605. What Do People Do All Day?

<p>A Trump executive order is giving retail investors more access to private markets. Is that a golden opportunity — or fool’s gold?</p><p> </p><ul><li><strong>SOURCES:</strong><ul><li><a href="https://law.duke.edu/fac/defontenay/">Elisabeth de Fontenay,</a> professor of law at D ... Show More

<p>Thoroughbred auction prices keep setting records. But tracks are closing, gambling revenues are falling, and the sport is increasingly reliant on subsidies. Is that the kind of long shot anybody wants? (Part three of a series, “<a href="https://freakonomics.com/the-horse-is-us ... Show More

<p>The world has changed a good bit since <i>Freakonomics</i> was first published. In this live anniversary episode, Stephen Dubner tells Geoff Bennett of <i>PBS NewsHour </i>everything he has learned since then. Happy birthday, <i>Freakonomics.</i></p><p> </p><ul><li><strong>SOU ... Show More

<p>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.</p><p> </ ... Show More

<p>Abby, Patrick, and Dan welcome writer, critic, and scholar Moira Weigel, co-founder of <em>Logic </em>magazine and co-editor with Ben Tarnoff of <em>Voices of the Valley: Tech Workers Talk About What They Do And How They Do It. </em>Moira introduces listeners to the history an ... Show More

<p>Stefanie Stantcheva’s approach seemed like career suicide. In fact, it won her the John Bates Clark Medal. She talks to fellow winner Steve Levitt about why she uses methods that most of the profession dismisses — and what she’s found that can’t be learned any other way.</p><p ... Show More

<p>Why does the U.S. use Fahrenheit when Celsius is better? Would you quit your job if a coin flip told you to? And how do you get an entire country to drive on the other side of the road?</p><p> </p><ul><li><strong>SOURCES:</strong><ul><li><a href="https://psychology.ku.edu/peop ... Show More

In this episode, Timothée Parrique joins us for a discussion on degrowth. We begin the conversation with explaining the concept of degrowth, looking at its history, and really unpacking what it is and what it isn't. We talk about degrowth's two-fold agenda to both downscale produ ... Show More

<p>For a long time, the story about the world’s population was that it was growing too quickly. There were going to be too many humans, not enough resources, and that spelled disaster. But now the script has flipped. Fertility rates have declined dramatically, from about five chi ... Show More

<p>Which industries should cease to exist immediately? And what ‘bullshit jobs’ should they take with them? In episode 143 of Overthink, Ellie and David explore the&nbsp;academic and social movement of ‘Degrowth.’ They discuss the imperial mode of living that has become normalize ... Show More

<p>Moon Duchin is a math professor at the University of Chicago whose theoretical work has practical applications for voting and democracy. Why is striving for fair elections so difficult?</p><p> </p><ul><li><strong>SOURCES:</strong><ul><li><a href="https://publicpolicy.cornell.e ... Show More

<p>Elon Musk has been on a slash-and-burn tear through the federal government — gaining access to I.T. systems, dismantling U.S.A.I.D. and unleashing a firehose of attacks on his platform, X, accusing the bureaucracy of various conspiratorial crimes.</p><p>As this all unfolds bef ... Show More

<p>“Make America Healthy Again” is a great idea — somebody should try it.</p><p>A lot of the concerns animating the MAHA movement — chronic disease, the unhealthiness of the American diet, how profits warp our health care system — are serious issues. But Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has ... Show More