Freakonomics Radio

  • Is San Francisco a Failed State? (And Other Questions You Shouldn’t Ask the Mayor)

    Stephen Dubner, live on stage, mixes it up with outbound mayor London Breed, and asks economists whether A.I. can be “human-centered” and if Tang is a gateway drug.   SOURCES: London Breed, former mayor of…

  • 618. Are Realtors Having an Existential Crisis?

    Their trade organization just lost a huge lawsuit. Their infamous commission model is under attack. And there are way too many of them. If they go the way of travel agents, will we miss them…

  • 617. Are You Really Allergic to Penicillin?

    Like tens of millions of people, Stephen Dubner thought he had a penicillin allergy. Like the vast majority, he didn’t. This misdiagnosis costs billions of dollars and causes serious health problems, so why hasn’t it…

  • Highway Signs and Prison Labor

    Incarcerated people grow crops, fight wildfires, and manufacture everything from prescription glasses to highway signs — often for pennies an hour. Zachary Crockett takes the next exit, in this special episode of The Economics of…

  • Can Academic Fraud Be Stopped? (Update)

    Probably not — the incentives are too strong. But a few reformers are trying. We check in on their progress, in an update to an episode originally published last year. (Part 2 of 2)  …

  • Why Is There So Much Fraud in Academia? (Update)

    Some of the biggest names in behavioral science stand accused of faking their results. Last year, an astonishing 10,000 research papers were retracted. In a series originally published in early 2024, we talk to whistleblowers,…

  • Your Brain Doesn’t Work the Way You Think

    David Eagleman upends myths and describes the vast possibilities of a brainscape that even neuroscientists are only beginning to understand. Steve Levitt interviews him in this special episode of People I (Mostly) Admire.   SOURCES:…

  • 616. How to Make Something from Nothing

    Adam Moss was the best magazine editor of his generation. When he retired, he took up painting. But he wasn’t very good, and that made him sad. So he wrote a book about how creative…

  • 615. Is Ozempic as Magical as It Sounds?

    In a wide-ranging conversation with Ezekiel Emanuel, the policymaking physician and medical gadfly, we discuss the massive effects of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro. We also talk about the state of cancer care,…

  • How the Supermarket Helped America Win the Cold War (Update)

    Last week, we heard a former U.S. ambassador describe Russia’s escalating conflict with the U.S. Today, we revisit a 2019 episode about an overlooked front in the Cold War — a “farms race” that, decades…