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Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Freakonomics co-author Steve Levitt tracks down other high achievers for surprising, revealing conversations about their lives and obsessions. Join Levitt as he goes through the most interesting midlife crisis you’ve ever heard — and learn how a renegade sheriff is transforming Chicago's jail, how a biologist is finding the secrets of evolution in the Arctic tundra, and how a trivia champion memorized 160,000 flashcards.

To get every show in the Freakonomics Radio Network without ads and a monthly bonus episode of Freakonomics Radio, start a free trial for SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.

People I (Mostly) Admire

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 technology officer at Microsoft (without having ever studied computer science) and then started a company focused on big questions — like how to provide the world with clean energy and how to optimize pizza-baking. Find out what makes Nathan Myhrvold’s fertile mind tick, and which of his many ideas Steve Levitt likes the most. This episode originally aired on October 30th, 2020.

 
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6. Nathan Myhrvold: “I Am Interested in Lots of Things, and That's Actually a Bad Strategy”

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. But despite being one of the most powerful people in the tech industry, few outside of Silicon Valley know the name Susan Wojcicki. Levitt talks with her about the early days of Google, how her background in economics shapes the company's products, and why YouTube's success has created a range of unforeseen and serious issues. This episode originally aired on October 16th, 2020.

 
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5. Susan Wojcicki: “Hey, Let’s Go Buy YouTube!”

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 Time” title on Jeopardy! Steve Levitt digs into how he trained for the show, what it means to have a "geographic memory," and why we lie to our children. This episode originally aired on October 2nd, 2020.

 
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4. Ken Jennings: “Don’t Neglect the Thing That Makes You Weird”

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, communicable disease, and why so many African-Americans haven’t had the kind of success he’s had. Steve Levitt talks to Charles about his parents’ encouragement, his love of Sports Illustrated, and how he talks to his American-born kids about the complicated history of Blackness in America. This episode originally aired on September 18th, 2020.

 
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3. Kerwin Charles: “One Does Not Know Where an Insight Will Come From”

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 acting career, as a teacher, mother — and a real-life neuroscientist. Steve Levitt tries to learn more about this one-time academic and Hollywood non-conformist, who is both very similar to him and also quite his opposite. This episode originally aired on September 4th, 2020.

 
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2. Mayim Bialik: “I Started Crying When I Realized How Beautiful the Universe Is”

By cataloging the steady march of human progress, the Harvard psychologist and linguist has become a very public intellectual. But the self-declared “polite Canadian” has managed to enrage people on opposite ends of the political spectrum. Steve Levitt tries to understand why. This episode originally aired on August 21st, 2020.

 
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1. Steven Pinker: "I Manage My Controversy Portfolio Carefully”

In the last episode of the podcast, Stephen Dubner turns the microphone on Steve Levitt. They talk about Levitt’s favorite — and least favorite — moments from the show’s five-year run, his quest to reform education, and his next podcasting gig.

 

SOURCES:Stephen Dubner • , host of 
Freakonomics Radio, • co-author of 
Freakonomics • books.

 

RESOURCES: • "
How to Help Kids Succeed • ," by 
People I (Mostly) Admire • (2025).
 • "
Feeling Sound and Hearing Color • ," by 
People I (Mostly) Admire • (2024).
 • "
Richard Dawkins on God, Genes, and Murderous Baby Cuckoos • ," by 
People I (Mostly) Admire • (2024).
 • "
Arnold Schwarzenegger Has Some Advice for You • ," by 
People I (Mostly) Admire • (2024).
 • "
Werner Herzog Thinks His Films Are a Distraction • ," by 
People I (Mostly) Admire • (2023).
 • "
Drawing from Life (and Death) • ," by 
People I (Mostly) Admire • (2023).
 • "
Yuval Noah Harari Thinks Life is Meaningless and Amazing • ," by 
People I (Mostly) Admire • (2022).
 • "
Is This the Future of High School? • ," by 
People I (Mostly) Admire • (2022).
 • "
Does Death Have to Be a Death Sentence? • ," by 
People I (Mostly) Admire • (2022).
 • "
Sal Khan: 'If It Works for 15 Cousins, It Could Work for a Billion People • .'" by 
People I (Mostly) Admire • (2021).
 • "
Jared Diamond on the Downfall of Civilizations — and His Optimism for Ours • ," by 
People I (Mostly) Admire • (2021).
 • "
Amanda & Lily Levitt Share What It’s Like to be Steve’s Daughters • ," by 
People I (Mostly) Admire • (2021).
 • "
How Rahm Emanuel Would Run the World • ," by 
Freakonomics Radio • (2020).
The Levitt Lab • .

 
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173. Steve Levitt Says Goodbye to People I (Mostly) Admire

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 hard to reduce inequality, and how his field lost its way. 

 

SOURCES:Robert Solow • , professor emeritus of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

RESOURCES: • "
Secrecy, Cigars, and a Venetian Wedding: How the P.G.A. Tour Made a Deal with Saudi Arabia • ," by Alan Blinder, Lauren Hirsch, Kevin Draper, and Kate Kelly (
The New York Times, • 2023).
 • "
Global Assessment of Environmental-Economic Accounting and Supporting Statistics: 2020 • ," by United Nations Committee of Experts on Environmental-Economic Accounting (2021).
 • "
Where Modern Macroeconomics Went Wrong • ," by Joseph E. Stiglitz (
Oxford Review of Economic Policy, • 2015).
 • "
As Inequality Grows, So Does the Political Influence of the Rich • ," (
The Economist, • 2018).
 • "
Big Bang Financial Deregulation and Income Inequality: Evidence From U.K. and Japan • ," by Daniel Waldenstrom and Julia Tanndal (
VoxEU, • 2016).
 • "
The Fall And Rise Of U.S. Inequality, In 2 Graphs • ," by Quoctrung Bui (
Planet Money, • 2015).
Nobel Prize Biographical, • by Robert Solow (1987).
Principles of Political Economy, • by John Stuart Mills (1848).

 

EXTRAS: • "
Is Economic Growth the Wrong Goal? (Update) • ," by 
Freakonomics Radio • (2023).

 
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Ninety-Eight Years of Economic Wisdom (Replay)

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 years running. He tells Steve about why higher education needs to change, and how A.S.U. is leading the way. Plus: Steve has an announcement about the podcast.

 

SOURCES:Michael Crow • , president of Arizona State University.

 

RESOURCES:The Fifth Wave: The Evolution of American Higher Education, • by Michael Crow (2020).
 • "
College Admissions Shocker! • ," by Frank Bruni 
(New York Times, • 2016).
New American University • .
Dreamscape Learn • .
University Innovation Alliance • .
FYI.AI • .

 

EXTRAS: • "
Chemistry, Evolved • ," by 
People I (Mostly) Admire • (2025).
 • "
America’s Math Curriculum Doesn’t Add Up • ," by 
People I (Mostly) Admire • (2021).
Data Science 4 Everyone • .

 
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172. A New Kind of University

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 markets in India, and … starting a podcast, which Steve says proves he’s over the hill.

 

SOURCES:Michael Greenstone • , professor of economics at the University of Chicago.

 

RESOURCES: • "
New evidence on the impact of sustained exposure to air pollution on life expectancy from China's Huai River Policy • ," by Avraham Ebenstein, Maoyong Fan, Michael Greenstone, Guojun He, and Maigeng Zhou 
(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, • 2017).
 • "
Evidence on the impact of sustained exposure to air pollution on life expectancy from China's Huai River policy • ," by Yuyu Chen, Avraham Ebenstein, Michael Greenstone, and Hongbin Li 
(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, • 2013).
Shocked • , podcast.
Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) • .
Emissions Market Accelerator • .
Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) • .

 

EXTRAS: • "
This Is Your Brain on Pollution • ," by 
Freakonomics Radio • (2021).
 • "
The Simple Economics of Saving the Amazon Rainforest • ", by 
People I (Mostly) Admire ( • 2020).

 
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171. Measuring Pollution on Parallel Earths

The Nobel laureate and pioneering behavioral economist spars with Steve over what makes a nudge a nudge, and admits that even economists have plenty of blind spots.

 
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58. Why Is Richard Thaler Such a ****ing Optimist?

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