Freakonomics Radio

  • 641. What Does It Cost to Lead a Creative Life?

    For years, the playwright David Adjmi was considered “polarizing and difficult.” But creating Stereophonic seems to have healed him. Stephen Dubner gets the story — and sorts out what Adjmi has in common with Richard…


  • 640. Why Governments Are Betting Big on Sports

    The Gulf States and China are spending billions to build stadiums and buy up teams — but what are they really buying? And can an entrepreneur from Cincinnati make his own billions by bringing baseball…


  • How to Make Your Own Luck (Update)

    Before she decided to become a poker pro, Maria Konnikova didn’t know how many cards are in a deck. But she did have a Ph.D. in psychology, a brilliant coach, and a burning desire to…


  • 639. “This Country Kicks My Ass All the Time”

    Cory Booker on the politics of fear, the politics of hope, and how to split the difference.   SOURCES: Cory Booker, senior United States Senator from New Jersey.   RESOURCES: “‘When Are More Americans Going…


  • 638. Are You Ready for the Elder Swell?

    In the U.S., there will soon be more people over 65 than there are under 18 — and it’s not just lifespan that’s improving, it’s “healthspan” too. Unfortunately, the American approach to aging is stuck…


  • What Do Medieval Nuns and Bo Jackson Have in Common? (Update)

    In this episode from 2013, we look at whether spite pays — and if it even exists.   SOURCES: Benedikt Herrmann, research officer at the European Commission. Steve Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics and host of…


  • 637. What It’s Like to Be Middle-Aged (in the Middle Ages)

    The simplicity of life back then is appealing today, as long as you don’t mind Church hegemony, the occasional plague, trial by gossip — and the lack of ibuprofen. (Part two of a three-part series,…


  • 636. Why Aren’t We Having More Babies?

    For decades, the great fear was overpopulation. Now it’s the opposite. How did this happen — and what’s being done about it? (Part one of a three-part series, “Cradle to Grave.”)   SOURCES: Matthias Doepke,…


  • An Economics Lesson from a Talking Pencil (Update)

    A famous essay argues that “not a single person on the face of this earth” knows how to make a pencil. How true is that? In this 2016 episode, we looked at what pencil-making  can…


  • 635. Can a Museum Be the Conscience of a Nation?

    Nicholas Cullinan, the new director of the British Museum, seems to think so. “I’m not afraid of the past,” he says — which means talking about looted objects, the basement storerooms, and the leaking roof.…