Freakonomics Radio
By Stephen J. Dubner and WNYC Studios
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Description
Have fun discovering the hidden side of everything with host Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of the best-selling "Freakonomics” books. Each week, hear surprising conversations that explore the riddles of everyday life and the weird wrinkles of human nature—from cheating and crime to parenting and sports. Dubner talks with Nobel laureates and provocateurs, social scientists and entrepreneurs — and his “Freakonomics” co-author Steve Levitt. After just a few episodes, this podcast will have you too thinking like a Freak. Produced by WNYC Studios, home of other great podcasts such as “Radiolab," "Death, Sex & Money," and "On the Media."
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1 |
CleanHow Stupid Is Our Obsession With Lawns? | Nearly two percent of America is grassy green. Sure, lawns are beautiful and useful and they smell great. But are the costs — financial, environmental and otherwise — worth the benefits? | 31 5 2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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2 |
CleanAre the Rich Really Less Generous Than the Poor? | A series of academic studies suggest that the wealthy are, to put it bluntly, selfish jerks. It's an easy narrative to swallow — but is it true? A trio of economists set out to test the theory. All it took was a Dutch postal worker's uniform, some enve | 24 5 2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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3 |
CleanHoopers! Hoopers! Hoopers! | As CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer was famous for over-the-top enthusiasm. Now he's brought that same passion to the N.B.A. -- and to a pet project called USAFacts, which performs a sort of fiscal colonoscopy on the American government. | 17 5 2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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4 |
CleanHow Big is My Penis? (And Other Things We Ask Google) | On the Internet, people say all kinds of things they'd never say aloud -- about sex and race, about their true wants and fears. Seth Stephens-Davidowitz has spent years parsing the data. His conclusion: our online searches are the reflection of our true | 10 5 2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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5 |
CleanFood + Science = Victory! (Rebroadcast) | A kitchen wizard and a nutrition detective talk about the perfect hamburger, getting the most out of garlic, and why you should use vodka in just about everything. | 3 5 2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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6 |
CleanThere’s a War on Sugar. Is It Justified? | Some people argue that sugar should be regulated, like alcohol and tobacco, on the grounds that it's addictive and toxic. How much sense does that make? We hear from a regulatory advocate, an evidence-based skeptic, a former FDA commissioner — and the | 26 4 2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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7 |
CleanEarth 2.0: Is Income Inequality Inevitable? | In pursuit of a more perfect economy, we discuss the future of work; the toxic remnants of colonization; and whether giving everyone a basic income would be genius -- or maybe the worst idea ever. | 19 4 2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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8 |
CleanEarth 2.0: What Would Our Economy Look Like? | If we could reboot the planet and create new systems and institutions from scratch, would they be any better than what we've blundered our way into through trial and error? This is the first of a series of episodes that we'll release over several months. | 12 4 2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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9 |
CleanCould Solving This One Problem Solve All the Others? | The biggest problem with humanity is humans themselves. Too often, we make choices — what we eat, how we spend our money and time — that undermine our well-being. An all-star team of academic researchers thinks it has the solution: perfecting the sci | 5 4 2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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10 |
CleanBig Returns from Thinking Small | By day, two leaders of Britain's famous Nudge Unit use behavioral tricks to make better government policy. By night, they repurpose those tricks to improve their personal lives. They want to help you do the same. | 29 3 2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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11 |
CleanBONUS: “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know” on the topic of Collections. | Hear live journalism wrapped in a game show package and hosted by Stephen J. Dubner. In this episode, Tim Ferriss, Eugene Mirman and Anne Pasternak are panelists. The self-help guru, the comedian and the Brooklyn Museum director talk about brainwaves, su | 27 3 2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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12 |
CleanHow Safe Is Your Job? (Rebroadcast) | Economists preach the gospel of "creative destruction," whereby new industries -- and jobs -- replace the old ones. But has creative destruction become too destructive? | 22 3 2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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13 |
CleanWhy Is My Life So Hard? | Most of us feel we face more headwinds and obstacles than everyone else — which breeds resentment. We also undervalue the tailwinds that help us — which leaves us ungrateful and unhappy. How can we avoid this trap? | 15 3 2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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14 |
CleanChuck E. Cheese’s: Where a Kid Can Learn Price Theory | The pizza-and-gaming emporium prides itself on affordability, which means its arcade games are really cheap to play. Does that lead to kids hogging the best games — and parents starting those infamous YouTube brawls? | 8 3 2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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15 |
CleanThe Taboo Trifecta | The 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. | 1 3 2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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16 |
CleanNo Hollywood Ending for the Visual-Effects Industry | In their chase for a global audience, American movie studios spend billions to make their films look amazing. But almost none of those dollars stay in America. What would it take to bring those jobs back -- and would it be worth it? | 22 2 2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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17 |
CleanProfessor Hendryx vs. Big Coal | What happens when a public-health researcher deep in coal country argues that mountaintop mining endangers the entire community? Hint: it doesn't go very well. | 15 2 2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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18 |
CleanHow to Get More Grit in Your Life (Rebroadcast) | The psychologist Angela Duckworth argues that a person's level of stick-to-itiveness is directly related to their level of success. No big surprise there. But grit, she says, isn't something you're born with -- it can be learned. Here's how. | 8 2 2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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19 |
CleanAn Egghead’s Guide to the Super Bowl | We assembled a panel of smart dudes -- a two-time Super Bowl champ; a couple of NFL linemen, including one who's getting a math Ph.D. at MIT; and our resident economist -- to tell you what to watch for, whether you're a football fanatic or a total newbie | 1 2 2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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20 |
CleanDid China Eat America’s Jobs? | For years, economists promised that global free trade would be mostly win-win. Now they admit the pace of change has been "traumatic." This has already led to a political insurrection -- so what's next? | 25 1 2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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21 |
CleanIs the American Dream Really Dead? | Just a few decades ago, more than 90 percent of 30-year-olds earned more than their parents had earned at the same age. Now it's only about 50 percent. What happened -- and what can be done about it? | 18 1 2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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22 |
CleanTrevor Noah Has a Lot to Say | The Daily Show host grew up as a poor, mixed-race South African kid going to three churches every Sunday. So he has a sui generis view of America -- especially on race, politics, and religion -- and he's not afraid to speak his mind. | 11 1 2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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23 |
CleanThe Men Who Started a Thinking Revolution | Starting in the late 1960s, the Israeli psychologists Amos Tversky and Danny Kahneman began to redefine how the human mind actually works. Michael Lewis's new book The Undoing Project explains how the movement they started -- now known as behavioral econ | 4 1 2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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24 |
CleanHow to Become Great at Just About Anything (Rebroadcast) | What if the thing we call "talent" is grotesquely overrated? And what if deliberate practice is the secret to excellence? Those are the claims of the research psychologist Anders Ericsson, who has been studying the science of expertise for decades. He te | 28 12 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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25 |
CleanHow to Be More Productive (Rebroadcast) | In this busy time of year, we could all use some tips on how to get more done in less time. First, however, a warning: there's a big difference between being busy and being productive. | 21 12 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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26 |
CleanBad Medicine, Part 3: Death by Diagnosis | By some estimates, medical error is the third-leading cause of death in the U.S. How can that be? And what's to be done? Our third and final episode in this series offers some encouraging answers. | 14 12 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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27 |
CleanBad Medicine, Part 2: (Drug) Trials and Tribulations | How do so many ineffective and even dangerous drugs make it to market? One reason is that clinical trials are often run on "dream patients" who aren't representative of a larger population. On the other hand, sometimes the only thing worse than being exc | 7 12 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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28 |
CleanBad Medicine, Part 1: The Story of 98.6 | We tend to think of medicine as a science, but for most of human history it has been scientific-ish at best. In the first episode of a three-part series, we look at the grotesque mistakes produced by centuries of trial-and-error, and ask whether the new | 30 11 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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29 |
CleanThe No-Tipping Point (Rebroadcast) | The restaurant business model is warped: kitchen wages are too low to hire cooks, while diners are put in charge of paying the waitstaff. So what happens if you eliminate tipping, raise menu prices, and redistribute the wealth? New York restaurant maveri | 23 11 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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30 |
CleanHow to Make a Bad Decision | Some of our most important decisions are shaped by something as random as the order in which we make them. The gambler's fallacy, as it's known, affects loan officers, federal judges -- and probably you too. How to avoid it? The first step is to admit ju | 16 11 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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31 |
CleanBONUS EPISODE: Introducing Stephen J. Dubner's new podcast, "Tell Me Something I Don't Know" | "Tell Me Something I Don't Know" is a live game show hosted by Stephen J. Dubner of "Freakonomics Radio." He has always had a mission: to tell you the things you thought you knew but didn't, and things you never thought you wanted to know, but do. Now, w | 14 11 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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32 |
CleanTrust Me | Societies where people trust one another are healthier and wealthier. In the U.S. (and the U.K. and elsewhere), social trust has been falling for decades -- in part because our populations are more diverse. What can we do to fix it? | 9 11 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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33 |
CleanBONUS EPISODE: How Much Does the President Really Matter? (Rebroadcast) | The U.S. president is often called the "leader of free world." But if you ask an economist or a Constitutional scholar how much the occupant of the Oval Office matters, they won't say much. We look at what the data have to say about measuring leadership, | 9 11 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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34 |
CleanThe White House Gets Into the Nudge Business | A tiny behavioral-sciences startup is trying to improve the way federal agencies do their work. Considering the size (and habits) of most federal agencies, this isn't so simple. But after a series of early victories -- and a helpful executive order from | 2 11 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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35 |
CleanIn Praise of Incrementalism | What do Renaissance painting, civil-rights movements, and Olympic cycling have in common? In each case, huge breakthroughs came from taking tiny steps. In a world where everyone is looking for the next moonshot, we shouldn't ignore the power of increment | 26 10 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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36 |
CleanIn Praise of Maintenance | Has our culture's obsession with innovation led us to neglect the fact that things also need to be taken care of? | 19 10 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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37 |
CleanThis Is Your Brain on Podcasts | Neuroscientists still have a great deal to learn about the human brain. One recent MRI study sheds some light, finding that a certain kind of storytelling stimulates enormous activity across broad swaths of the brain. The takeaway is obvious: you should | 12 10 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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38 |
CleanHow To Win A Nobel Prize (Rebroadcast) | The process is famously secretive (and conducted in Swedish!) but we pry the lid off at least a little bit. | 5 10 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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39 |
CleanWhy Are We Still Using Cash? | It facilitates crime, bribery, and tax evasion -- and yet some governments (including ours) are printing more cash than ever. Other countries, meanwhile, are ditching cash entirely. And if Star Trek is right, we won't have money of any sort in the 24th c | 28 9 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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40 |
CleanHas the U.S. Presidency Become a Dictatorship? | Sure, we all pay lip service to the Madisonian system of checks and balances. But as one legal scholar argues, presidents have been running roughshod over the system for decades. The result? An accumulation of power that's turned the presidency into a po | 21 9 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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41 |
CleanTen Signs You Might Be a Libertarian | Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party's presidential candidate, likes to say that most Americans are libertarians but don't know it yet. So why can't Libertarians (and other third parties) gain more political traction? | 14 9 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanWhy Uber Is an Economist’s Dream | To you, it's just a ride-sharing app that gets you where you're going. But to an economist, Uber is a massive repository of moment-by-moment data that is helping answer some of the field's most elusive questions. | 7 9 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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43 |
CleanThe Future (Probably) Isn’t as Scary as You Think | Internet pioneer Kevin Kelly tries to predict the future by identifying what's truly inevitable. How worried should we be? Yes, robots will probably take your job -- but the future will still be pretty great. | 31 8 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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44 |
CleanAre You Ready for a Glorious Sunset? (Rebroadcast) | The gist: we spend billions on end-of-life healthcare that doesn’t do much good. So what if a patient could forego the standard treatment and get a cash rebate instead? | 24 8 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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45 |
CleanAziz Ansari Needs Another Toothbrush (Rebroadcast) | The comedian, actor -- and now, author -- answers our FREAK-quently Asked Questions. | 17 8 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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46 |
CleanWhat Are You Waiting For? | Standing in line represents a particularly sloppy - and frustrating - way for supply and demand to meet. Why haven't we found a better way to get what we want? Is it possible that we secretly enjoy waiting in line? And might it even be (gulp) good for us | 10 8 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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47 |
CleanIs It Okay for Restaurants to Racially Profile Their Employees? (Rebroadcast) | We seem to have decided that ethnic food tastes better when it's served by people of that ethnicity (or at least something close). Does this make sense -- and is it legal? | 3 8 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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48 |
CleanTen Ideas to Make Politics Less Rotten | We Americans may love our democracy -- at least in theory -- but at the moment our feelings toward the federal government lie somewhere between disdain and hatred. Which electoral and political ideas should be killed off to make way for a saner system? | 27 7 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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49 |
CleanWhat Are Gender Barriers Made Of? | Overt discrimination in the labor markets may be on the wane, but women are still subtly penalized by all sorts of societal conventions. How can those penalties be removed without burning down the house? | 20 7 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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50 |
CleanIs the Internet Being Ruined? | It's a remarkable ecosystem that allows each of us to exercise control over our lives. But how much control do we truly have? How many of our decisions are really being made by Google and Facebook and Apple? And, perhaps most importantly: is the Internet | 13 7 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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51 |
CleanConfessions of a Pothole Politician | Eric Garcetti, the mayor of Los Angeles, has big ambitions but knows he must first master the small stuff. He's also a polymath who relies heavily on data and new technologies. Could this be what modern politics is supposed to look like? | 6 7 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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52 |
CleanThe Suicide Paradox (Rebroadcast) | 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. | 29 6 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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53 |
CleanHow Much Does the President Really Matter? (Rebroadcast) | The U.S. president is often called the "leader of free world." But if you ask an economist or a Constitutional scholar how much the occupant of the Oval Office matters, they won't say much. We look at what the data have to say about measuring leadership, | 22 6 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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54 |
CleanWhy Do We Really Follow the News? (Rebroadcast) | There are all kinds of civics-class answers to that question. But how true are they? Could it be that we like to read about war, politics, and miscellaneous heartbreak simply because it's (gasp) entertaining? | 15 6 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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55 |
CleanAre We in a Mattress-Store Bubble? | You've seen them -- everywhere! -- and often clustered together, as if central planners across America decided that what every city really needs is a Mattress District. There are now dozens of online rivals too. Why are there so many stores selling somet | 8 6 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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56 |
CleanWhy Does Everyone Hate Flying? And Other Questions Only a Pilot Can Answer | Patrick Smith, the author of Cockpit Confidential, answers every question we can throw at him about what really happens up in the air. Just don't get him started on pilotless planes -- or whether the autopilot is actually doing the flying. | 1 6 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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57 |
CleanThe Longest Long Shot | When the uncelebrated Leicester City Football Club won the English Premier League, it wasn't just the biggest underdog story in recent history. It was a sign of changing economics -- and that other impossible, wonderful events might be lurking just aroun | 25 5 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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58 |
CleanHow to Be Tim Ferriss | Our Self-Improvement Month concludes with a man whose entire life and career are one big pile of self-improvement. Nutrition? Check. Bizarre physical activities? Check. Working less and earning more? Check. Tim Ferriss, creator of the Four-Hour universe, | 18 5 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanHow to Win Games and Beat People | Games are as old as civilization itself, and some people think they have huge social value regardless of whether you win or lose. Tom Whipple is not one of those people. That's why he consulted an army of preposterously overqualified experts to find the | 11 5 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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60 |
CleanHow to Get More Grit in Your Life | The psychologist Angela Duckworth argues that a person's level of stick-to-itiveness is directly related to their level of success. No big surprise there. But grit, she says, isn't something you're born with -- it can be learned. Here's how. | 4 5 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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61 |
CleanBONUS EPISODE: Being Malcolm Gladwell | "Books are a pain in the ass," says Gladwell, who has written some of the most popular, influential, and beloved non-fiction books in recent history. In this wide-ranging and candid conversation, he describes other pains in the ass -- as well as his pass | 1 5 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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62 |
CleanHow to Become Great at Just About Anything | What if the thing we call "talent" is grotesquely overrated? And what if deliberate practice is the secret to excellence? Those are the claims of the research psychologist Anders Ericsson, who has been studying the science of expertise for decades. He te | 27 4 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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63 |
CleanHow to Be More Productive | It's Self-Improvement Month at Freakonomics Radio. We begin with a topic that seems to be on everyone's mind: how to get more done in less time. First, however, a warning: there's a big difference between being busy and being productive. | 20 4 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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64 |
CleanIs the World Ready for a Guaranteed Basic Income? | A lot of full-time jobs in the modern economy simply don't pay a living wage. And even those jobs may be obliterated by new technologies. What's to be done so that financially vulnerable people aren't just crushed? It may finally be time for an idea that | 13 4 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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65 |
CleanAre Payday Loans Really as Evil as People Say? | Critics -- including President Obama -- say short-term, high-interest loans are predatory, trapping borrowers in a cycle of debt. But some economists see them as a useful financial instrument for people who need them. As the Consumer Financial Protection | 6 4 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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66 |
CleanThe Economics of Sleep, Part 2 (Rebroadcast) | People who sleep better earn more money. Now all we have to do is teach everyone to sleep better. | 30 3 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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67 |
CleanThe Economics of Sleep, Part 1 (Rebroadcast) | Could a lack of sleep help explain why some people get much sicker than others? | 23 3 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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68 |
CleanYes, the American Economy Is in a Funk -- But Not for the Reasons You Think | As sexy as the digital revolution may be, it can't compare to the Second Industrial Revolution (electricity! the gas engine! antibiotics!), which created the biggest standard-of-living boost in U.S. history. The only problem, argues the economist Robert | 16 3 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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69 |
CleanThe No-Tipping Point | The restaurant business model is warped: kitchen wages are too low to hire cooks, while diners are put in charge of paying the waitstaff. So what happens if you eliminate tipping, raise menu prices, and redistribute the wealth? New York restaurant maveri | 10 3 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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70 |
CleanThe United States of Cory Booker | The junior U.S. Senator from New Jersey thinks bipartisanship is right around the corner. Is he just an idealistic newbie or does he see a way forward that everyone else has missed? | 2 3 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanAsk Not What Your Podcast Can Do for You | Now and again, Freakonomics Radio puts hat in hand and asks listeners to donate to the public-radio station that produces the show. Why on earth should anyone pay good money for something that can be had for free? Here are a few reasons. | 24 2 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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72 |
CleanHow Can This Possibly Be True? | A famous economics essay features a pencil (yes, a pencil) arguing that "not a single person on the face of this earth knows how to make me." Is the pencil just bragging? In any case, what can the pencil teach us about our global interdependence -- and t | 17 2 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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73 |
CleanWho Needs Handwriting? | The digital age is making pen and paper seem obsolete. But what are we giving up if we give up on handwriting? | 10 2 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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74 |
CleanHow to Fix a Broken High Schooler, in Four Easy Steps (Rebroadcast) | Okay, maybe the steps aren't so easy. But a program run out of a Toronto housing project has had great success in turning around kids who were headed for trouble. | 3 2 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanIs America’s Education Problem Really Just a Teacher Problem? (Rebroadcast) | If U.S. schoolteachers are indeed "just a little bit below average," it's not really their fault. So what should be done about it? | 27 1 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanDo Boycotts Work? | The Montgomery Bus Boycott, the South African divestment campaign, Chick-fil-A! Almost anyone can launch a boycott, and the media loves to cover them. But do boycotts actually produce the change they're fighting for? | 20 1 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanHow to Be Less Terrible at Predicting the Future | Experts and pundits are notoriously bad at forecasting, in part because they aren't punished for bad predictions. Also, they tend to be deeply unscientific. The psychologist Philip Tetlock is finally turning prediction into a science -- and now even you | 13 1 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe True Story of the Gender Pay Gap | Discrimination can't explain why women earn so much less than men. If only it were that easy. | 6 1 2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanWhen Willpower Isn’t Enough (Rebroadcast) | Sure, we all want to make good personal decisions, but it doesn't always work out. That's where "temptation bundling" comes in. | 30 12 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanFixing the World, Bang-for-the-Buck Edition (Rebroadcast) | A team of economists has been running the numbers on the U.N.'s development goals. They have a different view of how those billions of dollars should be spent. | 23 12 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanIs Migration a Basic Human Right? | The argument for open borders is compelling -- and deeply problematic. | 16 12 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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82 |
CleanThe Cheeseburger Diet | One woman's quest to find the best burger in town can teach all of us to eat smarter. | 9 12 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanBen Bernanke Gives Himself a Grade | He was handed the keys to the global economy just as it started heading off a cliff. Fortunately, he'd seen this movie before. | 2 12 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanWhy Do People Keep Having Children? (Rebroadcast) | Even a brutal natural disaster doesn't diminish our appetite for procreating. This surely means we're heading toward massive overpopulation, right? Probably not. | 25 11 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanDoes “Early Education” Come Way Too Late? | In our collective zeal to reform schools and close the achievement gap, we may have lost sight of where most learning really happens -- at home. | 18 11 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanShould Everyone Be in a Rock Band? | Lessons from Tom Petty's rise and another rocker's fall. | 11 11 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanFood + Science = Victory! | A kitchen wizard and a nutrition detective talk about the perfect hamburger, getting the most out of garlic, and why you should use vodka in just about everything. | 4 11 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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88 |
CleanAm I Boring You? | Researchers are trying to figure out who gets bored - and why - and what it means for ourselves and the economy. But maybe there's an upside to boredom? | 28 10 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanHow to Save $1 Billion Without Even Trying (Rebroadcast) | Doctors, chefs, and other experts are much more likely than the rest of us to buy store-brand products. What do they know that we don't? | 21 10 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanHow To Win A Nobel Prize | The process is famously secretive (and conducted in Swedish!) but we pry the lid off at least a little bit. | 14 10 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanShould Kids Pay Back Their Parents for Raising Them? | When one athlete turned pro, his mom asked him for $1 million. Our modern sensibilities tell us she doesn't have a case. But should she? | 7 10 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanMeet the Woman Who Said Women Can’t Have It All | Anne-Marie Slaughter was best known for her adamant views on Syria when she accidentally became a poster girl for modern feminism. As it turns out, she can be pretty adamant in that realm as well. | 30 9 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanHow Did the Belt Win? | Suspenders may work better, but the dork factor is too high. How did an organ-squeezing belly tourniquet become part of our everyday wardrobe -- and what other suboptimal solutions do we routinely put up with? | 23 9 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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Clean“I Don't Know What You've Done With My Husband, But He's a Changed Man.” | From domestic abusers to former child soldiers, there is increasing evidence that behavioral therapy can turn them around. | 16 9 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanPreventing Crime for Pennies on the Dollar | Conventional programs tend to be expensive, onerous, and ineffective. Could something as simple (and cheap) as cognitive behavioral therapy do the trick? | 9 9 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe Harvard President Will See You Now | How a pain-in-the-neck girl from rural Virginia came to run the most powerful university in the world. | 2 9 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanAre You Ready for a Glorious Sunset? | We spend billions on end-of-life healthcare that doesn't do much good. So what if a patient could forego the standard treatment and get a cash rebate instead? | 26 8 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanHow to Make a Smart TV Ad | Step 1: Hire a Harvard psych professor as the pitchman. Step 2: Have him help write the script ... | 19 8 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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99 |
CleanThe Dangers of Safety (Rebroadcast) | What do NASCAR drivers, Glenn Beck and the hit men of the NFL have in common? | 12 8 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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100 |
CleanWhy Do We Really Follow the News? | There are all kinds of civics-class answers to that question. But how true are they? Could it be that we like to read about war, politics, and miscellaneous heartbreak simply because it's (gasp) entertaining? | 5 8 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanHow to Create Suspense | Why is soccer the best sport? How has Harlan Coben sold 70 million books? And why does "Apollo 13" keep you enthralled even when you know the ending? | 29 7 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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102 |
CleanAziz Ansari Needs Another Toothbrush | The comedian, actor -- and now, author -- answers our FREAK-quently Asked Questions | 22 7 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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103 |
CleanThe Economics of Sleep, Part 2 | People who sleep better earn more money. Now all we have to do is teach everyone to sleep better. | 15 7 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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104 |
CleanThe Economics of Sleep, Part 1 | Could a lack of sleep help explain why some people get much sicker than others? | 8 7 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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105 |
CleanA Better Way to Eat (Rebroadcast) | Takeru Kobayashi revolutionized the sport of competitive eating. What can the rest of us learn from his breakthrough? | 1 7 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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106 |
CleanIs It Okay for Restaurants to Racially Profile Their Employees? | We seem to have decided that ethnic food tastes better when it's served by people of that ethnicity (or at least something close). Does this make sense -- and is it legal? | 24 6 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanMake Me a Match | Sure, markets generally work well. But for some transactions -- like school admissions and organ transplants -- money alone can't solve the problem. That's when you need a market-design wizard like Al Roth. | 17 6 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanMaking Sex Offenders Pay -- and Pay and Pay and Pay | Sure, sex crimes are horrific, and the perpetrators deserve to be punished harshly. But society keeps exacting costs -- out-of-pocket and otherwise -- long after the prison sentence has been served. | 10 6 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanShould We Really Behave Like Economists Say We Do? | One man's attempt to remake his life in the mold of homo economicus. | 3 6 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanTell Me Something I Don’t Know (Rebroadcast) | The debut of a live game show from Freakonomics Radio, with judges Malcolm Gladwell, Ana Gasteyer, and David Paterson. | 27 5 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanFailure Is Your Friend (Rebroadcast) | In which we argue that failure should not only be tolerated but celebrated. | 20 5 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanTen Years of Freakonomics | Dubner and Levitt are live onstage at the 92nd Street Y in New York to celebrate their new book "When to Rob a Bank" -- and a decade of working together. | 13 5 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanCould the Next Brooklyn Be ... Las Vegas?! | Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh has a wild vision and the dollars to try to make it real. But it still might be the biggest gamble in town. | 6 5 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThink Like a Child (Rebroadcast) | When it comes to generating ideas and asking questions it can be really fruitful to have the mentality of an eight year old. | 29 4 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanNate Silver Says: “Everyone Is Kind of Weird” | America's favorite statistical guru answers our FREAK-quently Asked Questions, and more. | 22 4 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanDiamonds Are a Marriage Counselor’s Best Friend | It may seem like winning a valuable diamond is an unalloyed victory. It's not. It's not even clear that a diamond is so valuable. | 15 4 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanHow Many Doctors Does It Take to Start a Healthcare Revolution? | The practice of medicine has been subsumed by the business of medicine. This is great news for healthcare shareholders -- and bad news for pretty much everyone else. | 8 4 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanHow Do We Know What Really Works in Healthcare? | A lot of the conventional wisdom in medicine is nothing more than hunch or wishful thinking. A new breed of data detectives is hoping to change that. | 1 4 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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119 |
CleanThe Perfect Crime (Rebroadcast) | If you are driving and kill a pedestrian, there's a good chance you'll barely be punished. Why? | 25 3 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanWhat You Don’t Know About Online Dating (Rebroadcast) | Thick markets, thin markets, and the triumph of attributes over compatibility. | 18 3 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanWhen Willpower Isn’t Enough | Sure, we all want to make good personal decisions, but it doesn't always work out. That's where "temptation bundling" comes in. | 11 3 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThis Idea Must Die | Every year, Edge.org asks its salon of big thinkers to answer one big question. This year's question borders on heresy: what scientific idea is ready for retirement? | 4 3 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe Maddest Men of All | Advertisers have always been adept at manipulating our emotions. Now they're using behavioral economics to get even better. | 25 2 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanHacking the World Bank | Jim Yong Kim has an unorthodox background for a World Bank president -- and his reign thus far is just as unorthodox. | 18 2 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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125 |
CleanIs There a Better Way to Fight Terrorism? | The White House is hosting an anti-terror summit next week. Summits being what they are, we try to offer some useful advice. | 11 2 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanHow Efficient Is Energy Efficiency? | It's a centerpiece of U.S. climate policy and a sacred cow among environmentalists. Does it work? | 4 2 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanHow Safe Is Your Job? | Economists preach the gospel of "creative destruction," whereby new industries -- and jobs -- replace the old ones. But has creative destruction become too destructive? | 28 1 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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128 |
CleanSomeone Else’s Acid Trip | As Kevin Kelly tells it, the hippie revolution and the computer revolution are nearly one and the same. | 21 1 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThat’s a Great Question! | Verbal tic or strategic rejoinder? Whatever the case: it’s rare to come across an interview these days where at least one question isn’t a “great” one. | 14 1 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanWhy Doesn’t Everyone Get the Flu Vaccine? | Influenza kills, but you’d never know it by how few of us get the vaccine. | 7 1 2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanWhat’s the “Best” Exercise? (Rebroadcast) | Most people blame lack of time for being out of shape. So maybe the solution is to exercise more efficiently. | 31 12 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanWhat’s More Dangerous: Marijuana or Alcohol? (Rebroadcast) | Imagine that both substances were undiscovered until today. How would we think about their relative risks? | 24 12 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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133 |
CleanTime to Take Back the Toilet | Public bathrooms are noisy, poorly designed, and often nonexistent. What to do? | 17 12 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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134 |
CleanThe Troubled Cremation of Stevie the Cat (Rebroadcast) | We spend billions on our pets, and one of the fastest-growing costs is pet "aftercare." But are those cremated remains you got back really from your pet? | 10 12 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanHow to Fix a Broken High Schooler, in Four Easy Steps | Okay, maybe the steps aren’t so easy. But a program run out of a Toronto housing project has had great success in turning around kids who were headed for trouble. | 3 12 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanIs America’s Education Problem Really Just a Teacher Problem? | If U.S. schoolteachers are indeed “just a little bit below average,” it’s not really their fault. So what should be done about it? | 26 11 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe Man Who Would Be Everything | Boris Johnson -- mayor of London, biographer of Churchill, cheese-box painter and tennis-racket collector -- answers our FREAK-quently Asked Questions. | 19 11 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanWhy Do People Keep Having Children? | Even a brutal natural disaster doesn’t diminish our appetite for procreating. This surely means we’re heading toward massive overpopulation, right? Probably not. | 12 11 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanShould the U.S. Merge With Mexico? | Corporations around the world are consolidating like never before. If it’s good enough for companies, why not countries? Welcome to Amexico! | 5 11 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanWhat Can Vampires Teach Us About Economics? | A lot! “The Economics of the Undead” is a book about dating strategy, job creation, and whether there should be a legal market for blood. | 29 10 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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141 |
Clean“Tell Me Something I Don’t Know” | The debut of a live game show from Freakonomics Radio, with judges Malcolm Gladwell, Ana Gasteyer, and David Paterson. | 23 10 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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142 |
CleanHow Can Tiny Norway Afford to Buy So Many Teslas? | The Norwegian government parleys massive oil wealth into huge subsidies for electric cars. Is that carbon laundering or just pragmatic environmentalism? | 15 10 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanHow to Raise Money Without Killing a Kitten (Rebroadcast) | The science of what works -- and doesn't work -- in fund-raising | 8 10 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanFixing the World, Bang-for-the-Buck Edition | A team of economists has been running the numbers on the U.N.'s development goals. They have a different view of how those billions of dollars should be spent. | 1 10 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanFitness Apartheid | Markets are hardly perfect, but the results can be ugly when you try to subvert them. | 24 9 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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146 |
CleanOutsiders by Design | What does it mean to pursue something that everyone else thinks is nuts? And what does it take to succeed? | 17 9 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanHow to Save $1 Billion Without Even Trying | Doctors, chefs, and other experts are much more likely than the rest of us to buy store-brand products. What do they know that we don’t? | 10 9 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanRegulate This! | Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, EatWith, and other companies in the “sharing economy” are practically daring government regulators to shut them down. The regulators are happy to comply. | 3 9 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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149 |
CleanWho Runs the Internet? (Rebroadcast) | The online universe doesn't have nearly as many rules, or rulemakers, as the real world. Discuss. | 27 8 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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150 |
CleanParking Is Hell (Rebroadcast) | There ain't no such thing as a free parking spot. Somebody has to pay for it -- and that somebody is everybody. | 20 8 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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151 |
CleanWhat Do Medieval Nuns and Bo Jackson Have in Common? (Rebroadcast) | A look at whether spite pays -- and if it even exists. | 13 8 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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152 |
CleanShould Tipping be Banned? (Rebroadcast) | It's awkward, random, confusing -- and probably discriminatory too. | 6 8 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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153 |
CleanHow Much Does Your Name Matter? (Rebroadcast) | 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? | 30 7 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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154 |
CleanDoes Religion Make You Happy? | It’s a hard question to answer, but we do our best. | 23 7 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanWhy You Should Bribe Your Kids | Educational messaging looks good on paper but kids don’t respond to it -- and adults aren’t much better. | 16 7 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanWhat Do King Solomon and David Lee Roth Have in Common? | It isn’t easy to separate the guilty from the innocent, but a clever bit of game theory can help. | 9 7 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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157 |
CleanA Better Way to Eat | Takeru Kobayashi revolutionized the sport of competitive eating. What can the rest of us learn from his breakthrough? | 2 7 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanHow to Screen Job Applicants, Act Your Age, and Get Your Brain Off Autopilot | Dubner and Levitt answer reader questions in this first installment of the “Think Like a Freak” Book Club. | 25 6 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThere’s No Such Thing as a Free Appetizer | Is it really in a restaurant’s best interest to give customers free bread or chips before they even order? | 18 6 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanWhy America Doesn’t Love Soccer (Yet) | Every four years, the U.S. takes a look at the World Cup and develops a slight crush. What would it take to really fall in love? | 11 6 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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161 |
CleanFailure Is Your Friend | In which we argue that failure should not only be tolerated but celebrated. | 4 6 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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162 |
CleanThe Upside of Quitting (Rebroadcast) | You know the saying: a winner never quits and a quitter never wins. To which Freakonomics Radio says ... Are you sure? | 28 5 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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163 |
CleanThink Like a Child | When it comes to generating ideas and asking questions it can be really fruitful to have the mentality of an eight year old. | 21 5 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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164 |
CleanThe Three Hardest Words in the English Language | Why learning to say “I don’t know” is one of the best things you can do. | 14 5 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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165 |
CleanHow to Think Like a Freak -- and Other FREAK-quently Asked Questions | Stephen Dubner and Steve Levitt talk about their new book and field questions about prestige, university life, and (yum yum) bacon. | 7 5 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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166 |
CleanThe Perfect Crime | If you are driving and kill a pedestrian, there's a good chance you'll barely be punished. Why? | 30 4 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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167 |
CleanWhich Came First, the Chicken or the Avocado? | When it comes to exercising outrage, people tend to be very selective. Could it be that humans are our least favorite animal? | 23 4 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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168 |
CleanWhat’s More Dangerous: Marijuana or Alcohol? | Imagine that both substances were undiscovered until today. How would we think about their relative risks? | 16 4 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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169 |
Clean“If Mayors Ruled the World” | Unlike certain elected officials in Washington, mayors all over the country actually get stuff done. So maybe we should ask them to do more? | 9 4 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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170 |
CleanHow to Make People Quit Smoking | The war on cigarettes has been fairly successful in some places. But 1 billion humans still smoke -- so what comes next? | 2 4 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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171 |
CleanWhy Everybody Who Doesn’t Hate Bitcoin Loves It | Thinking of Bitcoin as just a digital currency is like thinking about the Internet as just e-mail. Its potential is much more exciting than that. | 26 3 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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172 |
CleanWomen Are Not Men (Rebroadcast) | In many ways, the gender gap is closing. In others, not so much. And that's not always a bad thing. | 19 3 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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173 |
Clean“It’s Fun to Smoke Marijuana” | A psychology professor argues that the brain's greatest attribute is knowing what other people are thinking. And that a Queen song, played backwards, can improve your mind-reading skills. | 12 3 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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174 |
CleanIs Learning a Foreign Language Really Worth It? | Yes, it expands the mind but we usually don't retain much -- and then there's the opportunity cost. | 5 3 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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175 |
CleanWhy Are Japanese Homes Disposable? | In most countries, houses get more valuable over time. In Japan, a new buyer will often bulldoze the home. We'll tell you why. | 26 2 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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176 |
CleanWhy Marry? (Part 2) | The consequences of our low marriage rate -- and if the old model is less attractive, how about a new one? | 19 2 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanWhy Marry? (Part 1) | The myths of modern marriage. | 12 2 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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178 |
CleanWhat You Don’t Know About Online Dating | Thick markets, thin markets, and the triumph of attributes over compatibility. This episode is included in the Freakonomics #smartbinge podcast playlist at wnyc.org/smartbinge | 5 2 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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179 |
CleanReasons to Not Be Ugly | The "beauty premium" is real, for everyone from babies to NFL quarterbacks. | 30 1 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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180 |
CleanEverybody Gossips (and That’s a Good Thing) | The benefits of rumor-mongering | 23 1 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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181 |
CleanFear Thy Nature (Rebroadcast) | What "Sleep No More" and the Stanford Prison Experiment tell us about who we really are. | 16 1 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanAre We Ready to Legalize Drugs? And Other FREAK-Quently Asked Questions | Dubner and Levitt talk about fixing the post office, putting cameras in the classroom, and wearing hats. | 9 1 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanWhat’s the “Best” Exercise? | Most people blame lack of time for being out of shape. So maybe the solution is to exercise more efficiently. | 2 1 2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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184 |
CleanSave Me From Myself (Rebroadcast) | A commitment device forces you to be the person you really want to be. What could possibly go wrong? | 26 12 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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185 |
CleanPontiff-icating on the Free-Market System | The Pope just gave it to the global economy with both barrels. Was he right to do so? | 19 12 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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186 |
CleanAre Gay Men Really Rich? | It’s easy to get that idea. But is the stereotype true? | 12 12 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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187 |
CleanThe Most Dangerous Machine | More than 1 million people die worldwide each year from traffic accidents. But there's never been a safer time to drive. | 5 12 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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188 |
CleanFighting Poverty With Actual Evidence | It's time to do away with feel-good stories, gut hunches, and magical thinking. | 27 11 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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189 |
CleanWhat Do Skating Rinks, Ultimate Frisbee, and the World Have in Common? | Spontaneous order is everywhere if you know where to look for it. | 21 11 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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190 |
CleanWho Runs the Internet? | The online universe doesn't have nearly as many rules, or rulemakers, as the real world. Discuss. | 14 11 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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191 |
CleanFreakonomics Goes to College, Part 2 (Rebroadcast) | College tends to make people happier, healthier, and wealthier. But how? | 7 11 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanFreakonomics Goes to College, Part 1 (Rebroadcast) | What's a college degree really worth these days? | 31 10 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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193 |
CleanWhy Bad Environmentalism Is Such an Easy Sell | Being green is rarely a black-and-white issue -- but that doesn't stop marketers and politicians from pretending it is. | 24 10 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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194 |
CleanThe Troubled Cremation of Stevie the Cat | We spend billions on our pets, and one of the fastest-growing costs is pet "aftercare." But are those cremated remains you got back really from your pet? | 14 10 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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195 |
CleanHow to Raise Money Without Killing a Kitten | The science of what works -- and doesn't work -- in fund-raising | 10 10 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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196 |
CleanHow to Think About Money, Choose Your Hometown, and Buy an Electric Toothbrush | Dubner and Levitt field your queries in this latest installment of our FREAK-quently Asked Questions. | 3 10 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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197 |
CleanWould a Big Bucket of Cash Really Change Your Life? | A 19th-century Georgia land lottery may have something to teach us about today's income inequality. | 26 9 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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198 |
CleanThe Economist’s Guide to Parenting (Rebroadcast) | Think you know how much parents matter? Think again. Economists crunch the numbers to learn the ROI on child-rearing. | 19 9 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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199 |
CleanWhatever Happened to the Carpal Tunnel Epidemic? | Once upon a time, office workers across America lived in fear of a dreaded infirmity. Was the computer keyboard really the villain -- and did carpal tunnel syndrome really go away? | 12 9 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe Suicide Paradox (Rebroadcast) | 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. | 5 9 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanWho Are the Most Successful Immigrants in the World? | It's impossible to say for sure, but the Lebanese do remarkably well. Why? | 29 8 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe Folly of Prediction (Rebroadcast) | Human beings love to predict the future, but we're quite terrible at it. So how about punishing all those bad predictions? | 22 8 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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203 |
CleanThe Middle of Everywhere | Chicago has given the world more than sausage, crooked politics, and Da Bears. | 15 8 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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204 |
CleanThe Church of "Scionology" (Rebroadcast) | We worship the tradition of handing off a family business to the next generation. But is that really such a good idea? | 8 8 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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205 |
CleanDo Baby Girls Cause Divorce? | Even American parents have a strong "son preference" -- which means that a newborn daughter can be bad news for a marriage. | 1 8 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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206 |
CleanREBROADCAST: 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? | 22 7 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanGovernment Employees Gone Wild | The Encyclopedia of Ethical Failures catalogs the fiscal, sexual, and mental lapses of federal workers -- all with an eye toward preventing the next big mistake. | 18 7 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanA Burger a Day | Is junk food an abomination or a modern miracle? | 11 7 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanJane Austen, Game Theorist | What does "Pride and Prejudice" have to do with nuclear deterrence? | 3 7 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanREBROADCAST: Legacy of a Jerk | What happens to your reputation when you're no longer around to defend it? | 27 6 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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211 |
CleanDo You Really Want to Know Your Future? | 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 about our supposed thirst for certainty? | 20 6 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanWhy Family and Business Don’t Mix | Yet another reason to blame your parents for pretty much everything. | 12 6 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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213 |
CleanShould Tipping be Banned? | It's awkward, random, confusing -- and probably discriminatory too. | 3 6 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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214 |
CleanBaby, You Can Program My Car | A glimpse into our driverless future. | 29 5 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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215 |
CleanCan You Be Too Smart for Your Own Good? And Other FREAK-quently Asked Questions | Dubner and Levitt talk about circadian rhythms, gay marriage, autism, and whether "pay what you want" is everything it's cracked up to be. | 23 5 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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216 |
CleanREBROADCAST: 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? | 15 5 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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217 |
CleanWhat Do Medieval Nuns and Bo Jackson Have in Common? | A look at whether spite pays -- and if it even exists. | 9 5 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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218 |
CleanIt’s Crowded at the Top | Why is unemployment still so high? It may be because of something that happened well before the Great Recession. | 1 5 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanRunning to Do Evil | An interview with Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, whose younger brother turned him in -- and what it says about the Boston bombers. | 25 4 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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220 |
CleanHelp 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? | 17 4 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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221 |
CleanHow 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? | 8 4 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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222 |
CleanThe 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? | 3 4 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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223 |
Clean100 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. | 27 3 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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224 |
CleanHow 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. | 21 3 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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225 |
CleanParking Is Hell | There ain't no such thing as a free parking spot. Somebody has to pay for it -- and that somebody is everybody. | 13 3 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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226 |
CleanWhen 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. | 6 3 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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227 |
CleanWomen Are Not Men | In many ways, the gender gap is closing. In others, not so much. And that's not always a bad thing. | 24 2 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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228 |
CleanThe Downside of More Miles Per Gallon | The gas tax doesn't work well, and it's only going to get worse. What's next? | 20 2 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanHow to Think About Guns | No one wants mass shootings. Unfortunately, no one has a workable plan to stop them either. | 13 2 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanSure, I Remember That | It is startlingly easy to create false memories, especially in politics. | 6 2 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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231 |
CleanWould 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. | 30 1 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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232 |
CleanIntroducing “Freakonomics Experiments” | Steve Levitt has a novel idea for helping people make tough decisions | 23 1 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanWho 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. | 16 1 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanHow to Live Longer | Why do Hall of Fame inductees, Oscar winners, and Nobel laureates outlive their peers? | 9 1 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanHow Did “Freakonomics” Get Its Name? … and Other FREAK-quently Asked Questions | Levitt and Dubner answer your questions about driving, sneezing, and ladies’ nights. Plus a remembrance of Levitt’s sister Linda. | 2 1 2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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236 |
CleanHow 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. | 26 12 2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
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237 |
CleanThe House of Dreams | Dubner's childhood home goes from sacred to profane -- and then back again. | 19 12 2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
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238 |
CleanHave a Very Homo Economicus Christmas | Who better than an economist to help with your shopping list? | 12 12 2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe 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. | 5 12 2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanFree-conomics | Economists are a notoriously self-interested bunch. But a British outfit called Pro Bono Economics is giving away its services to selected charities. | 28 11 2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
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241 |
CleanI 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? | 21 11 2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
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242 |
CleanMass Transit Hysteria | Adding more train and bus lines looks like an environmental slam dunk. Until you start to do the math. | 14 11 2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
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243 |
CleanOur 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. | 5 11 2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
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244 |
CleanHow to Maximize Your Halloween Candy Haul | Is it as simple as going to the richest neighborhood you can find? Of course not ... | 31 10 2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanWe the Sheeple | Politicians tell voters exactly what they want to hear, even when it makes no sense. Which is pretty much all the time. | 24 10 2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
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246 |
CleanLying to Ourselves | We rely on polls and surveys to tell us how people will behave in the future. Too bad they're completely unreliable. | 17 10 2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
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247 |
CleanThe 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. | 10 10 2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanWhy 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? | 3 10 2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe 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. | 23 9 2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 249 Items |
Customer Reviews
Excellent
Very interesting show, I hadn't heard about freakenomics before listening to this but I am now hooked. I specifically like the random statistics and numbers which get presented in novel and fun ways. Great show for giving you interesting facts to tell your friends during the week. Definitely recommended!
More more more
Great stuff. Wish they were produced weekly.
Great - but when is the next one out?
Really enjoyed the first one, hope you do another one soon.
