666. This Is How Progress Happens
March 6, 2026
Economic progress is primarily driven by a small fraction (around 2-3%) of the population whose work changes culture and nurtures institutions that support the accumulation and diffusion of useful knowledge.
The Most Powerful People You’ve Never Heard Of (Update)
March 4, 2026
Physical commodity traders, who finance, procure, and move actual resources, operate in a hidden layer of the global economy, often profiting from war, chaos, and sanctions where traditional businesses fear to tread.
665. Werner Herzog Isn’t Afraid ...
February 27, 2026
Werner Herzog distinguishes between 'accountant's truth' (verifiable facts, like a phone directory) and 'ecstatic truth' (deeper illumination achieved through art, which often requires departing from facts), putting him in conflict with documentary purists.
664. Are Thousands of Medical Cures Hiding in Plain Sight?
February 20, 2026
Existing FDA-approved drugs, often generic, represent a vast, untapped resource for treating rare or neglected diseases, as demonstrated by the successful repurposing of nitroxyline for Balamuthia and rapamycin for Castleman disease.
All You Need Is Nudge (Update)
February 18, 2026
Nudge theory, centered on 'choice architecture,' involves designing environments to predictably alter behavior without coercion, exemplified by making fruit eye-level instead of banning junk food.
663. Is Weed a Performance-Enhancing Drug?
February 13, 2026
Research suggests that cannabis users exercise more and have better health metrics (lower BMI, lower rates of Type 2 diabetes) than non-users, contradicting the stereotype of the sedentary stoner.
662. If You’re Not Cheating, You’re Not Trying
February 6, 2026
The perception of rules being 'stupid' or arbitrary can lead individuals to break them, a concept explored through the lens of sports in this episode of *
Why Don’t Running Backs Get Paid Anymore? (Update)
February 4, 2026
The decline in running back salaries is primarily driven by the increased marginal value of the passing game, supported by analytics and NFL rule changes favoring passing, rather than a decline in the inherent ability of running backs.
661. Can A.I. Save Your Life?
January 30, 2026
Healthcare has historically been sluggish in adopting general-purpose technologies, leading to a 'productivity paradox' where digitization (like EHRs) often made workflows harder rather than transforming the system, but current AI offers a potential 'suddenly' moment for transformation.
660. The Wellness Industry Is Gigantic — and Mostly Wrong
January 23, 2026
Zeke Emanuel argues that current wellness advice is often too complicated due to the need for daily content creation and too simplistic by focusing only on the physical, advocating instead for enjoyable, habitual lifestyle changes.
Steve Levitt Quits His Podcast, Joins Ours
January 21, 2026
Steve Levitt is ending his podcast, *
659. Can Marty Makary Fix the F.D.A.?
January 16, 2026
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary aims to modernize the agency by proactively engaging with the drug pipeline, cutting bureaucratic red tape to speed up approvals, and using market incentives like priority review vouchers to lower drug prices.
658. This Is Your Brain on Supplements
January 9, 2026
The dietary supplement industry in the U.S. is massive and rapidly growing, yet it operates with virtually no pre-market regulation by the FDA, treating supplements as food under the 1994 DSHEA, leading to potential issues with ingredient accuracy and contamination.
Are Personal Finance Gurus Giving You Bad Advice? (Update)
January 2, 2026
Academic economists often neglect personal finance, leading to a gap where popular finance authors, despite potentially offering mathematically suboptimal advice, gain significant influence by addressing human behavioral realities.
Are You Ready for a Fresh Start? (Update)
December 30, 2025
The "fresh start effect" describes how temporal landmarks like New Year's Day, birthdays, or new jobs psychologically motivate aspirational behavior by creating a sense of a clean slate and encouraging big-picture goal reflection.
Are the Rich Really Less Generous Than the Poor? (Update)
December 26, 2025
Previous academic research, often based on lab experiments, suggested the wealthy are less pro-social or more selfish than the poor, but a field experiment challenged this finding.
657. Whose “Messiah” Is It Anyway?
December 19, 2025
Handel's *
Who Pays for “Messiah”?
December 17, 2025
The economic viability of major orchestras like the New York Philharmonic relies heavily on individual philanthropy, as ticket sales cover only about 30-35% of operating costs.
656. How Handel Got His Mojo Back
December 12, 2025
George Frideric Handel's trip to Dublin in 1741, where he premiered *
“The Greatest Piece of Participatory Art Ever Created”
December 5, 2025
George Frideric Handel's *
Dying Is Easy. Retail Is Hard. (Update)
November 28, 2025
Macy's CEO Tony Spring is attempting a turnaround strategy called "a bold new chapter" focused on store divestment, assortment improvement, and enhancing the customer experience, despite skepticism from retail experts like Mark Cohen.
Is Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade Its Most Valuable Asset? (Update)
November 27, 2025
Macy's is famously tight-lipped about the economics of the Thanksgiving Day Parade, which they brand as their "gift to the nation," making a true cost-benefit analysis difficult.
654. Is the Public Ready for Private Equity?
November 21, 2025
The recent executive order allowing retail investors access to private equity is primarily driven by private equity firms needing to tap into new capital sources after exhausting institutional money, rather than being purely a favor to retail investors.
653. Does Horse Racing Have a Future?
November 14, 2025
The Keeneland September Yearling Sale is the world's largest and highest-quality auction for unproven thoroughbreds, where buyers invest millions based on pedigree, physical attributes, and veterinary assessments, hoping to find the next champion.
What Happens When You Turn 20
November 12, 2025
The 20th anniversary of *
652. Inside the Horse-Industrial Complex
November 7, 2025
The thoroughbred industry relies heavily on Kentucky's geographic advantages, including its limestone soil and concentration of top-tier veterinary and support services, which form a crucial economic cluster.
651. The Ultimate Dance Partner
October 31, 2025
Despite being largely replaced by machines, nearly 7 million horses remain in the U.S., fueling a complex, multi-billion dollar industry that lacks transparency, especially in high-end sectors like sport horses.
Are Two C.E.O.s Better Than One? (Update)
October 29, 2025
Research by CEO advisor Mark Feigen suggests that large public companies with co-CEOs delivered annual shareholder returns nearly 40% higher than those run by solo CEOs, despite the model being rare in public markets.
650. The Doctor Won’t See You Now
October 24, 2025
The closure of low-quality medical schools following the 1910 Flexner Report, while intended to improve standards, resulted in significant public health benefits, suggesting that low-quality doctors were actively harming patients.
A Question-Asker Becomes a Question-Answerer
October 17, 2025
Stephen Dubner's early writing career was significantly validated by a fourth-grade teacher who submitted his poem to *
How Can We Break Our Addiction to Contempt? (Update)
October 15, 2025
Arthur Brooks argues that the remedy for political polarization and contempt is not anger, but actively practicing love, defined as willing the good of the other as other, which is a verb, not just a feeling.
649. Should Ohio State (and Michigan, and Clemson) Join the N.F.L.?
October 10, 2025
The American sports model, characterized by segregated amateur and professional leagues (like the NFL feeder system), fundamentally differs from the European soccer model, which integrates amateurs and professionals within a promotion-and-relegation pyramid structure.
648. The Merger You Never Knew You Wanted
October 3, 2025
The central, albeit absurd, proposal of "648. The Merger You Never Knew You Wanted" is for the NFL to merge with NCAA football, potentially introducing a promotion/relegation system similar to global soccer leagues.
Is the U.S. Really Less Corrupt Than China? (Update)
September 26, 2025
Corruption evolves in structure and form as countries become richer, suggesting the U.S. and China are experiencing different stages of a similar historical pattern (Gilded Age 1.0 vs. 2.0).
647. China Is Run by Engineers. America Is Run by Lawyers.
September 19, 2025
China's 'engineering state' prioritizes large-scale construction and optimization, leading to rapid development but also social engineering and potential disregard for individual liberties, contrasting with the U.S.'s 'lawyerly society' which excels at obstruction and protection of existing interests, hindering infrastructure development.
Is the World Ready for a Guaranteed Basic Income? (Update)
September 17, 2025
The historical experiments with guaranteed basic income, like the Canadian Mincome experiment and US negative income tax experiments, suggest that while primary earners' work hours are minimally affected, secondary earners and adolescents may reduce work hours, and positive outcomes like improved health and higher high school completion rates were observed.
646. An Air Traffic Controller Walks Into a Radio Studio ...
September 12, 2025
Air traffic control is a highly complex, creative, and demanding profession requiring exceptional multitasking abilities, often performed by individuals who exhibit 'supertasker' traits.