678. Who Gets to Choose a “Good Death”?New York is the latest state to legalize medical aid in dying. Stephen Dubner speaks with the governor who signed the law, a […]

677. Can Backgammon Save Us from Ourselves?It brings strangers together. It teaches probability, strategy, and emotional control. It has even helped N.F.L. teams […]

This Is Your Brain on Pollution (Update)As the Trump administration rolls back environmental regulations, we revisit a 2022 episode that explored the hidden cost of […]

676. Has America Lost the Plot?Another war in the Middle East. A retreat from the international order. A presidency built on self-dealing and arbitrary power. […]

The Vanishing Mr. Feynman (Update)In his final years, Richard Feynman’s curiosity took him to some surprising places. We hear from his companions on the trips he t […]

The Brilliant Mr. Feynman (Update)What happens when an existentially depressed and recently widowed young physicist from Queens gets a fresh start in California? We […]

The Curious Mr. Feynman (Update)From the Manhattan Project to the Challenger investigation, the physicist Richard Feynman loved to shoot down what he called “lousy i […]

675. Has the New York Times Become a Games Company?Not exactly. But their runaway success with games like Wordle says something bigger about the way we live now. […]

674. How Does a Composer Feel After the World Premiere?Great. Then depressed. Then great again. Stephen Dubner gets the full story from David Lang; we also hear […]

Was Adam Smith Really a Right-Winger? (Update)Economists and politicians have turned him into a mascot for free-market ideology. Some on the left say the right has […]

673. What Is Money?That’s what the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang wanted to learn. So he turned Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations into an oratorio. We […]

672. What Makes Judy Faulkner Run?Epic Systems manages the electronic health records for hundreds of millions of people. This makes Faulkner a healthcare […]

Why Does Everyone Hate Rats? (Update)New York City’s mayor called them “public enemy number one.” History books say they caused the Black Death — although recent […]

671. Why Has There Been So Little Progress on Alzheimer’s Disease?One possibility: a leading hypothesis pursued by researchers (and funders) was built on science […]

670. Beeconomics 101How do beekeepers make a living? Why is there so much honey fraud? And why did billions of bees suddenly disappear? To find out, guest host […]

Ten Myths About the U.S. Tax System (Update)Nearly everything that politicians say about taxes is at least half a lie. They are also dishonest when it comes to the […]

669. Why Is 95 Percent of the World’s Bourbon Made in Kentucky?Is it tradition … or protectionism? And what happens when the bourbon boom turns into a g […]

668. Do Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny Have Blood on Their Hands?As one researcher told us: “We’ve engineered a world where the most distracting device ever made is als […]

In a Driverless World, Who Loses and Who Wins?In blue cities across the country, unions and politicians want to ban self-driving cars. In this episode from the […]

Are Human Drivers Finally Obsolete?How a secret project at Google led to driverless cars on American roads.  Freakonomics Radio shares a story from our friends at […]