TV Learns the Risks of Drug-Dealing From Freakonomics
In the pilot episode of USA’s new lawyer show Suits, one of the characters says: “A person is more likely to die while dealing drugs than on death row in Texas… It’s from Freakonomics. Do you read anything I give you?”
That was from Chapter 3 of Freakonomics (excerpt here). Though we’re flattered, we should point out that the drug dealers we were talking about sold crack cocaine on the street in Chicago during the peak of crack-and-crime wave. We can’t vouch for the risk of the run-of-the-mill drug dealer …
(HT to multiple readers, including Linda Jines and April Allridge)
Why Do We Fail to Do What’s Right? Authors of Blind Spots Answer Your Questions
Earlier this month, we published a guest post on the ethics of the decision-making that led to the 1986 Challenger shuttle disaster. That post was adapted from a new book called Blind Spots: Why We Fail to Do What’s Right and What to Do about It. The authors are Max Bazerman, a professor at Harvard Business School, and Ann Tenbrunsel, a professor of business ethics at Notre Dame.
We then solicited your questions for Brazerman and Tenbrunsel, who now return with their answers. Read More »
A Freakonomics Radio Bleg: Do You Boo? If So, When and Why?
We’re working on a Freakonomics Radio piece about booing — when it happens (and doesn’t), who does it (and doesn’t), what it means, etc. We’re looking for good stories and insights, so please let us know in the comments section what you’ve got, whether you were the booer, the booee, or a witness. The story might concern politics, sports, the theater or opera, whatever. Did you ever see kids boo a bad clown at a birthday party, e.g.? Am also interested in how booing breaks down along socioeconomic and cultural lines — does more booing really happen in the cheap seats? In a nutshell, we’re looking for the most interesting, surprising, revealing booing stories you’ve got. Many thanks in advance. Read More »
A Strange Sentence About Grand Slams
From today’s Times, an article by David Waldstein called “Mets’ Stretch Without a Slam? Gone. Gone“:
The Mets had gone 299 games and 280 plate appearances with the bases loaded since their last grand slam, while their opponents had hit 18 during that span. So when the opportunity arose in the fourth inning Tuesday night — with Jason Bay at the plate, no less — the chance of a Mets grand slam was slim.
Was the chance of a grand slam really so slim? Read More »
and 
. If you haven’t seen it yet, the movie features Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, and was made by a dream team of documentary directors. Paste Magazine named it one of the 