EXTRA: People Aren’t Dumb. The World Is Hard. (Update)
15 July - 53 minsYou wouldn’t think you could win a Nobel Prize for showing that humans tend to make irrational decisions. But that’s what Richard Thaler has done. In an interview from 2018, the founder of behavioral economics describes his unlikely route to success; his reputation for being lazy; and his efforts to fix the world — one nudge at a time.
SOURCES:Richard Thaler, professor of behavioral science and economics at the University of Chicago.
RESOURCES:“Behavioral Economics,” by Richard Thaler (The Past, Present, and Future of Economics: A Celebration of the 125-Year Anniversary of the JPE and of Chicago Economics, December 2017).Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics, by Richard Thale...
Series Episodes
The University of Impossible-to-Get-Into (Update)
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 Back to School.”)
1 hour 11 mins
22 August Finished
What Exactly Is College For? (Update)
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 their products to win market share and prestige points. In the first episode of a special series originally published in 2022, we ask what our chaotic system gets right — and wrong. (Part 1 of “Freakonomics Radio Goes Back to School.”)
50 mins
15 August Finished
EXTRA: Here’s Why You’re Not an Elite Athlete (Update)
There are a lot of factors that go into greatness, many of which are not obvious. As the Olympics come to a close, we revisit a 2018 episode in which top athletes from a variety of sports tell us how they made it, and what they sacrificed.
1 hour 5 mins
12 August Finished
600. “If We’re All in It for Ourselves, Who Are We?”
Tania Tetlow, a former federal prosecutor and now the president of Fordham University, thinks the modern campus could use a dose of old-fashioned values.
44 mins
8 August Finished
599. The World's Most Valuable Unused Resource
It’s not oil or water or plutonium — it’s human hours. We've got an idea for putting them to use, and for building a more human-centered economy. But we need your help.
40 mins
1 August Finished
EXTRA: Why Rent Control Doesn’t Work (Update)
A new proposal from the Biden administration calls for a nationwide cap on rent increases. Economists think that’s a terrible idea. We revisit a 2019 episode to hear why.
48 mins
29 July Finished
