609. What Does It Take to Run a Cannabis Farm?
31 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Chris Weld worked for years in emergency rooms, then ditched that career and bought an old farm in M...
Abortion and Crime, Revisited (Update)
28 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With abortion on the Nov. 5 ballot, we look back at Steve Levitt’s controversial research about an...
608. Cannabis Is Booming, So Why Isn’t Anyone Getting Rich?
24 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There are a lot of reasons, including heavy regulations, high taxes, and competition from illegal we...
607. Is America Switching From Booze to Weed?
17 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We have always been a nation of drinkers — but now there are more daily users of cannabis than al...
606. How to Predict the Presidency
11 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Are betting markets more accurate than polls? What kind of chaos would a second Trump term bring? An...
Has the U.S. Presidency Become a Dictatorship? (Update)
10 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sure, we all pay lip service to the Madisonian system of checks and balances. But presidents have be...
605. What Do People Do All Day?
03 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sixty percent of the jobs that Americans do today didn’t exist in 1940. What happens as our labor ...
EXTRA: Roland Fryer Refuses to Lie to Black America (Update)
30 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
His research on police brutality and school incentives won him acclaim, but also enemies. He was sus...
604. Did the N.F.L. Solve Diversity Hiring? (Part 2)
26 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What happened when the Rooney Rule made its way from pro football to corporate America? Some progres...
603. Did the N.F.L. Solve Diversity Hiring? (Part 1)
19 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The biggest sports league in history had a problem: While most of its players were Black, almost non...
EXTRA: In Praise of Maintenance (Update)
16 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We revisit an episode from 2016 that asks: Has our culture’s obsession with innovation led us to n...
602. Is Screen Time as Poisonous as We Think?
12 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Young people have been reporting a sharp rise in anxiety and depression. This maps neatly onto the g...
601. Multitasking Doesn’t Work. So Why Do We Keep Trying?
05 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Only a tiny number of “supertaskers” are capable of doing two things at once. The rest of us are...
What Is the Future of College — and Does It Have Room for Men? (Update)
29 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Educators and economists tell us all the reasons college enrollment has been dropping, especially fo...
EXTRA: Why Quitting Is Usually Worth It
26 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Stephen Dubner appears as a guest on Fail Better, a new podcast hosted by David Duchovny. The two of...
The University of Impossible-to-Get-Into (Update)
22 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
America’s top colleges are facing record demand. So why don’t they increase supply? (Part 2 of o...
What Exactly Is College For? (Update)
15 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We think of them as intellectual enclaves and the surest route to a better life. But U.S. colleges a...
EXTRA: Here’s Why You’re Not an Elite Athlete (Update)
12 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There are a lot of factors that go into greatness, many of which are not obvious. As the Olympics co...
600. “If We’re All in It for Ourselves, Who Are We?”
08 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Tania Tetlow, a former federal prosecutor and now the president of Fordham University, thinks the mo...
599. The World's Most Valuable Unused Resource
01 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s not oil or water or plutonium — it’s human hours. We've got an idea for putting them to u...
EXTRA: Why Rent Control Doesn’t Work (Update)
29 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A new proposal from the Biden administration calls for a nationwide cap on rent increases. Economist...
598. Is Overconsolidation a Threat to Democracy?
25 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
That’s the worry. Even the humble eyeglass industry is dominated by a single firm. We look into t...
597. Why Do Your Eyeglasses Cost $1,000?
18 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A single company, EssilorLuxottica, owns so much of the eyewear industry that it’s hard to escape ...
EXTRA: People Aren’t Dumb. The World Is Hard. (Update)
15 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
You wouldn’t think you could win a Nobel Prize for showing that humans tend to make irrational dec...
596. Farewell to a Generational Talent
11 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Daniel Kahneman left his mark on academia (and the real world) in countless ways. A group of his fri...
595. Why Don't We Have Better Candidates for President?
04 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
American politics is trapped in a duopoly, with two all-powerful parties colluding to stifle competi...
594. Your Brand’s Spokesperson Just Got Arrested — Now What?
27 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s hard to know whether the benefits of hiring a celebrity are worth the risk. We dig into one g...
593. You Can Make a Killing, but Not a Living
20 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Broadway operates on a winner-take-most business model. A runaway hit like Stereophonic — which ju...
EXTRA: The Fascinatingly Mundane Secrets of the World’s Most Exclusive Nightclub
17 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Berlin dance mecca Berghain is known for its eight-hour line and inscrutable door policy. PJ Vog...
592. How to Make the Coolest Show on Broadway
13 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hit by Covid, runaway costs, and a zillion streams of competition, serious theater is in serious tro...
591. Signs of Progress, One Year at a Time
06 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Every December, a British man named Tom Whitwell publishes a list of 52 things he’s learned that y...
EXTRA: The Opioid Tragedy — How We Got Here
03 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An update of our 2020 series, in which we spoke with physicians, researchers, and addicts about the ...
590. Can $55 Billion End the Opioid Epidemic?
30 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Thanks to legal settlements with drug makers and distributors, states have plenty of money to boost ...
589. Why Has the Opioid Crisis Lasted So Long?
23 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Most epidemics flare up, do their damage, and fade away. This one has been raging for almost 30 year...
Extra: Car Colors & Storage Units
20 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Presenting two stories from The Economics of Everyday Things: Why does it seem like every car is bla...
588. Confessions of a Black Conservative
16 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The economist and social critic Glenn Loury has led a remarkably turbulent life, both professionally...
Should Companies Be Owned by Their Workers?
09 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The employee ownership movement is growing, and one of its biggest champions is also a private equit...
586. How Does the Lost World of Vienna Still Shape Our Lives?
02 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From politics and economics to psychology and the arts, many of the modern ideas we take for granted...
Extra: Why Is 23andMe Going Under? (Update)
29 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Five years ago, we published an episode about the boom in home DNA testing kits, focusing on the hig...
585. A Social Activist in Prime Minister’s Clothing
25 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Justin Trudeau, facing record-low approval numbers, is doubling down on his progressive agenda. But ...
How to Pave the Road to Hell
18 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
So you want to help people? That’s great — but beware the law of unintended consequences. Three ...
Extra: The Men Who Started a Thinking Revolution (Update)
14 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The psychologist Daniel Kahneman — a Nobel laureate and the author of Thinking, Fast and Slow — ...
Why Are There So Many Bad Bosses?
11 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
People who are good at their jobs routinely get promoted into bigger jobs they’re bad at. We expla...
583. Are We Living Through the Most Revolutionary Period in History?
04 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Fareed Zakaria says yes. But it’s not just political revolution — it’s economic, technological...
Extra: How Much Do You Know About Immigration?
01 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The political debates over immigration can generate a lot of fuzzy facts. We wanted to test American...
582. Why Is Everyone Moving to Canada?
28 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As the U.S. tries to fix its messy immigration system, our neighbor to the north is scooping up more...
581. What Both Parties Get Wrong About Immigration
21 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The U.S. immigration system is a massively complicated machine, with a lot of worn-out parts. How to...
Extra: Madeleine Albright’s Warning on Immigration
18 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
She arrived in the U.S. as an 11-year-old refugee, then rose to become Secretary of State. Her views...
580. The True Story of America’s Supremely Messed-Up Immigration System
14 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How did a nation of immigrants come to hate immigration? We start at the beginning, sort through the...
579. Are You Caught in a Social Media Trap?
07 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Economists have discovered an odd phenomenon: many people who use social media (even you, maybe?) wi...
Extra: What Is Sportswashing — and Does It Work? (Update)
04 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In ancient Rome, it was bread and circuses. Today, it’s a World Cup, an Olympics, and a new Saudi-...
578. Water, Water Everywhere — But You Have to Stop and Think
29 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What surprises lurk in our sewage? How did racist city planners end up saving Black lives? Why does ...
Is Google Getting Worse? (Update)
22 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It used to feel like magic. Now it can feel like a set of cheap tricks. Is the problem with Google —...
Extra: Mr. Feynman Takes a Trip — But Doesn’t Fall
19 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A wide-open conversation with three women who guided Richard Feynman through some big adventures at ...
The Vanishing Mr. Feynman
15 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In his final years, Richard Feynman's curiosity took him to some surprising places. We hear from his...
The Brilliant Mr. Feynman
08 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when an existentially depressed and recently widowed young physicist from Queens gets a...
How the San Francisco 49ers Stopped Being Losers (Update)
05 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
They’re heading to the Super Bowl for the second time in five years. But back in 2018, they were c...
The Curious Mr. Feynman
01 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From the Manhattan Project to the Challenger investigation, the physicist Richard Feynman loved to s...
574. “A Low Moment in Higher Education”
25 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Roth of Wesleyan University doesn’t hang out with other university presidents. He also thi...
5 Psychology Terms You’re Probably Misusing (Replay)
22 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We all like to throw around terms that describe human behavior — “bystander apathy” and “ste...
573. Can Academic Fraud Be Stopped?
18 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Probably not — the incentives are too strong. Scholarly publishing is a $28 billion global industr...
572. Why Is There So Much Fraud in Academia?
11 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Some of the biggest names in behavioral science stand accused of faking their results. Last year, an...
571. Greeting Cards, Pizza Boxes, and Personal Injury Lawyers
04 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In a special episode of The Economics of Everyday Things, host Zachary Crockett explains what millen...
570. Is Gynecology the Best Innovation Ever?
28 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In a special episode of People I (Mostly) Admire, Steve Levitt talks to Cat Bohannon about her new b...
569. Do You Need Closure?
21 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In a special episode of No Stupid Questions, Angela Duckworth and Mike Maughan talk about unfinished...
568. Why Are People So Mad at Michael Lewis?
14 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Lewis got incredible access to Sam Bankman-Fried, the billionaire behind the spectacular FTX fraud. ...
567. Do the Police Have a Management Problem?
07 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In policing, as in most vocations, the best employees are often promoted into leadership without muc...
513. Should Public Transit Be Free? (Update)
30 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It boosts economic opportunity and social mobility. It’s good for the environment. So why do we ch...
566. Why Is It So Hard (and Expensive) to Build Anything in America?
23 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Most industries have become more productive over time. But not construction! We identify the causes ...
Extra: Jason Kelce Hates to Lose
19 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Pro footballer and star podcaster Jason Kelce is ubiquitous right now (almost as ubiquitous as his b...
565. Are Private Equity Firms Plundering the U.S. Economy?
16 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
They say they make companies more efficient through savvy management. Critics say they bend the rule...
480. How Much Does Discrimination Hurt the Economy? (Replay)
09 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Evidence from Nazi Germany and 1940’s America (and pretty much everywhere else) shows that discrim...
564. How to Succeed at Failing, Part 4: Extreme Resiliency
02 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Everyone makes mistakes. How do you learn from them? Lessons from the classroom, the Air Force, and ...
563. How to Succeed at Failing, Part 3: Grit vs. Quit
26 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Giving up can be painful. That's why we need to talk about it. Today: stories about glitchy apps, le...
562. How to Succeed at Failing, Part 2: Life and Death
19 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In medicine, failure can be catastrophic. It can also produce discoveries that save millions of live...
561. How to Succeed at Failing, Part 1: The Chain of Events
12 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We tend to think of tragedies as a single terrible moment, rather than the result of multiple bad de...
232. A New Nobel Laureate Explains the Gender Pay Gap (Replay)
10 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Claudia Goldin is the newest winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics. We spoke with her in 2016 about...
560. Is This “the Worst Job in Corporate America” — or Maybe the Best?
05 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
John Ray is an emergency C.E.O., a bankruptcy expert who takes over companies that have succumbed to...
559. Are Two C.E.O.s Better Than One?
28 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
If two parents can run a family, why shouldn’t two executives run a company? We dig into the resea...
558. The Facts Are In: Two Parents Are Better Than One
21 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In her new book The Two-Parent Privilege, the economist Melissa Kearney says it’s time for liberal...
When Is a Superstar Just Another Employee?
14 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The union that represents N.F.L. players conducted their first-ever survey of workplace conditions, ...
556. A.I. Is Changing Everything. Does That Include You?
07 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For all the speculation about the future, A.I. tools can be useful right now. Adam Davidson discover...
555. New Technologies Always Scare Us. Is A.I. Any Different?
31 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Guest host Adam Davidson looks at what might happen to your job in a world of human-level artificial...
554. Can A.I. Take a Joke?
24 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Artificial intelligence, we’ve been told, will destroy humankind. No, wait — it will usher in a ...
553. The Suddenly Diplomatic Rahm Emanuel
17 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The famously profane politician and operative is now U.S. ambassador to Japan, where he’s trying t...
Should Traffic Lights Be Abolished? (Ep. 454 Replay)
10 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Americans are so accustomed to the standard intersection that we rarely consider how dangerous it ca...
Extra: A Modern Whaler Speaks Up
06 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Bjorn Andersen killed 111 minke whales this season. He tells us how he does it, why he does it, and ...
552. Freakonomics Radio Presents: The Economics of Everyday Things
03 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In three stories from our newest podcast, host Zachary Crockett digs into sports mascots, cashmere s...
551. What Can Whales Teach Us About Clean Energy, Workplace Harmony, and Living the Good Life?
27 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the final episode of our whale series, we learn about fecal plumes, shipping noise, and why "Moby...
550. Why Do People Still Hunt Whales?
20 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For years, whale oil was used as lighting fuel, industrial lubricant, and the main ingredient in (yu...
549. The First Great American Industry
13 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Whaling was, in the words of one scholar, “early capitalism unleashed on the high seas.” How did...
548. Why Is the U.S. So Good at Killing Pedestrians?
06 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Actually, the reasons are pretty clear. The harder question is: Will we ever care enough to stop?
Why Did You Marry That Person? (Ep. 511 Replay)
29 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sure, you were “in love.” But economists — using evidence from Bridgerton to Tinder — point ...
547. Satya Nadella’s Intelligence Is Not Artificial
22 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
But as C.E.O. of the resurgent Microsoft, he is firmly at the center of the A.I. revolution. We spea...
546. Are E.S.G. Investors Actually Helping the Environment?
15 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Probably not. The economist Kelly Shue argues that E.S.G. investing just gives more money to firms t...
545. Enough with the Slippery Slopes!
08 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Gun control, abortion rights, drug legalization — it seems like every argument these days claims t...
544. Ari Emanuel Is Never Indifferent
01 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
He turned a small Hollywood talent agency into a massive sports-and-entertainment empire. In a freew...
Make Me a Match (Ep. 209 Update)
25 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sure, markets work well in general. But for some transactions — like school admissions and organ t...
543. How to Return Stolen Art
18 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Museums are purging their collections of looted treasures. Can they also get something in return? An...
542. Is a Museum Just a Trophy Case?
11 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The world’s great museums are full of art and artifacts that were plundered during an era when plu...