Freakonomics Radio

  • The Show That Never Happened

    A brief meditation on loss, relativity, and the vagaries of show business. RESOURCES: Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry, documentary (2021) Genius & Anxiety: How Jews Changed the World, 1847-1947, by Norman Lebrecht (2019)…

  • 622. Why Does Everyone Hate Rats?

    New York City’s mayor calls them “public enemy number one.” History books say they caused the Black Death — although recent scientific evidence disputes that claim. So is the rat a scapegoat? And what does…

  • 621. Is Professional Licensing a Racket?

    Licensing began with medicine and law; now it extends to 20 percent of the U.S. workforce, including hair stylists and auctioneers. In a new book, the legal scholar Rebecca Allensworth calls licensing boards “a thicket…

  • When Is a Superstar Just Another Employee? (Update)

    In 2023, the N.F.L. players’ union conducted a workplace survey that revealed clogged showers, rats in the locker room — and some insights for those of us who don’t play football. Today we’re updating that…

  • 620. Why Don’t Running Backs Get Paid Anymore?

    They used to be the N.F.L.’s biggest stars, with paychecks to match. Now their salaries are near the bottom, and their careers are shorter than ever. We speak with an analytics guru, an agent, some…

  • 619. How to Poison an A.I. Machine

    When the computer scientist Ben Zhao learned that artists were having their work stolen by A.I. models, he invented a tool to thwart the machines. He also knows how to foil an eavesdropping Alexa and…

  • 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…