People I (Mostly) Admire
Episodes
19. Marina Nitze: “If You Googled ‘Business Efficiency Consultant,’ I Was the Only Result.”
25 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
At 27— and without a college degree — she was named chief technology officer of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Today, Marina Nitze is trying...
18. Robert Sapolsky: “I Don’t Think We Have Any Free Will Whatsoever.”
18 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
He’s one of the world’s leading neuroscientists, with a focus on the physiological effects of stress. (For years, he spent his summers in Kenya, a...
17. Emily Oster: “I Am a Woman Who Is Prominently Discussing Vaginas.”
11 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In addition to publishing best-selling books about pregnancy and child-rearing, Emily Oster is a respected economist at Brown University. Over the cou...
16. Joshua Jay: “Humans Are So, So Easy to Fool.”
04 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
He’s a world-renowned magician who’s been performing since he was seven years old. But Joshua Jay is also an author, toy maker, and consultant for...
15. Tim Harford: “If You Can Make Sure You're Not An Idiot, You've Done Well.”
28 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
He’s a former World Bank economist who became a prolific journalist and the author of one of Steve Levitt’s favorite books, The Undercover Economi...
13. Yul Kwon: “Don't Try to Change Yourself All at Once.” (UPDATE)
21 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
He has been a lawyer, an instructor at the F.B.I. Academy, the owner of a frozen-yogurt chain, and a winner of the TV show Survivor. Today, Kwon works...
12. Sue Bird: “You Have to Pay the Superstars.”
14 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
She is one of the best basketball players ever. She’s won multiple championships, including four Olympic gold medals and four W.N.B.A. titles — th...
11. Paul Romer: “I Figured Out How to Get Myself Fired From the World Bank.”
07 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
For many economists — Steve Levitt included — there is perhaps no greater inspiration than Paul Romer, the now-Nobel laureate who at a young age r...
10. Suzanne Gluck: “I'm a Person Who Can Convince Other People to Do Things”
28 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
She might not be a household name, but Suzanne Gluck is one of the most powerful people in the book industry. Her slush pile is a key entry point to t...
8. Peter Attia: “I Definitely Lost a Lot of IQ Points That Day”
21 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
He’s been an engineer, a surgeon, a management consultant, and even a boxer. Now he’s a physician focused on the science of longevity. Peter Attia...
7. Caverly Morgan: "I Am Not This Voice. I Am Not This Narrative."
14 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
She showed up late and confused to her first silent retreat, but Caverly Morgan eventually trained for eight years in silence at a Zen monastery. Now ...
6. Nathan Myhrvold: “I Am Interested in Lots of Things, and That's Actually a Bad Strategy”
07 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
He graduated high school at 14, and by 23 had several graduate degrees and was a research assistant with Stephen Hawking. He became the first chief te...
5. Susan Wojcicki: “Hey, Let’s Go Buy YouTube!”
31 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
She was the sixteenth employee at Google — a company once based in her garage — and now she's the C.E.O. of its best-known subsidiary, YouTube. Bu...
4. Ken Jennings: “Don’t Neglect the Thing That Makes You Weird”
24 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
It was only in his late twenties that America’s favorite brainiac began to seriously embrace his love of trivia. Now he holds the “Greatest of All...
3. Kerwin Charles: “One Does Not Know Where an Insight Will Come From”
17 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The dean of Yale’s School of Management grew up in a small village in Guyana. During his unlikely journey, he has researched video-gaming habits, co...
2. Mayim Bialik: “I Started Crying When I Realized How Beautiful the Universe Is”
10 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
She’s best known for playing neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler on The Big Bang Theory, but the award-winning actress has a rich life outside of her a...
1. Steven Pinker: "I Manage My Controversy Portfolio Carefully”
03 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
By cataloging the steady march of human progress, the Harvard psychologist and linguist has become a very public intellectual. But the self-declared “...
173. Steve Levitt Says Goodbye to People I (Mostly) Admire
20 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the last episode of the podcast, Stephen Dubner turns the microphone on Steve Levitt. They talk about Levitt’s favorite — and least favorite —...
Ninety-Eight Years of Economic Wisdom (Replay)
13 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The late Robert Solow was a giant among economists. When he was 98 years old he told Steve about cracking German codes in World War II, why it’s so ...
172. A New Kind of University
06 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Crow is the president of Arizona State University, which U.S. News & World Report has called the most innovative school in the country for 11 ...
171. Measuring Pollution on Parallel Earths
22 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Greenstone knows it’s corny, but he wants to make the world a better place — by tracking the impact of air quality, developing pollution m...
Suleika Jaouad’s Survival Mechanisms (Replay)
15 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Suleika Jaouad was diagnosed with cancer at 22. She made her illness the subject of a New York Times column and a memoir, Between Two Kingdoms. She an...
170. Finding the God Particle
08 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Physicist and former pop star Brian Cox tells Steve about discovering the Higgs boson, having a number-one hit, and why particle physics research will...
169. Decoding the World’s First Writing
25 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Irving Finkel is an expert on cuneiform — the oldest known writing system. He tells Steve the amazing story of how an ancient clay tablet unlocked t...
Is There a Fair Way to Divide Us? (Update)
18 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Moon Duchin is a math professor at the University of Chicago whose theoretical work has practical applications for voting and democracy. Why is strivi...
168. Chemistry, Evolved
11 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Frances Arnold pioneered the process of directed evolution — mimicking natural selection to create new enzymes that have changed everything from agr...
167. The Secret of Humanity? It’s Common Knowledge.
27 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Steven Pinker’s new book argues that all our relationships depend on shared assumptions and “recursive mentalizing” — our constant efforts to ...
How to Have Great Conversations (Update)
20 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Power of Habit author Charles Duhigg wrote his new book in an attempt to learn how to communicate better. Steve shares how the book helped him und...
166. The World’s Most Effective Public Health Intervention Is Under Attack
13 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Seth Berkley used to run the world's largest vaccine funding organization. He and Steve talk about the incredible value of vaccines, the economics of ...
165. The Economist Who (Gasp!) Asks People What They Think
30 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Stefanie Stantcheva’s approach seemed like career suicide. In fact, it won her the John Bates Clark Medal. She talks to fellow winner Steve Levitt a...
Rick Rubin on How to Make Something Great (Update)
23 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From recording some of the first rap hits to revitalizing Johnny Cash's career, the legendary producer has had an extraordinary creative life. In this...
164. Unravelling the Universe, Again
16 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More than two decades ago, Adam Riess’s Nobel Prize-winning work fundamentally changed our understanding of the universe. His new work is reshaping ...
163. The Data Sleuth Taking on Shoddy Science
02 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Uri Simonsohn is a behavioral science professor who wants to improve standards in his field — so he’s made a sideline of investigating fraudulent ...
Arne Duncan Says All Kids Deserve a Chance — and Criminals Deserve a Second One (Update)
26 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Former U.S. Secretary of Education, 3x3 basketball champion, and leader of an anti-gun violence organization are all on Arne’s resume. He’s also S...
162. Will We Solve the Climate Problem?
19 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kate Marvel spends her days playing with climate models, which she says are “like a very expensive version of The Sims.” As a physicist she gets t...
161. How to Captivate an Audience
05 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Twenty years ago, before the Freakonomics book tour, Bill McGowan taught Steve Levitt to speak in public. In his new book he tries to teach everyone e...
Annie Duke Thinks You Should Quit (Update)
28 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Former professional poker player Annie Duke wrote a book about Steve’s favorite subject: quitting. They talk about why quitting is so hard, how to d...
160. How to Help Kids Succeed
21 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Psychologist David Yeager thinks the conventional wisdom for how to motivate young people is all wrong. His model for helping kids cope with stress is...
159. Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Manifesto for a Gift Economy
07 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
She’s a botanist, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and the author of the bestselling Braiding Sweetgrass. In her new book she criticizes t...
Does Death Have to Be a Death Sentence? (Update)
31 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Palliative physician B.J. Miller asks: Is there a better way to think about dying? And can death be beautiful? SOURCES:B.J. Miller, palliative-care p...
158. Why Did Rome Fall — and Are We Next?
24 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Historian Tom Holland narrowly escaped a career writing vampire novels to become the co-host of the wildly popular podcast The Rest Is History. At Ste...
157. The Deadliest Disease in Human History
10 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
John Green returns to the show to talk about tuberculosis — a disease that kills more than a million people a year. Steve has an idea for a new way ...
Abraham Verghese Thinks Medicine Can Do Better (Update)
03 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Abraham Verghese is a physician and a best-selling author — in that order, he says. He explains the difference between curing and healing, and tells...
156. A Solution to America’s Gun Problem
26 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jens Ludwig has an idea for how to fix America’s gun violence problem — and it starts by rejecting conventional wisdom from both sides of the poli...
155. Helping People Die
12 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ellen Wiebe is a physician who helps seriously ill patients end their lives in Canada, where assisted suicide is legal. Is death a human right? SOURC...
Yul Kwon: “Don't Try to Change Yourself All at Once.” (Update)
05 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
He has been a lawyer, an instructor at the F.B.I. Academy, the owner of a frozen-yogurt chain, and a winner of the TV show Survivor. Today, Kwon works...
154. Can Robots Get a Grip?
29 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ken Goldberg is at the forefront of robotics — which means he tries to teach machines to do things humans find trivial. SOURCES:Ken Goldberg, profe...
153. We’re Not Getting Sicker — We’re Overdiagnosed
15 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Suzanne O'Sullivan is a neurologist who sees many patients with psychosomatic disorders. Their symptoms may be psychological in origin, but their pain...
Reading Dostoevsky Behind Bars (Update)
08 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Reginald Dwayne Betts spent more than eight years in prison. Today he's a Yale Law graduate, a MacArthur Fellow, and a poet. His nonprofit works to bu...
152. Hunting for the Origins of Life
01 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chemist Jack Szostak wants to understand how the first life forms came into being on Earth. He and Steve discuss the danger of "mirror bacteria," the ...
151. Neurobiologist, Philosopher, and Addict
15 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Owen Flanagan's newest book details his 20-year dependence on alcohol and pills — and outlines his research on what addiction can tell us about the ...
Jane Goodall Changed the Way We See Animals. She’s Not Done. (Replay)
08 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The primatologist discusses the thrill of observing chimpanzees in the wild, the value of challenging orthodoxy, and why dying is her next great adven...
150. His Brilliant Videos Get Millions of Views. Why Don’t They Make Money?
01 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Hank Green is an internet phenomenon and a master communicator, with a plan to reform higher education. He and Steve talk about the video blog that la...
149. Stanford’s President Knows He Can’t Make Everyone Happy
18 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jonathan Levin is an academic economist who now runs one of the most influential universities in the world. He tells Steve how he saved Comcast a bill...
Why Numbers are Music to Our Ears (Update)
11 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah Hart investigates the mathematical structures underlying musical compositions and literature. Using examples from Monteverdi to Lewis Carroll, S...
148. How to Have Good Ideas
04 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah Stein Greenberg runs Stanford’s d.school, which teaches design as a mode of problem solving. She and Steve talk about what makes her field dif...
147. Is Your Gut a Second Brain?
21 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In her book, Rumbles, medical historian Elsa Richardson explores the history of the human gut. She talks with Steve about dubious medical practices, g...
Turning Work into Play (Update)
14 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How psychologist Dan Gilbert went from high school dropout to Harvard professor, found the secret of joy, and inspired Steve Levitt's divorce. SOURCE...
146. Is There a Fair Way to Divide Us?
07 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Moon Duchin is a math professor at Cornell University whose theoretical work has practical applications for voting and democracy. Why is striving for ...
145. Neil deGrasse Tyson Is Still Starstruck
23 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The director of the Hayden Planetarium is one of the best science communicators of our time. He and Steve talk about his role in reclassifying Pluto, ...
Pete Docter: “What If Monsters Really Do Exist?” (Update)
16 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
He’s the chief creative officer of Pixar, and the Academy Award-winning director of Soul, Inside Out, Up, and Monsters, Inc. Pete Docter and Steve t...
144. Feeling Sound and Hearing Color
09 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
David Eagleman is a Stanford neuroscientist, C.E.O., television host, and founder of the Possibilianism movement. He and Steve talk about how wrists c...
143. Why Are Boys and Men in Trouble?
26 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Boys and men are trending downward in education, employment, and mental health. Richard Reeves, author of the book Of Boys and Men, has some solutions...
Nobel Laureate Daron Acemoglu on Economics, Politics, and Power (Replay)
19 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Daron Acemoglu was just awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in economics. Earlier this year, he and Steve talked about his groundbreaking research on what ma...
142. What’s Impacting American Workers?
12 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
David Autor took his first economics class at 29 years old. Now he’s one of the central academics studying the labor market. The M.I.T. economist an...
EXTRA: Using Data to Win Gold
05 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Kate Douglass is a world-class swimmer and data scientist who’s used mathematical modeling to help make her stroke more efficient. She and Steve tal...
141. The Language of the Universe
28 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ken Ono is a math prodigy whose skills have helped produce a Hollywood movie and made Olympic swimmers faster. The number theorist tells Steve why he ...
Drawing from Life (and Death) (Update)
21 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Artist Wendy MacNaughton knows the difficulty of sitting in silence and the power of having fun. She explains to Steve the lessons she’s gleaned fro...
140. How to Breathe Better
14 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Bestselling author James Nestor believes that we can improve our lives by changing the way we breathe. He’s persuasive enough to get Steve taping hi...
139. How PETA Made Radical Ideas Mainstream
31 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals founder Ingrid Newkirk has been badgering meat-eaters, fur-wearers, and circus-goers for more than 40 year...
Sendhil Mullainathan Thinks Messing Around Is the Best Use of Your Time (Update)
24 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Revisiting Steve’s 2021 conversation with the economist and MacArthur “genius” about how to make memories stickier, why change is undervalued, a...
138. Chris Anderson on the Power of TED
17 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Under his helm, the TED Conference went from a small industry gathering to a global phenomenon. Chris and Steve talk about how to build lasting instit...
EXTRA: Remembering Susan Wojcicki
13 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The former YouTube C.E.O. — and sixteenth Google employee — died on August 9, 2024. Steve talked with her in 2020 about her remarkable career, and...
137. Richard Dawkins on God, Genes, and Murderous Baby Cuckoos
03 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The author of the classic The Selfish Gene is still changing the way we think about evolution. SOURCE:Richard Dawkins, professor emeritus of the publ...
What It Takes to Know Everything (Update)
27 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Victoria Groce is the best trivia contestant on earth. The winner of the 2024 World Quizzing Championship explains the structure of a good question, w...
136. The World’s Most Controversial Ornithologist
20 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Richard Prum says there's a lot that traditional evolutionary biology can't explain. He thinks a neglected hypothesis from Charles Darwin — and insi...
135. How to Grow a White Rhino
06 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Thomas Hildebrandt is trying to bring the northern white rhinoceros back from the brink of extinction. The wildlife veterinarian tells Steve about the...
Sue Bird: “You Have to Pay the Superstars.” (Replay)
29 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
She is one of the best basketball players ever. She’s won multiple championships, including five Olympic gold medals and four W.N.B.A. titles. She a...
134. Why Do We Still Teach People to Calculate?
22 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Conrad Wolfram wants to transform the way we teach math — by taking advantage of computers. The creator of Computer-Based Maths convinced the Estoni...
133. Pay Attention! (Your Body Will Thank You)
08 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ellen Langer is a psychologist at Harvard who studies the mind-body connection. She’s published some of the most remarkable scientific findings Stev...
John Green’s Reluctant Rocket Ship Ride (Update)
01 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Author and YouTuber John Green thought his breakout bestseller wouldn’t be a commercial success, wrote 40,000 words for one sentence, and brought St...
132. Suleika Jaouad’s Survival Mechanisms
25 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Suleika Jaouad was diagnosed with cancer at 22. She made her illness the subject of a New York Times column and a memoir, Between Two Kingdoms. She an...
131. Getting Old, Adventurously
11 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Caroline Paul is a thrill-seeker and writer who is on a quest to encourage women to get outside and embrace adventure as they age. She and Steve talk ...
What It’s Like to Be Steve Levitt’s Daughters (Update)
04 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Steve shows a different side of himself in very personal interviews with his two oldest daughters. Amanda talks about growing up with social anxiety a...
130. Is Our Concept of Freedom All Wrong?
27 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The economist Joseph Stiglitz has devoted his life to exposing the limits of markets. He tells Steve about winning an argument with fellow Nobel laure...
129. How to Fix Medical Research
13 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Monica Bertagnolli went from a childhood on a cattle ranch to a career as a surgeon to a top post in the Biden administration. As director of the Nati...
EXTRA: Remembering Daniel Kahneman
06 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Nobel laureate, bestselling author, and groundbreaking psychologist Daniel Kahneman died in March. In 2021 he talked with Steve Levitt — his friend ...
128. Are Our Tools Becoming Part of Us?
30 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Google researcher Blaise Agüera y Arcas spends his work days developing artificial intelligence models and his free time conducting surveys for fun. ...
127. Rajiv Shah Never Wastes a Crisis
16 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After Haiti’s devastating earthquake, Rajiv Shah headed the largest humanitarian effort in U.S. history. As chief economist of the Gates Foundation ...
126. How to Have Great Conversations
02 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Power of Habit author Charles Duhigg wrote his new book in an attempt to learn how to communicate better. Steve shares how the book helped him und...
125. Is Gynecology the Best Innovation Ever?
17 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cat Bohannon’s new book puts female anatomy at the center of human evolution. She tells Steve why it takes us so long to give birth, what breast mil...
124. Daron Acemoglu on Economics, Politics, and Power
03 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Economist Daron Acemoglu likes to tackle big questions. He tells Steve how colonialism still affects us today, who benefits from new technology, and w...
123. Walt Hickey Wants to Track Your Eyeballs
20 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist Walt Hickey uses data to understand how culture works. He and Steve talk about why China hasn’t produced any hit movies yet and how he go...
122. Arnold Schwarzenegger Has Some Advice for You
06 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Arnold Schwarzenegger has been a bodybuilder, an actor, a governor, and, now, an author. He tells Steve how he’s managed to succeed in so many field...
121. Exploring Physics, from Eggshells to Oceans
23 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Physicist Helen Czerski loves to explain how the world works. She talks with Steve about studying bubbles, setting off explosives, and how ocean waves...
120. Werner Herzog Thinks His Films Are a Distraction
09 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The filmmaker doesn’t want to be known only for his movies. He tells Steve why he considers himself a writer first, how it feels to be recognized fo...
119. Higher Education Is Broken. Can It Be Fixed?
25 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Economist Michael D. Smith says universities are scrambling to protect a status quo that deserves to die. He tells Steve why the current system is uns...
118. “My God, This Is a Transformative Power”
11 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Computer scientist Fei-Fei Li had a wild idea: download one billion images from the internet and teach a computer to recognize them. She ended up adva...
117. Nate Silver Says We're Bad at Making Predictions
28 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Data scientist Nate Silver gained attention for his election predictions. But even the best prognosticators get it wrong sometimes. He talks to Steve ...
116. Abraham Verghese Thinks Medicine Can Do Better
14 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Abraham Verghese is a physician and a best-selling author — in that order, he says. He explains the difference between curing and healing, and tells...