Freakonomics Radio

A team of economists has been running the numbers on the U.N.'s development goals. They have a different view of how those billions of dollars should be spent.

Markets are hardly perfect, but the results can be ugly when you try to subvert them.

What does it mean to pursue something that everyone else thinks is nuts? And what does it take to succeed?

Doctors, chefs, and other experts are much more likely than the rest of us to buy store-brand products. What do they know that we don’t?

Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, EatWith, and other companies in the “sharing economy” are practically daring government regulators to shut them down. The regulators are happy to comply.

The online universe doesn't have nearly as many rules, or rulemakers, as the real world. Discuss.

There ain't no such thing as a free parking spot. Somebody has to pay for it -- and that somebody is everybody.

A look at whether spite pays -- and if it even exists.

It's awkward, random, confusing -- and probably discriminatory too.

A kid's name can tell us something about his parents -- their race, social standing, even their politics. But is your name really your destiny?

It’s a hard question to answer, but we do our best.

Educational messaging looks good on paper but kids don’t respond to it -- and adults aren’t much better.

It isn’t easy to separate the guilty from the innocent, but a clever bit of game theory can help.

Takeru Kobayashi revolutionized the sport of competitive eating. What can the rest of us learn from his breakthrough?

Dubner and Levitt answer reader questions in this first installment of the “Think Like a Freak” Book Club.

Is it really in a restaurant’s best interest to give customers free bread or chips before they even order?

Every four years, the U.S. takes a look at the World Cup and develops a slight crush. What would it take to really fall in love?

In which we argue that failure should not only be tolerated but celebrated.

You know the saying: a winner never quits and a quitter never wins. To which Freakonomics Radio says ... Are you sure?

When it comes to generating ideas and asking questions it can be really fruitful to have the mentality of an eight year old.