Freakonomics Radio

By Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Society & Culture

What's Freakonomics Radio about?

Discover the hidden side of everything with Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of the Freakonomics books. Each week, Freakonomics Radio tells you things you always thought you knew (but didn’t) and things you never thought you wanted to know (but do) — from the economics of sleep to how to become great at just about anything. Dubner speaks with Nobel laureates and provocateurs, intellectuals and entrepreneurs, and various other underachievers.

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503. What Is the Future of ...

05.19.2022

Educators and economists tell us all the reasons college enrollment has been dropping, especially for men, and how to stop the bleeding. (Part 4 of “Freakonomics Radio Goes Back to School.”)

Freakonomics Radio episodes:

05.19.2022 503. What Is the Future of College — and Does It Have Room for Men? Educators and economists tell us all the reasons college enrollment has been dropping, especially for men, and how to stop the bleeding. (Part 4 of “Freakonomics Radio Goes Back to School.”)
05.12.2022 Abortion and Crime, Revisited (Ep. 384 Update) As the Supreme Court considers overturning Roe v. Wade, we look back at Steve Levitt’s controversial research on an unintended consequence of the 1973 ruling.
05.05.2022 502. “I Don’t Think the Country Is Turning Away From College.” Enrollment is down for the first time in memory, and critics complain college is too expensive, too elitist, and too politicized. The economist Chris Paxson — who happens to be the president of Brown University — does not agree. (Part ...
04.28.2022 501. The University of Impossible-to-Get-Into America’s top colleges are facing record demand. So why don’t they increase supply? (Part 2 of “Freakonomics Radio Goes Back to School.”)
04.21.2022 500. What Exactly Is College For? We think of them as intellectual enclaves and the surest route to a better life. But U.S. colleges also operate like firms, trying to differentiate their products to win market share and prestige points. In the first episode of a ...
04.14.2022 Is the U.S. Really Less Corrupt Than China — and How About Russia? (Ep. 481 Update) The political scientist Yuen Yuen Ang argues that different forms of government create different styles of corruption. The U.S. and China have more in common than we’d like to admit — but Russia is a different story, which could explain ...
04.07.2022 499. Don't Worry, Be Tacky The British art superstar Flora Yukhnovich, the Freakonomist Steve Levitt, and the upstart American Basketball Association were all unafraid to follow their joy — despite sneers from the Establishment. Should we all be more willing to embrace the déclassé?
03.31.2022 498. In the 1890s, the Best-Selling Car Was … Electric After a huge false start, electric cars are finally about to flourish. We speak with a technology historian about this all-too-common story, and what it means for innovation everywhere.
03.24.2022 497. Can the Big Bad Wolf Save Your Life? Every year, there are more than a million collisions in the U.S. between drivers and deer. The result: hundreds of deaths, thousands of injuries, and billions in damages. Enter the wolf …
03.17.2022 How to Change Your Mind (Ep. 379 Update) There are a lot of barriers to changing your mind: ego, overconfidence, inertia — and cost. Politicians who flip-flop get mocked; family and friends who cross tribal borders are shunned. But shouldn’t we be encouraging people to change their minds? ...
03.10.2022 496. Do Unions Still Work? Organized labor hasn’t had this much public support in 50 years, and yet the percentage of Americans in a union is near a record low. A.F.L-C.I.O. president Liz Shuler tries to explain this gap — and persuade Stephen Dubner that ...
03.03.2022 495. Why Are There So Many Bad Bosses? People 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.
02.24.2022 494. Why Do Most Ideas Fail to Scale? In a new book called "The Voltage Effect," the economist John List — who has already revolutionized how his profession does research — is trying to start a scaling revolution. In this installment of the Freakonomics Radio Book Club, List ...
02.17.2022 Why Does the Richest Country in the World Have So Many Poor Kids? (Ep. 475 Update) Among O.E.C.D. nations, the U.S. has one of the highest rates of child poverty. Until recently, it looked as if Washington was about to change that. But then … Washington happened.
02.10.2022 493. Why Does the Most Monotonous Job in the World Pay $1 Million? Adam Smith famously argued that specialization is the key to prosperity. In the N.F.L., the long snapper is proof of that argument. Just in time for the Super Bowl, here’s everything there is to know about a job that didn’t ...
02.03.2022 Are You Ready for a Fresh Start? (Ep. 455 Replay) Behavioral scientists have been exploring if — and when — a psychological reset can lead to lasting change. We survey evidence from the London Underground, Major League Baseball, and New Year’s resolutions; we look at accidental fresh starts, forced fresh ...
01.27.2022 492. How Did a Hayfield Become One of America’s Hottest Cities? Frisco used to be just another sleepy bedroom community outside of Dallas. Now it’s got corporate headquarters, billions of investment dollars, and a bunch of Democrats in a place that used to be deep red. Is Frisco nothing more than ...
01.20.2022 491. Why Is Everyone Moving to Dallas? When Stephen Dubner learned that Dallas–Fort Worth will soon overtake Chicago as the third-biggest metro area in the U.S., he got on a plane to find out why. Despite getting stood up by the mayor, nearly drowning on a highway, ...
01.13.2022 490. What Do Broken-Hearted Knitters, Urinating Goalkeepers, and the C.I.A. Have in Common? Curses and other superstitions may have no basis in reality, but that doesn’t stop us from believing.
01.06.2022 489. Is “Toxic Positivity” a Thing? In this special episode of No Stupid Questions, Stephen Dubner and Angela Duckworth discuss the consequences of seeing every glass as at least half-full.
12.30.2021 488. Does Death Have to Be a Death Sentence? In this special episode of People I (Mostly) Admire, Steve Levitt speaks with the palliative physician B.J. Miller about modern medicine’s goal of “protecting a pulse at all costs.” Is there a better, even beautiful way to think about death ...
12.23.2021 487. Is It Okay to Have a Party Yet? In this special episode of Freakonomics, M.D., host Bapu Jena looks at data from birthday parties, March Madness parties, and a Freakonomics Radio holiday party to help us all manage our risk of Covid-19 exposure.
12.16.2021 486. “The Art Market Is in Massive Disruption.” Is art really meant to be an “asset class”? Will the digital revolution finally democratize a market that just keeps getting more elitist? And what will happen to the last painting Alice Neel ever made? (Part 3 of “The Hidden ...
12.09.2021 485. “I’ve Been Working My Ass Off for You to Make that Profit?” The more successful an artist is, the more likely their work will later be resold at auction for a huge markup — and they receive nothing. Should that change? Also: why doesn’t contemporary art impact society the way music and ...
12.02.2021 484. “A Fascinating, Sexy, Intellectually Compelling, Unregulated Global Market.” The art market is so opaque and illiquid that it barely functions like a market at all. A handful of big names get all the headlines (and most of the dollars). Beneath the surface is a tangled web of dealers, ...
11.25.2021 How Do You Cure a Compassion Crisis? (Ep. 444 Replay) Patients in the U.S. healthcare system often feel they’re treated with a lack of empathy. Doctors and nurses have tragically high levels of burnout. Could fixing the first problem solve the second? And does the rest of society need more ...
11.18.2021 483. What’s Wrong With Shortcuts? You know the saying: “There are no shortcuts in life.” What if that saying is just wrong? In his new book "Thinking Better: The Art of the Shortcut in Math and Life," the mathematician Marcus du Sautoy argues that shortcuts ...
11.11.2021 482. Is Venture Capital the Secret Sauce of the American Economy? The U.S. is home to seven of the world’s 10 biggest companies. How did that happen? The answer may come down to two little letters: V.C. Is venture capital good for society, or does it just help the rich get ...
11.04.2021 481. Is the U.S. Really Less Corrupt Than China? A new book by an unorthodox political scientist argues that the two rivals have more in common than we’d like to admit. It’s just that most American corruption is essentially legal.
10.28.2021 480. How Much Does Discrimination Hurt the Economy? Evidence from Nazi Germany and 1940’s America (and pretty much everywhere else) shows that discrimination is incredibly costly — to the victims, of course, but also the perpetrators. One modern solution is to invoke a diversity mandate. But new research ...
10.21.2021 479. The Economist’s Guide to Parenting: 10 Years Later In one of the earliest Freakonomics Radio episodes (No. 39!), we asked a bunch of economists with young kids how they approached child-rearing. Now the kids are old enough to talk — and they have a lot to say. We ...
10.14.2021 478. How Can We Break Our Addiction to Contempt? Arthur Brooks is an economist who for 10 years ran the American Enterprise Institute, one of the most influential conservative think tanks in the world. He has come to believe there is only one weapon that can defeat our extreme ...
10.07.2021 477. Why Is U.S. Media So Negative? Breaking news! Sources say American journalism exploits our negativity bias to maximize profits, and social media algorithms add fuel to the fire. Stephen Dubner investigates.
09.30.2021 That’s a Great Question! (Ep. 192 Rebroadcast) 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.
09.27.2021 “This Didn't End the Way It’s Supposed to End.” (Bonus) The N.B.A. superstar Chris Bosh was still competing at the highest level when a blood clot abruptly ended his career. In his new book, Letters to a Young Athlete, Bosh covers the highlights and the struggles. In this installment of ...
09.23.2021 476. What Are the Police for, Anyway? The U.S. is an outlier when it comes to policing, as evidenced by more than 1,000 fatal shootings by police each year. But we’re an outlier in other ways too: a heavily-armed populace, a fragile mental-health system, and the fact ...
09.16.2021 475. Why Does the Richest Country in the World Have So Many Poor Kids? Among O.E.C.D. nations, the U.S. has one of the highest rates of child poverty. How can that be? To find out, Stephen Dubner speaks with a Republican senator, a Democratic mayor, and a large cast of econo-nerds. Along the way, ...
09.09.2021 474. All You Need Is Nudge When Richard Thaler published Nudge in 2008 (with co-author Cass Sunstein), the world was just starting to believe in his brand of behavioral economics. How did nudge theory hold up in the face of a global financial meltdown, a pandemic, ...
09.02.2021 Is There Really a “Loneliness Epidemic”? (Ep. 407 Rebroadcast) That’s what some health officials are saying, but the data aren’t so clear. We look into what’s known (and not known) about the prevalence and effects of loneliness — including the possible upsides.
08.26.2021 473. These Jobs Were Not Posted on ZipRecruiter In a conversation fresh from the Freakonomics Radio Network’s podcast laboratory, Michèle Flournoy (one of the highest-ranking women in Defense Department history) speaks with Cecil Haney (one of the U.S. Navy’s first Black four-star admirals) about nuclear deterrence, smart leadership, ...
08.19.2021 Reasons to Be Cheerful (Ep. 417 Rebroadcast) Humans have a built-in “negativity bias,” which means we give bad news much more power than good. Would the Covid-19 crisis be an opportune time to reverse this tendency?
08.12.2021 472. This Is Your Brain on Pollution Air pollution is estimated to cause 7 million deaths a year and cost the global economy nearly $3 trillion. But is the true cost even higher? Stephen Dubner explores the links between pollution and cognitive function, and enlists two fellow ...
08.05.2021 471. Mayor Pete and Elaine Chao Hit the Road While other countries seem to build spectacular bridges, dams, and even entire cities with ease, the U.S. is stuck in pothole-fixing mode. We speak with an array of transportation nerds — including the secretary of transportation and his immediate predecessor ...
07.29.2021 Two (Totally Opposite) Ways to Save the Planet (Ep. 346 Rebroadcast) The environmentalists say we’re doomed if we don’t drastically reduce consumption. The technologists say that human ingenuity can solve just about any problem. A debate that’s been around for decades has become a shouting match. Is anyone right?
07.22.2021 470. The Pros and Cons of America’s (Extreme) Individualism According to a decades-long research project, the U.S. is not only the most individualistic country on earth; we’re also high on indulgence, short-term thinking, and masculinity (but low on “uncertainty avoidance,” if that makes you feel better). We look at ...
07.15.2021 469. The U.S. Is Just Different — So Let’s Stop Pretending We’re Not We often look to other countries for smart policies on education, healthcare, infrastructure, etc. But can a smart policy be simply transplanted into a country as culturally unusual (and as supremely WEIRD) as America?
07.08.2021 468. Nap Time for Everyone! The benefits of sleep are by now well established, and yet many people don’t get enough. A new study suggests we should channel our inner toddler and get 30 minutes of shut-eye in the afternoon. But are we ready for ...
07.01.2021 How Stupid Is Our Obsession With Lawns? (Ep. 289 Rebroadcast) 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?
06.24.2021 467. Is the Future of Farming in the Ocean? Bren Smith, who grew up fishing and fighting, is now part of a movement that seeks to feed the planet while putting less environmental stress on it. He makes his argument in a book called Eat Like a Fish; his ...
06.17.2021 466. She’s From the Government, and She’s Here to Help Cecilia Rouse, the chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, is as cold-blooded as any economist. But she admits that her profession would do well to focus on policy that actually helps people. Rouse explains why President Biden ...

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