Freakonomics Radio

5 Likes     4 Followers     11 Subscribers

Sign up / Log in to like, follow, recommend and subscribe!

Recommendations


Episodes

Date Title & Description Contributors
2025-03-07

  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 administration. Stephen Dubner ...
  Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher author
2025-03-05

  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 it time to dial down our disgust reflex?...
  Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher author
2025-02-28

  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 who made one the hero of a Pixar blockbuster. (Part three of a three-p...
  Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher author
2025-02-21

  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, “Sympathy for the Rat.”) SOURCES:Kathy Corradi, director of rodent mitigation fo...
  Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher author
2025-02-20

  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)The War Room, docume...
  Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher author
2025-02-14

  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 our rat hatred say about us? (Part one of a th...
  Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher author
2025-02-07

  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 of self-dealing and ineptitude” a...
  Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher author
2025-02-05

  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 episode, with extra commentary from Omnipresen...
  Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher author
2025-01-31

  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 former running backs (including LeSean McCoy), and the...
  Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher author
2025-01-24

  619. How to Poison the 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 how to guard your online footprint. The big news, he...
  Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher author