The Freakonomics Radio beast never sleeps. It wants to be fed, always, more and more. So it has come to this: if you write in your questions in the comments section below, we will answer them — in our podcast! (If you subscribe at iTunes — it’s currently a Top 5 podcast — every new episode will magically arrive in your sleep.) Ask whatever you want of Levitt, me, or the both of us. It may have to do with what we’ve written in the books or the blog or elsewhere. Maybe you want to know how Levitt first thought of the abortion/crime link, or what kind of blackjack player he is, or how he goes about selecting a bottle of wine to bring to a holiday party. We tried this once before, when our publisher wanted to add a Q&A to the paperback edition of Freakonomics, and you all did great. Let’s see if you’ve still got the goods.
Ask Your Freakonomics Questions
and 
. You can also watch it on 
I seem to recall a rule of thumb that you can estimate your free time to be worth half of your hourly wage. Is that correct or am I misremembering something?
I am trying to estimate the cost to me of my company moving its office across town. If I make $40/hour, and my commute increases by 45 minutes each way (7.5 hours per week), would it be correct to say that the increased commute time will cost me roughly 7.5*$20=$150/week? (Based purely on lost free time; I’m not considering cost from fuel or increased mileage on car.)
A question: Is college education no longer a factor or even a disadvantage when it comes to employment?
I’ve been reading about people making just as much or more than Ivy League-educated folks with either no college education whatsoever or community college degrees. I thought it used to be… the more educated the person, the more open the possibilities, but I guess, in our current economic age (United States, of course), being highly educated might be a disadvantage as your employers likely cannot afford to pay you the salary that you would earn in terms of economic prosperity.
In other words, does education no longer matter in the American economy?
1. You’ve mentioned the economics (or lack thereof) of podcasting; has publishing been a surprise?
2. Which of your co-writers would your choice to be stranded with on an island (Dwyer is not available in this scenario)?
3. Dogs or cats?
4. How big of a problem is the federal deficit? What would you do to deal with it?
My question is about suburbs.
One out of 16 Americans lives in the NY metropolitan area, though the majority of this statistic lives in suburbs. Everyone knows that suburbs have negative externalities and detrimental social, economic, and environmental repercussions. But people continue to live in suburbs, drive, and live a happy reclusive life.
Can Freakonomics uncover some untold facts about suburbs? Or can you help to find some solutions, or persuade people to move back to cities (or at least care about the people who remain in them)?
Thank you!
With the increase in use of electronic voting machines, the concern that always arises is the idea of fraud and the possibility of “stealing” elections. With this in mind I have two questions. 1) is there any statistical evidence that would make us believe that there is, or has been, voter fraud using these machines? 2) Does the possibility of fraud (and any potential costs) outweigh the potential savings of not using paper ballots?
Thanks
Would love to hear a discussion about the economic implications of the kind of work Craig Venter is doing. In his 60 minutes interview he says everything you could imagine would be influenced by genomics. Would love to delve into the world of future genomic freakonomicists.
Why are primary elections publicly funded in the US? Shouldn’t the parties manage/fund their own primaries?
I just want to know if Steve still plays the accordian?!?!