Pete Docter: “What If Monsters Really Do Exist?” (UPDATE)
He’s the chief creative officer of Pixar, and the Academy Award-winning director of Soul, Inside Out, Up, and Monsters, Inc. Pete Docter and Steve talk about Pixar’s scrappy beginnings, why wrong turns...
View ArticleNeil deGrasse Tyson Is Still Starstruck
The director of the Hayden Planetarium is one of the best science communicators of our time. He and Steve talk about his role in reclassifying Pluto, bad teachers, and why economics isn’t a science....
View ArticleIs There a Fair Way to Divide Us?
Moon Duchin is a math professor at Cornell University whose theoretical work has practical applications for voting and democracy. Why is striving for fair elections so difficult? The post Is There a...
View ArticleTurning Work into Play (Update)
How psychologist Dan Gilbert went from high school dropout to Harvard professor, found the secret of joy, and inspired Steve Levitt’s divorce. The post Turning Work into Play (Update) appeared first on...
View ArticleIs Your Gut a Second Brain?
In her book, Rumbles, medical historian Elsa Richardson explores the history of the human gut. She talks with Steve about dubious medical practices, gruesome tales of survival, and the things that...
View ArticleHow to Have Good Ideas
Sarah Stein Greenberg runs Stanford’s d.school, which teaches design as a mode of problem solving. She and Steve talk about what makes her field different from other academic disciplines, how to...
View ArticleWhy Numbers are Music to Our Ears (Update)
Sarah Hart investigates the mathematical structures underlying musical compositions and literature. Using examples from Monteverdi to Lewis Carroll, Sarah explains to Steve how math affects how we hear...
View ArticleStanford’s President Knows He Can’t Make Everyone Happy
Jonathan Levin is an academic economist who now runs one of the most influential universities in the world. He tells Steve how he saved Comcast a billion dollars, why he turned down Steve’s unusual...
View ArticleHis Brilliant Videos Get Millions of Views. Why Don’t They Make Money?
Hank Green is an internet phenomenon and a master communicator, with a plan to reform higher education. He and Steve talk about the video blog that launched Hank’s career, the economics of the...
View ArticleJane Goodall Changed the Way We See Animals. She’s Not Done. (Replay)
The primatologist discusses the thrill of observing chimpanzees in the wild, the value of challenging orthodoxy, and why dying is her next great adventure. The post Jane Goodall Changed the Way We See...
View ArticleNeurobiologist, Philosopher, and Addict
Owen Flanagan’s newest book details his 20-year dependence on alcohol and pills — and outlines his research on what addiction can tell us about the nature of consciousness. The post Neurobiologist,...
View ArticleHunting for the Origins of Life
Chemist Jack Szostak wants to understand how the first life forms came into being on Earth. He and Steve discuss the danger of “mirror bacteria,” the origin of biology in poisonous chemicals, and the...
View ArticleReading Dostoevsky Behind Bars (Update)
Reginald Dwayne Betts spent more than eight years in prison. Today he’s a Yale Law graduate, a MacArthur Fellow, and a poet. His nonprofit works to build libraries in prisons so that more incarcerated...
View ArticleWe’re Not Getting Sicker — We’re Overdiagnosed
Suzanne O’Sullivan is a neurologist who sees many patients with psychosomatic disorders. Their symptoms may be psychological in origin, but their pain is real and physical — and the way we practice...
View ArticleCan Robots Get a Grip?
Ken Goldberg is at the forefront of robotics — which means he tries to teach machines to do things humans find trivial. The post Can Robots Get a Grip? appeared first on Freakonomics.
View ArticleYul Kwon: “Don’t Try to Change Yourself All at Once.” (UPDATE)
He has been a lawyer, an instructor at the F.B.I. Academy, the owner of a frozen-yogurt chain, and a winner of the TV show Survivor. Today, Kwon works at Google, but things haven’t always come easily...
View ArticleHelping People Die
Ellen Wiebe is a physician who helps seriously ill patients end their lives in Canada, where assisted suicide is legal. Is death a human right? The post Helping People Die appeared first on Freakonomics.
View ArticleA Solution to America’s Gun Problem
Jens Ludwig has an idea for how to fix America’s gun violence problem — and it starts by rejecting conventional wisdom from both sides of the political aisle. The post A Solution to America’s Gun...
View ArticleAbraham Verghese Thinks Medicine Can Do Better (Update)
Abraham Verghese is a physician and a best-selling author — in that order, he says. He explains the difference between curing and healing, and tells Steve why doctors should spend more time with...
View ArticleThe Deadliest Virus in Human History
John Green returns to the show to talk about tuberculosis — a disease that kills more than a million people a year. Steve has an idea for a new way to get treatment to those in need. The post The...
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