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 transcribedOur appetite for breast meat renders our holiday birds unable to reproduce.
Is booing an act of verbal vandalism—or the last true expression of democracy?
On Election Day, most people focus on the obvious winners and losers -- that is, the candidates. But we went looking for some of the strange side effe...
We are constantly wowed by new technologies and policies meant to make childbirth better. But beware the unintended consequences.
High-stakes testing has produced some rotten apples. But they can be caught.
Did we needlessly scare ourselves into ditching a good thing? And, with millions of cars driving around with no passengers, should we be rooting for a...
The world is a more peaceful place today that at any time in history -- by a long, long shot.
You know the saying: a winner never quits and a quitter never wins. To which Freakonomics Radio says … Are you sure?
Human beings love to predict the future, but we're quite terrible at it. So how about punishing all those bad predictions?
There are more than twice as many suicides as murders in the U.S., but suicide attracts far less scrutiny. Freakonomics Radio digs through the numbers...
Think you know how much parents matter? Think again. Economists crunch the numbers to learn the ROI on child-rearing.
We worship the tradition of handing off a family business to the next generation. But is that really such a good idea?
In restaurants and in life, bad things happen. But what happens next is just as important.
"Conspicuous conservation" is about showing off your environmental bona fides. In other words, if you lean green, there's extra value in bei...
Freakonomics Radio hits the road, and plays some Quiz Bowl
What did Levitt and Dubner learn as kids from their dads?
Who is likelier to get to the fugitive first? When a fugitive is on the run, it’s not only the police he has to worry about. A bounty hunter could be...
What’s it like to wake up one day and realize Dad is a multi-billionaire? That's what happened to Warren Buffett’s son Peter -- who then started to th...
Does Las Vegas increase your risk of suicide? A researcher embeds himself in the city where Americans are most likely to kill themselves.
In our second round of FREAK-quently Asked Questions, Steve Levitt answers some queries from listeners and readers.
