Freakonomics Radio

By Stephen J. Dubner and WNYC Studios

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.”

4.5

17,562 ratings

Download our free app to listen on your phone

LAST EPISODE

387. Hello, My Name Is Mari...

08.15.2019

Research shows that having a distinctively black name doesn’t affect your economic future. But what is the day-to-day reality of living with such a name? Marijuana Pepsi Vandyck, a newly-minted Ph.D., is well-qualified to answer this question. Her verdict: the ...

Freakonomics Radio episodes:

08.15.2019 387. Hello, My Name Is Marijuana Pepsi! Research shows that having a distinctively black name doesn’t affect your economic future. But what is the day-to-day reality of living with such a name? Marijuana Pepsi Vandyck, a newly-minted Ph.D., is well-qualified to answer this question. Her verdict: the ...
08.08.2019 122. How 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?
08.01.2019 386. How the Supermarket Helped America Win the Cold War Aisle upon aisle of fresh produce, cheap meat, and sugary cereal — a delicious embodiment of free-market capitalism, right? Not quite. The supermarket was in fact the endpoint of the U.S. government’s battle for agricultural abundance against the U.S.S.R. Our ...
07.25.2019 356. America’s Hidden Duopoly (Rebroadcast) We all know our political system is “broken” — but what if that’s not true? Some say the Republicans and Democrats constitute a wildly successful industry that has colluded to kill off competition, stifle reform, and drive the country apart. ...
07.18.2019 385. What Do Nancy Pelosi, Taylor Swift, and Serena Williams Have in Common? They — along with a great many other high-achieving women — were all once Girl Scouts. So was Sylvia Acevedo. Raised in a poor, immigrant family, she was told that “girls like her” didn’t go to college. But she did, ...
07.11.2019 384. Abortion and Crime, Revisited The controversial theory linking Roe v. Wade to a massive crime drop is back in the spotlight as several states introduce abortion restrictions. Steve Levitt and John Donohue discuss their original research, the challenges to its legitimacy, and their updated ...
07.04.2019 173. A Better Way to Eat (Rebroadcast) Takeru Kobayashi revolutionized the sport of competitive eating. What can the rest of us learn from his breakthrough?
06.27.2019 383. The Zero-Minute Workout 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?
06.20.2019 382. How Goes the Behavior-Change Revolution? An all-star team of behavioral scientists discovers that humans are stubborn (and lazy, and sometimes dumber than dogs). We also hear about binge drinking, humblebragging, and regrets. Recorded live in Philadelphia with guests including Richard Thaler, Angela Duckworth, Katy Milkman, ...
06.13.2019 381. Long-Term Thinking in a Start-Up Town Recorded live in San Francisco. Guests include the keeper of a 10,000-year clock, the co-founder of Lyft, a pioneer in male birth control, a specialist in water security, and a psychology professor who is also a puppy. With co-host Angela ...
06.06.2019 380. Notes From an Imperfect Paradise Recorded live in Los Angeles. Guests include Mayor Eric Garcetti, the “Earthquake Lady,” the head of the Port of L.A., and a scientist with NASA’s Planetary Protection team. With co-host Angela Duckworth, fact-checker Mike Maughan, and the worldwide debut of ...
05.30.2019 379. How to Change Your Mind 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? ...
05.23.2019 323. Here’s Why All Your Projects Are Always Late — and What to Do About It (Rebroadcast) Whether it’s a giant infrastructure plan or a humble kitchen renovation, it’ll inevitably take way too long and cost way too much. That’s because you suffer from “the planning fallacy.” (You also have an “optimism bias” and a bad case ...
05.16.2019 378. 23andMe (and You, and Everyone Else) The revolution in home DNA testing is giving consumers important, possibly life-changing information. It’s also building a gigantic database that could lead to medical breakthroughs. But how will you deal with upsetting news? What if your privacy is compromised? And ...
05.09.2019 377. The $1.5 Trillion Question: How to Fix Student-Loan Debt? As the cost of college skyrocketed, it created a debt burden that’s putting a drag on the economy. One possible solution: shifting the risk of debt away from students and onto investors looking for a cut of the graduates’ earning ...
05.02.2019 376. The Data-Driven Guide to Sane Parenting Humans have been having kids forever, so why are modern parents so bewildered? The economist Emily Oster marshals the evidence on the most contentious topics — breastfeeding and sleep training, vaccines and screen time — and tells her fellow parents ...
04.25.2019 329. The Invisible Paw (Rebroadcast) Humans, it has long been thought, are the only animal to engage in economic activity. But what if we've had it exactly backward?
04.18.2019 375. The Most Interesting Fruit in the World The banana used to be a luxury good. Now it’s the most popular fruit in the U.S. and elsewhere. But the production efficiencies that made it so cheap have also made it vulnerable to a deadly fungus that may wipe ...
04.11.2019 374. How Spotify Saved the Music Industry (But Not Necessarily Musicians) Daniel Ek, a 23-year-old Swede who grew up on pirated music, made the record labels an offer they couldn’t refuse: a legal platform to stream all the world’s music. Spotify reversed the labels’ fortunes, made Ek rich, and thrilled millions ...
04.04.2019 373. Why Rent Control Doesn’t Work As cities become ever-more expensive, politicians and housing advocates keep calling for rent control. Economists think that’s a terrible idea. They say it helps a small (albeit noisy) group of renters, but keeps overall rents artificially high by disincentivizing new ...
03.28.2019 372. Freakonomics Radio Live: “Would You Eat a Piece of Chocolate Shaped Like Dog Poop?” What your disgust level says about your politics, how Napoleon influenced opera, why New York City’s subways may finally run on time, and more. Five compelling guests tell Stephen Dubner, co-host Angela Duckworth, and fact-checker Jody Avirgan lots of things ...
03.21.2019 347. Why You Shouldn’t Open a Restaurant (Update) Kenji Lopez-Alt became a rock star of the food world by bringing science into the kitchen in a way that everyday cooks can appreciate. Then he dared to start his own restaurant — and discovered problems that even science can’t ...
03.14.2019 371. A Free-Trade Democrat in the Trump White House For years, Gary Cohn thought he’d be the next C.E.O. of Goldman Sachs. Instead, he became the “adult in the room” in a chaotic administration. Cohn talks about the fights he won, the fights he lost, and the fights he ...
03.07.2019 370. How to Fail Like a Pro The road to success is paved with failure, so you might as well learn to do it right. (Ep. 5 of the “How to Be Creative” series.)
02.28.2019 369. A Good Idea Is Not Good Enough Whether you’re building a business or a cathedral, execution is everything. We ask artists, scientists, and inventors how they turned ideas into reality. And we find out why it’s so hard for a group to get things done — and ...
02.21.2019 368. Where Do Good Ideas Come From? Whether you’re mapping the universe, hosting a late-night talk show, or running a meeting, there are a lot of ways to up your idea game. Plus: the truth about brainstorming. (Ep. 3 of the “How to Be Creative” series.)
02.14.2019 367. The Future of Meat Global demand for beef, chicken, and pork continues to rise. So do concerns about environmental and other costs. Will reconciling these two forces be possible — or, even better, Impossible™?
02.07.2019 366. This Economist Predicted the Last Crisis. What’s the Next One? In 2005, Raghuram Rajan said the financial system was at risk “of a catastrophic meltdown.” After stints at the I.M.F. and India’s central bank, he sees another potential crisis — and he offers a solution. Is it stronger governments? Freer ...
02.02.2019 Extra: Domonique Foxworth Full Interview Stephen Dubner’s conversation with the former N.F.L. player, union official, and all-around sports thinker, recorded for our “Hidden Side of Sports” series.
01.31.2019 365. Not Just Another Labor Force If you think talent and hard work give top athletes all the leverage to succeed, think again. As employees in the Sports-Industrial Complex, they’ve got a tight earnings window, a high injury rate, little choice in where they work — ...
01.26.2019 Extra: Mark Cuban Full Interview A conversation with the Shark Tank star, entrepreneur, and Dallas Mavericks owner recorded for the Freakonomics Radio series “The Hidden Side of Sports.”
01.24.2019 364. Inside the Sports-Industrial Complex For most of us, the athletes are what make sports interesting. But if you own the team or run the league, your players are essentially very expensive migrant workers who eat into your profits. We talk to N.F.L., N.B.A., and ...
01.19.2019 Extra: Mark Teixeira Full Interview A conversation with former Major League Baseball player and current ESPN analyst Mark Teixeira, recorded for the Freakonomics Radio series “The Hidden Side of Sports.”
01.17.2019 363. Think Like a Winner Great athletes aren’t just great at the physical stuff. They’ve also learned how to handle pressure, overcome fear, and stay focused. Here’s the good news: you don’t have to be an athlete to use what they know. (Ep. 4 of ...
01.12.2019 Hacking the World Bank (Ep. 197 Update) Jim Yong Kim has an unorthodox background for a World Bank president — and his reign has been just as unorthodox. He has just announced he’s stepping down, well before his term is over; we recorded this interview with him ...
01.10.2019 362. Why Is This Man Running for President? In the American Dream sweepstakes, Andrew Yang was a pretty big winner. But for every winner, he came to realize, there are thousands upon thousands of losers — a “war on normal people,” he calls it. Here’s what he plans ...
01.03.2019 How to Be Happy (Ep. 345 Rebroadcast) The U.N.’s World Happiness Report — created to curtail our unhealthy obsession with G.D.P. — is dominated every year by the Nordic countries. We head to Denmark to learn the secrets of this happiness epidemic (and to see if we ...
12.27.2018 How to Win Games and Beat People (Ep. 247 Rebroadcast) 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 ...
12.20.2018 People Aren’t Dumb. The World Is Hard. (Ep. 340 Rebroadcast) You wouldn’t think you could win a Nobel Prize for showing that humans tend to make irrational decisions. But that’s what Richard Thaler has done. The founder of behavioral economics describes his unlikely route to success; his reputation for being ...
12.15.2018 Freakonomics Radio Live: “We Thought of a Way to Manipulate Your Perception of Time.” We learn how to be less impatient, how to tell fake news from real, and the simple trick that nurses used to make better predictions than doctors. Journalist Manoush Zomorodi co-hosts; our real-time fact-checker is the author and humorist A.J. ...
12.15.2018 Freakonomics Radio Live: “Where Does Fear Live in the Brain?” Our co-host is comedian Christian Finnegan, and we learn: the difference between danger and fear; the role of clouds in climate change; and why (and when) politicians are bad at math. Washington Post columnist Alexandra Petri is our real-time fact-checker.
12.15.2018 Freakonomics Radio Live: “The World’s a Mess. But Oysters, They Hold it Down.” Celebrity chef Alex Guarnaschelli joins us to co-host an evening of delicious fact-finding: where a trillion oysters went, whether a soda tax can work, and how beer helped build an empire. Washington Post columnist Alexandra Petri is our real-time fact-checker.
12.13.2018 361. Freakonomics Radio Live: “Jesus Could Have Been a Pigeon.” Our co-host is Grit author Angela Duckworth, and we learn fascinating, Freakonomical facts from a parade of guests. For instance: what we all get wrong about Darwin; what an iPod has in common with the “hell ant”; and how a ...
12.06.2018 360. Is the Protestant Work Ethic Real? In the early 20th century, Max Weber argued that Protestantism created wealth. Finally, there are data to prove if he was right. All it took were some missionary experiments in the Philippines and a clever map-matching trick that goes back ...
11.29.2018 359. Should America Be Run by … Trader Joe’s? The quirky little grocery chain with California roots and German ownership has a lot to teach all of us about choice architecture, efficiency, frugality, collaboration, and team spirit.
11.22.2018 There’s a War on Sugar. Is It Justified? (Ep. 285 Rebroadcast) 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 F.D.A. commissioner — ...
11.15.2018 358. Yes, the Open Office Is Terrible — But It Doesn’t Have to Be It began as a post-war dream for a more collaborative and egalitarian workplace. It has evolved into a nightmare of noise and discomfort. Can the open office be saved, or should we all just be working from home?
11.08.2018 357. Can an Industrial Giant Become a Tech Darling? The Ford Motor Company is ditching its legacy sedans, doubling down on trucks, and trying to steer its stock price out of a long skid. But C.E.O. Jim Hackett has even bigger plans: to turn a century-old automaker into the ...
11.01.2018 356. America’s Hidden Duopoly We all know our political system is “broken” — but what if that’s not true? Some say the Republicans and Democrats constitute a wildly successful industry that has colluded to kill off competition, stifle reform, and drive the country apart. ...
10.27.2018 Extra: Elvis Costello Full Interview A conversation with the iconic singer-songwriter, recorded for the Freakonomics Radio series “How to Be Creative.”

Older episodes