617. Are You Really Allergic to Penicillin?
10 January - 1 hour 3 minsLike 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 Blumenthal, allergist-immunologist and researcher at Mass General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.Theresa MacPhail, associate professor of science and technology studies at Stevens Institute of Technology.Thomas Platts-Mills, professor of medicine at the University of Virginia.Elena Resnick, allergist and immunologist at Mount Sinai Hospital.
RESOURCES:Allergic: Our Irritated Bo...
Series Episodes
618. Are Realtors Having an Existential Crisis?
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?
53 mins
17 January Finished
Highway Signs and Prison Labor
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.
38 mins
6 January Finished
Can Academic Fraud Be Stopped? (Update)
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)
1 hour 8 mins
2 January Finished
Why Is There So Much Fraud in Academia? (Update)
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)
1 hour 15 mins
26 December 2024 Finished
Your Brain Doesn’t Work the Way You Think
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.
47 mins
23 December 2024 Finished
