Mostly) Admire The Power of PoopFreakonomics Radio

How psychologist Dan Gilbert went from high school dropout to Harvard professor, found the secret of joy, and inspired Steve Levitt's divorce. SOURCE:Daniel Gilbert RESOURCES:What the Data Says (and Doesn’t Say) About Crime in the United StatesEnlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and ProgressMistakenly Seeking SolitudeJournal of Experimental PsychologyJust Think: The Challenges of the Disengaged MindScienceThe End of History IllusionScienceHappy Money: The Science of Smarter SpendingIf Money Doesn't Make You Happy Then You Probably Aren't Spending It RightJournal of Consumer PsychologyThis Emotional LifeStumbling on HappinessAffective ForecastingAdvances in Experimental Social Psychology EXTRAS:Drawing from Life (and Death)People I (Mostly) Admire Who Gives the Worst Advice?People I (Mostly) AdmireSendhil Mullainathan Thinks Messing Around Is the Best Use of Your TimePeople I (Mostly) AdmireAm I Boring You?Freakonomics Radio

Moon Duchin is a math professor at Cornell University whose theoretical work has practical applications for voting and democracy. Why is striving for fair elections so difficult? SOURCE:Moon Duchin RESOURCES:Gerrymandering: The Origin StoryTimeless: Stories from the Library of Congress, Redistricting for ProportionalityThe Forum, The Atlas Of RedistrictingFiveThirtyEight, In a Comically Drawn Pennsylvania District, the Voters Are Not AmusedThe New York Times, EXTRAS:Why Are Boys and Men in Trouble?People I (Mostly) Admire Is This the Future of High School?People I (Mostly) Admire

The director of the Hayden Planetarium is one of the best science communicators of our time. He and Steve talk about his role in reclassifying Pluto, bad teachers, and why economics isn’t a science. SOURCE:Neil deGrasse Tyson RESOURCES:Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization, The Universe and Beyond, with Stephen HawkingStarTalkThe Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet, Pluto's Not a Planet? Only in New YorkThe New York Times, The Sky Is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist, Merlin's Tour of the Universe, EXTRAS:Richard Dawkins on God, Genes, and Murderous Baby CuckoosPeople I (Mostly) Admire

He’s the chief creative officer of Pixar, and the Academy Award-winning director of Soul, Inside Out, Up, and Monsters, Inc. Pete Docter and Steve talk about Pixar’s scrappy beginnings, why wrong turns are essential, and the movie moment that changed Steve’s life. SOURCE:Pete Docter RESOURCES:‘Inside Out 2’ Becomes the Highest-Grossing Animated Film of All Time GloballySoul, The Red TurtleInside Out, Up, Monsters, Inc., Toy Story, Paper Moon, EXTRA:Walt Hickey Wants to Track Your EyeballsPeople I (Mostly) Admire

David Eagleman is a Stanford neuroscientist, C.E.O., television host, and founder of the Possibilianism movement. He and Steve talk about how wrists can substitute for ears, why we dream, and what Fisher-Price magnets have to do with neuroscience. SOURCE:David Eagleman RESOURCES:Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain, Why Do We Dream? A New Theory on How It Protects Our BrainsTIME, Prevalence of Learned Grapheme-Color Pairings in a Large Online Sample of SynesthetesPLoS One,Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives, The vOICe appNeosensory EXTRAS:What’s Impacting American Workers?People I (Mostly) Admire This Is Your Brain on PodcastsFreakonomics Radio

Boys and men are trending downward in education, employment, and mental health. Richard Reeves, author of the book Of Boys and Men, has some solutions that don’t come at the expense of women and girls. Steve pushes him to go further. SOURCE:Richard Reeves RESOURCES:Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It,The Crisis of Men and BoysThe New York Times, Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do About It,An Empirical Analysis of the Gender Gap in MathematicsAmerican Economic Journal: Applied Economics, John Stuart Mill: Victorian Firebrand, EXTRA:What Is the Future of College — and Does It Have Room for Men? (Update)Freakonomics Radio

Daron Acemoglu was just awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in economics. Earlier this year, he and Steve talked about his groundbreaking research on what makes countries succeed or fail. SOURCES:Daron Acemoglu RESOURCES:The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2024Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity, Economists Pin More Blame on Tech for Rising InequalityThe New York Times, America’s Slow-Motion Wage Crisis: Four Decades of Slow and Unequal GrowthEconomic Policy Institute, A Machine That Made Stockings Helped Kick Off the Industrial RevolutionAtlas Obscura, The Long-Term Jobs Killer Is Not China. It’s AutomationThe New York Times, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical InvestigationAmerican Economic Review, Learning about Others' Actions and the Investment AcceleratorThe Economic Journal, A Friedman Doctrine — The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its ProfitsThe New York Times, EXTRAS:What’s Impacting American Workers?People I (Mostly) Admire 'My God, This Is a Transformative PowerPeople I (Mostly) Admire New Technologies Always Scare Us. Is A.I. Any Different?Freakonomics Radio How to Prevent Another Great DepressionFreakonomics Radio Is Income Inequality Inevitable?Freakonomics Radio

David Autor took his first economics class at 29 years old. Now he’s one of the central academics studying the labor market. The M.I.T. economist and Steve dissect the impact of technology on labor, spar on A.I., and discuss why economists can sometimes be oblivious. SOURCES:David Autor RESOURCES:Does Automation Replace Experts or Augment Expertise? The Answer Is YesApplying AI to Rebuild Middle Class JobsNew Frontiers: The Origins and Content of New Work, 1940–2018The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Bottlenecks: Sectoral Imbalances and the US Productivity SlowdownNBER Macroeconomics Annual, Good News: There’s a Labor ShortageThe New York Times, David Autor, the Academic Voice of the American WorkerThe Economist, Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? The History and Future of Workplace AutomationThe Journal of Economic Perspectives, The Growth of Low-Skill Service Jobs and the Polarization of the US Labor MarketThe American Economic Review, The China Syndrome: Local Labor Market Effects of Import Competition in the United StatesThe American Economic Review, EXTRAS:What Do People Do All Day?Freakonomics Radio Daron Acemoglu on Economics, Politics, and PowerPeople I (Mostly) Admire You Make Me Feel Like a Natural ExperimentPeople I (Mostly) Admire In Search of the Real Adam SmithFreakonomics Radio Max Tegmark on Why Superhuman Artificial Intelligence Won’t be Our SlavePeople I (Mostly) Admire AutomationLast Week Tonight With John Oliver

Kate Douglass is a world-class swimmer and data scientist who’s used mathematical modeling to help make her stroke more efficient. She and Steve talk about why the Olympics were underwhelming, how she won gold, and why she won’t be upset to say goodbye to the pool. SOURCE:Kate DouglassKate Douglass HOLDS OFF Tatjana Smith to win 200m breaststroke | Paris OlympicsNBC Sports, The Plane Partition Function Abides by Benford’s LawUPB Scientific Bulletin, Series A, Swimming in DataThe Mathematical Intelligencer, Why Some Olympic Swimmers Think About Math in the PoolThe New York Times, EXTRAS:The Language of the UniversePeople I (Mostly) Admire

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 — and about his unusual path to success, which came without a high school diploma. SOURCE:Ken Ono RESOURCES:‘Digital Twins’ Give Olympic Swimmers a BoostScientific American, Swimming in DataThe Mathematical Intelligencer, Integer Partitions Detect the PrimesPNAS, The Man Who Knew Infinity, Proof of the Umbral Moonshine ConjectureResearch in the Mathematical Sciences, Ramanujan's Ternary Quadratic FormInventiones Mathematicae, EXTRA:Richard Dawkins on God, Genes, and Murderous Baby CuckoosPeople I (Mostly) Admire

Artist Wendy MacNaughton knows the difficulty of sitting in silence and the power of having fun. She explains to Steve the lessons she’s gleaned from drawing hospice residents, working in Rwanda, and reporting from Guantanamo Bay. SOURCE:Wendy MacNaughton RESOURCES:What Happens if Two Complete Strangers Draw Each Other?How to Say Goodbye, How to Have Fun Again(The New York Times,Inside America’s War Court: Clothing and Culture at Guantánamo BayThe New York Times, Drawing the Guantánamo Bay War CourtThe New York Times, Think Like a Freak, DrawTogetherThe Grown-Ups TableZen Caregiving ProjectDrawTogether Strangers EXTRAS:Rick Rubin on How to Make Something GreatPeople I (Mostly) Admire Does Death Have to Be a Death Sentence?People I (Mostly) Admire Sendhil Mullainathan Explains How to Generate an Idea a Minute (Part 2)People I (Mostly) Admire Sendhil Mullainathan Thinks Messing Around Is the Best Use of Your TimePeople I (Mostly) Admire

Bestselling author James Nestor believes that we can improve our lives by changing the way we breathe. He’s persuasive enough to get Steve taping his mouth shut at night. He explains how humans dive to depths of 300 feet without supplemental oxygen, and describes what it’s like to be accepted into a pod of whales. SOURCES:James Nestor RESOURCES:Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us about Ourselves, Open Your Mouth and You’re DeadOutside Magazine, The Brain on Sonar — How Blind People Find Their Way Around With EchoesNational Geographic, How I Held My Breath for 17 MinutesTED Talk, Project CETI EXTRA:Data Science for Everyone Survey

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals founder Ingrid Newkirk has been badgering meat-eaters, fur-wearers, and circus-goers for more than 40 years. For a woman who’s leaving her liver to the president of France in her will, she sounds quite sensible when she tells Steve what we can learn from animals, why she supports euthanasia, and who’ll get her other organs. SOURCEIngrid Newkirk RESOURCES:Paradoxical Gender Effects in Meat Consumption Across CulturesNature Scientific Reports, PETA President Bequeaths Her Rump to a Reality ShowAnimalkind: Remarkable Discoveries about Animals and Revolutionary New Ways to Show Them Compassion, One Last U.S. Medical School Still Killed Animals to Teach Surgery. But No MoreThe Washington Post, The Naked and the DeadThe Times, The Betrayal of 'No-Kill' ShelteringThe Lab-Monkey Controversy That Launched the Animal-Rights MovementThe New Yorker, EXTRAS:Suleika Jaouad’s Survival MechanismsPeople I (Mostly) Admire Jane Goodall Changed the Way We See Animals. She’s Not DonePeople I (Mostly) Admire Peter Singer Isn’t a Saint, But He’s Better Than Steve LevittPeople I (Mostly) Admire Bruce Friedrich Thinks There’s a Better Way to Eat MeatPeople I (Mostly) Admire Project Donor

Revisiting Steve’s 2021 conversation with the economist and MacArthur “genius” about how to make memories stickier, why change is undervalued, and how to find something new to say on the subject of scarcity. SOURCE:Sendhil Mullainathan RESOURCES:Fictional Money, Real Costs: Impacts of Financial Salience on Disadvantaged StudentsAmerican Economic Review, Do Financial Concerns Make Workers Less Productive?NBER Working Paper, Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less,Heads or Tails: The Impact of a Coin Toss on Major Life Decisions and Subsequent HappinessNBER Working Paper, Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much, The End of History IllusionScience, EXTRAS:Leidy Klotz on Why the Best Solutions Involve Less — Not MorePeople I (Mostly) Admire Sendhil Mullainathan Explains How to Generate an Idea a MinutePeople I (Mostly) Admire

Under his helm, the TED Conference went from a small industry gathering to a global phenomenon. Chris and Steve talk about how to build lasting institutions, how to make generosity go viral, and what Chris has learned about public speaking. SOURCE:Chris Anderson RESOURCES:Infectious Generosity: The Ultimate Idea Worth Spreading, TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking, The Best Stats You've Ever SeenTED, Do Schools Kill Creativity?TED, Close-Up Card Magic With a TwistTED, The Freakonomics of Crack DealingTED, ZoeCoral.com EXTRAS:Giving It AwayPeople I (Mostly) Admire We Can Play God NowPeople I (Mostly) Admire Self-Help for Data NerdsPeople I (Mostly) Admire Steven Pinker: 'I Manage My Controversy Portfolio CarefullyPeople I (Mostly) Admire

The former YouTube C.E.O. — and sixteenth Google employee — died on August 9, 2024. Steve talked with her in 2020 about her remarkable career, and how her background in economics shaped her work. SOURCES:Susan Wojcicki RESOURCES:Susan Wojcicki, Former Chief of YouTube, Dies at 56The New York Times,