Freakonomics Radio

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 the lab — and from the animator who made one the hero of a Pixar blockbuster. (Part three of a  three-part series , “Sympathy for the Rat.”)   SOURCES: Bethany Brookshire , author of Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains Jan Pinkava, creator and c...

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 two of a three-part series , “Sympathy for the Rat.”)   SOURCES: Kathy Corradi, director of rodent mitigation for New York City. Robert Corrigan, urban rodentologist and pest consultant for New York City. Ed Glaeser, professor of economics at Harvard Unive...

A brief meditation on loss, relativity, and the vagaries of show business. RESOURCES: Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry, documentary (2021) Genius & Anxiety: How Jews Changed the World, 1847-1947 , by Norman Lebrecht (2019) The War Room , documentary (1993)   EXTRAS: “ Is San Francisco a Failed State? (And Other Questions You Shouldn’t Ask the Mayor) ” by Freakonomics Radio (2025) “ Ari E...

New York City’s mayor calls them “public enemy number one.” History books say they caused the Black Death — although recent scientific evidence disputes that claim. So is the rat a scapegoat? And what does our rat hatred say about us? (Part one of a three-part series .)   SOURCES: Bethany Brookshire , author of Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains. Kathy Corradi , director of rodent mitigation...

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 legal scholar Rebecca Allensworth calls licensing boards “a thicket of self-dealing and ineptitude” and says they keep bad workers in their jobs and good ones out — while failing to protect the public.   SOURCES: Rebecca Allensworth , professor of l...

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 those of us who don’t play football. Today we’re updating that episode, with extra commentary from Omnipresent Football Guy (and former Philadelphia Eagle) Jason Kelce.    SOURCES: Tom Garfinkel , vice chairman, C.E.O., and president of the Miami Dolphins....

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. We speak with an analytics guru, an agent, some former running backs (including LeSean McCoy), and the economist Roland Fryer (a former Pop Warner running back himself) to understand why.   SOURCES: Brian Burke, sports data scientist at ESPN Roland F...

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 also knows how to foil an eavesdropping Alexa and how to guard your online footprint. The big news, he says, is that the A.I. bubble is bursting.   SOURCES: Erik Brynjolfsson , professor of economics at Stanford University Ben Zhao , professor of com...

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 is a gateway drug.   SOURCES: London Breed , former mayor of San Francisco. Erik Brynjolfsson , professor of economics at Stanford University Koleman Strumpf , professor of economics at Wake Forest University   RESOURCES: " SF crime rate at lowest point...

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?   SOURCES: Sonia Gilbukh , assistant professor of real estate at CUNY Baruch College. Kevin Sears , 2025 president of the National Association of Realtors. Chad Syverson , professor of econo...

Like 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...

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 .   SOURCES: Laura Appleman , professor of law at Willamette University. Christopher Barnes, inmate at the Franklin Correctional Center. Lee Blackman , ge...

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)   SOURCES: Max Bazerman , professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. Leif Nelson , professor of business administration at the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business. Brian Nos...

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)   SOURCES: Max Bazerman , professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. Leif Nels...

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.   SOURCES: David Eagleman , professor of cognitive neuroscience at Stanford University and C.E.O. of Neosensory.   RESOURCES: Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Bra...

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 he wrote a book about how creative people work— and, in the process, he made himself happy again.   SOURCE: Adam Moss , magazine editor and author.   RESOURCES: The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing , by Adam Moss (2024). " Goodbye, New York...

In a wide-ranging conversation with Ezekiel Emanuel, the policymaking physician and medical gadfly, we discuss the massive effects of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro. We also talk about the state of cancer care, mysteries in the gut microbiome, flaws in the U.S. healthcare system — and what a second Trump term means for healthcare policy.   SOURCES: Ezekiel Emanuel , vice provost fo...

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 overlooked front in the Cold War — a “farms race” that, decades later, still influences what Americans eat.   SOURCES: Anne Effland , former Senior Economist for the Office of Chief Economist in the U.S.D.A. Shane Hamilton , historian at the University of York....

John J. Sullivan, a former State Department official and U.S. ambassador, says yes: “Our politicians aren’t leading — Republicans or Democrats.” He gives a firsthand account of a fateful Biden-Putin encounter, talks about his new book Midnight in Moscow , and predicts what a second Trump term means for Russia, Ukraine, China — and the U.S.   SOURCES: John Sullivan , former U.S. Deputy Secretary of...

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. (Part two of a two-part series .)   SOURCES: Mark Cohen , former professor and director of retail studies at Columbia Business School. Will Coss , vice president and executive producer of Macy’s Studios. Jeff Kinney , author, cartoonist, and owner of...

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 moneymaker. At least we think it is — Macy’s is famously tight-lipped about parade economics. We try to loosen them up. (Part one of a two-part series .) Please take our audience survey at freakonomics.com/survey .   SOURCES: John Cheney, carpenter at Macy’s...

It’s true that robots (and other smart technologies) will kill many jobs. It may also be true that newer collaborative robots (“cobots”) will totally reinvigorate how work gets done. That, at least, is what the economists are telling us. Should we believe them?   SOURCES: David Autor , professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. James Rosenman , C.E.O. of Andrus on Hudson...

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 Trump.   SOURCE: Fareed Zakaria , journalist and author.   RESOURCES: " The Most Dangerous Moment Since the Cold War ," by Fareed Zakaria ( The Washington Post, 2024). " America’s Failed Approach to Iran Can’t Really Be Called a Strategy ," by Fareed Za...

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 prefer a government-run monopoly. We listen in as they fight it out. (Part four of a four-part series .)   SOURCES: Jon Caulkins , professor of operations research and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University. Adam Goers , senior vice president of Th...

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 making prize-winning spirits. When cannabis was legalized, he jumped into that too — and the first few years were lucrative. But now? It turns out that growing, processing, and selling weed is more complicated than it looks. He gave us the grand tour....