130. Is Our Concept of Freedom All Wrong...

<p>Michael Greenstone knows it’s corny, but he wants to make the world a better place — by tracking the impact of air quality, developing pollution markets in India, and … starting a podcast, which Steve says proves he’s over the hill.</p><p> </p><ul><li><strong>SOURCES:</strong> ... Show More

<p>Suleika Jaouad was diagnosed with cancer at 22. She made her illness the subject of a <i>New York Times</i> column and a memoir, <i>Between Two Kingdoms.</i> She and Steve talk about what it means to live with a potentially fatal illness, how to talk to people who've gone thro ... Show More

<p>Physicist and former pop star Brian Cox tells Steve about discovering the Higgs boson, having a number-one hit, and why particle physics research will almost certainly not create a black hole that destroys all life on earth.</p><p> </p><ul><li><strong>SOURCES:</strong><ul><li> ... Show More

<p>Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, is less reserved than the average banker. He explains why vibes are overrated, why the Fed’s independence is non-negotiable, and why tariffs could bring the economy back to the Covid era.</p><p> </p><ul><li><st ... Show More

<p>In this episode, Matt and Sam are joined by Stanford historian Jennifer Burns to discuss her new biography of Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist whose influence would reach far beyond the academy when, during his last decades, he became one of the most effectiv ... Show More

<p>The quirky little grocery chain with California roots and German ownership has a lot to teach all of us about choice architecture, efficiency, frugality, collaboration, and team spirit.</p><p> </p><ul><li><strong>SOURCES:</strong><ul><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ki ... Show More

<p>You wouldn’t think you could win a Nobel Prize for showing that humans tend to make irrational decisions. But that’s what Richard Thaler has done. In an interview from 2018, the founder of behavioral economics describes his unlikely route to success; his reputation for being l ... Show More

In his latest book, The Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society (W. W. Norton, 2024), Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz rethinks the nature of freedom and its relationship to capitalism.  While many agree that freedom is good and we want more of it, we don’t agree about w ... Show More

<p>Insurance forms that make no sense. Subscriptions that can’t be cancelled. A never-ending blizzard of automated notifications. Where does all this sludge come from — and how much is it costing us? (Part one of a <a href="https://freakonomics.com/podcast-tag/sludge">two-part se ... Show More

<p>A new proposal from the Biden administration calls for a nationwide cap on rent increases. Economists think that’s a terrible idea. We revisit a 2019 episode to hear why.</p><p> </p><ul><li><strong>SOURCES:</strong><ul><li><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/tommyanderssonl ... Show More

<p>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 speaks with Khan about he ... Show More

<p>A lot of jobs in the modern economy don’t pay a living wage, and some of those jobs may be wiped out by new technologies. So what’s to be done? We revisit an episode from 2016 for a potential solution.</p><p> </p><ul><li><strong>SOURCES:</strong><ul><li><a href="https://www.br ... Show More