527. Can Adam Smith Fix Our Economy?

Like tens of millions of people, Stephen Dubner thought he had a penicillin allergy. Like the vast majority, he didn’t. This misdiagnosis costs billions of dollars and causes serious health problems, so why hasn’t it been fixed? We find out in this update of a 2025 episode. SOURC ... Show More

Is the oxymoron really “the secret sauce to everything”? That’s the case Ingels makes in this debut episode of our new video show Better in Person, filmed in Stephen Dubner’s living room. If you'd like to see the video version of Better in Person, watch it on YouTube or Apple Pod ... Show More

Stephen Dubner had an idea for a new project. So he drove to Connecticut and knocked on the door of the master. Dubner’s new TV talk show Better in Person launches July 14 on the Freakonomics YouTube channel. SOURCES: Dick Cavett, writer, former talk show host. RESOURCES: Eye on ... Show More

Father of free market economics, Adam Smith was one of many great philosophers of the 18th century Enlightenment period. His philosophies helped change the economy, putting an end to the long-standing feudal system. But outside of his well-known works, such as The Wealth of Natio ... Show More

Sean Illing talks with Glory Liu, the author of Adam Smith’s America: How a Scottish Philosopher became an Icon of American Capitalism. Smith is most well-known for being the “father of capitalism,” but as Liu points out in her book, his legacy has been misappropriated — especial ... Show More

COVID-19 exposed the flaws in our society and the human species. Do we leave old ways behind and build our defenses for the pandemics to come and what will our economic fortunes look like? Does human behaviour really change in the long run? Hear from Dr Mei Ling Doery, Global Aff ... Show More

On this episode of the podcast, we continue our discussion of Adam Smith. First, we look at two towns with the same name on opposite sides of the US-Mexico border, and consider why their residents have such markedly different standards of living. Next, we ask ourselves what deter ... Show More

Adam Smith, a moral philosopher and economist, was born in Scotland, the son of a customs officer. In 1776 he published a book called 'An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations’. Smith basically argued against the over regulation of commerce and said if peopl ... Show More

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss economic rights. Is democracy the truest conduit of capitalism, or do the forces that make us rich run counter to the democratic institutions that safeguard our rights? The economist Milton Friedman once said, “If freedom weren’t so economically ef ... Show More

The classical economic assumption, from the days of Adam Smith, is that we all have free will and this freedom ensures the best possible outcomes for the economy, provided those decisions are based on greed and self-interest. This week’s episode opens with a student questioning M ... Show More

Where does wealth come from, who creates it and what destroys it? In this deep dive into global economics, Mariana Mazzucato explains how we lost sight of what value means and why we need to rethink our current financial systems -- so capitalism can be steered toward a bold, inno ... Show More

For this episode, Autumn and adrienne peel back the layers of story, assumption and shame around class, debt and money. This is the first of an on-going series that will look at post apocalyptic economics. Additional music from Tunde Olaniran, Mother Cyborg and Blue Dot Session ... Show More