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Freakonomics Radio

Freakonomics co-author Stephen J. Dubner uncovers the hidden side of everything. Why is it safer to

Episodes

Total: 798

We think of them as intellectual enclaves and the surest route to a better life. But U.S. colleges a

There are a lot of factors that go into greatness, many of which are not obvious. As the Olympics co

Tania Tetlow, a former federal prosecutor and now the president of Fordham University, thinks the mo

It’s not oil or water or plutonium — it’s human hours. We've got an idea for putting them to use, an

A new proposal from the Biden administration calls for a nationwide cap on rent increases. Economist

That’s the worry. Even the humble eyeglass industry is dominated by a single firm. We look into the

A single company, EssilorLuxottica, owns so much of the eyewear industry that it’s hard to escape th

You wouldn’t think you could win a Nobel Prize for showing that humans tend to make irrational decis

Daniel Kahneman left his mark on academia (and the real world) in countless ways. A group of his fri

American politics is trapped in a duopoly, with two all-powerful parties colluding to stifle competi

It’s hard to know whether the benefits of hiring a celebrity are worth the risk. We dig into one gru

Broadway operates on a winner-take-most business model. A runaway hit like Stereophonic — which just

The Berlin dance mecca Berghain is known for its eight-hour line and inscrutable door policy. PJ Vog

Hit by Covid, runaway costs, and a zillion streams of competition, serious theater is in serious tro

Every December, a British man named Tom Whitwell publishes a list of 52 things he’s learned that yea

An update of our 2020 series, in which we spoke with physicians, researchers, and addicts about the

Thanks to legal settlements with drug makers and distributors, states have plenty of money to boost

Most epidemics flare up, do their damage, and fade away. This one has been raging for almost 30 year

Presenting two stories from The Economics of Everyday Things: Why does it seem like every car is bla

The economist and social critic Glenn Loury has led a remarkably turbulent life, both professionally