People I (Mostly) Admire

The dean of Yale’s School of Management grew up in a small village in Guyana. During his unlikely journey, he has researched video-gaming habits, communicable disease, and why so many African-Americans haven’t had the kind of success he’s had. Steve Levitt talks to Charles about his parents’ encouragement, his love of Sports Illustrated, and how he talks to his American-born kids about the complicated history of Blackness in America. This episode originally aired on September 18th, 2020. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

She’s best known for playing neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler on The Big Bang Theory, but the award-winning actress has a rich life outside of her acting career, as a teacher, mother — and a real-life neuroscientist. Steve Levitt tries to learn more about this one-time academic and Hollywood non-conformist, who is both very similar to him and also quite his opposite. This episode originally aired on September 4th, 2020. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

By cataloging the steady march of human progress, the Harvard psychologist and linguist has become a very public intellectual. But the self-declared “polite Canadian” has managed to enrage people on opposite ends of the political spectrum. Steve Levitt tries to understand why. This episode originally aired on August 21st, 2020. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In the last episode of the podcast, Stephen Dubner turns the microphone on Steve Levitt. They talk about Levitt’s favorite — and least favorite — moments from the show’s five-year run, his quest to reform education, and his next podcasting gig. SOURCES:Stephen DubnerFreakonomics Radio, Freakonomics RESOURCES:How to Help Kids SucceedPeople I (Mostly) Admire Feeling Sound and Hearing ColorPeople I (Mostly) Admire Richard Dawkins on God, Genes, and Murderous Baby CuckoosPeople I (Mostly) Admire Arnold Schwarzenegger Has Some Advice for YouPeople I (Mostly) Admire Werner Herzog Thinks His Films Are a DistractionPeople I (Mostly) Admire Drawing from Life (and Death)People I (Mostly) Admire Yuval Noah Harari Thinks Life is Meaningless and AmazingPeople I (Mostly) Admire Is This the Future of High School?People I (Mostly) Admire Does Death Have to Be a Death Sentence?People I (Mostly) Admire Sal Khan: 'If It Works for 15 Cousins, It Could Work for a Billion PeoplePeople I (Mostly) Admire Jared Diamond on the Downfall of Civilizations — and His Optimism for OursPeople I (Mostly) Admire Amanda & Lily Levitt Share What It’s Like to be Steve’s DaughtersPeople I (Mostly) Admire How Rahm Emanuel Would Run the WorldFreakonomics Radio The Levitt Lab Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The late Robert Solow was a giant among economists. When he was 98 years old he told Steve about cracking German codes in World War II, why it’s so hard to reduce inequality, and how his field lost its way. SOURCES:Robert Solow RESOURCES:Secrecy, Cigars, and a Venetian Wedding: How the P.G.A. Tour Made a Deal with Saudi ArabiaThe New York Times, Global Assessment of Environmental-Economic Accounting and Supporting Statistics: 2020Where Modern Macroeconomics Went WrongOxford Review of Economic Policy, As Inequality Grows, So Does the Political Influence of the RichThe Economist, Big Bang Financial Deregulation and Income Inequality: Evidence From U.K. and JapanVoxEU, The Fall And Rise Of U.S. Inequality, In 2 GraphsPlanet Money, Nobel Prize Biographical,Principles of Political Economy, EXTRAS:Is Economic Growth the Wrong Goal? (Update)Freakonomics Radio Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Michael Crow is the president of Arizona State University, which U.S. News & World Report has called the most innovative school in the country for 11 years running. He tells Steve about why higher education needs to change, and how A.S.U. is leading the way. Plus: Steve has an announcement about the podcast. SOURCES:Michael Crow RESOURCES:The Fifth Wave: The Evolution of American Higher Education, College Admissions Shocker!(New York Times,New American UniversityDreamscape LearnUniversity Innovation AllianceFYI.AI EXTRAS:Chemistry, EvolvedPeople I (Mostly) Admire America’s Math Curriculum Doesn’t Add UpPeople I (Mostly) Admire Data Science 4 Everyone Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Michael Greenstone knows it’s corny, but he wants to make the world a better place — by tracking the impact of air quality, developing pollution markets in India, and … starting a podcast, which Steve says proves he’s over the hill. SOURCES:Michael Greenstone RESOURCES:New evidence on the impact of sustained exposure to air pollution on life expectancy from China's Huai River Policy(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,Evidence on the impact of sustained exposure to air pollution on life expectancy from China's Huai River policy(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,ShockedAir Quality Life Index (AQLI)Emissions Market AcceleratorTropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) EXTRAS:This Is Your Brain on PollutionFreakonomics Radio The Simple Economics of Saving the Amazon RainforestPeople I (Mostly) Admire ( Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Suleika Jaouad was diagnosed with cancer at 22. She made her illness the subject of a New York Times column and a memoir, Between Two Kingdoms. She and Steve talk about what it means to live with a potentially fatal illness, how to talk to people who've gone through a tragedy, and ways to encourage medical donations. SOURCES:Suleika Jaouad RESOURCES:The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life, The Alchemy Journal, The Art of SurvivalThe Atlantic, American Symphony, Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted, Max Ritvo, Poet Who Chronicled His Cancer Fight, Dies at 25The New York Times, Life, InterruptedThe New York Times, The Fault in Our Stars, Bright-sided: How Positive Thinking Is Undermining America, The Isolation Journals, EXTRAS:John Green’s Reluctant Rocket Ship RidePeople I (Mostly) Admire Does Death Have to Be a Death Sentence?People I (Mostly) Admire Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Physicist and former pop star Brian Cox tells Steve about discovering the Higgs boson, having a number-one hit, and why particle physics research will almost certainly not create a black hole that destroys all life on earth. SOURCES:Brian Cox RESOURCES:Black Holes: The Key to Understanding the Universe,Higgs10: The Higgs boson and the rise of the Standard Model of Particle Physics in the 1970s(CERN,Out of Silence,WW scattering at the LHC(CERN, A Brief History of Time,Gravitational Collapse and Space-Time Singularities(Physical Review Letters,The Value of Science(Internet Archive,Brian Cox Live Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Irving Finkel is an expert on cuneiform — the oldest known writing system. He tells Steve the amazing story of how an ancient clay tablet unlocked the truth about Noah’s ark (and got Finkel in trouble with some Christians). SOURCES:Irving Finkel RESOURCES:How to write cuneiform(The British Museum,PBS Nova: Secrets of Noah's ArkThe Ark Before Noah: Decoding the Story of the Flood, Epic Hero(Smithsonian Magazine,How Egyptian hieroglyphs were decoded, a timeline to decipherment(The British Museum). EXTRAS:Jane Goodall, Who Chronicled the Social Lives of Chimps, Dies at 91(New York Times,Jane Goodall Changed the Way We See Animals. She’s Not DonePeople I (Mostly) Admire D:Ream - Things Can Only Get Better Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Moon Duchin is a math professor at the University of Chicago whose theoretical work has practical applications for voting and democracy. Why is striving for fair elections so difficult? SOURCES: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:State of Texas to begin calling witnesses in federal hearing over Trump-backed congressional map(KUT News,Utah's Redistricting Battle Explained(PBS Utah,Is This the Future of High School?People I (Mostly) Admire Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Frances Arnold pioneered the process of directed evolution — mimicking natural selection to create new enzymes that have changed everything from agriculture to laundry. SOURCES:Frances Arnold RESOURCES: Innovation by Evolution: Bringing New Chemistry to LifeBacteria taught to bond carbon and silicon for the first timeNew ScientistDirected evolution of cytochrome c for carbon–silicon bond formation: Bringing silicon to lifeScienceThe Director of EvolutionSlateEngineered ketol-acid reductoisomerase and alcohol dehydrogenase enable anaerobic 2-methylpropan-1-ol production at theoretical yield in Escherichia coliMetabolic EngineeringGevoProvivi EXTRAS:How to Help Kids SucceedPeople I (Mostly) AdmireThe Levitt Lab Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Steven Pinker’s new book argues that all our relationships depend on shared assumptions and “recursive mentalizing” — our constant efforts to understand what other people are thinking. He and Steve talk about the psychology of eye contact, the particular value of Super Bowl ads, and what it’s like to get cancelled. SOURCES:Steven Pinker RESOURCES:When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows, Why I Left Harvard(The Free Press,Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It MattersEconomics of Toilet Paper X ThreadHow a Famous Harvard Professor Became a Target Over His Tweets(New York Times, Police Killings of Blacks: Here Is What the Data SaySuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance, Rational Ritual: Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge, Open Letter to the LSA EXTRAS:Steven Pinker: 'I Manage My Controversy Portfolio CarefullyPeople I (Mostly) Admire Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Power of Habit author Charles Duhigg wrote his new book in an attempt to learn how to communicate better. Steve shares how the book helped him understand his own conversational weaknesses. SOURCES:Charles Duhigg RESOURCES:Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection, 2023 Word of the Year Is 'EnshittificationWhen Someone You Love Is Upset, Ask This One QuestionThe New York Times, Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business, The 36 Questions That Lead to LoveThe New York Times, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, The Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness: A Procedure and Some Preliminary FindingsPersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin, EXTRAS:How Can You Get Closer to the People You Care About?No Stupid Questions How Do You Connect With Someone You Just Met?No Stupid Questions Can I Ask You a Ridiculously Personal Question?Freakonomics Radio Amanda & Lily Levitt Share What It’s Like to be Steve’s DaughtersPeople I (Mostly) Admire Marina Nitze: 'If You Googled ‘Business Efficiency Consultant,’ I Was the Only ResultPeople I (Mostly) Admire How to Be More ProductiveFreakonomics Radio Frozen, Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Seth Berkley used to run the world's largest vaccine funding organization. He and Steve talk about the incredible value of vaccines, the economics of immunizing the developing world, and the current attacks on public health. SOURCES:Seth Berkley RESOURCES:Trump Administration Ends Program Critical to Search for an H.I.V. Vaccine(New York Times,Fair Doses: An Insider's Story of the Pandemic and the Global Fight for Vaccine Equity, How a partnership saved millions of children’s lives with vaccines(Gates Foundation).Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance EXTRAS:Sendhil Mullainathan Thinks Messing Around Is the Best Use of Your TimePeople I (Mostly) Admire Moncef Slaoui: 'It’s Unfortunate That It Takes a Crisis for This to HappenPeople I (Mostly) Admire

Stefanie Stantcheva’s approach seemed like career suicide. In fact, it won her the John Bates Clark Medal. She talks to fellow winner Steve Levitt about why she uses methods that most of the profession dismisses — and what she’s found that can’t be learned any other way. SOURCES:Stefanie Stantcheva RESOURCES:Understanding Economic Behavior Using Open-ended Survey Data(Working Paper,Fighting Climate Change: International Attitudes toward Climate Policies(American Economic Review,Zero-Sum Thinking and the Roots of U.S. Political Divides(NBER Working Paper,Why Do We Dislike Inflation?(NBER Working Paper,How to Run Surveys: A Guide to Creating Your Own Identifying Variation and Revealing the Invisible(Annual Review of Economics,Eliciting People's First-Order Concerns: Text Analysis of Open-Ended Survey Questions(NBER Working Paper,Understanding Tax Policy: How Do People Reason?(The Quarterly Journal of Economics,Immigration and Redistribution(NBER Working Paper, EXTRAS:VerbAI by Generation Lab

From recording some of the first rap hits to revitalizing Johnny Cash's career, the legendary producer has had an extraordinary creative life. In this episode he talks about his new book and his art-making process — and helps Steve get in touch with his own artistic side. SOURCES:Rick Rubin RESOURCES:The Creative Act: A Way of Being, How Google’s AlphaGo Beat a Go World ChampionThe Atlantic, DMC: The Real Story of Aerosmith + Run-D.M.C.’s ‘Walk This Way’Loudwire HurtWalk This WayIt’s YoursWalk This WayThe Way of Code EXTRAS:How To Be CreativeFreakonomics Radio

More than two decades ago, Adam Riess’s Nobel Prize-winning work fundamentally changed our understanding of the universe. His new work is reshaping cosmology for a second time. RESOURCES:Adam Riess SOURCES:The Nobel Prize Winner Who Thinks We Have the Universe All Wrong(The Atlantic,The answer to life, the universe and everything might be 73. Or 67(The Guardian,Adam G. Riess Nobel Prize Lecture(The Nobel Foundation,Breakthroughs 1998(Science,Observational Evidence from Supernovae for an Accelerating Universe and a Cosmological Constant(The Astronomical Journal,1912: Henrietta Leavitt Discovers the Distance Key(Carnegie Institution for Science)

Uri Simonsohn is a behavioral science professor who wants to improve standards in his field — so he’s made a sideline of investigating fraudulent academic research. He tells Steve Levitt, who's spent plenty of time rooting out cheaters in other fields, how he does it. SOURCES:Uri Simonsohn RESOURCES:Gino v. President and Fellows of Harvard College(Court Listener,Statement from Dan ArielyData Falsificada (Part 4): 'Forgetting The Words(Data Colada,They Studied Dishonesty. Was Their Work a Lie?(The New Yorker,Evidence of Fraud in an Influential Field Experiment About Dishonesty(Data Colada,Signing at the beginning makes ethics salient anddecreases dishonest self-reports in comparison tosigning at the end(PNAS,Power Posing: Reassessing The Evidence Behind The Most Popular TED Talk(Data ColadaYour Body Language May Shape Who You Are(TED,Daily Horizons: Evidence of Narrow Bracketing in Judgment from 10 Years of MBA-Admission Interviews(Psychological Science,Spurious? Name similarity effects (implicit egotism) in marriage, job, and moving decisions(Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,False-Positive Psychology: Undisclosed Flexibility in Data Collection and Analysis Allows Presenting Anything as Significant(Psychological Science, EXTRAS:Will We Solve the Climate Problem?People I (Mostly) Admire Why Is There So Much Fraud in Academia?Freakonomics Radio When I'm Sixty Four

Former U.S. Secretary of Education, 3x3 basketball champion, and leader of an anti-gun violence organization are all on Arne’s resume. He’s also Steve’s neighbor. The two talk about teachers caught cheating in Chicago public schools and Steve shares a story he’s never told Arne, about a defining moment in the educator’s life. SOURCES:Arne Duncan RESOURCES:How Schools Work, Benji30 for 30, EXTRAS:Chicago C.R.E.D.