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People I (Mostly) Admire

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

200 episodes

6 days ago

Freakonomics co-author Steve Levitt tracks down other high achievers for surprising, revealing conversations about their lives and obsessions. Join Levitt as he goes through the most interesting midlife crisis you’ve ever heard — and learn how a renegade sheriff is transforming Chicago's jail, how a biologist is finding the secrets of evolution in the Arctic tundra, and how a trivia champion memorized 160,000 flashcards. 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.

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Society & Culture

All content for People I (Mostly) Admire is the property of Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

Freakonomics co-author Steve Levitt tracks down other high achievers for surprising, revealing conversations about their lives and obsessions. Join Levitt as he goes through the most interesting midlife crisis you’ve ever heard — and learn how a renegade sheriff is transforming Chicago's jail, how a biologist is finding the secrets of evolution in the Arctic tundra, and how a trivia champion memorized 160,000 flashcards. 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.

Show more...

Society & Culture

Episodes (20/200)

People I (Mostly) Admire

167. The Secret of Humanity? It’s Common Knowledge.

Steven Pinker’s new book argues that all our relationships depend on shared assumptions and “recursive mentalizing” — our constant efforts to understand what other people are thinking. He and Steve talk about the psychology of eye contact, the particular value of Super Bowl ads, and what it’s like to get cancelled.

5 days ago

58 minutes 45 seconds

People I (Mostly) Admire

How to Have Great Conversations (Update)

"The Power of Habit" author Charles Duhigg wrote his new book in an attempt to learn how to communicate better. Steve shares how the book helped him understand his own conversational weaknesses.

1 week ago

44 minutes 24 seconds

People I (Mostly) Admire

166. The World’s Most Effective Public Health Intervention Is Under Attack

Seth Berkley used to run the world's largest vaccine funding organization. He and Steve talk about the incredible value of vaccines, the economics of immunizing the developing world, and the current attacks on public health.

2 weeks ago

1 hour 1 minute 47 seconds

People I (Mostly) Admire

165. The Economist Who (Gasp!) Asks People What They Think

Stefanie Stantcheva’s approach seemed like career suicide. In fact, it won her the John Bates Clark Medal. She talks to fellow winner Steve Levitt about why she uses methods that most of the profession dismisses — and what she’s found that can’t be learned any other way.

1 month ago

53 minutes 14 seconds

People I (Mostly) Admire

Rick Rubin on How to Make Something Great (Update)

From recording some of the first rap hits to revitalizing Johnny Cash's career, the legendary producer has had an extraordinary creative life. In this episode he talks about his new book and his art-making process — and helps Steve get in touch with his own artistic side.

1 month ago

53 minutes 24 seconds

People I (Mostly) Admire

164. Unravelling the Universe, Again

More than two decades ago, Adam Riess’s Nobel Prize-winning work fundamentally changed our understanding of the universe. His new work is reshaping cosmology for a second time.

1 month ago

1 hour 2 minutes 14 seconds

People I (Mostly) Admire

163. The Data Sleuth Taking on Shoddy Science

Uri Simonsohn is a behavioral science professor who wants to improve standards in his field — so he’s made a sideline of investigating fraudulent academic research. He tells Steve Levitt, who's spent plenty of time rooting out cheaters in other fields, how he does it.

2 months ago

56 minutes 25 seconds

People I (Mostly) Admire

Arne Duncan Says All Kids Deserve a Chance — and Criminals Deserve a Second One (Update)

Former U.S. Secretary of Education, 3x3 basketball champion, and leader of an anti-gun violence organization are all on Arne’s resume. He’s also Steve’s neighbor. The two talk about teachers caught cheating in Chicago public schools and Steve shares a story he’s never told Arne, about a defining moment in the educator’s life.

2 months ago

46 minutes 11 seconds

People I (Mostly) Admire

162. Will We Solve the Climate Problem?

Kate Marvel spends her days playing with climate models, which she says are “like a very expensive version of The Sims.” As a physicist she gets tired of being asked to weigh in on economics, geopolitics, and despair — but she still defends the right of scientists to have strong feelings about the planet.

2 months ago

57 minutes 56 seconds

People I (Mostly) Admire

161. How to Captivate an Audience

Twenty years ago, before the Freakonomics book tour, Bill McGowan taught Steve Levitt to speak in public. In his new book he tries to teach everyone else.

2 months ago

48 minutes 48 seconds

People I (Mostly) Admire

Annie Duke Thinks You Should Quit (Update)

Former professional poker player Annie Duke wrote a book about Steve’s favorite subject: quitting. They talk about why quitting is so hard, how to do it sooner, and why we feel shame when we do something that’s good for us.

3 months ago

48 minutes 25 seconds

People I (Mostly) Admire

160. How to Help Kids Succeed

Psychologist David Yeager thinks the conventional wisdom for how to motivate young people is all wrong. His model for helping kids cope with stress is required reading at Steve’s new high school.

3 months ago

1 hour 9 seconds

People I (Mostly) Admire

159. Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Manifesto for a Gift Economy

She’s a botanist, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and the author of the bestselling "Braiding Sweetgrass." In her new book she criticizes the market economy — but she and Steve find a surprising amount of common ground.

3 months ago

57 minutes 16 seconds

People I (Mostly) Admire

Does Death Have to Be a Death Sentence? (Update)

Palliative physician B.J. Miller asks: Is there a better way to think about dying? And can death be beautiful?

4 months ago

42 minutes 22 seconds

People I (Mostly) Admire

158. Why Did Rome Fall — and Are We Next?

Historian Tom Holland narrowly escaped a career writing vampire novels to become the co-host of the wildly popular podcast "The Rest Is History." At Steve’s request, he compares President Trump and Julius Caesar and explains why the culture wars are arguments about Christian theology.

4 months ago

55 minutes 24 seconds

People I (Mostly) Admire

157. The Deadliest Disease 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.

4 months ago

1 hour 5 minutes 19 seconds

People I (Mostly) Admire

Abraham 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 patients and less with electronic health records.

5 months ago

46 minutes 59 seconds

People I (Mostly) Admire

156. A 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.

5 months ago

59 minutes 24 seconds

People I (Mostly) Admire

155. Helping 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?

5 months ago

54 minutes 57 seconds

People I (Mostly) Admire

Yul 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 for him. Steve Levitt talks to Kwon about his debilitating childhood anxieties, his compulsion to choose the hardest path in life, and how Kwon used game theory to stage a victory on Survivor.

6 months ago

44 minutes 49 seconds