Freakonomics co-author Stephen J. Dubner uncovers the hidden side of everything. Why is it safer to fly in an airplane than drive a car? How do we decide whom to marry? Why is the media so full of bad news? Also: things you never knew you wanted to know about wolves, bananas, pollution, search engines, and the quirks of human behavior. To get every show in our network without ads and a monthly bonus episode of Freakonomics Radio, sign up for SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts at http://apple.co/SiriusXM.
829 episodes transcribedOkay, maybe the steps aren't so easy. But a program run out of a Toronto housing project has had great success in turning around kids who were headed...
If U.S. schoolteachers are indeed "just a little bit below average," it's not really their fault. So what should be done about it?
The Montgomery Bus Boycott, the South African divestment campaign, Chick-fil-A! Almost anyone can launch a boycott, and the media loves to cover them....
Experts and pundits are notoriously bad at forecasting, in part because they aren't punished for bad predictions. Also, they tend to be deeply unscien...
Discrimination can't explain why women earn so much less than men. If only it were that easy.
Sure, we all want to make good personal decisions, but it doesn't always work out. That's where "temptation bundling" comes in.
A team of economists has been running the numbers on the U.N.'s development goals. They have a different view of how those billions of dollars should...
The argument for open borders is compelling -- and deeply problematic.
One woman's quest to find the best burger in town can teach all of us to eat smarter.
He was handed the keys to the global economy just as it started heading off a cliff. Fortunately, he'd seen this movie before.
Even a brutal natural disaster doesn't diminish our appetite for procreating. This surely means we're heading toward massive overpopulation, right? Pr...
In our collective zeal to reform schools and close the achievement gap, we may have lost sight of where most learning really happens -- at home.
Lessons from Tom Petty's rise and another rocker's fall.
A kitchen wizard and a nutrition detective talk about the perfect hamburger, getting the most out of garlic, and why you should use vodka in just abou...
Researchers are trying to figure out who gets bored - and why - and what it means for ourselves and the economy. But maybe there's an upside to boredo...
Doctors, chefs, and other experts are much more likely than the rest of us to buy store-brand products. What do they know that we don't?
The process is famously secretive (and conducted in Swedish!) but we pry the lid off at least a little bit.
When one athlete turned pro, his mom asked him for $1 million. Our modern sensibilities tell us she doesn't have a case. But should she?
Anne-Marie Slaughter was best known for her adamant views on Syria when she accidentally became a poster girl for modern feminism. As it turns out, sh...
Suspenders may work better, but the dork factor is too high. How did an organ-squeezing belly tourniquet become part of our everyday wardrobe -- and w...
