Stephen Dubner

speaker

14,303 appearances 95 recordings 4 series first heard Dec 2024 last heard 18 Sep

Stephen Dubner’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 62 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 12.

Appearances

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Freakonomics Radio · Amazon Was Supposed to Kill the Bookstore. James Daunt Had Other Plans | Better in Person · 9 Sep 2026 podcast

Let's go back to Dawn. voice-verified

You open this bookshop, you say it took about five years for it to become successful. voice-verified

For it to become not unsuccessful. voice-verified

Okay. voice-verified

How successful did it become then? voice-verified

Once it were you making good money? voice-verified

Um, in time, voice-verified

When I heard that you went then from being the uh the the inventor and proprietor of these wonderful independent bookshops to being the CEO of the big chain in Britain, Watterstons, I imagined that what had happened is that this big chain came to you, independent bookstore owner, and said, Here's a very large check so that we can take over your shops and meld them with our failing shops and put you atop the voice-verified

whole thing until you fail. voice-verified

But that's not exactly what happened. voice-verified

You rate you retain ownership of the independent stores. voice-verified

Yeah. voice-verified

How did um how did that work? voice-verified

That sounds like a very unusual arrangement. voice-verified

At that point, um how long do you think it had? voice-verified

Uh voice-verified

bankruptcy, yes. voice-verified

Chapter eleven, but it's worse in the UK. voice-verified

It's worse in the UK. voice-verified

This said by people before, which is that one of the secret drivers of our dynamic economy is you can go bankrupt and then just the next day open up the shop. voice-verified

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