Freakonomics Radio

Insurance forms that make no sense. Subscriptions that can’t be cancelled. A never-ending blizzard of automated notifications. In this update of a 2025 episode, Stephen Dubner discovers where all this sludge comes from — and how much it’s costing us.

 

SOURCES:

Benjamin Handel, professor of economics at UC Berkeley.

Neale Mahoney, professor of economics at Stanford University.

Richard Thaler, professor of economics at The University of Chicago.



 

RESOURCES:

"Selling Subscriptions," by Liran Einav, Ben Klopack, and Neale Mahoney (Stanford University, 2023).

"The ‘Enshittification’ of TikTok," by Cory Doctorow (WIRED, 2023).

"Dominated Options in Health Insurance Plans," by Chenyuan Liu and Justin Sydnor (American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2022).

Nudge: The Final Edition, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein (2021).

"Frictions or Mental Gaps: What’s Behind the Information We (Don’t) Use and When Do We Care?" by Benjamin Handel and Joshua Schwartzstein (Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2018).

"Adverse Selection and Switching Costs in Health Insurance Markets: When Nudging Hurts," by Benjamin Handel (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2011).



 

EXTRAS:

"Sludge," series by Freakonomics Radio (2025).

"People Aren’t Dumb. The World Is Hard. (Update)" by Freakonomics Radio (2024).

"All You Need is Nudge," by Freakonomics Radio (2021).

"How to Fix the Hot Mess of U.S. Healthcare," by Freakonomics Radio (2021).

"Should We Really Behave Like Economists Say We Do?" by Freakonomics Radio (2015).



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New York is the latest state to legalize medical aid in dying. Stephen Dubner speaks with the governor who signed the law, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, a death doula — and an ethicist who thinks the very idea is wrong.

 

SOURCES:

Kathy Hochul, governor of New York.

Suzanne O'Brien, death doula, founder of Doulagivers Institute.

Al Roth, economist at Stanford University.

Daniel Sulmasy, physician, philosopher, director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University.



 

RESOURCES:

Moral Economics: From Prostitution to Organ Sales, What Controversial Transactions Reveal About How Markets Work, by Al Roth (2026).

"New York Moves to Allow Terminally Ill People to Die on Their Own Terms," by Grace Ashford (New York Times, 2025).

The Good Death: A Guide for Supporting Your Loved One through the End of Life, by Suzanne O'Brien (2025).

The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, by Neil Gorsuch (2009).



 

EXTRAS:

"Make Me a Match (Update)," by Freakonomics Radio (2023).

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It brings strangers together. It teaches probability, strategy, and emotional control. It has even helped N.F.L. teams win the Super Bowl. Stephen Dubner explores why this ancient game is having a renaissance. (Part two of a series, “We Are All Gamers Now.”)

 

SOURCES: 

Remington Davenport, founder of NYC Backgammon Club.

Frank Frigo, game strategy expert & two-time world backgammon champion.

Masayuki "Mochy" Mochizuki, professional backgammon player.

Marc Olsen, C.E.O. of Backgammon Galaxy.

Robert Wachtel, author and professional backgammon player.



 

RESOURCES:

The Backgammon Chronicles: A Pro's Adventures on Tour Volume 1, by Robert Wachtel (2019).

In the Game Until the End, by Robert Wachtel (1993)

"Tric Trac, Clic Clac," (The New Yorker, 1930).



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As the Trump administration rolls back environmental regulations, we revisit a 2022 episode that explored the hidden cost of an invisible threat: air pollution.

 

SOURCES:

Angela Duckworth, psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania.

Michael Greenstone, economist at the University of Chicago, director of the Energy Policy Institute, co-director of the Climate Impact Lab.

Stephan Heblich, economist at the University of Toronto.

Andrea La Nauze, economist at Deakin University.

Steve Levitt, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Chicago.

Edson Severnini, economist at Boston College.



 

RESOURCES:

"Most Polluted Cities," (American Lung Association, 2026).

"Air Pollution and Adult Cognition: Evidence from Brain Training," by Andrea La Nauze and Edson Severnini (Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, 2025).

"Air Pollution and Student Performance in the U.S.," by Michael Gilraine and Angela Zheng (NBER Working Papers, 2022).

"Billions of people still breathe unhealthy air: new WHO data," (World Health Organization, 2022).

"Evolution of the Clean Air Act," by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (2020).

"The Death of U.K. Coal in Five Charts," by Hannah Ritchie (Our World in Data, 2019).

"The Colour of Pollution," (The Economist, 2014).



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Another war in the Middle East. A retreat from the international order. A presidency built on self-dealing and arbitrary power. It’s enough to make you think the U.S. is in a steep decline — but Fareed Zakaria thinks otherwise.

 

SOURCES:

Fareed Zakaria, journalist and author.



 

RESOURCES:

"Iran is an imperial trap. America walked right in." by Fareed Zakaria (The Washington Post, 2026).

"‘Bomb and hope’ is not a strategy," by Fareed Zakaria (The Washington Post, 2026).

Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present, by Fareed Zakaria (2024).

The Accidental Superpower: The Next Generation of American Preeminence and the Coming Global Disorder, by Peter Zeihan (2014).

The Affluent Society, by Jonathan Galbraith (1958).



 

EXTRAS: 

"Fareed Zakaria on What Just Happened, and What Comes Next," by Freakonomics Radio (2024).

"Are We Living Through the Most Revolutionary Period in History?" by Freakonomics Radio (2024).

"The Folly of Prediction," by Freakonomics Radio (2011).



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