Freakonomics Radio

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 San Francisco. Erik Brynjolfsson, professor of economics at Stanford University Koleman Strumpf, professor of economics at Wake Forest University   … Read more

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 when they’re gone?   SOURCES: Sonia Gilbukh, assistant professor of real estate at CUNY Baruch College. Kevin Sears, 2025 president … Read more

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 been fixed? And how about all the other things we think we’re allergic to?   SOURCES: Kimberly Blumenthal, allergist-immunologist and … Read more

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 Everyday Things.   SOURCES: Laura Appleman, professor of law at Willamette University. Christopher Barnes, inmate at the Franklin Correctional Center. … Read more

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)   SOURCES: Max Bazerman, professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. Leif Nelson, professor of business administration at the University … Read more

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, reformers, and a co-author who got caught up in the chaos. (Part 1 of 2)   SOURCES: Max Bazerman, professor … Read more

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: David Eagleman, professor of cognitive neuroscience at Stanford University and C.E.O. of Neosensory.   RESOURCES: Livewired: The Inside Story of … Read more

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 people work— and, in the process, he made himself happy again.   SOURCE: Adam Moss, magazine editor and author.   RESOURCES: … Read more

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, mysteries in the gut microbiome, flaws in the U.S. healthcare system — and what a second Trump term means for … Read more

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 later, still influences what Americans eat.   SOURCES: Anne Effland, former Senior Economist for the Office of Chief Economist in … Read more