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Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Freakonomics co-author Stephen J. Dubner uncovers the hidden side of everything. Why is it safer to fly in an airplane than drive a car? How do we decide whom to marry? Why is the media so full of bad news? Also: things you never knew you wanted to know about wolves, bananas, pollution, search engines, and the quirks of human behavior.

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.

Freakonomics Radio

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.
Peter Timmer • , economist and former professor at Harvard University.
Audra Wolfe • , writer, editor, and historian.

 

RESOURCES:Freedom’s Laboratory: The Cold War Struggle for the Soul of Science • , by Audra Wolfe (2018).
Supermarket USA: Food and Power in The Cold War Farms Race • , by Shane Hamilton (2018).
 • “
Association of Higher Consumption of Foods Derived From Subsidized Commodities With Adverse Cardiometabolic Risk Among US Adults • ,” by Karen R. Siegel, Kai McKeever Bullard, K. M. Narayan, et al. (
JAMA Internal Medicine • , 2016).
The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living Since the Civil War • , by Robert J. Gordon (2016).
 • “
How the Mechanical Tomato Harvester Prompted the Food Movement • ,” by Ildi Carlisle-Cummins (
UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences Newsletter • , 2015).

 

EXTRAS: • "
Is the U.S. Sleeping on Threats from Russia and China? • " by 
Freakonomics Radio • (2024).

How the Supermarket Helped America Win the Cold War (Update)

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 for Global Initiatives, co-director of the Health Transformation Institute, and professor at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.

 

RESOURCES: • "
Obesity Drugs Would Be Covered by Medicare and Medicaid Under Biden Proposal • ," by Margot Sanger-Katz (
The New York Times, • 2024).
 • "
International Coverage of GLP-1 Receptor Agonists: A Review and Ethical Analysis of Discordant Approaches • ," by Johan L. Dellgren, and Govind Persad, and Ezekiel J. Emanuel (
The Lancet, • 2024).
The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma, • by Mustafa Suleyman (2023).
 • "
The Significance of Blockbusters in the Pharmaceutical Industry • ," by Alexander Schuhmacher, Markus Hinder, Nikolaj Boger, Dominik Hartl, and Oliver Gassmann (
Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, • 2022).
Reinventing American Health Care: How the Affordable Care Act Will Improve Our Terribly Complex, Blatantly Unjust, Outrageously Expensive, Grossly Inefficient, Error Prone System, • by Ezekiel J. Emanuel (2014).
 • "
Why I Hope to Die at 75 • ," by Ezekiel J. Emanuel (
The Atlantic • , 2014).
 • "
Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Pharmaceuticals • ," by Ziad F. Gellad and Kenneth W. Lyles (
The American Journal of Medicine, • 2014).
Brothers Emanuel: A Memoir of an American Family, • by Ezekiel J. Emanuel (2013).
 • "
Bounds in Competing Risks Models and the War on Cancer • ," by Bo E. Honoré and Adriana Lleras-Muney (
Econometrica, • 2006).

 

EXTRAS: • "
How to Fix Medical Research • ," by 
People I (Mostly) Admire • (2024).
 • "
The Suddenly Diplomatic Rahm Emanuel • ," by 
Freakonomics Radio • (2023).
 • "
Ari Emanuel Is Never Indifferent • ," by 
Freakonomics Radio • (2023).
 • "
Who Pays for Multimillion-Dollar Miracle Cures? • " by 
Freakonomics, M.D. • (2023).
 • "
Who Gets the Ventilator? • " by 
Freakonomics Radio • (2020).

615. Is Ozempic as Magical as It Sounds?

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. Adam Moss Is Leaving the Magazine He Has Edited for 15 Years • ," by Michael M. Grynbaum (
The New York Times, • 2019).
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking, • by Samin Nosrat (2017).

 

EXTRAS: • "
David Simon Is On Strike. Here’s Why • ," by 
People I (Mostly) Admire • (2023).
 • "
Samin Nosrat Always Wanted to Be Famous • ," by 
Freakonomics Radio • (2023).
 • "
What’s Wrong with Being a One-Hit Wonder? • " by 
Freakonomics Radio • (2023).

616. How to Make Something from Nothing

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 Brain, • by David Eagleman (2020).
 • "
Why Do We Dream? A New Theory on How It Protects Our Brains • ," by David Eagleman and Don Vaughn (
TIME, • 2020).
 • "
Prevalence of Learned Grapheme-Color Pairings in a Large Online Sample of Synesthetes • ," by Nathan Witthoft, Jonathan Winawer, and David Eagleman (
PLoS One, • 2015).
Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives, • by David Eagleman (2009).
The vOICe app • .
Neosensory • .

 

EXTRAS: • "
Feeling Sound and Hearing Color • ," by 
People I (Mostly) Admire • (2024).
 • "
What’s Impacting American Workers? • " by 
People I (Mostly) Admire • (2024).
 • "
This Is Your Brain on Podcasts • ," by 
Freakonomics Radio • (2016).

Your Brain Doesn’t Work the Way You Think

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 Nelson • , professor of business administration at the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business.
Brian Nosek • , professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and executive director at the Center for Open Science.
Joseph Simmons • , professor of applied statistics and operations, information, and decisions at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Uri Simonsohn • , professor of behavioral science at Esade Business School.
Simine Vazire • , professor of psychology at the University of Melbourne and editor-in-chief of 
Psychological Science.
 

RESOURCES: • "
More Than 10,000 Research Papers Were Retracted in 2023 — a New Record • ," by Richard Van Noorden (
Nature, • 2023).
 • "
Data Falsificada (Part 1): 'Clusterfake • ,'" by Joseph Simmons, Leif Nelson, and Uri Simonsohn (
Data Colada, • 2023).
 • "
Fabricated Data in Research About Honesty. You Can't Make This Stuff Up. Or, Can You? • " by Nick Fountain, Jeff Guo, Keith Romer, and Emma Peaslee (
Planet Money, • 2023).
Complicit: How We Enable the Unethical and How to Stop, • by Max Bazerman (2022).
 • "
Evidence of Fraud in an Influential Field Experiment About Dishonesty • ," by Joseph Simmons, Leif Nelson, and Uri Simonsohn (
Data Colada, • 2021).
 • "
False-Positive Psychology: Undisclosed Flexibility in Data Collection and Analysis Allows Presenting Anything as Significant • ," by Joseph Simmons, Leif Nelson, and Uri Simonsohn (
Psychological Science, • 2011).

 

EXTRAS: • "
Why Do We Cheat, and Why Shouldn’t We? • " by 
No Stupid Questions • (2023).
 • "
Is Everybody Cheating These Days? • " by 
No Stupid Questions • (2021).

Why Is There So Much Fraud in Academia? (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)

 

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 Nosek • , professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and executive director at the Center for Open Science.
Ivan Oransky • , distinguished journalist-in-residence at New York University, editor-in-chief of 
The Transmitter • , and co-founder of 
Retraction Watch.Joseph Simmons • , professor of applied statistics and operations, information, and decisions at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Uri Simonsohn • , professor of behavioral science at Esade Business School.
Simine Vazire • , professor of psychology at the University of Melbourne and editor-in-chief of 
Psychological Science.
 

RESOURCES: • "
How a Scientific Dispute Spiralled Into a Defamation Lawsuit • ," by Gideon Lewis-Kraus (
The New Yorker, • 2024).
 • "
The Harvard Professor and the Bloggers • ," by Noam Scheiber (
The New York Times, • 2023).
 • "
They Studied Dishonesty. Was Their Work a Lie? • " by Gideon Lewis-Kraus (
The New Yorker, • 2023).
 • "
Evolving Patterns of Extremely Productive Publishing Behavior Across Science • ," by John P.A. Ioannidis, Thomas A. Collins, and Jeroen Baas (
bioRxiv, • 2023).
 • "
Hindawi Reveals Process for Retracting More Than 8,000 Paper Mill Articles • ," (
Retraction Watch, • 2023).
 • "
Exclusive: Russian Site Says It Has Brokered Authorships for More Than 10,000 Researchers • ," (
Retraction Watch, • 2019).
 • "
How Many Scientists Fabricate and Falsify Research? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Survey Data • ," by Daniele Fanelli (
PLOS One, • 2009).
Lifecycle Journal • .

 

EXTRAS: • "
Why Is There So Much Fraud in Academia? (Update) • " by 
Freakonomics Radio • (2024).
 • "
Freakonomics Goes to College, Part 1 • ," by 
Freakonomics Radio • (2012).

Can Academic Fraud Be Stopped? (Update)

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 • , general manager at Correction Enterprises.
Gene Hawkins • , senior principal engineer at Kittelson and professor emeritus of civil engineering at Texas A&M University.
 • Renee Roach, state signing and delineation engineer for the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
 • Brian Scott, ex-inmate, former worker at the Correction Enterprises printing plant.
Louis Southall • , warden of Franklin Correctional Center.

 

RESOURCES: • “
Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways, 11th Edition • ,” by the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration (2023).
 • “
Prisoners in the U.S. Are Part of a Hidden Workforce Linked to Hundreds of Popular Food Brands • ,” by Robin McDowell and Margie Mason (
AP News, • 2024).
 • “
Ex-Prisoners Face Headwinds as Job Seekers, Even as Openings Abound • ,” by Talmon Joseph Smith (
The New York Times, • 2023).
 • “
Bloody Lucre: Carceral Labor and Prison Profit • ,” by Laura Appleman (
Wisconsin Law Review, • 2022).
 • “
The Road to Clarity • ,” by Joshua Yaffa (
The New York Times Magazine, • 2007).
Correction Enterprises • .

 

EXTRAS: • “
Do People Pay Attention to Signs? • ” by 
No Stupid Questions • (2022).
The Economics of Everyday Things.

Highway Signs and Prison Labor

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 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 Bodies in a Changing World, • by Theresa MacPhail (2023).
 • "
Evaluation and Management of Penicillin Allergy: A Review • ," by Erica S. Shenoy, Eric Macy, and Theresa Rowe (
JAMA, • 2019).
 • "
The Allergy Epidemics: 1870–2010 • ," by Thomas Platts-Mills (
The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, • 2016).
 • "
Randomized Trial of Peanut Consumption in Infants at Risk for Peanut Allergy • ," by George Du Toit, Graham Roberts, et al. (
The New England Journal of Medicine, • 2015).

 

EXTRAS:Freakonomics, M.D.

617. Are You Really Allergic to Penicillin?

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 economics at the University of Chicago.
Lawrence Yun • , chief economist for the National Association of Realtors.

 

RESOURCES: • "
Heterogeneous Real Estate Agents and the Housing Cycle • ," by Sonia Gilbukh and Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham (
NBER Working Paper, • 2024).
 • "
Real Estate Commissions and Homebuying • ," by Borys Grochulski and Zhu Wang (
Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Working Paper, • 2024).
 • "
The Relationship Between Home Prices and Real Estate Commission Rates: Implications for Consumers and Public Policy • ," by Stephen Brobeck (
Consumer Federation of America, • 2022).
 • "
The Relationship of Residential Real Estate Commission Rate to Industry Structure and Culture • ," by Stephen Brobeck (
Consumer Federation of America, • 2021).
 • "
Competition in the Real Estate Brokerage Industry: A Critical Review • ," by Panle Jia Barwick and Maisy Wong (
Economic Studies at Brookings, • 2019).
 • "
Hidden Real Estate Commissions: Consumer Costs and Improved Transparency • ," by Stephen Brobeck (
Consumer Federation of America, • 2019).
 • "
Market Distortions when Agents are Better Informed: The Value of Information in Real Estate Transactions • ," by Steven D. Levitt and Chad Syverson (
NBER Working Paper, • 2005).
The Residential Real Estate Brokerage Industry • , staff report by the Los Angeles Regional Office of the Federal Trade Commission (1983).

618. Are Realtors Having an Existential Crisis?

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 in more than 20 years, mayor says, • " by George Kelly (
The San Francisco Standard • , 2025)
 • "
How the Trump Whale and Prediction Markets Beat the Pollsters in 2024, • " by Niall Ferguson and Manny Rincon-Cruz 
(Wall Street • 
Journal • , 2024)
 • "
Artificial Intelligence, Scientific Discovery, and Product Innovation, • " by Aidan Toner-Rodgers 
(MIT Department of Economics, • 2024)

 

EXTRAS: • "
Why Are Cities (Still) So Expensive? • " by 
Freakonomics Radio • (2020)

Is San Francisco a Failed State? (And Other Questions You Shouldn’t Ask the Mayor)

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 law at Vanderbilt University.

 

RESOURCES: • "
The Licensing Racket: How We Decide Who Is Allowed to Work, and Why It Goes Wrong • " by Rebecca Allensworth (2025).
 • "
Licensed to Pill, • " by Rebecca Allensworth 
(The New York Review of Books, • 2020).
 • "
Licensing Occupations: Ensuring Quality or Restricting Competition? • " by Morris Kleiner 
(W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, • 2006).
 • "
How Much of Barrier to Entry is Occupational Licensing? • " by Peter Blair and Bobby Chung 
(British Journal of Industrial Relations, • 2019).

 

EXTRAS: • "
Is Ozempic as Magical as It Sounds? • " by 
Freakonomics Radio • (2024).

621. Is Professional Licensing a Racket?

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