598. Is Overconsolidation a Threat to Democracy?
That’s the worry. Even the humble eyeglass industry is dominated by a single firm. We look into the global spike in myopia, how the Lemtosh got its name, and what your eye doctor knows that you don’t....
25 Jul 202437min
597. Why Do Your Eyeglasses Cost $1,000?
A single company, EssilorLuxottica, owns so much of the eyewear industry that it’s hard to escape their gravitational pull — or their “obscene” markups. Should regulators do something? Can Warby Parke...
18 Jul 202454min
EXTRA: People Aren’t Dumb. The World Is Hard. (Update)
You wouldn’t think you could win a Nobel Prize for showing that humans tend to make irrational decisions. But that’s what Richard Thaler has done. In an interview from 2018, the founder of behavioral ...
15 Jul 202453min
596. Farewell to a Generational Talent
Daniel Kahneman left his mark on academia (and the real world) in countless ways. A group of his friends and colleagues recently gathered in Chicago to reflect on this legacy — and we were there, with...
11 Jul 202452min
595. Why Don't We Have Better Candidates for President?
American politics is trapped in a duopoly, with two all-powerful parties colluding to stifle competition. We revisit a 2018 episode to explain how the political industry works, and talk to a reformer ...
4 Jul 20241h 1min
594. Your Brand’s Spokesperson Just Got Arrested — Now What?
It’s hard to know whether the benefits of hiring a celebrity are worth the risk. We dig into one gruesome story of an endorsement gone wrong, and find a surprising result. SOURCES:John Cawley, profess...
27 Jun 202443min
593. You Can Make a Killing, but Not a Living
Broadway operates on a winner-take-most business model. A runaway hit like Stereophonic — which just won five Tony Awards — will create a few big winners. But even the stars of the show will have to g...
20 Jun 202449min
EXTRA: The Fascinatingly Mundane Secrets of the World’s Most Exclusive Nightclub
The Berlin dance mecca Berghain is known for its eight-hour line and inscrutable door policy. PJ Vogt, host of the podcast Search Engine, joins us to crack the code. It has to do with Cold War rivalri...
17 Jun 202444min
