Freakonomics Radio

The World Is (Still) Drowning in Sludge

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Insurance forms that make no sense. Subscriptions that can’t be cancelled. A never-ending blizzard of automated notifications. In this update of a 2025 episode, Stephen Dubner discovers where all this sludge comes from — and how much it’s costing us.

 

  • SOURCES:
    • Benjamin Handel, professor of economics at UC Berkeley.
    • Neale Mahoney, professor of economics at Stanford University.
    • Richard Thaler, professor of economics at The University of Chicago.

      •  

      • RESOURCES:
        • "Selling Subscriptions," by Liran Einav, Ben Klopack, and Neale Mahoney (Stanford University, 2023).
        • "The ‘Enshittification’ of TikTok," by Cory Doctorow (WIRED, 2023).
        • "Dominated Options in Health Insurance Plans," by Chenyuan Liu and Justin Sydnor (American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2022).
        • Nudge: The Final Edition, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein (2021).
        • "Frictions or Mental Gaps: What’s Behind the Information We (Don’t) Use and When Do We Care?" by Benjamin Handel and Joshua Schwartzstein (Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2018).
        • "Adverse Selection and Switching Costs in Health Insurance Markets: When Nudging Hurts," by Benjamin Handel (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2011).

          •  

          • EXTRAS:
            • "Sludge," series by Freakonomics Radio (2025).
            • "People Aren’t Dumb. The World Is Hard. (Update)" by Freakonomics Radio (2024).
            • "All You Need is Nudge," by Freakonomics Radio (2021).
            • "How to Fix the Hot Mess of U.S. Healthcare," by Freakonomics Radio (2021).
            • "Should We Really Behave Like Economists Say We Do?" by Freakonomics Radio (2015).

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