Freakonomics Radio

  • 625. The Biden Policy That Trump Hasn’t Touched

    Lina Khan, the youngest F.T.C. chair in history, reset U.S. antitrust policy by thwarting mega-mergers and other monopolistic behavior. This earned her enemies in some places, and big fans in others — including the Trump…


  • EXTRA: The Downside of Disgust (Update)

    It’s a powerful biological response that has preserved our species for millennia. But now it may be keeping us from pursuing strategies that would improve the environment, the economy, even our own health. So is…


  • 624. The Animal No One Loves, Until They Do

    To most people, the rat is vile and villainous. But not to everyone! We hear from a scientist who befriended rats and another who worked with them in the lab — and from the animator…


  • 623. Can New York City Win Its War on Rats?

    Even with a new rat czar, an arsenal of poisons, and a fleet of new garbage trucks, it won’t be easy — because, at root, the enemy is us. (Part two of a three-part series,…


  • 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…


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