Freakonomics Radio
When he wrote Messiah (in 24 days), Handel was past his prime and nearly broke. One night in Dublin changed all that. (Part two of “Making Messiah.”)
- SOURCES:
- Charles King, political scientist at Georgetown University.
- Chris Scobie, curator of music, manuscripts, and archives at the British Library.
- Ellen Harris, musicologist and professor emeritus at MIT.
- Mark Risinger, teacher at St. Bernard’s School.
- Philip Rushforth, organist and master of the choristers at the Chester Cathedral.
- Proinnsías Ó Duinn, conductor and music director of Our Lady’s Choral Society.
- RESOURCES:
- Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel’s Messiah, by Charles King (2024).
- “Arnaud du Sarrat and the international music trade in Halle and Leipzig c.1700,” by Tomasz Górny (Early Music, 2023).
- George Frideric Handel: A Life with Friends, by Ellen Harris (2014).
- Handel (Composers Across Cultures), by Donald Burrows (2012).
- “Georg Händel (1622–97): The Barber-Surgeon Father of George Frideric Handel (1685–1759),” by Aileen Adams and B. Hofestädt (Journal Of Medical Biography, 2005).
- Handel’s Messiah: A Celebration: A Richly Illustrated History of the Music and Its Eighteenth-Century Background, by Richard Luckett (1995).
- Handel’s Messiah The Advent Calendar, podcast series.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Extra: Jason Kelce Hates to Lose
Pro footballer and star podcaster Jason Kelce is ubiquitous right now (almost as ubiquitous as his brother and co-host Travis, who’s been in the limelight for his relationship with Taylor Swift). After you hear this…
565. Are Private Equity Firms Plundering the U.S. Economy?
They say they make companies more efficient through savvy management. Critics say they bend the rules to enrich themselves at the expense of consumers and employees. Can they both be right? (Probably not.) RESOURCES:…
480. How Much Does Discrimination Hurt the Economy? (Replay)
Evidence from Nazi Germany and 1940’s America (and pretty much everywhere else) shows that discrimination is incredibly costly — to the victims, of course, but also the perpetrators. One modern solution is to invoke a…
564. How to Succeed at Failing, Part 4: Extreme Resiliency
Everyone makes mistakes. How do you learn from them? Lessons from the classroom, the Air Force, and the world’s deadliest infectious disease. RESOURCES: Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well, by Amy…
563. How to Succeed at Failing, Part 3: Grit vs. Quit
Giving up can be painful. That’s why we need to talk about it. Today: stories about glitchy apps, leaky paint cans, broken sculptures — and a quest for the perfect bowl of ramen. RESOURCES…
562. How to Succeed at Failing, Part 2: Life and Death
In medicine, failure can be catastrophic. It can also produce discoveries that save millions of lives. Tales from the front line, the lab, and the I.T. department. RESOURCES: Right Kind of Wrong: The Science…
561. How to Succeed at Failing, Part 1: The Chain of Events
We tend to think of tragedies as a single terrible moment, rather than the result of multiple bad decisions. Can this pattern be reversed? We try — with stories about wildfires, school shootings, and love.…
232. A New Nobel Laureate Explains the Gender Pay Gap (Replay)
Claudia Goldin is the newest winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics. We spoke with her in 2016 about why women earn so much less than men — and how it’s not all explained by…
560. Is This “the Worst Job in Corporate America” — or Maybe the Best?
John Ray is an emergency C.E.O., a bankruptcy expert who takes over companies that have succumbed to failure or fraud. He’s currently cleaning up the mess left by alleged crypto scammer Sam Bankman-Fried. And he…
559. Are Two C.E.O.s Better Than One?
If two parents can run a family, why shouldn’t two executives run a company? We dig into the research and hear firsthand stories of both triumph and disaster. Also: lessons from computer programmers, Simon and…