People I (Mostly) Admire

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People I (Mostly) Admire

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

195 episodes

2 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 (20/195)

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.

6 days 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.

1 week 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 weeks 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.

1 month 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.

1 month 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.

1 month 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.

2 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?

2 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.

2 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.

3 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.

3 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.

3 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?

3 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.

4 months ago

44 minutes 49 seconds

People I (Mostly) Admire

154. Can 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.

4 months ago

57 minutes 52 seconds

People I (Mostly) Admire

153. We’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 medicine, she argues, is making those and other health problems worse.

4 months ago

1 hour 3 minutes 45 seconds

People I (Mostly) Admire

Reading 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 people can find hope.

5 months ago

49 minutes 22 seconds

People I (Mostly) Admire

152. Hunting 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 possibility that life might exist on other planets too.

5 months ago

46 minutes 53 seconds

People I (Mostly) Admire

151. Neurobiologist, 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.

5 months ago

53 minutes 29 seconds

People I (Mostly) Admire

Jane 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.

6 months ago

53 minutes 48 seconds