Freakonomics Radio

Insurance forms that make no sense. Subscriptions that can’t be cancelled. A never-ending blizzard of automated notifications. Where does all this sludge come from — and how much is it costing us? (Part one of a two-part series.) SOURCES:Benjamin Handel,Neale Mahoney,Richard Thaler, RESOURCES:Selling Subscriptions,(Stanford University,The ‘Enshittification’ of TikTok,(WIRED,Dominated Options in Health Insurance Plans,(American Economic Journal: Economic Policy,Nudge (The Final Edition),Frictions or Mental Gaps: What’s Behind the Information We (Don’t) Use and When Do We Care?(Journal of Economic Perspectives,Adverse Selection and Switching Costs in Health Insurance Markets: When Nudging Hurts,(National Bureau of Economic Research, EXTRAS:People Aren’t Dumb. The World Is Hard. (Update)Freakonomics Radio All You Need is Nudge,Freakonomics Radio How to Fix the Hot Mess of U.S. Healthcare,Freakonomics Radio Should We Really Behave Like Economists Say We Do?Freakonomics Radio

The quirky little grocery chain with California roots and German ownership has a lot to teach all of us about choice architecture, efficiency, frugality, collaboration, and team spirit. SOURCES:Kirk DesErmiaMark GardinerSheena IyengarMichael Roberto RESOURCES:Trader Joe’sHarvard Business School Case, What Brands Are Actually Behind Trader Joe’s Snacks?Eater,Build a Brand Like Trader Joe’s When Choice is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Unlocking Creativity, EXTRAS:How Can This Possibly Be True?Freakonomics Radio How to Save $1 Billion Without Even Trying Freakonomics Radio

Nearly everything that politicians say about taxes is at least half a lie. They are also dishonest when it comes to the national debt. Stephen Dubner finds one of the few people in Washington who is willing to tell the truth — and it’s even worse than you think. SOURCES:Jessica Riedl, RESOURCES:The House Wants to Pass Trump’s Agenda in One Big Bill. Here’s What’s in It.(New York Times,Correcting the Top 10 Tax Myths,(Manhattan Institute,Spending, Taxes, and Deficits: A Book of Charts,(Manhattan Institute,Why Did Americans Stop Caring About the National Debt?(Reason,A Comprehensive Federal Budget Plan to Avert a Debt Crisis,(Manhattan Institute,When Does Federal Debt Reach Unsustainable Levels?(The Wharton School of Business,The Limits of Taxing the Rich,(Manhattan Institute, EXTRAS:Farewell to a Generational Talent,Freakonomics Radio

Lina Khan, the youngest F.T.C. chair in history, reset U.S. antitrust policy by thwarting mega-mergers and other monopolistic behavior. This earned her enemies in some places, and big fans in others — including the Trump administration. Stephen Dubner speaks with Khan about her tactics, her track record, and her future. SOURCES:Lina Khan, RESOURCES:Merger Guidelines(U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission,The Rise of Market Power and the Macroeconomic Implications,(National Bureau of Economic Research,US Antitrust Law and Policy in Historical Perspective,(Harvard Business School,The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age, Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox,(Yale Law Journal,A Tempest In a Coffee Shop,(New York Times, EXTRAS:The Economics of Eyeglasses,Freakonomics Radio Should You Trust Private Equity to Take Care of Your Dog?Freakonomics Radio Are Private Equity Firms Plundering the U.S. Economy?Freakonomics Radio Is the U.S. Really Less Corrupt Than China — and How About Russia? (Update)Freakonomics Radio

It’s a powerful biological response that has preserved our species for millennia. But now it may be keeping us from pursuing strategies that would improve the environment, the economy, even our own health. So is it time to dial down our disgust reflex? You can help fix things — as Stephen Dubner does in this 2021 episode — by chowing down on some delicious insects. SOURCES:Paul Rozin,Val CurtisSandro AmbuehlEmily Kimmins, RESOURCES:Stink Bugs Could Add Cilantro Flavor to Red WinLive Science, Edible insects: Future Prospects for Food and Feed SecurityUnited Nations, I Hate to Break it to You, but You Already Eat BugsScientific American, Five Banned Foods and One That Maybe Should BeSmithsonian Magazine, Effects of Different Types of Antismoking Ads on Reducing Disparities in Smoking Cessation Among Socioeconomic SubgroupsAmerican Journal of Public Health, Flesh TradeThe New York Times, Feeding Poultry Litter to Beef CattleUniversity of Missouri, EXTRAS:Why Does Everyone Hate Rats?Freakonomics Radio

To most people, the rat is vile and villainous. But not to everyone! We hear from a scientist who befriended rats and another who worked with them in the lab — and from the animator who made one the hero of a Pixar blockbuster. (Part three of a three-part series, “Sympathy for the Rat.”) SOURCES:Bethany BrookshirePests: How Humans Create Animal VillainsJan Pinkava,Julia Zichello, RESOURCES:Weekend Column: Rat’s End, or, How a Rat Dies,(West Side Rag,Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains Rats: the history of an incendiary cartoon trope,(The Guardian,Catching the Rat: Understanding Multiple and Contradictory Human-Rat Relations as Situated Practices,(Society & Animals,Effects of Chronic Methylphenidate on Dopamine/Serotonin Interactions in the Mesolimbic DA System of the Mouse,(Wake Forest University,A New Deal For Mice,(Scientific American,

Even with a new rat czar, an arsenal of poisons, and a fleet of new garbage trucks, it won’t be easy — because, at root, the enemy is us. (Part two of a three-part series, “Sympathy for the Rat.”) SOURCES:Kathy Corradi,Robert Corrigan,Ed Glaeser,Robert Sullivan,Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitant.Jessica Tisch, RESOURCES:Increasing rat numbers in cities are linked to climate warming, urbanization, and human population,(Science Advances,The Next Frontier in New York's War on Rats: Birth Control,(New York Times,The Absurd Problem of New York City Trash,(New York Times,Mourning Flaco, the Owl Who Escaped,(The New Yorker,Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants, EXTRAS:The Downside of Disgust,Freakonomics Radio

A brief meditation on loss, relativity, and the vagaries of show business. RESOURCES:Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry, documentary (2021)Genius & Anxiety: How Jews Changed the World, 1847-1947, by Norman Lebrecht (2019)The War Room, documentary (1993) EXTRAS:Is San Francisco a Failed State? (And Other Questions You Shouldn’t Ask the Mayor)Freakonomics Radio Ari Emanuel Is Never Indifferent,Freakonomics Radio

New York City’s mayor calls them “public enemy number one.” History books say they caused the Black Death — although recent scientific evidence disputes that claim. So is the rat a scapegoat? And what does our rat hatred say about us? (Part one of a three-part series.) SOURCES:Bethany BrookshirePests: How Humans Create Animal Villains.Kathy CorradiEd GlaeserNils Stenseth RESOURCES:On Patrol With the Rat Czar,(Intelligencer,How Rats Took Over North America,(Scientific American,Where Are the Rats in New York City,(New York Times,"Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains" Human ectoparasites and the spread of plague in Europe during the Second Pandemic,(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, EXTRAS:Freakonomics Radio Live: 'Jesus Could Have Been a Pigeon.'Freakonomics Radio

Licensing began with medicine and law; now it extends to 20 percent of the U.S. workforce, including hair stylists and auctioneers. In a new book, the legal scholar Rebecca Allensworth calls licensing boards “a thicket of self-dealing and ineptitude” and says they keep bad workers in their jobs and good ones out — while failing to protect the public. SOURCES:Rebecca Allensworth RESOURCES:The Licensing Racket: How We Decide Who Is Allowed to Work, and Why It Goes WrongLicensed to Pill,(The New York Review of Books,Licensing Occupations: Ensuring Quality or Restricting Competition?(W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research,How Much of Barrier to Entry is Occupational Licensing?(British Journal of Industrial Relations, EXTRAS:Is Ozempic as Magical as It Sounds?Freakonomics Radio

In 2023, the N.F.L. players’ union conducted a workplace survey that revealed clogged showers, rats in the locker room — and some insights for those of us who don’t play football. Today we’re updating that episode, with extra commentary from Omnipresent Football Guy (and former Philadelphia Eagle) Jason Kelce. SOURCES:Tom GarfinkelJim IvlerJason KelceNew HeightsJalen Reeves-MaybinBetsey StevensonJ.C. TretterMark Wilf RESOURCES:N.F.L. Player Team Report Cards,NFLPA team report cards: Dolphins rank No. 1; Jaguars jump from 28th to fifth; Commanders earn worst grade,(CBS Sports,Kelce, The N.F.L. Cast Him Out; He Says That Only Makes Him More PowerfulSports Illustrated, New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce, EXTRAS:Why Don’t Running Backs Get Paid Anymore?Freakonomics RadioHow Does Playing Football Affect Your Health?Freakonomics, M.D. Why Does the Most Monotonous Job in the World Pay $1 Million?Freakonomics Radio

They used to be the N.F.L.’s biggest stars, with paychecks to match. Now their salaries are near the bottom, and their careers are shorter than ever. We speak with an analytics guru, an agent, some former running backs (including LeSean McCoy), and the economist Roland Fryer (a former Pop Warner running back himself) to understand why. SOURCES:Brian Burke,Roland Fryer,LeSean McCoy,Robert Smith,Robert Turbin,Jeffery Whitney, RESOURCES:The Economics of Running Backs,(Wall Street Journal,"Confessions of a Hero-Worshiper," The Rest of the Iceberg: An Insider’s View on the World of Sports and Celebrity," EXTRAS:Roland Fryer Refuses to Lie to Black America,Freakonomics RadioWhy Does the Most Monotonous Job in the World Pay $1 Million?Freakonomics Radio

When the computer scientist Ben Zhao learned that artists were having their work stolen by A.I. models, he invented a tool to thwart the machines. He also knows how to foil an eavesdropping Alexa and how to guard your online footprint. The big news, he says, is that the A.I. bubble is bursting. SOURCES:Erik BrynjolfssonBen Zhao RESOURCES:The AI lab waging a guerrilla war over exploitative AI,(MIT Technology Review,Glaze: Protecting Artists from Style Mimicry by Text-to-Image Models,(Cornell University,Nightshade: Prompt-Specific Poisoning Attacks on Text-to-Image Generative Models,(Cornell University,A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence: What It Is, Where We Are, and Where We Are Going, EXTRAS:Nuclear Power Isn’t Perfect. Is It Good Enough?Freakonomics Radio

Stephen Dubner, live on stage, mixes it up with outbound mayor London Breed, and asks economists whether A.I. can be “human-centered” and if Tang is a gateway drug. SOURCES:London BreedErik BrynjolfssonKoleman Strumpf RESOURCES:SF crime rate at lowest point in more than 20 years, mayor says,The San Francisco StandardHow the Trump Whale and Prediction Markets Beat the Pollsters in 2024,(Wall StreetJournalArtificial Intelligence, Scientific Discovery, and Product Innovation,(MIT Department of Economics, EXTRAS:Why Are Cities (Still) So Expensive?Freakonomics Radio

Their trade organization just lost a huge lawsuit. Their infamous commission model is under attack. And there are way too many of them. If they go the way of travel agents, will we miss them when they’re gone? SOURCES:Sonia GilbukhKevin SearsChad SyversonLawrence Yun RESOURCES:Heterogeneous Real Estate Agents and the Housing CycleNBER Working Paper, Real Estate Commissions and HomebuyingFederal Reserve Bank of Richmond Working Paper, The Relationship Between Home Prices and Real Estate Commission Rates: Implications for Consumers and Public PolicyConsumer Federation of America, The Relationship of Residential Real Estate Commission Rate to Industry Structure and CultureConsumer Federation of America, Competition in the Real Estate Brokerage Industry: A Critical ReviewEconomic Studies at Brookings, Hidden Real Estate Commissions: Consumer Costs and Improved TransparencyConsumer Federation of America, Market Distortions when Agents are Better Informed: The Value of Information in Real Estate TransactionsNBER Working Paper, The Residential Real Estate Brokerage Industry

Like tens of millions of people, Stephen Dubner thought he had a penicillin allergy. Like the vast majority, he didn’t. This misdiagnosis costs billions of dollars and causes serious health problems, so why hasn’t it been fixed? And how about all the other things we think we’re allergic to? SOURCES:Kimberly BlumenthalTheresa MacPhailThomas Platts-MillsElena Resnick RESOURCES:Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing World, Evaluation and Management of Penicillin Allergy: A ReviewJAMA, The Allergy Epidemics: 1870–2010The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Randomized Trial of Peanut Consumption in Infants at Risk for Peanut AllergyThe New England Journal of Medicine, EXTRAS:Freakonomics, M.D.

Incarcerated people grow crops, fight wildfires, and manufacture everything from prescription glasses to highway signs — often for pennies an hour. Zachary Crockett takes the next exit, in this special episode of The Economics of Everyday Things. SOURCES:Laura ApplemanLee BlackmanGene HawkinsLouis Southall RESOURCES:Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways, 11th EditionPrisoners in the U.S. Are Part of a Hidden Workforce Linked to Hundreds of Popular Food BrandsAP News, Ex-Prisoners Face Headwinds as Job Seekers, Even as Openings AboundThe New York Times, Bloody Lucre: Carceral Labor and Prison ProfitWisconsin Law Review, The Road to ClarityThe New York Times Magazine, Correction Enterprises EXTRAS:Do People Pay Attention to Signs?No Stupid Questions The Economics of Everyday Things.

Probably not — the incentives are too strong. But a few reformers are trying. We check in on their progress, in an update to an episode originally published last year. (Part 2 of 2) SOURCES:Max BazermanLeif NelsonBrian NosekIvan OranskyThe TransmitterRetraction Watch.Joseph SimmonsUri SimonsohnSimine VazirePsychological Science. RESOURCES:How a Scientific Dispute Spiralled Into a Defamation LawsuitThe New Yorker, The Harvard Professor and the BloggersThe New York Times, They Studied Dishonesty. Was Their Work a Lie?The New Yorker, Evolving Patterns of Extremely Productive Publishing Behavior Across SciencebioRxiv, Hindawi Reveals Process for Retracting More Than 8,000 Paper Mill ArticlesRetraction Watch, Exclusive: Russian Site Says It Has Brokered Authorships for More Than 10,000 ResearchersRetraction Watch, How Many Scientists Fabricate and Falsify Research? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Survey DataPLOS One, Lifecycle Journal EXTRAS:Why Is There So Much Fraud in Academia? (Update)Freakonomics Radio Freakonomics Goes to College, Part 1Freakonomics Radio

Some of the biggest names in behavioral science stand accused of faking their results. Last year, an astonishing 10,000 research papers were retracted. In a series originally published in early 2024, we talk to whistleblowers, reformers, and a co-author who got caught up in the chaos. (Part 1 of 2) SOURCES:Max BazermanLeif NelsonBrian NosekJoseph SimmonsUri SimonsohnSimine VazirePsychological Science. RESOURCES:More Than 10,000 Research Papers Were Retracted in 2023 — a New RecordNature, Data Falsificada (Part 1): 'ClusterfakeData Colada, Fabricated Data in Research About Honesty. You Can't Make This Stuff Up. Or, Can You?Planet Money, Complicit: How We Enable the Unethical and How to Stop, Evidence of Fraud in an Influential Field Experiment About DishonestyData Colada, False-Positive Psychology: Undisclosed Flexibility in Data Collection and Analysis Allows Presenting Anything as SignificantPsychological Science, EXTRAS:Why Do We Cheat, and Why Shouldn’t We?No Stupid Questions Is Everybody Cheating These Days?No Stupid Questions

David Eagleman upends myths and describes the vast possibilities of a brainscape that even neuroscientists are only beginning to understand. Steve Levitt interviews him in this special episode of People I (Mostly) Admire. SOURCES:David Eagleman RESOURCES:Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain, Why Do We Dream? A New Theory on How It Protects Our BrainsTIME, Prevalence of Learned Grapheme-Color Pairings in a Large Online Sample of SynesthetesPLoS One,Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives, The vOICe appNeosensory EXTRAS:Feeling Sound and Hearing ColorPeople I (Mostly) Admire What’s Impacting American Workers?People I (Mostly) Admire This Is Your Brain on PodcastsFreakonomics Radio