logo
episode-header-image
Sep 2024
42m 37s

EXTRA: In Praise of Maintenance (Update)

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher
About this episode

We revisit an episode from 2016 that asks: Has our culture’s obsession with innovation led us to neglect the fact that things also need to be taken care of? 

 

  • SOURCES:
    • Martin Casado, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz.
    • Ruth Schwartz Cowan, professor emerita of history and sociology of science at University of Pennsylvania.
    • Edward Glaeser, professor of economics at Harvard University.
    • Chris Lacinak, founder and president of AVPreserve.
    • Andrew Russell, provost of SUNY Polytechnic Institute.
    • Lawrence Summers, professor and president emeritus of Harvard University; former Secretary of the Treasury and former director of the National Economic Council.
    • Lee Vinsel, professor of science, technology, and society at Virginia Tech.

 

 

Up next
Aug 22
What Can Whales Teach Us About Clean Energy, Workplace Harmony, and Living the Good Life? (Update)
In the final episode of our whale series, we learn about fecal plumes, shipping noise, and why Moby-Dick is still worth reading. (Part 3 of "Everything You Never Knew About Whaling.") SOURCES:Michele Baggio, professor of economics at the University of Connecticut.Mary K. Bercaw-E ... Show More
48m 11s
Aug 15
Why Do People Still Hunt Whales? (Update)
For years, whale oil was used as lighting fuel, industrial lubricant, and the main ingredient in (yum!) margarine. Whale meat was also on a few menus. But today, demand for whale products is at a historic low. And yet some countries still have a whaling industry. We find out why. ... Show More
37m 32s
Aug 8
The First Great American Industry (Update)
Whaling was, in the words of one scholar, “early capitalism unleashed on the high seas.” How did the U.S. come to dominate the whale market? Why did whale hunting die out here — and continue to grow elsewhere? And is that whale vomit in your perfume? (Part 1 of “Everything You Ne ... Show More
45m 2s
Recommended Episodes
Aug 2024
Sendhil Mullainathan Thinks Messing Around Is the Best Use of Your Time (Update)
Revisiting Steve’s 2021 conversation with the economist and MacArthur “genius” about how to make memories stickier, why change is undervalued, and how to find something new to say on the subject of scarcity. SOURCE:Sendhil Mullainathan, university professor of computation and beh ... Show More
46m 54s
Nov 2024
220. Is Your Attention Span Shrinking?
Does a surplus of information create a shortage of attention? Are today’s young people really unable to focus? And do goldfish need better PR?  SOURCES:Neil Bradbury, professor of physiology at Rosalind Franklin University.Nicholas Carr, writer and journalist.Johann Hari, writer ... Show More
37m 11s
Oct 2024
142. What’s Impacting American Workers?
David Autor took his first economics class at 29 years old. Now he’s one of the central academics studying the labor market. The M.I.T. economist and Steve dissect the impact of technology on labor, spar on A.I., and discuss why economists can sometimes be oblivious. SOURCES:Davi ... Show More
1h 3m
Nov 2024
221. Why Are We So Pessimistic?
Are things really as bad as they seem? Has Gen Z given up hope for the world? And why was the father of positive psychology a lifelong pessimist? SOURCES:Albert Bandura, professor of psychology at Stanford University.David Brooks, author and opinion columnist. Andrew Grove, forme ... Show More
39m 8s
Dec 2023
Palo Alto: The Grit Beneath Tech’s Glitter
Join us for a conversation on the seedy underside to Tech’s past, present, and future. This event took place on May 30, 2023. If the industry’s most credulous boosters are to be taken at their word, the contemporary tech industry is an economic freight train driven by big-brained ... Show More
1h 28m
Dec 2024
Turning Work into Play (Update)
How psychologist Dan Gilbert went from high school dropout to Harvard professor, found the secret of joy, and inspired Steve Levitt's divorce. SOURCE:Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology at Harvard University. RESOURCES:"What the Data Says (and Doesn’t Say) About Crime in the ... Show More
50m 24s
Jul 2024
205. Where Do Values Come From?
Do you get your principles from your parents — or in spite of them? Is there anything wrong with valuing conformity? And why doesn’t McDonald’s sell salads?  SOURCES:Erika James, dean of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.Olivia Rodrigo, singer-songw ... Show More
41m 47s
Jul 29
Best Of: Barbara Kingsolver on ‘Urban-Rural Antipathy’
“It’s so insidious, people don’t realize it,” Barbara Kingsolver told me, describing the prejudice against “country people.” Kingsolver is one of those “country people,” as well as a literary legend in her own time, who set out to write the “great Appalachian novel.” And I think ... Show More
1h 1m
Oct 2024
214. What Does It Take to Survive a Scandal?
How do you come back from being “canceled”? Are we more likely to forgive someone if they cry? And what makes a successful public apology?  SOURCES:Karen Cerulo, professor emeritus of sociology at Rutgers University.Bill Clinton, former president of the United States.David Gergen ... Show More
38m 9s
Jan 2017
Sneak Peak: Racism & capitalism (Jessica Gordon Nembhard)
You're listening to a Sneak Peak of our Solidarity Economy episode with scholar & activist Jessica Gordon Nembard, Professor of Community Justice and Social Economic Development in the Department of Africana Studies at John Jay College in New York City. Professor Nembhard is the ... Show More
3m 47s