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Episode 22

Medicine: TMSIDK Episode 22

The team that created the portable MRI: Clarissa Cooley, Jason Stockmann and Larry Wald. (Photo courtesy of the Martinos Center) MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) is the gold standard for soft…

Episode 22

Why Do We Buy Things We Never Use? (Replay)

Also: why do we hoard? (Rebroadcast From Ep. 28)…

Episode 22

Sal Khan: “If It Works for 15 Cousins, It Could Work for a Billion People.”

Khan Academy grew out of Sal Khan’s online math tutorials for his extended family. It’s now a platform used by more than 115 million people in 190 countries. So what…

Episode 22

Cadavers – Part 1

In the first of two episodes, Zachary Crockett digs into the strange and discomfiting history of cadavers, and the industry that has emerged around them.

Episode 22

What If TV Isn’t Bad for Us?

We now have more access to TV, movies, and streaming entertainment than anytime in history. So what do we actually know about what all that screen time does to us?…

Episode 22

Why Do We Buy Things We’ll Never Use?

Also: How is social media like a knife?

Episode 22

Why Cities Rock

Could it be that cities are “our greatest invention” – that, despite their reputation as soot-spewing engines of doom, they in fact make us richer, smarter, happier and (gulp) greener?…

Episode 37

Sendhil Mullainathan Thinks Messing Around Is the Best Use of Your Time

He’s a professor of computation and behavioral science at the University of Chicago, MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient, and author. Steve and Sendhil laugh their way through a conversation about the…

Episode 59

Who Gives the Worst Advice?

Steve usually asks his guests for advice, whether they’re magicians or Nobel laureates. After nearly 60 episodes, is any of it worth following — or should we just ask listeners…

Episode 450

How to Be Better at Death

Caitlin Doughty is a mortician who would like to put herself out of business. Our corporate funeral industry, she argues, has made us forget how to offer our loved ones…

Episode 197

Hacking the World Bank

Jim Yong Kim has an unorthodox background for a World Bank president — and his reign thus far is just as unorthodox.

Episode 251

Are We in a Mattress-Store Bubble?

You’ve seen them — everywhere! — and often clustered together, as if central planners across America decided that what every city really needs is a Mattress District. There are now…

Freakonomics Radio Goes Back to School

  Date Length What Exactly Is College For? We think of them as intellectual enclaves and the surest route to a better life. But U.S. colleges also operate like firms,…



Episode 75

How Do You Deal With Intrusive Thoughts?

Also: how much does confidence really matter?…

Episode 371

A Free-Trade Democrat in the Trump White House

For years, Gary Cohn thought he’d be the next C.E.O. of Goldman Sachs. Instead, he became the “adult in the room” in a chaotic administration. Cohn talks about the fights…


Episode 21

Bring on the Pain!

Bring on the Pain! It’s not about how much something hurts — it’s how you remember the pain. This week, lessons on pain from the New York City subway, the…


Episode 197

Hacking the World Bank (Update)

Jim Yong Kim has an unorthodox background for a World Bank president — and his reign has been just as unorthodox. He has just announced he’s stepping down, well before…


A Coasean Sign

…In case it is difficult for you to read, the convenience store seems to have renamed itself “We Have 22 Years Left On Our Lease.” When I asked the driver,…



How Common Is Drugged Driving?

…the first to show the prevalence of drug use among fatally injured drivers. Among drivers who tested positive for drugs, 22% were positive for marijuana, 22% for stimulants and 9%…



The Secret Life of a C.E.O.

  Date Length What Does a C.E.O. Actually Do? They’re paid a fortune — but for what, exactly? What makes a good C.E.O. — and how can you even tell?…



Episode 484

“A Fascinating, Sexy, Intellectually Compelling, Unregulated Global Market.”

The art market is so opaque and illiquid that it barely functions like a market at all. A handful of big names get all the headlines (and most of the…

Episode 66

The Professor Who Said “No” to Tenure

Columbia astrophysicist David Helfand is an academic who does things his own way — from turning down job security to helping found a radically unconventional university….

So much for quantity discounts

I was up with my family at the Wisconsin Dells last week. The water park we were staying at offered hair braiding for children on the following price schedule: 3…



How About a “War on Taxes”?

…with the collection agencies keeping about $330 million of that, or 22 to 24 cents on the dollar.” Maybe that seems like too big a cut to surrender. And maybe…



Episode 314

What Does a C.E.O. Actually Do?

They’re paid a fortune — but for what, exactly? What makes a good C.E.O. — and how can you even tell? Is “leadership science” a real thing — or just…

Calculating Santa's Workload

…celebrate Christmas on December 25. In other words, Santa has to deliver presents to almost 22 million kids an hour, every hour, on the night before Christmas. That’s about 365,000…



Episode 170

Why America Doesn’t Love Soccer (Yet)

Every four years, the U.S. takes a look at the World Cup and develops a slight crush. What would it take to really fall in love?