Freakonomics Radio
Episodes
657. Whose “Messiah” Is It Anyway?
19 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
All sorts of people have put their mark on Messiah, and it has been a hit for nearly 300 years. How can a single piece of music thrive in so many sett...
Who Pays for “Messiah”?
17 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the 18th century, Handel relied on royal patronage. Today, it’s donors like Gary Parr who keep the music playing. In this bonus episode of our “...
656. How Handel Got His Mojo Back
12 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When he wrote Messiah (in 24 days), Handel was past his prime and nearly broke. One night in Dublin changed all that. (Part two of “Making Messiah.”...
655. “The Greatest Piece of Participatory Art Ever Created”
05 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Why does an 18th-century Christian oratorio lend such comfort to our own turbulent times? Stephen Dubner sets out for Dublin to tell the story of Geor...
Dying Is Easy. Retail Is Hard. (Update)
28 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Macy’s wants to recapture its glorious past. The author of the Wimpy Kid books wants to rebuild his dilapidated hometown. We just want to listen in....
Is Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade Its Most Valuable Asset? (Update)
27 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The iconic department store calls the parade its “gift to the nation.” With 30 million TV viewers, it’s also a big moneymaker — at least we ...
654. Is the Public Ready for Private Equity?
21 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A Trump executive order is giving retail investors more access to private markets. Is that a golden opportunity — or fool’s gold? SOURCES:Elisabe...
653. Does Horse Racing Have a Future?
14 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Thoroughbred auction prices keep setting records. But tracks are closing, gambling revenues are falling, and the sport is increasingly reliant on subs...
What Happens When You Turn 20
12 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The world has changed a good bit since Freakonomics was first published. In this live anniversary episode, Stephen Dubner tells Geoff Bennett of PBS N...
652. Inside the Horse-Industrial Complex
07 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How does Kentucky keep itself atop the thoroughbred industry? Is a champion stallion really worth $200,000 per date? And how many hands can one jockey...
651. The Ultimate Dance Partner
31 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For most of human history, horsepower made the world go. Then came the machines. So why are there still seven million horses in America? (Part one of ...
Are Two C.E.O.s Better Than One? (Update)
29 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Spotify, Oracle, and Comcast have each recently announced they’re going with co-C.E.O.s. In this 2023 episode, we dig into the research and hear fir...
650. The Doctor Won’t See You Now
24 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The U.S. has a physician shortage, created in part by a century-old reform that shut down bad medical schools. But why haven’t we filled the gap? Wh...
A Question-Asker Becomes a Question-Answerer
17 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For the 20th anniversary of Freakonomics, Debbie Millman of Design Matters interviews Stephen Dubner about his upbringing, his writing career, and why...
How Can We Break Our Addiction to Contempt? (Update)
15 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Arthur Brooks, an economist and former head of the American Enterprise Institute, believes that there is only one remedy for our political polarizatio...
649. Should Ohio State (and Michigan, and Clemson) Join the N.F.L.?
10 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Soccer leagues around the world use a promotion-and-relegation system to reward the best teams and punish the worst. We ask whether American sports fa...
648. The Merger You Never Knew You Wanted
03 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The N.F.L. is a powerful cartel with imperial desires. College football is about to undergo a financial reckoning. So maybe they should team up? (Part...
Is the U.S. Really Less Corrupt Than China? (Update)
26 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we first published in 2021, the political scientist Yuen Yuen Ang argues that different forms of government create different styles of...
647. China Is Run by Engineers. America Is Run by Lawyers.
19 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In his new book “Breakneck,” Dan Wang argues that the U.S. has a lot to learn from China. He also says that “no two peoples are more alike.” W...
Is the World Ready for a Guaranteed Basic Income? (Update)
17 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A lot of jobs in the modern economy don’t pay a living wage, and some of those jobs may be wiped out by new technologies. So what’s to be done? We...
646. An Air Traffic Controller Walks Into a Radio Studio ...
12 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What does it take to “play 3D chess at 250 miles an hour”? And how far will $12.5 billion of “Big, Beautiful” funding go toward modernizing th...
645. Is the Air Traffic Control System Broken?
05 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Flying in the U.S. is still exceptionally safe, but the system relies on outdated tech and is under tremendous strain. Six experts tell us how it got ...
644. Has America Lost Its Appetite for the Common Good?
29 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Patrick Deneen, a political philosopher at Notre Dame, says yes. He was a Democrat for years, and has now come to be seen as an “ideological guru”...
Extra: A Modern Whaler Speaks Up (Update)
27 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bjørn Andersen has killed hundreds of minke whales. He tells us how he does it, why he does it, and what he thinks would happen if whale-hunting ever...
What Can Whales Teach Us About Clean Energy, Workplace Harmony, and Living the Good Life? (Update)
22 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the final episode of our whale series, we learn about fecal plumes, shipping noise, and why Moby-Dick is still worth reading. (Part 3 of "Everythin...
Why Do People Still Hunt Whales? (Update)
15 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For years, whale oil was used as lighting fuel, industrial lubricant, and the main ingredient in (yum!) margarine. Whale meat was also on a few menus....
The First Great American Industry (Update)
08 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Whaling was, in the words of one scholar, “early capitalism unleashed on the high seas.” How did the U.S. come to dominate the whale market? Why d...
Why Does Tipping Still Exist? (Update)
06 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s a haphazard way of paying workers, and yet it keeps expanding. With federal tax policy shifting in a pro-tip direction, we revisit an episode f...
643. Why Do Candles Still Exist?
01 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
They should have died out when the lightbulb was invented. Instead they’re a $10 billion industry. What does it mean that we still want tiny fires i...
642. How to Wage Peace, According to Tony Blinken
25 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The former secretary of state isn’t a flamethrower, but he certainly has strong opinions. In this wide-ranging conversation with Stephen Dubner, he ...
Why Does One Tiny State Set the Rules for Everyone? (Update)
23 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Until recently, Delaware was almost universally agreed to be the best place for companies to incorporate. Now, with Elon Musk leading a corporate stam...
641. What Does It Cost to Lead a Creative Life?
18 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For years, the playwright David Adjmi was considered “polarizing and difficult.” But creating Stereophonic seems to have healed him. Stephen Dubne...
640. Why Governments Are Betting Big on Sports
11 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Gulf States and China are spending billions to build stadiums and buy up teams — but what are they really buying? And can an entrepreneur from C...
How to Make Your Own Luck (Update)
09 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Before she decided to become a poker pro, Maria Konnikova didn’t know how many cards are in a deck. But she did have a Ph.D. in psychology, a brilli...
639. “This Country Kicks My Ass All the Time”
04 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Cory Booker on the politics of fear, the politics of hope, and how to split the difference. SOURCES:Cory Booker, senior United States Senator from Ne...
638. Are You Ready for the Elder Swell?
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the U.S., there will soon be more people over 65 than there are under 18 — and it’s not just lifespan that’s improving, it’s “healthspan”...
What Do Medieval Nuns and Bo Jackson Have in Common? (Update)
25 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode from 2013, we look at whether spite pays — and if it even exists. SOURCES:Benedikt Herrmann, research officer at the European Commi...
637. What It’s Like to Be Middle-Aged (in the Middle Ages)
20 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The simplicity of life back then is appealing today, as long as you don’t mind Church hegemony, the occasional plague, trial by gossip — and the l...
636. Why Aren’t We Having More Babies?
13 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For decades, the great fear was overpopulation. Now it’s the opposite. How did this happen — and what’s being done about it? (Part one of a thre...
An Economics Lesson from a Talking Pencil (Update)
11 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A famous essay argues that “not a single person on the face of this earth” knows how to make a pencil. How true is that? In this 2016 episode, we ...
635. Can a Museum Be the Conscience of a Nation?
06 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nicholas Cullinan, the new director of the British Museum, seems to think so. “I'm not afraid of the past,” he says — which means talking about ...
634. “Fault-Finder Is a Minimum-Wage Job”
30 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, is less reserved than the average banker. He explains why vibes are overrated, why ...
633. The Most Powerful People You’ve Never Heard Of
23 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Just beneath the surface of the global economy, there is a hidden layer of dealmakers for whom war, chaos, and sanctions can be a great business oppor...
How to Succeed at Failing, Part 4: Extreme Resiliency (Update)
21 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Everyone makes mistakes. How do we learn from them? Lessons from the classroom, the Air Force, and the world’s deadliest infectious disease. (Part f...
How to Succeed at Failing, Part 3: Grit vs. Quit (Update)
16 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Giving up can be painful. That's why we need to talk about it. Today: stories about glitchy apps, leaky paint cans, broken sculptures — and a quest ...
How to Succeed at Failing, Part 2: Life and Death (Update)
14 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In medicine, failure can be catastrophic. It can also produce discoveries that save millions of lives. Tales from the front line, the lab, and the I.T...
How to Succeed at Failing, Part 1: The Chain of Events (Update)
09 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We tend to think of tragedies as a single terrible moment, rather than the result of multiple bad decisions. Can this pattern be reversed? We try — ...
632. When Did We All Start Watching Documentaries?
02 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It used to be that making documentary films meant taking a vow of poverty (and obscurity). The streaming revolution changed that. Award-winning filmma...
631. Will "3 Summers of Lincoln" Make It to Broadway?
25 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been in development for five years and has at least a year to go. On the eve of its out-of-town debut, the actor playing Lincoln quit. And the ...
Is It a Theater Piece or a Psychological Experiment? (Update)
23 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In an episode from 2012, we looked at what Sleep No More and the Stanford Prison Experiment can tell us about who we really are. SOURCES:Felix Barret...
630. On Broadway, Nobody Knows Nothing
18 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A hit like Hamilton can come from nowhere while a sure bet can lose $20 million in a flash. We speak with some of the biggest producers in the game —...
629. How Is Live Theater Still Alive?
11 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It has become fiendishly expensive to produce, and has more competition than ever. And yet the believers still believe. Why? And does the world really...
Policymaking Is Not a Science — Yet (Update)
09 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Why do so many promising solutions in education, medicine, and criminal justice fail to scale up into great policy? And can a new breed of “implemen...
628. Sludge, Part 2: Is Government the Problem, or the Solution?
04 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There is no sludgier place in America than Washington, D.C. But there are signs of a change. We’ll hear about this progress — and ask where Elon M...
627. Sludge, Part 1: The World Is Drowning in It
28 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Insurance forms that make no sense. Subscriptions that can’t be cancelled. A never-ending blizzard of automated notifications. Where does all this s...
Should America Be Run by … Trader Joe’s? (Update)
21 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The quirky little grocery chain with California roots and German ownership has a lot to teach all of us about choice architecture, efficiency, frugali...
626. Ten Myths About the U.S. Tax System
14 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
625. The Biden Policy That Trump Hasn’t Touched
07 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 he...
EXTRA: The Downside of Disgust (Update)
05 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 i...
624. The Animal No One Loves, Until They Do
28 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
623. Can New York City Win Its War on Rats?
21 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 tw...
The Show That Never Happened
20 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A brief meditation on loss, relativity, and the vagaries of show business.RESOURCES:Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry, documentary (2021)Geni...
622. Why Does Everyone Hate Rats?
14 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
New York City’s mayor calls them “public enemy number one.” History books say they caused the Black Death — although recent scientific evidenc...
621. Is Professional Licensing a Racket?
07 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
When Is a Superstar Just Another Employee?
05 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 tho...
620. Why Don’t Running Backs Get Paid Anymore?
31 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
619. How to Poison the A.I. Machine
24 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Is San Francisco a Failed State? (And Other Questions You Shouldn’t Ask the Mayor)
22 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
618. Are Realtors Having an Existential Crisis?
17 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
617. Are You Really Allergic to Penicillin?
10 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Like tens of millions of people, Stephen Dubner thought he had a penicillin allergy. Like the vast majority, he didn’t. This misdiagnosis costs bill...
Highway Signs and Prison Labor
06 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Incarcerated people grow crops, fight wildfires, and manufacture everything from prescription glasses to highway signs — often for pennies an hour. ...
Can Academic Fraud Be Stopped? (Update)
02 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 p...
Why Is There So Much Fraud in Academia? (Update)
26 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Some of the biggest names in behavioral science stand accused of faking their results. Last year, an astonishing 10,000 research papers were retracted...
Your Brain Doesn’t Work the Way You Think
23 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
David Eagleman upends myths and describes the vast possibilities of a brainscape that even neuroscientists are only beginning to understand. Steve Lev...
616. How to Make Something from Nothing
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Adam Moss was the best magazine editor of his generation. When he retired, he took up painting. But he wasn’t very good, and that made him sad. So h...
615. Is Ozempic as Magical as It Sounds?
12 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In a wide-ranging conversation with Ezekiel Emanuel, the policymaking physician and medical gadfly, we discuss the massive effects of GLP-1 drugs like...
How the Supermarket Helped America Win the Cold War (Update)
09 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, we heard a former U.S. ambassador describe Russia’s escalating conflict with the U.S. Today, we revisit a 2019 episode about an overlooke...
614. Is the U.S. Sleeping on Threats from Russia and China?
05 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
John J. Sullivan, a former State Department official and U.S. ambassador, says yes: “Our politicians aren’t leading — Republicans or Democrats.”...
613. Dying Is Easy. Retail Is Hard.
28 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Macy’s wants to recapture its glorious past. The author of the Wimpy Kid books wants to rebuild his dilapidated hometown. We just want to listen in....
612. Is Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade Its Most Valuable Asset?
21 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The 166-year-old chain, which is fighting extinction, calls the parade its “gift to the nation.” With 30 million TV viewers, it’s also a big mon...
How to Stop Worrying and Love the Robot Apocalypse (Update)
18 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s true that robots (and other smart technologies) will kill many jobs. It may also be true that newer collaborative robots (“cobots”) will to...
611. Fareed Zakaria on What Just Happened, and What Comes Next
14 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After a dramatic election, Donald Trump has returned from exile. We hear what to expect at home and abroad — and what to do if you didn’t vote for...
610. Who Wins and Who Loses Once the U.S. Legalizes Weed?
07 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Some people want the new cannabis economy to look like the craft-beer movement. Others are hoping to build the Amazon of pot. And one expert would pre...
609. What Does It Take to Run a Cannabis Farm?
31 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Chris Weld worked for years in emergency rooms, then ditched that career and bought an old farm in Massachusetts. He set up a distillery and started m...
Abortion and Crime, Revisited (Update)
28 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With abortion on the Nov. 5 ballot, we look back at Steve Levitt’s controversial research about an unintended consequence of Roe v. Wade. SOURCES:J...
608. Cannabis Is Booming, So Why Isn’t Anyone Getting Rich?
24 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There are a lot of reasons, including heavy regulations, high taxes, and competition from illegal weed shops. Most operators are losing money and wait...
607. Is America Switching From Booze to Weed?
17 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We have always been a nation of drinkers — but now there are more daily users of cannabis than alcohol. Considering alcohol’s harms, maybe that’...
606. How to Predict the Presidency
11 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Are betting markets more accurate than polls? What kind of chaos would a second Trump term bring? And is U.S. democracy really in danger, or just “s...
Has the U.S. Presidency Become a Dictatorship? (Update)
10 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sure, we all pay lip service to the Madisonian system of checks and balances. But presidents have been steadily expanding the reach of the job. With a...
605. What Do People Do All Day?
03 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sixty percent of the jobs that Americans do today didn’t exist in 1940. What happens as our labor becomes more technical and less physical? And what...
EXTRA: Roland Fryer Refuses to Lie to Black America (Update)
30 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
His research on police brutality and school incentives won him acclaim, but also enemies. He was suspended for two years by Harvard, during which time...
604. Did the N.F.L. Solve Diversity Hiring? (Part 2)
26 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What happened when the Rooney Rule made its way from pro football to corporate America? Some progress, some backsliding, and a lot of controversy. (Se...
603. Did the N.F.L. Solve Diversity Hiring? (Part 1)
19 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The biggest sports league in history had a problem: While most of its players were Black, almost none of its head coaches were. So the N.F.L. launched...
EXTRA: In Praise of Maintenance (Update)
16 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We revisit an episode from 2016 that asks: Has our culture’s obsession with innovation led us to neglect the fact that things also need to be taken ...
602. Is Screen Time as Poisonous as We Think?
12 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Young people have been reporting a sharp rise in anxiety and depression. This maps neatly onto the global rise of the smartphone. Some researchers are...
601. Multitasking Doesn’t Work. So Why Do We Keep Trying?
05 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Only a tiny number of “supertaskers” are capable of doing two things at once. The rest of us are just making ourselves miserable, and less product...
What Is the Future of College — and Does It Have Room for Men? (Update)
29 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Educators and economists tell us all the reasons college enrollment has been dropping, especially for men, and how to stop the bleeding. (Part 3 of ou...
EXTRA: Why Quitting Is Usually Worth It
26 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Stephen Dubner appears as a guest on Fail Better, a new podcast hosted by David Duchovny. The two of them trade stories about failure, and ponder the ...
The University of Impossible-to-Get-Into (Update)
22 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
America’s top colleges are facing record demand. So why don’t they increase supply? (Part 2 of our series from 2022, “Freakonomics Radio Goes Ba...
What Exactly Is College For? (Update)
15 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We think of them as intellectual enclaves and the surest route to a better life. But U.S. colleges also operate like firms, trying to differentiate th...