Freakonomics Radio
Another war in the Middle East. A retreat from the international order. A presidency built on self-dealing and arbitrary power. It’s enough to make you think the U.S. is in a steep decline — but Fareed Zakaria thinks otherwise.
- SOURCES:
- Fareed Zakaria, journalist and author.
- RESOURCES:
- “Iran is an imperial trap. America walked right in.” by Fareed Zakaria (The Washington Post, 2026).
- “‘Bomb and hope’ is not a strategy,” by Fareed Zakaria (The Washington Post, 2026).
- Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present, by Fareed Zakaria (2024).
- The Accidental Superpower: The Next Generation of American Preeminence and the Coming Global Disorder, by Peter Zeihan (2014).
- The Affluent Society, by Jonathan Galbraith (1958).
- EXTRAS:
- “Fareed Zakaria on What Just Happened, and What Comes Next,” by Freakonomics Radio (2024).
- “Are We Living Through the Most Revolutionary Period in History?” by Freakonomics Radio (2024).
- “The Folly of Prediction,” by Freakonomics Radio (2011).
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
-
607. Is America Switching From Booze to Weed?
We have always been a nation of drinkers — but now there are more daily users of cannabis than alcohol. Considering alcohol’s harms, maybe that’s a good thing. But some people worry that the legalization…
-
606. How to Predict the Presidency
Are betting markets more accurate than polls? What kind of chaos would a second Trump term bring? And is U.S. democracy really in danger, or just “sputtering on”? (Part two of a two-part series.) SOURCES:…
-
Has the U.S. Presidency Become a Dictatorship? (Update)
Sure, we all pay lip service to the Madisonian system of checks and balances. But presidents have been steadily expanding the reach of the job. With an election around the corner, we updated our 2016…
-
605. What Do People Do All Day?
Sixty percent of the jobs that Americans do today didn’t exist in 1940. What happens as our labor becomes more technical and less physical? And what kinds of jobs will exist in the future? SOURCES:…
-
EXTRA: Roland Fryer Refuses to Lie to Black America (Update)
His research on police brutality and school incentives won him acclaim, but also enemies. He was suspended for two years by Harvard, during which time he took a hard look at corporate diversity programs. As…
-
604. Did the N.F.L. Solve Diversity Hiring? (Part 2)
What happened when the Rooney Rule made its way from pro football to corporate America? Some progress, some backsliding, and a lot of controversy. (Second in a two-part series.) SOURCES: Tynesia Boyea-Robinson, president and C.E.O.…
-
603. Did the N.F.L. Solve Diversity Hiring? (Part 1)
The biggest sports league in history had a problem: While most of its players were Black, almost none of its head coaches were. So the N.F.L. launched a hiring policy called the Rooney Rule. In…
-
EXTRA: In Praise of Maintenance (Update)
We revisit an episode from 2016 that asks: Has our culture’s obsession with innovation led us to neglect the fact that things also need to be taken care of? SOURCES: Martin Casado, general partner at…
-
602. Is Screen Time as Poisonous as We Think?
Young people have been reporting a sharp rise in anxiety and depression. This maps neatly onto the global rise of the smartphone. Some researchers are convinced that one is causing the other. But how strong…
-
601. Multitasking Doesn’t Work. So Why Do We Keep Trying?
Only a tiny number of “supertaskers” are capable of doing two things at once. The rest of us are just making ourselves miserable, and less productive. How can we put the — hang on a…