Freakonomics Radio

People who sleep better earn more money. Now all we have to do is teach everyone to sleep better.

Could a lack of sleep help explain why some people get much sicker than others?

As sexy as the digital revolution may be, it can't compare to the Second Industrial Revolution (electricity! the gas engine! antibiotics!), which created the biggest standard-of-living boost in U.S. …

The restaurant business model is warped: kitchen wages are too low to hire cooks, while diners are put in charge of paying the waitstaff. So what happens if you eliminate tipping, raise menu prices, …

The junior U.S. Senator from New Jersey thinks bipartisanship is right around the corner. Is he just an idealistic newbie or does he see a way forward that everyone else has missed?

Now and again, Freakonomics Radio puts hat in hand and asks listeners to donate to the public-radio station that produces the show. Why on earth should anyone pay good money for something that can be…

A famous economics essay features a pencil (yes, a pencil) arguing that “not a single person on the face of this earth knows how to make me.” Is the pencil just bragging? In any case, what can the pe…

The digital age is making pen and paper seem obsolete. But what are we giving up if we give up on handwriting?

Okay, maybe the steps aren't so easy. But a program run out of a Toronto housing project has had great success in turning around kids who were headed for trouble.

If U.S. schoolteachers are indeed "just a little bit below average," it's not really their fault. So what should be done about it?

The Montgomery Bus Boycott, the South African divestment campaign, Chick-fil-A! Almost anyone can launch a boycott, and the media loves to cover them. But do boycotts actually produce the change they…

Experts and pundits are notoriously bad at forecasting, in part because they aren't punished for bad predictions. Also, they tend to be deeply unscientific. The psychologist Philip Tetlock is finally…

Discrimination can't explain why women earn so much less than men. If only it were that easy.

Sure, we all want to make good personal decisions, but it doesn't always work out. That's where "temptation bundling" comes in.

A team of economists has been running the numbers on the U.N.'s development goals. They have a different view of how those billions of dollars should be spent.

The argument for open borders is compelling -- and deeply problematic.

One woman's quest to find the best burger in town can teach all of us to eat smarter.

He was handed the keys to the global economy just as it started heading off a cliff. Fortunately, he'd seen this movie before.

Even a brutal natural disaster doesn't diminish our appetite for procreating. This surely means we're heading toward massive overpopulation, right? Probably not.

In our collective zeal to reform schools and close the achievement gap, we may have lost sight of where most learning really happens -- at home.