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
592. How to Make the Coolest Show on Broadway
Hit by Covid, runaway costs, and a zillion streams of competition, serious theater is in serious trouble. A new hit play called Stereophonic — the most Tony-nominated play in history — has something t...
13 Jun 20241h 5min
591. Signs of Progress, One Year at a Time
Every December, a British man named Tom Whitwell publishes a list of 52 things he’s learned that year. These fascinating facts reveal the spectrum of human behavior, from fraud and hypocrisy to Whitwe...
6 Jun 202453min
EXTRA: The Opioid Tragedy — How We Got Here
An update of our 2020 series, in which we spoke with physicians, researchers, and addicts about the root causes of the crisis — and the tension between abstinence and harm reduction. SOURCES:Gail D’On...
3 Jun 202441min
590. Can $55 Billion End the Opioid Epidemic?
Thanks to legal settlements with drug makers and distributors, states have plenty of money to boost prevention and treatment. Will it work? (Part two of a two-part series.) SOURCES:Keith Humphreys, pr...
30 Mai 202440min
