Freakonomics Radio

  • 381. Long-Term Thinking in a Start-Up Town

    Recorded live in San Francisco. Guests include the keeper of a 10,000-year clock, the co-founder of Lyft, a pioneer in male birth control, a specialist in water security, and a psychology professor who is also…


  • 380. Notes From an Imperfect Paradise

    Recorded live in Los Angeles. Guests include Mayor Eric Garcetti, the “Earthquake Lady,” the head of the Port of L.A., and a scientist with NASA’s Planetary Protection team. With co-host Angela Duckworth, fact-checker Mike Maughan,…


  • 379. How to Change Your Mind

    There are a lot of barriers to changing your mind: ego, overconfidence, inertia — and cost. Politicians who flip-flop get mocked; family and friends who cross tribal borders are shunned. But shouldn’t we be encouraging…


  • Here’s Why All Your Projects Are Always Late — and What to Do About It (Rebroadcast)

    Whether it’s a giant infrastructure plan or a humble kitchen renovation, it’ll inevitably take way too long and cost way too much. That’s because you suffer from “the planning fallacy.” (You also have an “optimism…


  • 378. 23andMe (and You, and Everyone Else)

    The revolution in home DNA testing is giving consumers important, possibly life-changing information. It’s also building a gigantic database that could lead to medical breakthroughs. But how will you deal with upsetting news? What if…


  • 377. The $1.5 Trillion Question-How to fix student loan debt?

    As the cost of college skyrocketed, it created a debt burden that’s putting a drag on the economy. One possible solution: shifting the risk of debt away from students and onto investors looking for a…


  • 376. The Data-Driven Guide to Sane Parenting

    Humans have been having kids forever, so why are modern parents so bewildered? The economist Emily Oster marshals the evidence on the most contentious topics — breastfeeding and sleep training, vaccines and screen time —…


  • The Invisible Paw (Rebroadcast)

    Humans, it has long been thought, are the only animal to engage in economic activity. But what if we’ve had it exactly backward?


  • 375. The Most Interesting Fruit in the World

    The banana used to be a luxury good. Now it’s the most popular fruit in the U.S. and elsewhere. But the production efficiencies that made it so cheap have also made it vulnerable to a…


  • 374. How Spotify Saved the Music Industry (But Not Necessarily Musicians)

    Daniel Ek, a 23-year-old Swede who grew up on pirated music, made the record labels an offer they couldn’t refuse: a legal platform to stream all the world’s music. Spotify reversed the labels’ fortunes, made…


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