People I (Mostly) Admire

Monica Bertagnolli went from a childhood on a cattle ranch to a career as a surgeon to a top post in the Biden administration. As director of the National Institutes of Health, she’s working to improve the way we find new treatments — despite regulatory constraints and tight budgets.

• SOURCE:
  • Monica Bertagnolli, director of the National Institutes of Health.

• RESOURCES:
  • "Steven Levitt and John Donohue Defend a Finding Made Famous by 'Freakonomics'," by Steven Levitt and John Donohue (The Economist, 2024).
  • "Why 'Freakonomics' Failed to Transform Economics," (The Economist, 2024).
  • "Steven D. Levitt (Freakonomics Co-Author and U Chicago Econ Prof) on His Career and Decision to Retire From Academic Economics," by Jon Hartley (The Capitalism and Freedom in the Twenty-First Century Podcast, 2024).
  • "Why Autoimmune Disease Is More Common in Women: X Chromosome Holds Clues," by Elie Dolgin (Nature, 2024).
  • "Casgevy and Lyfgenia: Two Gene Therapies Approved for Sickle Cell Disease," by Carrie MacMillan (Yale Medicine News, 2023).
  • "Fact Sheet: President Biden Reignites Cancer Moonshot to End Cancer as We Know It," (2022).
  • "Mini-Antibodies Discovered in Sharks and Camels Could Lead to Drugs for Cancer and Other Diseases," by Mitch Leslie (Science, 2018).

• EXTRAS:
  • "Who Pays for Multimillion-Dollar Miracle Cures?" by Freakonomics, M.D. (2023).
  • "What’s Stopping Us From Curing Rare Diseases?" by Freakonomics, M.D. (2023).
  • "Abortion and Crime, Revisited (Update)," by Freakonomics Radio (2022).
  • "John Donohue: 'I’m Frequently Called a Treasonous Enemy of the Constitution,'" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).

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Nobel laureate, bestselling author, and groundbreaking psychologist Daniel Kahneman died in March. In 2021 he talked with Steve Levitt — his friend and former business partner — about his book Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment (cowritten with Olivier Sibony and Cass Sunstein) and much more.

• SOURCES:
  • Daniel Kahneman, professor emeritus of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University.

• RESOURCES:
  • Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment, by Olivier Sibony, Daniel Kahneman, and Cass R. Sunstein (2021).
  • Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman (2011).

• EXTRAS:
  • "What’s the Secret to Making a Great Prediction?" by No Stupid Questions (2021).
  • "The Men Who Started a Thinking Revolution," by Freakonomics Radio (2017).
  • "How to Be Less Terrible at Predicting the Future," by Freakonomics Radio (2016).

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Google researcher Blaise Agüera y Arcas spends his work days developing artificial intelligence models and his free time conducting surveys for fun. He tells Steve how he designed an algorithm for the U.S. Navy at 14, how he discovered the truth about printing-press pioneer Johannes Gutenberg, and when A.I. first blew his mind.

• SOURCE:
  • Blaise Agüera y Arcas, fellow at Google Research.

• RESOURCES:
  • Who Are We Now?, by Blaise Agüera y Arcas (2023).
  • "Artificial General Intelligence Is Already Here," by Blaise Agüera y Arcas and Peter Norvig (Noema Magazine, 2023).
  • "Transformer: A Novel Neural Network Architecture for Language Understanding," by Jakob Uszkoreit (Google Research Blog, 2017).
  • "Communication-Efficient Learning of Deep Networks from Decentralized Data," by H. Brendan McMahan, Eider Moore, Daniel Ramage, Seth Hampson, and Blaise Agüera y Arcas (arXiv, 2016).
  • "How PhotoSynth Can Connect the World's Images," by Blaise Agüera y Arcas (TED Talk, 2007).
  • "Has History Been Too Generous to Gutenberg?" by Dinitia Smith (The New York Times, 2001).

• EXTRAS:
  • "'My God, This Is a Transformative Power,'" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).
  • "How to Think About A.I.," series by Freakonomics Radio (2023).
  • "Satya Nadella’s Intelligence Is Not Artificial," by Freakonomics Radio (2023).
  • "Yul Kwon (Part 2): 'Hey, Do You Have Any Bright Ideas?'" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).
  • "Yul Kwon: 'Don’t Try to Change Yourself All at Once,'" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).

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After Haiti’s devastating earthquake, Rajiv Shah headed the largest humanitarian effort in U.S. history. As chief economist of the Gates Foundation he tried to immunize almost a billion children. He tells Steve why it’s important to take big gambles, follow the data, and own up to your mistakes.

• SOURCE:
  • Rajiv Shah, president of the Rockefeller Foundation.

• RESOURCES:
  • Big Bets: How Large-Scale Change Really Happens, by Rajiv Shah (2023).
  • "The Root of Haiti’s Misery: Reparations to Enslavers," by Catherine Porter, Constant Méheut, Matt Apuzzo, and Selam Gebrekidan (The New York Times, 2022).
  • "Testing Is Our Way Out," by Paul Romer and Rajiv Shah (The Wall Street Journal, 2020).
  • "How to Get Millions of People to Take Coronavirus Tests and Stay Home if They're Positive," by Steven Levitt, Paul Romer, and Jeff Severts (USA Today, 2020).
  • "Haiti In Ruins: A Look Back At The 2010 Earthquake," by The Picture Show (2020).
  • "Vaccine for a Global Childhood Illness Passes Last Big Hurdle," (The New York Times, 1997).

• EXTRAS:
  • "Dambisa Moyo Says Foreign Aid Can’t Solve Problems, but Maybe Corporations Can," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).
  • "Moncef Slaoui: 'It’s Unfortunate That It Takes a Crisis for This to Happen,'" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2020).

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The Power of Habit author Charles Duhigg wrote his new book in an attempt to learn how to communicate better. Steve shares how the book helped him understand his own conversational weaknesses.

• SOURCES:
  • Charles Duhigg, journalist and author.

• RESOURCES:
  • Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection, by Charles Duhigg (2024).
  • "2023 Word of the Year Is 'Enshittification,'" by the American Dialect Association (2024).
  • "When Someone You Love Is Upset, Ask This One Question," by Jancee Dunn (The New York Times, 2023).
  • Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business, by Charles Duhigg (2016).
  • "The 36 Questions That Lead to Love," by Daniel Jones (The New York Times, 2015).
  • The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, by Charles Duhigg (2012).
  • "The Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness: A Procedure and Some Preliminary Findings," by Arthur Aron, Edward Melinat, Elaine N. Aron, Robert Darrin Vallone, and Renee J. Bator (Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 1997).

• EXTRAS:
  • "How Can You Get Closer to the People You Care About?" by No Stupid Questions (2023).
  • "How Do You Connect With Someone You Just Met?" by No Stupid Questions (2023).
  • "Can I Ask You a Ridiculously Personal Question?" by Freakonomics Radio (2021).
  • "Amanda & Lily Levitt Share What It’s Like to be Steve’s Daughters," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).
  • "Marina Nitze: 'If You Googled ‘Business Efficiency Consultant,’ I Was the Only Result,'" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).
  • "How to Be More Productive," by Freakonomics Radio (2016).
  • Frozen, film (2013).

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Cat Bohannon’s new book puts female anatomy at the center of human evolution. She tells Steve why it takes us so long to give birth, what breast milk is really for, and why the human reproductive system is a flaming pile of garbage.

• SOURCE:
  • Cat Bohannon, researcher and author.

• RESOURCES:
  • Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution, by Cat Bohannon (2023).
  • “Genomic Inference of a Severe Human Bottleneck During the Early to Middle Pleistocene Transition,” by Wangjie Hu, Ziqian Hao, Pengyuan Du, Fabio Di Vincenzo, Giorgio Manzi, Jialong Cui, Yun-Xin Fu, Yi-Hsuan, and Haipeng Li (Science, 2023).
  • “The Greatest Invention in the History of Humanity,” by Cat Bohannon (The Atlantic, 2023).
  • “A Newborn Infant Chimpanzee Snatched and Cannibalized Immediately After Birth: Implications for ‘Maternity Leave’ in Wild Chimpanzee,” by Hitonaru Nishie and Michio Nakamura (American Journal of Biological Anthropology, 2018).
  • “War in the Womb,” by Suzanne Sadedin (Aeon, 2014).
  • “Timing of Childbirth Evolved to Match Women’s Energy Limits,” by Erin Wayman (Smithsonian Magazine, 2012).
  • “Bonobo Sex and Society,” by Frans B. M. de Waal (Scientific American, 2006).

• EXTRAS:
  • “Ninety-Eight Years of Economic Wisdom,” by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).
  • “We Can Play God Now,” by People I (Mostly) Admire (2022).
  • “Yuval Noah Harari Thinks Life Is Meaningless and Amazing,” by People I (Mostly) Admire (2022).
  • “Jared Diamond on the Downfall of Civilizations — and His Optimism for Ours,” by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).

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Economist Daron Acemoglu likes to tackle big questions. He tells Steve how colonialism still affects us today, who benefits from new technology, and why democracy wasn’t always a sure thing.

• SOURCE:
  • Daron Acemoglu, professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

• RESOURCES:
  • Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity, by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson (2023).
  • "Economists Pin More Blame on Tech for Rising Inequality," by Steve Lohr (The New York Times, 2022).
  • "America’s Slow-Motion Wage Crisis: Four Decades of Slow and Unequal Growth," by John Schmitt, Elise Gould, and Josh Bivens (Economic Policy Institute, 2018).
  • "Why Mental Health Advocates Use the Words 'Died by Suicide,'" by Nicole Spector (NBC News, 2018).
  • "A Machine That Made Stockings Helped Kick Off the Industrial Revolution," by Sarah Laskow (Atlas Obscura, 2017).
  • "The Long-Term Jobs Killer Is Not China. It’s Automation," by Claire Cain Miller (The New York Times, 2016).
  • Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson (2012).
  • "The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation," by Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson (American Economic Review, 2001).
  • "Learning about Others' Actions and the Investment Accelerator," by Daron Acemoglu (The Economic Journal, 1993).
  • "A Friedman Doctrine — The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits," by Milton Friedman (The New York Times, 1970).

• EXTRAS:
  • "'My God, This Is a Transformative Power,'" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).
  • "New Technologies Always Scare Us. Is A.I. Any Different?" by Freakonomics Radio (2023).
  • "Max Tegmark on Why Superhuman Artificial Intelligence Won’t be Our Slave," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).
  • "How to Prevent Another Great Depression," by Freakonomics Radio (2020).
  • "Is Income Inequality Inevitable?" by Freakonomics Radio (2017).

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Journalist Walt Hickey uses data to understand how culture works. He and Steve talk about why China hasn’t produced any hit movies yet and how he got his own avatar in the Madden NFL video game. 

• SOURCE:
  • Walter Hickey, author, journalist, and data expert.

• RESOURCES:
  • You Are What You Watch: How Movies and TV Affect Everything, by Walter Hickey (2023).
  • "France Gave Teenagers $350 for Culture. They’re Buying Comic Books," by Aurelien Breeden (The New York Times, 2021).
  • "How I Escaped a Chinese Internment Camp," by Fahmida Azim, Anthony Del Col, and Josh Adams (Business Insider, 2021).
  • "Why You Should Stop Binge-Watching," by Alan Jern (Psychology Today, 2021).
  • "China Wants Soft Power. But Censorship Is Stifling Its Film Industry," by Eduardo Baptista (CNN, 2019).
  • "The Economic Impact of On-Screen Tourism: The Case of The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit," by ShiNa Li, Hengyun Li, Haiyan Song, Christine Lundberg, and Shujie Shen (Tourism Management, 2017).
  • "A Lazy, Out-Of-Shape Amateur Won Two More Super Bowls Than Tony Romo," by Walter Hickey and Jody Avirgan (FiveThirtyEight, 2015).
  • "How Madden Helped a Schlub Like Me Make It Into the NFL," by Walter Hickey (FiveThirtyEight, 2015).
  • "'Kung Fu Panda' Prompts Soul-Searching in China," by Simon Rabinovitch (Reuters, 2008).
  • Numlock News, by Walter Hickey.

• EXTRAS:
  • "Nate Silver Says We’re Bad at Making Predictions," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).
  • "Adding Ten Healthy Years to Your Life," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).
  • "David Epstein Knows Something About Almost Everything," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).
  • "Professor Carl Hart Argues All Drugs Should Be Legal — Can He Convince Steve?" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).
  • "Sendhil Mullainathan Thinks Messing Around Is the Best Use of Your Time," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).
  • "Sue Bird: 'You Have to Pay the Superstars,'" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).

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Arnold Schwarzenegger has been a bodybuilder, an actor, a governor, and, now, an author. He tells Steve how he’s managed to succeed in so many fields — and what to do when people throw eggs at you.

• SOURCE:
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger, professional bodybuilder, actor, and former governor of California.

• RESOURCES:
  • Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life, by Arnold Schwarzenegger (2023).
  • "Arnold Schwarzenegger: Environmentalists Are Behind the Times. And Need to Catch Up Fast," by Arnold Schwarzenegger (USA Today, 2023).
  • Arnold, Netflix documentary (2023).
  • "Gubernatorial Recall Election Debate," (C-SPAN, 2003).
  • "Cinema: Best of '84: Cinema," (TIME, 1985).

• EXTRAS:
  • "This Is Your Brain on Pollution (Update)," by Freakonomics Radio (2022).
  • Twins, film by Ivan Reitman (1988).
  • The Terminator, film by James Cameron (1984).

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Physicist Helen Czerski loves to explain how the world works. She talks with Steve about studying bubbles, setting off explosives, and how ocean waves have changed the course of history.

• SOURCE:
  • Helen Czerski, physicist and oceanographer at University College London.

• RESOURCES:
  • The Blue Machine: How the Ocean Works, by Helen Czerski (2023).
  • "Ocean Bubbles Under High Wind Conditions – Part 1: Bubble Distribution and Development," by Helen Czerski, Ian M. Brooks, Steve Gunn, Robin Pascal, Adrian Matei, and Byron Blomquist (Ocean Science, 2022).
  • "When It Comes to Sucking Up Carbon Emissions, ‘The Ocean Has Been Forgiving.’ That Might Not Last," by Bella Isaacs-Thomas (PBS NewsHour, 2022).
  • "Ocean's Hidden Heat Measured With Earthquake Sounds," by Paul Voosen (Science, 2020).
  • "Why Is the Ocean so Important for Climate Change?" by Kathryn Tso (MIT Climate Portal, 2020).
  • "Issues Brief: Ocean Deoxygenation," by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (2019).
  • "Behold the Bubbly Ocean," by Helen Czerski (Physics World, 2017).
  • Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life, by Helen Czerski (2016).
  • "Research Highlight: Scripps and the Science Behind the D-Day Landings," by James Vazquez and Mario C. Aguilera (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 2014).
  • "A Mechanism Stimulating Sound Production From Air Bubbles Released From a Nozzle," by Grant B. Deane and Helen Czerski (Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2008).
  • "β-δ Phase Transition During Dropweight Impact on Cyclotetramethylene-Tetranitroamine," by Helen Czerski, M. W. Greenaway, William G. Proud, and John E. Field (Journal of Applied Physics, 2004).

• EXTRAS:
  • "Reading Dostoevsky Behind Bars," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).
  • "Can Data Keep People Out of Prison?" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).
  • "Joshua Jay: 'Humans Are So, So Easy to Fool,'" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).

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