They can’t vote or hire lobbyists. The policies we create to help them aren’t always so helpful. Consider the car seat: parents hate it, the safety data are unconvincing, and new evidence suggests an unintended consequence that is as anti-child as it gets.
Yesterday
Is Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade Its Most Valuable Asset? (Update)
<p>The iconic department store calls the parade its “gift to the nation.” With 30 million TV viewers, it’s also a big moneymaker — at least we think it is: when it comes to parade economics, Macy’s is famously tight-lipped. In this 2024 episode, we try to loosen them up. (Part on ... Show More
52m 31s
Nov 14
653. Does Horse Racing Have a Future?
<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
1h 1m
Jun 2023
Nate G. Hilger, "The Parent Trap: How to Stop Overloading Parents and Fix Our Inequality Crisis" (MIT Press, 2023)
Few people realize that raising children is the single largest industry in the United States. Yet this vital work receives little political support, and its primary workers--parents--labor in isolation. If they ask for help, they are made to feel inadequate; there is no centraliz ... Show More
58m 12s
Jun 2023
Nate G. Hilger, "The Parent Trap: How to Stop Overloading Parents and Fix Our Inequality Crisis" (MIT Press, 2023)
Few people realize that raising children is the single largest industry in the United States. Yet this vital work receives little political support, and its primary workers--parents--labor in isolation. If they ask for help, they are made to feel inadequate; there is no centraliz ... Show More
55m 27s
Jan 2023
#255: How to Raise Independent Kids with Lenore Skenazy
Themes: Parenting, Safetyism, Fragility, Resilience, Childhood Independence, Autonomy, Technology
Summary:
After her newspaper column “Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone” created a media firestorm, Lenore Skenazy got the nickname “America’s Worst Mom.” Nice. She went ... Show More
1h 8m
<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