People I (Mostly) Admire

By Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Society & Culture

What's People I (Mostly) Admire about?

Freakonomics co-author Steve Levitt tracks down other high achievers for surprising, revealing conversations about their lives and obsessions. Join Levitt as he goes through the most interesting midlife crisis you’ve ever heard — and learn how a renegade sheriff is transforming Chicago's jail, how a biologist is finding the secrets of evolution in the Arctic tundra, and how a trivia champion memorized 160,000 flashcards.

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120. Werner Herzog Thinks H...

12.09.2023

The filmmaker doesn’t want to be known only for his movies. He tells Steve why he considers himself a writer first, how it feels to be recognized for his role in "The Mandalorian," and why he once worked as a ...

People I (Mostly) Admire episodes:

12.09.2023 120. Werner Herzog Thinks His Films Are a Distraction The filmmaker doesn’t want to be known only for his movies. He tells Steve why he considers himself a writer first, how it feels to be recognized for his role in "The Mandalorian," and why he once worked as a ...
11.25.2023 119. Higher Education Is Broken. Can It Be Fixed? Economist Michael D. Smith says universities are scrambling to protect a status quo that deserves to die. He tells Steve why the current system is unsustainable, and what’s at stake if nothing changes.
11.11.2023 118. “My God, This Is a Transformative Power” Computer scientist Fei-Fei Li had a wild idea: download one billion images from the internet and teach a computer to recognize them. She ended up advancing the state of artificial intelligence — and she hopes that will turn out to ...
10.28.2023 117. Nate Silver Says We're Bad at Making Predictions Data scientist Nate Silver gained attention for his election predictions. But even the best prognosticators get it wrong sometimes. He talks to Steve about making good decisions with data, why he’d rather write a newsletter than an academic paper, and ...
10.14.2023 116. Abraham Verghese Thinks Medicine Can Do Better Abraham Verghese is a physician and a best-selling author — in that order, he says. He explains the difference between curing and healing, and tells Steve why doctors should spend more time with patients and less with electronic health records.
10.09.2023 BONUS: Nobel Laureate Claudia Goldin on "Greedy Work" and the Wage Gap Claudia Goldin is the newest winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics. Steve spoke to her in 2021 about how inflexible jobs and family responsibilities make it harder for women to earn wages equal to their male counterparts.
09.30.2023 115. The Future of Therapy Is Psychedelic For 37 years, Rick Doblin has been pushing the F.D.A. to approve treating post-traumatic stress disorder with MDMA, better known as Ecstasy. He tells Steve why he persisted for so long, why he doesn’t like calling drug use “recreational,” and ...
09.16.2023 114. Is Perfectionism Ruining Your Life? Psychologist Thomas Curran argues that perfectionism isn’t about high standards — it’s about never being enough. He explains how the drive to be perfect is harming education, the economy, and our mental health.
09.02.2023 113. Do We Have Evidence of Alien Life? Avi Loeb is a Harvard astronomer who argues that we’ve already encountered extraterrestrial technology. His approach to the search for interstellar objects is scientific, but how plausible is his argument?
08.19.2023 112. Reading Dostoevsky Behind Bars Reginald Dwayne Betts spent more than eight years in prison. Today he's a Yale Law graduate, a MacArthur Fellow, and a poet. His nonprofit works to build libraries in prisons so that more incarcerated people can find hope.
08.05.2023 111. Can a Moonshot Approach to Mental Health Work? Obi Felten used to launch projects for X, Google’s innovation lab, but she’s now tackling mental health. She explains why Steve’s dream job was soul-destroying for her, and how peer support could transform the therapeutic industry.
07.22.2023 110. Drawing from Life (and Death) Artist Wendy MacNaughton knows the difficulty of sitting in silence and the power of having fun. She explains to Steve the lessons she’s gleaned from drawing hospice residents, working in Rwanda, and reporting from Guantanamo Bay.
07.15.2023 Extra: An Update on the Khan World School Sal Khan returns to discuss his innovative online high school’s first year — and Steve grills a member of the school’s class of 2026 about what it’s really like.
07.08.2023 109. David Simon Is On Strike. Here’s Why. The creator of "The Wire", "The Deuce", and other shows is leading the Writers Guild on the picket lines. He and Steve break down the economics of TV writing, how A.I. could change television, and why he’s taking a stand ...
07.01.2023 The Economics of Everyday Things: T. rex Skeletons In the newest show from the Freakonomics Radio Network, host Zachary Crockett explores the hidden side of the things around us. This week: How do dinosaur bones emerge from the Upper Cretaceous period to end up in natural-history museums and ...
06.24.2023 108. Ninety-Eight Years of Economic Wisdom Robert Solow is 98 years old and a giant among economists. He tells Steve about cracking German codes in World War II, why it’s so hard to reduce inequality, and how his field lost its way.
06.10.2023 107. Bringing Data to Life Talithia Williams thinks you should rigorously track your body's data. She and Steve Levitt trade birth stories and bemoan the state of STEM education.
05.27.2023 106. Will A.I. Make Us Smarter? Kevin Kelly believes A.I. will create more problems for humanity — and help us solve them. He talks to Steve about embracing complexity, staying enthusiastic, and taking the 10,000-year view.
05.13.2023 105. Can Data Keep People Out of Prison? Clementine Jacoby went from performing in a circus to founding a nonprofit that works to shrink the prison population.
04.29.2023 104. The Joy of Math With Sarah Hart Steve is on a mission to reform math education, and Sarah Hart is ready to join the cause. In her return visit to the show, Sarah explains how patterns are everywhere, constraints make us more creative, and literature is surprisingly ...
04.15.2023 103. Rick Rubin on How to Make Something Great 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 ...
04.01.2023 102. Adding Ten Healthy Years to Your Life Physician Peter Attia returns to the show to talk about the science of longevity — which focuses not only on extending life but on maintaining good health into old age. He explains the possibilities and limits of current medicine and ...
03.18.2023 101. Celebrating 100 People I (Mostly) Admire Steve and producer Morgan Levey look back at the first 100 episodes of the podcast, including surprising answers, spectacular explanations, and listeners who heard the show and changed their lives.
03.04.2023 100. Chicago’s Renegade Sheriff Wants to Fix Law Enforcement Tom Dart is transforming Cook County’s jail, reforming evictions, and, with Steve Levitt, trying a new approach to electronic monitoring.
02.18.2023 99. Greg Norman Takes On the P.G.A. Tour Since his last visit to "People I (Mostly) Admire," the formerly top-ranked golfer has become the sport's most controversial figure. Why has he partnered with the Saudi government — and can his new golf league unseat a monopoly?
02.04.2023 98. Searching for Our Aquatic Ancestors Neil Shubin hunts for fossils in the Arctic and experiments with D.N.A. in the lab, hoping to find out how fish evolved to walk on land. He explains why unlocking these answers could help humans today.
01.21.2023 97. How Smart Is a Forest? Ecologist Suzanne Simard studies the relationships between trees in a forest: they talk to each other, punish each other, and depend on each other. What can we learn from them?
01.07.2023 96. Steven Strogatz Thinks You Don’t Know What Math Is The mathematician and author sees mathematical patterns everywhere — from DNA to fireflies to social connections.
12.24.2022 95. The One Thing Stephen Dubner Hasn’t Quit When "Freakonomics" co-authors Steve Levitt and Stephen Dubner first met, one of them hated the other. Two decades later, Levitt grills Dubner about asking questions, growing the pie, and what he learned from Bruce Springsteen.
12.10.2022 94. The Price of Doing Business with John List From baseball card conventions to Walmart, John List has always used field experiments to say revolutionary things about economics. He explains the value of an apology, why scaling shouldn’t be an afterthought, and why he moved to the private sector ...
11.26.2022 93. Annie Duke Thinks You Should Quit Former professional poker player Annie Duke has a new book on Steve’s favorite subject: quitting. They talk about why quitting is so hard, how to do it sooner, and why we feel shame when we do something that’s good for ...
11.12.2022 92. John Green’s Reluctant Rocket Ship Ride Author and YouTuber John Green thought his breakout bestseller wouldn’t be a commercial success, wrote 40,000 words for one sentence, and brought Steve to tears.
10.29.2022 91. Jane Goodall Changed the Way We See Animals. She’s Not Done. The ethologist and conservationist discusses the thrill of observing chimpanzees in the wild, the value of challenging orthodoxy, and why dying is her next great adventure.
10.15.2022 90. Peter Singer Isn’t a Saint, But He’s Better Than Steve Levitt The philosopher known for his rigorous ethics explains why Steve is leading a morally inconsistent life.
10.08.2022 Extra: A Rockstar Chemist Wins the Nobel Prize Stanford professor Carolyn Bertozzi’s imaginative ideas for treating disease have led to ten start-ups. She talks with Steve about the next generation of immune therapy she’s created, and why she might rather be a musician.
10.01.2022 89. A Cross Between Sherlock Holmes and Indiana Jones Heeding the warnings of public health officer Charity Dean about Covid-19 could have saved lives. Charity explains why she loves infectious diseases and why she moved to the private sector.
09.17.2022 88. Ken Burns on Heroism, Horror, and History The documentary filmmaker, known for "The Civil War," "Jazz," and "Baseball," turns his attention to the Holocaust, and asks what we can learn from the evils of the past.
09.03.2022 87. How Much Are the Right Friends Worth? Harvard economist Raj Chetty uses tax data to study inequality, kid success, and social mobility. He explains why you should be careful when choosing your grade school teachers — and your friends.
08.20.2022 86. A Million-Year View on Morality Philosopher Will MacAskill thinks about how to do as much good as possible. But that's really hard, especially when you're worried about humans who won't be born for many generations.
08.06.2022 85. What It Takes to Know Everything Victoria Groce is one of the best trivia contestants on earth. She explains the structure of a good question, why she knits during competitions, and how to memorize 160,000 flashcards.
07.23.2022 84. Yuval Noah Harari Thinks Life Is Meaningless and Amazing The author of "Sapiens" has a knack for finding the profound in the obvious. He tells Steve why money is fiction, traffic can be mind-blowing, and politicians have a right to say stupid things in private.
07.09.2022 83. “There's So Many Problems — Which Ones Can I Make a Difference On?” When she's not rescuing chickens from coyotes, Susan Athey uses economics to address real-world challenges — from online ad auctions to carbon capture technology.
07.02.2022 82. Is This the Future of High School? Khan Academy founder Sal Khan returns to share his vision for a new way to learn — and the conversation inspires Steve to make a big announcement.
06.25.2022 81. Why Bother Searching for Aliens? Astronomer Jill Tarter spent her career searching for extraterrestrial intelligence. She explains what civilizations from other planets could teach us about our own future.
06.18.2022 80. Get Your Share of the Pie Game theorist Barry Nalebuff explains how he used basic economics to build Honest Tea into a multimillion-dollar business, and shares his innovative approach to negotiation.
06.11.2022 79. Solar Geoengineering Would Be Radical. It Might Also Be Necessary. David Keith has spent his career studying ways to reflect sunlight away from the earth. It could reduce the risks of climate change — but it won’t save us.
06.04.2022 78. Giving It Away Billionaire John Arnold is figuring out how to do as much good as he can with his wealth. It takes hard work, risk tolerance, and a lot of spending.
05.28.2022 77. Can Games Prepare Us for Catastrophes? (Part 2) Many of us hate to think about future crises. Game designer Jane McGonigal wants to make it fun.
05.21.2022 76. Is Gaming Good for You? Jane McGonigal designed a game to help herself recover from a traumatic brain injury — and she thinks playing games can help us all lead our best lives.
05.14.2022 75. Self-Help for Data Nerds Seth Stephens-Davidowitz combs through mountains of information to find advice for everyday life.

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