Who Are You Calling Third-World?

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Their book Freakonomics has sold 3 million copies worldwide. This blog, begun in 2005, is meant to keep the conversation going. Recurring guest bloggers include Ian Ayres, Jessica Hagy, Daniel Hamermesh, Sudhir Venkatesh, and Justin Wolfers.

Annika Mengisen is the site editor.

“ I just found out that I got laid off about 10 minutes ago and ironically I check this blog; [this post] might be quite useful! ”

Dubner was first published at age 11 in Highlights magazine -- which, in honor of its 60th anniversary, has just recognized him as a “Highlights Kid” who went on to become a professional writer, as Dubner puts it: "for better or worse."

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

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November 20
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Jenkem: Bringing the Levitt Family Together

I often get emails from blog readers asking me to shed light on some issue that, in the mind of the email writer, is a pressing social or economic issue. Sometimes it is a big issue like immigration or the financial crisis. More often it is something less mainstream, like election fraud or an unusual [...]

November 20
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Freddie Mac and Cheese

It’s not an entire film (and it’s not in French), but two more readers, Talya and Pavle, have sent in a video of their song “Fannie Mae Eat Freddie Mac and Cheese,” which uses “freakonomics” as a sort of mantra. We like.

November 19
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What Would You Do in the Worst Case? A Freakonomics Quorum

Photo: Jamesfischer These are the economic times that try men’s souls, and women’s too. In the past few months, a lot of people have seen their net worth fall substantially, and I’m sure more than a few have contemplated what would happen if they lost everything.
So we asked a group of people — Nick Mills, [...]

November 19
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FREAK Shots: Who Are You Calling Third-World?

Blog reader Nick Turner sent along this photo of a Body Shop ad in San Francisco:
Photo: Nick Turner He was surprised that the ad guarantees fair-labor conditions for workers in Italy: I thought fair-trade protections were for third-world workers. I
wonder how the Italians feel about this designation.
The ad didn’t outright call Italy third-world; but if it had, [...]

November 19
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Eric Oliver on the “Bigot Belt”

Eric Oliver is a colleague of mine at the University of Chicago. He is the author of the absolutely fantastic book Fat Politics: The Real Story Behind America’s Obesity Epidemic.
He has some new and interesting insights on the “Bigot Belt,” which he has generously written up for the Freakonomics blog.
The Bigot Belt
By Eric Oliver
A [...]

1. Go to Hulu.com. 2. Choose Arrested Development. 3. Start with Season 1 and then watch every episode of all three seasons. 4. You can thank me later. (SJD)

I can scarcely tell a scarlet tanager from Scarlett O’Hara, but The Life of the Skies had me transfixed from the first page. Jonathan Rosen -- who happens to be a friend of mine -- writes with astounding insight, wit, and compassion. The story he tells here is the best kind of odyssey, an outward journey that ends up highlighting the beauty and daring that live inside of us. Here's a Times review of the book, and here's an earlier blog post about the book and the power of suggestion. (SJD)

Even if you don’t have a son fighting in Iraq, even if you don’t read poetry, even if you think you are immune to the power of a mother’s lament – pick up The Warrior and read it right away. Fran Richey has written some of the most powerful stories I’ve ever encountered. It is obvious that her life was changed by living these poems; yours may well be changed by reading them. (SJD)

Necessary Steps

Inching Along the Edge of the World

In his last walk of the series, the author manages to avoid stepping out into thin air.

Abstract City

New York Cheat Sheets

All New Yorkers develop tricks that allow them to stay ahead of the pack in daily life. Here I offer some of mine in a couple of handy charts.