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Episode 27

Daniel Kahneman on Why Our Judgment is Flawed — and What to Do About It

Nobel laureate, best-selling author, and groundbreaking psychologist Daniel Kahneman is also a friend and former business partner of Steve’s. In discussing Danny’s new book Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment,…

Daniel Kahneman Answers Your Questions

Two weeks ago, we solicited your questions for Princeton psychology professor and Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, whose new book is called Thinking, Fast and Slow. You responded by asking 45…



Daniel Kahneman Calls for Change

Nobel laureate and frequent Freakonomics visitor Daniel Kahneman (author of Thinking, Fast and Slow ) has written an open letter to psychologists who work on social priming, calling for them…




Episode 271

The Men Who Started a Thinking Revolution

Starting in the late 1960s, the Israeli psychologists Amos Tversky and Danny Kahneman began to redefine how the human mind actually works. Michael Lewis’s new book The Undoing Project explains…

Episode 306

How to Launch a Behavior-Change Revolution

Academic studies are nice, and so are Nobel Prizes. But to truly prove the value of a new idea, you have to unleash it to the masses. That’s what a…


Episode 173

How Important Is Your Choice of Words?

What happens when three psychologists walk into a magic show? What’s Angela’s problem with the word “talent”? And why does LeBron James refer to himself in the third person?…


Episode 36

Which Matters More, a First or Last Impression?

Also: does wisdom really come with age?…

Episode 78

Why Do We Put Things Off Until the Very Last Minute?

Also: what does your name say about who you are?…

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 374

How Spotify Saved the Music Industry (But Not Necessarily Musicians)

Daniel Ek, a 23-year-old Swede who grew up on pirated music, made the record labels an offer they couldn’t refuse: a legal platform to stream all the world’s music. Spotify…

Episode 277

No Hollywood Ending for the Visual Effects Industry

In their chase for a global audience, American movie studios spend billions to make their films look amazing. But almost none of those dollars stay in America. What would it…

Episode 14

Are You a Maximizer or a Satisficer?

Also: what is the best question you’ve ever been asked in a job interview?

Episode 152

What’s the Worst Kind of Regret?

Is it worse to regret something you’ve done, or something you haven’t done? What’s the upside of rejection? And which great American short-story writer convinced Angela to quit driving?…

Episode 169

Can We Disagree Better?

Do you suffer from the sin of certainty? How did Angela react when a grad student challenged her research? And can a Heineken commercial strengthen our democracy?…

Episode 44

Is Empathy in Fact Immoral?

Also: is it better to “go with the wind” or to “be the wind”?

Episode 340

People Aren’t Dumb. The World Is Hard.

You wouldn’t think you could win a Nobel Prize for showing that humans tend to make irrational decisions. But that’s what Richard Thaler has done. The founder of behavioral economics…

Episode 340

People Aren’t Dumb. The World Is Hard. (Replay)

You wouldn’t think you could win a Nobel Prize for showing that humans tend to make irrational decisions. But that’s what Richard Thaler has done. The founder of behavioral economics…

How to Fix College Coaching?

…behavior is effective. And there is reason to think such an approach would not work. Daniel Kahneman – who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002 (for his work…



The Priesthood

The IMF profiles psychologist Daniel Kahneman, who was awarded a Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002 for his contributions to behavioral economics. The article discusses Kahneman’s childhood in Nazi-occupied Paris,…




Episode 224

How To Win A Nobel Prize (Replay)

The gist: the Nobel selection process is famously secretive (and conducted in Swedish!) but we pry the lid off, at least a little bit.

Episode 224

How To Win A Nobel Prize

The process is famously secretive (and conducted in Swedish!) but we pry the lid off at least a little bit.

Episode 120

100 Ways to Fight Obesity

Freakonomics asks a dozen smart people for their best ideas. Get ready for a fat tax, a sugar ban, and a calorie-chomping tapeworm.

Episode 125

Should We Replace Umpires With Robots?

What do gamblers and referees have in common? When do machines make better decisions than people? And has Stephen been replaced by a computer?

Episode 56

Why Is Academic Writing So Bad?

Also: what does your perfect day look like?…

Episode 323

Here’s Why All Your Projects Are Always Late — and What to Do About It

Whether it’s a giant infrastructure plan or a humble kitchen renovation, it’ll inevitably take way too long and cost way too much. That’s because you suffer from “the planning fallacy.”…

Episode 323

Here’s Why All Your Projects Are Always Late — and What to Do About It (Replay)

Whether it’s a giant infrastructure plan or a humble kitchen renovation, it’ll inevitably take way too long and cost way too much. That’s because you suffer from “the planning fallacy.”…