Latest Freakonomics Podcast Episodes
594. Your Brand’s Spokesperson Just Got Arrested — Now What?
Freakonomics Radio - June 27, 2024 00:00 - 43 minutes ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsIt’s hard to know whether the benefits of hiring a celebrity are worth the risk. We dig into one gruesome story of an endorsement gone wrong, and find a surprising result. SOURCES: John Cawley, professor of economics at Cornell University. Elizabeth (Zab) Johnson, executive director and se...
593. You Can Make a Killing, but Not a Living
Freakonomics Radio - June 20, 2024 00:00 - 49 minutes ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsBroadway operates on a winner-take-most business model. A runaway hit like Stereophonic — which just won five Tony Awards — will create a few big winners. But even the stars of the show will have to go elsewhere to make real money. (Part two of a two-part series.) SOURCES: David Adjmi, auth...
EXTRA: The Fascinatingly Mundane Secrets of the World’s Most Exclusive Nightclub
Freakonomics Radio - June 17, 2024 10:00 - 44 minutes ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsThe Berlin dance mecca Berghain is known for its eight-hour line and inscrutable door policy. PJ Vogt, host of the podcast Search Engine, joins us to crack the code. It has to do with Cold War rivalries, German tax law, and one very talented bouncer. SOURCES: Lutz Leichsenring, executive bo...
592. How to Make the Coolest Show on Broadway
Freakonomics Radio - June 13, 2024 03:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsHit by Covid, runaway costs, and a zillion streams of competition, serious theater is in serious trouble. A new hit play called Stereophonic — the most Tony-nominated play in history — has something to say about that. We speak with the people who make it happen every night. (Part one of a two-pa...
591. Signs of Progress, One Year at a Time
Freakonomics Radio - June 06, 2024 00:00 - 53 minutes ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsEvery December, a British man named Tom Whitwell publishes a list of 52 things he’s learned that year. These fascinating facts reveal the spectrum of human behavior, from fraud and hypocrisy to Whitwell’s steadfast belief in progress. Should we also believe? SOURCES: Tom Whitwell, managing ...
EXTRA: The Opioid Tragedy — How We Got Here
Freakonomics Radio - June 03, 2024 00:00 - 41 minutes ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsAn update of our 2020 series, in which we spoke with physicians, researchers, and addicts about the root causes of the crisis — and the tension between abstinence and harm reduction. SOURCES: Gail D’Onofrio, professor and chair of emergency medicine at the Yale School of Medicine and chief ...
590. Can $55 Billion End the Opioid Epidemic?
Freakonomics Radio - May 30, 2024 00:00 - 40 minutes ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsThanks to legal settlements with drug makers and distributors, states have plenty of money to boost prevention and treatment. Will it work? (Part two of a two-part series.) SOURCES: Keith Humphreys, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University. Stephen Loyd, chief...
589. Why Has the Opioid Crisis Lasted So Long?
Freakonomics Radio - May 23, 2024 00:00 - 48 minutes ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsMost epidemics flare up, do their damage, and fade away. This one has been raging for almost 30 years. To find out why, it’s time to ask some uncomfortable questions. (Part one of a two-part series.) SOURCES: David Cutler, professor of economics at Harvard University. Travis Donahoe, profe...
Extra: Car Colors & Storage Units
Freakonomics Radio - May 20, 2024 01:00 - 35 minutes ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsPresenting two stories from The Economics of Everyday Things: Why does it seem like every car is black, white, or gray these days? And: How self-storage took over America. SOURCES: Tom Crockett, classic car enthusiast. Zachary Dickens, executive vice president and chief investment officer ...
588. Confessions of a Black Conservative
Freakonomics Radio - May 16, 2024 00:00 - 56 minutes ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsThe economist and social critic Glenn Loury has led a remarkably turbulent life, both professionally and personally. In a new memoir, he has chosen to reveal just about everything. Why? SOURCE: Glenn Loury, professor of economics at Brown University and host of The Glenn Show. RESOURCES...
587. Should Companies Be Owned by Their Workers?
Freakonomics Radio - May 09, 2024 00:00 - 46 minutes ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsThe employee ownership movement is growing, and one of its biggest champions is also a private equity heavyweight. Is this meaningful change, or just window dressing? SOURCES: Marjorie Kelly, distinguished senior fellow at The Democracy Collaborative. Corey Rosen, founder and senior staff ...
586. How Does the Lost World of Vienna Still Shape Our Lives?
Freakonomics Radio - May 02, 2024 03:00 - 57 minutes ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsFrom politics and economics to psychology and the arts, many of the modern ideas we take for granted emerged a century ago from a single European capital. In this episode of the Freakonomics Radio Book Club, the historian Richard Cockett explores all those ideas — and how the arrival of fascism ...
Extra: Why Is 23andMe Going Under? (Update)
Freakonomics Radio - April 29, 2024 01:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsFive years ago, we published an episode about the boom in home DNA testing kits, focusing on the high-flying firm 23andMe and its C.E.O. Anne Wojcicki. Their flight has been extremely bumpy since then. This update includes an additional interview with the Wall Street Journal reporter who has bee...
585. A Social Activist in Prime Minister’s Clothing
Freakonomics Radio - April 25, 2024 03:00 - 52 minutes ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsJustin Trudeau, facing record-low approval numbers, is doubling down on his progressive agenda. But he is so upbeat (and Canada-polite) that it’s easy to miss just how radical his vision is. Can he make it work? SOURCE: Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada. RESOURCES: 2024 Canadian...
584. How to Pave the Road to Hell
Freakonomics Radio - April 18, 2024 03:00 - 43 minutes ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsSo you want to help people? That’s great — but beware the law of unintended consequences. Three stories from the modern workplace. SOURCES: Joshua Angrist, professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Zoe Cullen, professor of business administration at Harvard Busi...
Extra: The Men Who Started a Thinking Revolution (Update)
Freakonomics Radio - April 14, 2024 22:00 - 34 minutes ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsThe psychologist Daniel Kahneman — a Nobel laureate and the author of Thinking, Fast and Slow — recently died at age 90. Along with his collaborator Amos Tversky, he changed how we all think about decision-making. The journalist Michael Lewis told the Kahneman-Tversky story in a 2016 book called...
Why Are There So Many Bad Bosses? (Update)
Freakonomics Radio - April 11, 2024 03:00 - 49 minutes ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsPeople who are good at their jobs routinely get promoted into bigger jobs they’re bad at. We explain why firms keep producing incompetent managers — and why that’s unlikely to change. SOURCES: Nick Bloom, professor of economics at Stanford University. Katie Johnson, freelance data and anal...
583. Are We Living Through the Most Revolutionary Period in History?
Freakonomics Radio - April 04, 2024 03:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsFareed Zakaria says yes. But it’s not just political revolution — it’s economic, technological, even emotional. He doesn’t offer easy solutions but he does offer some hope. SOURCES: Fareed Zakaria, journalist and author. RESOURCES: Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to...
Extra: How Much Do You Know About Immigration?
Freakonomics Radio - April 01, 2024 01:00 - 27 minutes ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsThe political debates over immigration can generate a lot of fuzzy facts. We wanted to test Americans’ knowledge — so, to wrap up our special series on immigration, we called some Freakonomics Radio listeners and quizzed them. SOURCES: Zeke Hernandez, professor at the Wharton School at the ...
582. Why Is Everyone Moving to Canada?
Freakonomics Radio - March 28, 2024 03:00 - 49 minutes ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsAs the U.S. tries to fix its messy immigration system, our neighbor to the north is scooping up more talented newcomers every year. Are the Canadians stealing America’s bacon? (Part three of a three-part series.) SOURCES: Zeke Hernandez, professor at the Wharton School at the University of ...
581. What Both Parties Get Wrong About Immigration
Freakonomics Radio - March 21, 2024 03:00 - 55 minutes ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsThe U.S. immigration system is a massively complicated machine, with a lot of worn-out parts. How to fix it? Step one: Get hold of some actual facts and evidence. (We did this step for you.) (Part two of a three-part series.) SOURCES: Zeke Hernandez, professor at the Wharton School at the U...
Extra: Madeleine Albright’s Warning on Immigration
Freakonomics Radio - March 18, 2024 04:05 - 29 minutes ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsShe arrived in the U.S. as an 11-year-old refugee, then rose to become Secretary of State. Her views on immigration, nationalism, and borders, from this 2015 interview, are almost strangely appropriate to the present moment. SOURCE: Madeleine Albright, U.S. Secretary of State under Preside...
580. The True Story of America’s Supremely Messed-Up Immigration System
Freakonomics Radio - March 14, 2024 03:00 - 55 minutes ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsHow did a nation of immigrants come to hate immigration? We start at the beginning, sort through the evidence, and explain why your grandfather was lying about Ellis Island. (Part one of a three-part series.) SOURCES: Leah Boustan, professor of economics at Princeton University. Zeke Herna...
579. Are You Caught in a Social Media Trap?
Freakonomics Radio - March 07, 2024 04:00 - 42 minutes ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsEconomists have discovered an odd phenomenon: many people who use social media (even you, maybe?) wish it didn’t exist. But that doesn’t mean they can escape. SOURCES: Leonardo Bursztyn, professor of economics at the University of Chicago. Benjamin Handel, professor of economics at the Uni...
Extra: What Is Sportswashing — and Does It Work? (Update)
Freakonomics Radio - March 04, 2024 05:05 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsIn ancient Rome, it was bread and circuses. Today, it’s a World Cup, an Olympics, and a new Saudi-backed golf league that’s challenging the PGA Tour. Can a sporting event really repair a country’s reputation — or will it trigger the dreaded Streisand Effect? Also: why the major U.S. sports leagu...
578. Water, Water Everywhere — But You Have to Stop and Think
Freakonomics Radio - February 29, 2024 04:00 - 52 minutes ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsWhat surprises lurk in our sewage? How did racist city planners end up saving Black lives? Why does Arizona grow hay for cows in Saudi Arabia? Three strange stories about the most fundamental substance we all take for granted. SOURCES: Brian Beach, professor of economics at Vanderbilt Unive...
Is Google Getting Worse? (Update)
Freakonomics Radio - February 22, 2024 04:00 - 56 minutes ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsIt used to feel like magic. Now it can feel like a set of cheap tricks. Is the problem with Google — or with us? And is Google Search finally facing a real rival, in the form of A.I.-powered “answer engines”? SOURCES: Marissa Mayer, co-founder of Sunshine; former C.E.O. of Yahoo! and vice ...
Extra: Mr. Feynman Takes a Trip — But Doesn’t Fall
Freakonomics Radio - February 19, 2024 05:05 - 47 minutes ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsA wide-open conversation with three women who guided Richard Feynman through some big adventures at the Esalen Institute. (Part of our Feynman series.) SOURCES: Barbara Berg, friend of Richard Feynman. Cheryl Haley, friend of Richard Feynman. Debby Harlow, friend of Richard Feynma Sam S...
The Vanishing Mr. Feynman
Freakonomics Radio - February 15, 2024 04:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsIn his final years, Richard Feynman's curiosity took him to some surprising places. We hear from his companions on the trips he took — and one he wasn’t able to. (Part three of a three-part series.) SOURCES: Alan Alda, actor and screenwriter. Barbara Berg, friend of Richard Feynman. Hele...
The Brilliant Mr. Feynman
Freakonomics Radio - February 08, 2024 04:00 - 52 minutes ★★★★★ - 29.3K ratingsWhat happens when an existentially depressed and recently widowed young physicist from Queens gets a fresh start in California? We follow Richard Feynman out west, to explore his long and extremely fruitful second act. (Part two of a three-part series.) SOURCES: Seamus Blackley, video game ...