Freakonomics Radio

By Freakonomics Radio

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. Special features include series like “The Secret Life of a C.E.O.” as well as a live game show, “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know.”

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LAST EPISODE

The Opioid Tragedy, Part 2:...

01.23.2020

One prescription drug is keeping some addicts from dying. So why isn’t it more widespread? A story of regulation, stigma, and the potentially fatal faith in abstinence.

Freakonomics Radio episodes:

01.23.2020 The Opioid Tragedy, Part 2: “It’s Not a Death Sentence” One prescription drug is keeping some addicts from dying. So why isn’t it more widespread? A story of regulation, stigma, and the potentially fatal faith in abstinence.
01.16.2020 The Opioid Tragedy, Part 1: “We’ve Addicted an Entire Generation” How pharma greed, government subsidies, and a push to make pain the “fifth vital sign” kicked off a crisis that costs $80 billion a year and has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.
01.09.2020 5 Psychology Terms You’re Probably Misusing (Ep. 334 Rebroadcast) We all like to throw around terms that describe human behavior — “bystander apathy” and “steep learning curve” and “hard-wired.” Most of the time, they don’t actually mean what we think they mean. But don’t worry — the experts are ...
01.02.2020 The Zero-Minute Workout (Ep. 383 Rebroadcast) There is strong evidence that exercise is wildly beneficial. There is even stronger evidence that most people hate to exercise. So if a pill could mimic the effects of working out, why wouldn’t we want to take it?
12.26.2019 How Many Prince Charleses Can There Be in One Room? In a special holiday episode, Stephen Dubner and Angela Duckworth take turns asking each other questions about charisma, wealth vs. intellect, and (of course) grit.
12.19.2019 Why Is This Man Running for President? (Ep. 362 Update) A year ago, nobody was taking Andrew Yang very seriously. Now he is America’s favorite entrepre-nerd, with a candidacy that keeps gaining momentum. This episode includes our Jan. 2019 conversation with the leader of the Yang Gang and a fresh ...
12.12.2019 How to Hate Taxes a Little Bit Less Every year, Americans short the I.R.S. nearly half a trillion dollars. Most ideas to increase compliance are more stick than carrot — scary letters, audits, and penalties. But what if we gave taxpayers a chance to allocate how their money ...
12.05.2019 Honey, I Grew the Economy Innovation experts have long overlooked where a lot of innovation actually happens. The personal computer, the mountain bike, the artificial pancreas — none of these came from some big R&D lab, but from users tinkering in their homes. Acknowledging this ...
11.28.2019 How to Change Your Mind (Ep. 379 Rebroadcast) 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? ...
11.21.2019 The Truth About the Vaping Crisis A recent outbreak of illness and death has gotten everyone’s attention — including late-to-the-game regulators. But would a ban on e-cigarettes do more harm than good? We smoke out the facts.
11.14.2019 How to Save $32 Million in One Hour For nearly a decade, governments have been using behavioral nudges to solve problems — and the strategy is catching on in healthcare, firefighting, and policing. But is that thinking too small? Could nudging be used to fight income inequality and ...
11.07.2019 Why Does Tipping Still Exist? It’s an acutely haphazard way of paying workers, and yet it keeps expanding. We dig into the data to find out why.
10.31.2019 Speak Softly and Carry Big Data Do economic sanctions work? Are big democracies any good at spreading democracy? What is the root cause of terrorism? It turns out that data analysis can help answer all these questions — and make better foreign-policy decisions. Guests include former ...
10.24.2019 Does Hollywood Still Have a Princess Problem? For decades, there’s been a huge gender disparity both on-screen and behind the scenes. But it seems like cold, hard data — with an assist from the actor Geena Davis — may finally be moving the needle.
10.17.2019 Can Britain Get Its “Great” Back? It used to be a global capital of innovation, invention, and exploration. Now it’s best known for its messy European divorce. We visit London to see if the British spirit of discovery is still alive. Guests include the mayor of ...
10.10.2019 The Prime Minister Who Cried Brexit In 2016, David Cameron held a referendum on whether the U.K. should stay in the European Union. A longtime Euroskeptic, he nevertheless led the Remain campaign. So what did Cameron really want? We ask him that and much more — ...
10.03.2019 America’s Math Curriculum Doesn’t Add Up Most high-school math classes are still preparing students for the Sputnik era. Steve Levitt wants to get rid of the “geometry sandwich” and instead have kids learn what they really need in the modern era: data fluency.
09.26.2019 Fed Up Mary Daly rose from high-school dropout to president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She thinks the central bank needs an upgrade too. It starts with recognizing that the economy is made up of actual humans.
11.06.2017 Why Is There So Much Ground Beef in the World? (Special Feature) In this live episode of "Tell Me Something I Don't Know," you'll learn about carcass balancing, teen sleeping, and brand naming. Joining Stephen J. Dubner as co-host is Alex Wagner (CBS This Morning Saturday); author A.J. Jacobs (It's All Relative) ...
09.30.2017 “Tell Me Something I Don't Know” on the topic of Behavior Change (Special Feature) Stephen J. Dubner hosts an episode full of the world’s most renowned behavior change experts, including Colin Camerer, Ayelet Fishbach, David Laibson, Max Bazerman, Katy Milkman, and Kevin Volpp. Angela Duckworth (psychologist and author of Grit) is our special guest ...
06.19.2017 "Tell Me Something I Don't Know" on the topic of Rivalry Steve Levitt, Scott Turow and Bridget Gainer are panelists. For the "Freakonomics" co-author, the attorney and novelist, and the Cook County commissioner it's "game on!" as they tackle competition of all kinds: athletic, sexual, geopolitical, and the little-known battle between ...
03.27.2017 “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, ...
11.14.2016 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 ...
06.30.2016 The 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.
06.23.2016 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 ...
07.02.2015 A Better Way to Eat (Rebroadcast) Takeru Kobayashi revolutionized the sport of competitive eating. What can the rest of us learn from his breakthrough?
12.18.2014 Time to Take Back the Toilet Public bathrooms are noisy, poorly designed, and often nonexistent. What to do?