Link: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-is-everyone-moving-to-dallas/
More Americans have moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area over the past decade than anywhere else in the United States. Freakonomics podcast host Stephen Dubner explores the reasons why Dallas is one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas which go deeper than just the decreased cost of living and absence of income taxes.
Original Air Date: January 19, 2022
Length: 49 Minutes 26 Seconds
Link: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/in-the-1890s-the-best-selling-car-was-electric/
Today, fewer than 1% of cars in the United States are electric. According to technology historian Tom Standage, the spike in gas prices may push the transition faster than people think. When switching from gas to electric cars, there is more to consider than just the labor market and the demand for gasoline. Standage believes everything will change.
Original Air Date: March 30, 2022
Length: 46 Minutes 20 Seconds
Link: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/fmd-kidney-transplants/
With 90,000 people on the kidney transplant waiting list in the United States, it is shocking to learn thousands of these available organs are thrown away each year. Doctor Sumit Mohan and economist Alvin Roth discuss policy and incentive issues that lead to wasted kidneys.
Original Air Date: November 11, 2021
Length: 27 Minutes 3 Seconds
Link: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/sports-gambling/
About 60 million people across the US and Canada play fantasy sports. Fantasy revenues in the US alone are around $8 billion a year. With sports betting illegal in some states, the fantasy sports company FanDual asked M.I.T professor Peko Hosoi and her team to determine if the contests were based on skill or luck. With this unregulated industry growing, there are concerns about the effects it will have on society, real-life sports, and the younger generations.
Original Air Date: September 4, 2019
Length: 55 minutes 23 seconds
Link: http://freakonomics.com/2014/09/18/outsiders-by-design-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast-2/
Summary: This podcast was inspired by the death of Gary Becker, an economist who’s work was inspired by the idea of discrimination. His approach was called ‘rational choice’–that people will make rational decisions to maximize their own utility and wealth. In the end, a lot of people strongly disagreed with his research. The program then goes on to illustrate two more examples of medical researchers who were outcast by their fields of study. By the end, however, Gary Becker won a Nobel Prize.
Original Air Date: September 18, 2014
Length: 41 minutes 40 seconds
Prompt / Discussion: Sometimes people will not agree with your research conclusions or ideas, such is the case with Gary Becker. Why do you think Becker’s ideas were/are so controversial?
Summary: Return on Investment (ROI) analyzes at the most efficient way to spend money. An example given is the difference between curing malaria and HIV/AIDS. To cure malaria, it would cost about $1,000 per person, while it would cost ten times that to cure HIV/AIDS, and it is decided that they would rather save 10 people from malaria before they save one from HIV/AIDS. The United Nations, with their Millennium Development Goals coming to a close, will be looking to set new goals in 2015, to be completed by 2030. One of the issued they will focus on is how they are setting goals, and how to be more efficient with the help of the Return on Investment analysis.
Original Air Date: October 2, 2014
Length: 43 minutes 34 seconds
Prompt / Discussion: You are a member of the United Nations, and are put in charge of coming up with new development goals for 2015. You have $100 billion to invest in various development aid. Discuss how you would prioritize between an important, expensive goal (such as getting all kids into school, which was one of the Millennium Development Goals), and something that might not be seen as highly important, but cost effective.
Link: http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/01/13/freakonomics-radio-the-economics-of-trash/
Summary: Freakonomics radio sheds a bit of light on the insidious characteristics of the “economics of trash” and asks how incentives effect the level of trash produced by the average household.
Original Air Date: January, 12 2011
Length: 22 min
Link: http://www.freakonomics.com/2012/10/25/we-the-sheeple-a-new-freakonomics-podcast/
Summary: Freakonomics radio interviews Bryan Caplan, author of The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies in order to consider the relationships among the average American voter, their representatives and the democratic system formed in the process.
Original Air Date: October 25, 2012
Length: 23:24 min
Summary: To what extent would the world change if economists ran the world? The podcast interviews Estonian prime minister, Mart Laar, who revamped his economy based on the teachings of Milton Friedman; and Friedman’s grandson, Patri Friedman, who want to build cities in the middle of the ocean.
Original Air Date: March 24, 2010
Length: 20 min
Summary: The obesity crisis in America has economists, politicians and healthcare professionals debating the causes and hidden costs of overeating. This podcast considers the moral and political arguments surrounding this growing concern.
Original Air Date: February 26, 2010
Length: 22 minutes
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