logo
episode-header-image
May 2024
57m 19s

586. How Does the Lost World of Vienna S...

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher
About this episode

From politics and economics to psychology and the arts, many of the modern ideas we take for granted emerged a century ago from a single European capital. In this episode of the Freakonomics Radio Book Club, the historian Richard Cockett explores all those ideas — and how the arrival of fascism can ruin in a few years what took generations to build.

 

 

 

Up next
Today
How to Make Your Own Luck (Update)
Before she decided to become a poker pro, Maria Konnikova didn’t know how many cards are in a deck. But she did have a Ph.D. in psychology, a brilliant coach, and a burning desire to know whether life is driven more by skill or chance. She found some answers in poker — and she’s ... Show More
58m 7s
Jul 4
639. “This Country Kicks My Ass All the Time”
Cory Booker on the politics of fear, the politics of hope, and how to split the difference. SOURCES:Cory Booker, senior United States Senator from New Jersey. RESOURCES:"'When Are More Americans Going to Speak Up?'" by The New Yorker Radio Hour (2025)."Cory Booker’s Marathon Floo ... Show More
53m 46s
Jun 27
638. Are You Ready for the Elder Swell?
In the U.S., there will soon be more people over 65 than there are under 18 — and it’s not just lifespan that’s improving, it’s “healthspan” too. Unfortunately, the American approach to aging is stuck in the 20th century. In less than an hour, we try to unstick it. (Part three of ... Show More
54m 53s
Recommended Episodes
Feb 2024
All the World's a Stage
This week, a special interview with the sociologist Richard Sennett takes us from Roland Barthes to Leonard Bernstein; and Hettie Judah on two memoirs inspired by a love of 17th-century art.'The Performer: Art, Life, Politics', by Richard Sennett'Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and ... Show More
41m 21s
Dec 2020
The 1920s - Philosophy's Golden Age
Wittgenstein changed his mind, Heidegger revolutionised philosophy (and the German language), and both the Frankfurt School and the Vienna Circle were in full swing. Matthew Sweet is joined by Wolfram Eilenberger, David Edmonds and Esther Leslie. Plus, a report on the plight of t ... Show More
44m 44s
Feb 2024
124. Daron Acemoglu on Economics, Politics, and Power
Economist Daron Acemoglu likes to tackle big questions. He tells Steve how colonialism still affects us today, who benefits from new technology, and why democracy wasn’t always a sure thing. SOURCE:Daron Acemoglu, professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technolog ... Show More
44m 32s
Dec 2023
Kadare, Gospodinov, Kafka and Dickens
The Palace of Dreams is a novel from 1981 that is ostensibly set in the 19th century Ottoman empire, but the Albanian writer Ismail Kadare cleverly smuggles in thinly veiled criticism of the totalitarian state presided over by Enver Hoxha. The book was duly banned shortly after p ... Show More
45m 7s
Dec 2021
Mass Society - A Warning to The World
In the 19th century the status of mass society became a philosophical and moral issue in a manner hitherto unseen. It came to be defined as the permanent possibility in all individuals of losing concern for their personal status and worth, and assigning themselves to something ou ... Show More
16m 9s
Nov 2020
Comenius, a pioneer of lifelong learning
Teaching not by rote but through play? That's credited to the 17th-century Czech pastor and thinker called Jan Amos Comenius. Splitting schoolchildren up into year groups? That's Comenius. Universal education for all, rich and poor? That's down to him too. Nearly four centuries a ... Show More
39m 46s
Aug 2023
D. J. Taylor, "Orwell: The New Life" (Pegasus Books, 2023)
A fascinating exploration of George Orwell--and his body of work--by an award-winning Orwellian biographer and scholar, presenting the author anew to twenty-first-century readers.We find ourselves in an era when the moment is ripe for a reevaluation of the life and the works of o ... Show More
46m 29s
Jun 2023
1974 - René Dumont et l'utopie d'un socialisme de survie
 René Dumont est un agronome et militant écologiste français né en 1904 à Cambrai. Engagé pour le développement des pays pauvres, il dénonce les famines, les inégalités croissantes, l’épuisement des sols et des ressources, et les dérèglements climatiques à venir. Il est l’auteur ... Show More
6m 42s