Podcast Episodes

435. Why Are Cities (Still) So Expensive?

Episode 435

It isn’t just supply and demand. We look at the complicated history and skewed incentives that make “affordable housing” more punch line than reality in cities from New York and San Francisco to Fli…

Published on 5 years, 2 months ago

434. Is New York City Over?

Episode 434

The pandemic has hit America's biggest city particularly hard. Amidst a deep fiscal hole, rising homicides, and a flight to the suburbs, some people think the city is heading back to the bad old 1970…

Published on 5 years, 2 months ago

“Don’t Neglect the Thing That Makes You Weird” | People I (Mostly) Admire: Ken Jennings

It was only in his late twenties that America’s favorite brainiac began to seriously embrace his love of trivia. Now he holds the “Greatest of All Time” title on Jeopardy! Steve Levitt digs into how …

Published on 5 years, 2 months ago

433. How Are Psychedelics and Other Party Drugs Changing Psychiatry?

Episode 433

Three leading researchers from the Mount Sinai Health System discuss how ketamine, cannabis, and ecstasy are being used (or studied) to treat everything from severe depression to addiction to PTSD. W…

Published on 5 years, 2 months ago

432. When Your Safety Becomes My Danger

Episode 432

The families of U.S. troops killed and wounded in Afghanistan are suing several companies that did reconstruction there. Why? These companies, they say, paid the Taliban protection money, which gave …

Published on 5 years, 3 months ago

“One Does Not Know Where an Insight Will Come From” | People I (Mostly) Admire: Kerwin Charles

The dean of Yale’s School of Management grew up in a small village in Guyana. During his unlikely journey, he has researched video-gaming habits, communicable disease, and why so many African-America…

Published on 5 years, 3 months ago

Does Anyone Really Know What Socialism Is? (Ep. 408 Rebroadcast)

Trump says it would destroy us. Biden needs the voters who support it (especially the Bernie voters). The majority of millennials would like it to replace capitalism. But what is “it”? We bring in th…

Published on 5 years, 3 months ago

What if Your Company Had No Rules?

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings came to believe that corporate rules can kill creativity and innovation. In this latest edition of the Freakonomics Radio Book Club, guest host Maria Konnikova talks …

Published on 5 years, 3 months ago

431. Why Can’t Schools Get What the N.F.L. Has?

Episode 431

Thanks to daily Covid testing and regimented protocols, the new football season is underway. Meanwhile, most teachers, students, and parents are essentially waiting for the storm to pass. And school …

Published on 5 years, 3 months ago

"I Started Crying When I Realized How Beautiful the Universe Is” | People I (Mostly) Admire Ep. 2: Mayim Bialik

She’s best known for playing neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler on The Big Bang Theory, but the award-winning actress has a rich life outside of her acting career, as a teacher, mother — and a real-lif…

Published on 5 years, 3 months ago