Can Academic Fraud Be Stopped? (Update)

A brief meditation on loss, relativity, and the vagaries of show business.RESOURCES:Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry, documentary (2021)Genius & Anxiety: How Jews Changed the World, 1847-1947, by Norman Lebrecht (2019)The War Room, documentary (1993) EXTRAS:“Is San Francisco a Failed State? (And Other Questions You Shouldn’t Ask the Mayor)” by Freakonomics Radio (2025)“Ari Emanuel Is Never Indifferent,” by Freakonomics Radio (2023)

20 Feb 13min

New York City’s mayor calls them “public enemy number one.” History books say they caused the Black Death — although recent scientific evidence disputes that claim. So is the rat a scapegoat? And what does our rat hatred say about us? (Part one of a three-part series.) SOURCES:Bethany Brookshire, author of Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains.Kathy Corradi, director of rodent mitigation for New York City.Ed Glaeser, professor of economics at Harvard University.Nils Stenseth, professor of ecology and evolution at the University of Oslo. RESOURCES:"On Patrol With the Rat Czar," by Mark Chiusano (Intelligencer, 2024)."How Rats Took Over North America," by Allison Parshall (Scientific American, 2024)."Where Are the Rats in New York City," by Matt Yan (New York Times, 2024)."Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains" by Bethany Brookshire (2023)."Human ectoparasites and the spread of plague in Europe during the Second Pandemic," by Nils Stenseth, Katharine Dean, Fabienne Krauer, Lars Walløe, Ole Christian Lingjærde, Barbara Bramanti, and Boris Schmid (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018). EXTRAS:"Freakonomics Radio Live: 'Jesus Could Have Been a Pigeon.'" by Freakonomics Radio (2018).

14 Feb 41min

Licensing began with medicine and law; now it extends to 20 percent of the U.S. workforce, including hair stylists and auctioneers. In a new book, the legal scholar Rebecca Allensworth calls licensing boards “a thicket of self-dealing and ineptitude” and says they keep bad workers in their jobs and good ones out — while failing to protect the public. SOURCES:Rebecca Allensworth, professor of law at Vanderbilt University. RESOURCES:"The Licensing Racket: How We Decide Who Is Allowed to Work, and Why It Goes Wrong" by Rebecca Allensworth (2025)."Licensed to Pill," by Rebecca Allensworth (The New York Review of Books, 2020)."Licensing Occupations: Ensuring Quality or Restricting Competition?" by Morris Kleiner (W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 2006)."How Much of Barrier to Entry is Occupational Licensing?" by Peter Blair and Bobby Chung (British Journal of Industrial Relations, 2019). EXTRAS:"Is Ozempic as Magical as It Sounds?" by Freakonomics Radio (2024).

7 Feb 55min

In 2023, the N.F.L. players’ union conducted a workplace survey that revealed clogged showers, rats in the locker room — and some insights for those of us who don’t play football. Today we’re updating that episode, with extra commentary from Omnipresent Football Guy (and former Philadelphia Eagle) Jason Kelce.  SOURCES:Tom Garfinkel, vice chairman, C.E.O., and president of the Miami Dolphins.Jim Ivler, certified contract advisor for players in the National Football League.Jason Kelce, host of New Heights podcast and former center for the Philadelphia Eagles.Jalen Reeves-Maybin, linebacker for the Detroit Lions and president of the National Football League Players Association.Betsey Stevenson, professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan.J.C. Tretter, former president of the National Football League Players Association and former offensive lineman.Mark Wilf, owner and president of the Minnesota Vikings. RESOURCES:“N.F.L. Player Team Report Cards,” by the National Football League Players Association (2024)."NFLPA team report cards: Dolphins rank No. 1; Jaguars jump from 28th to fifth; Commanders earn worst grade," by Jonathan Jones (CBS Sports, 2024).Kelce, documentary (2023).“The N.F.L. Cast Him Out; He Says That Only Makes Him More Powerful,” by Alex Prewitt (Sports Illustrated, 2022).New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce, (produced by Wave Sports + Entertainment). EXTRAS:"Why Don’t Running Backs Get Paid Anymore?" by Freakonomics Radio (2025)“How Does Playing Football Affect Your Health?” by Freakonomics, M.D. (2023).“Why Does the Most Monotonous Job in the World Pay $1 Million?” by Freakonomics Radio (2022).

5 Feb 1h 8min

They used to be the N.F.L.’s biggest stars, with paychecks to match. Now their salaries are near the bottom, and their careers are shorter than ever. We speak with an analytics guru, an agent, some former running backs (including LeSean McCoy), and the economist Roland Fryer (a former Pop Warner running back himself) to understand why. SOURCES:Brian Burke, sports data scientist at ESPNRoland Fryer, professor of economics at Harvard UniversityLeSean McCoy, former running back in the N.F.L. and co-host for Fox's daily studio show, "The Facility"Robert Smith, former running back for the Minnesota Vikings and N.F.L. analystRobert Turbin, former running back, N.F.L. analyst for CBS Sports HQ, and college football announcerJeffery Whitney, founder and president at The Sports & Entertainment Group RESOURCES:"The Economics of Running Backs," by Roland Fryer (Wall Street Journal, 2024)"Confessions of a Hero-Worshiper," by Stephen Dubner (2007)"The Rest of the Iceberg: An Insider’s View on the World of Sports and Celebrity," by Robert Smith (2004) EXTRAS:"Roland Fryer Refuses to Lie to Black America," by Freakonomics Radio (2022)"Why Does the Most Monotonous Job in the World Pay $1 Million?" by Freakonomics Radio (2022)

31 Jan 1h 1min

When the computer scientist Ben Zhao learned that artists were having their work stolen by A.I. models, he invented a tool to thwart the machines. He also knows how to foil an eavesdropping Alexa and how to guard your online footprint. The big news, he says, is that the A.I. bubble is bursting. SOURCES:Erik Brynjolfsson, professor of economics at Stanford UniversityBen Zhao, professor of computer science at the University of Chicago RESOURCES:"The AI lab waging a guerrilla war over exploitative AI," by Melissa Heikkilä (MIT Technology Review, 2024)"Glaze: Protecting Artists from Style Mimicry by Text-to-Image Models," by Shawn Shan, Jenna Cryan, Emily Wenger, Haitao Zheng, Rana Hanocka, and Ben Y. Zhao (Cornell University, 2023)"Nightshade: Prompt-Specific Poisoning Attacks on Text-to-Image Generative Models," by Shawn Shan, Wenxin Ding, Josephine Passananti, Stanley Wu, Haitao Zheng, and Ben Y. Zhao (Cornell University, 2023)"A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence: What It Is, Where We Are, and Where We Are Going," by Michael Woodridge (2021) EXTRAS:"Nuclear Power Isn’t Perfect. Is It Good Enough?" by Freakonomics Radio (2022)

24 Jan 52min

Stephen Dubner, live on stage, mixes it up with outbound mayor London Breed, and asks economists whether A.I. can be “human-centered” and if Tang is a gateway drug. SOURCES:London Breed, former mayor of San Francisco.Erik Brynjolfsson, professor of economics at Stanford UniversityKoleman Strumpf, professor of economics at Wake Forest University RESOURCES:"SF crime rate at lowest point in more than 20 years, mayor says," by George Kelly (The San Francisco Standard, 2025)"How the Trump Whale and Prediction Markets Beat the Pollsters in 2024," by Niall Ferguson and Manny Rincon-Cruz (Wall Street Journal, 2024)"Artificial Intelligence, Scientific Discovery, and Product Innovation," by Aidan Toner-Rodgers (MIT Department of Economics, 2024) EXTRAS:"Why Are Cities (Still) So Expensive?" by Freakonomics Radio (2020)

22 Jan 59min

Their trade organization just lost a huge lawsuit. Their infamous commission model is under attack. And there are way too many of them. If they go the way of travel agents, will we miss them when they’re gone? SOURCES:Sonia Gilbukh, assistant professor of real estate at CUNY Baruch College.Kevin Sears, 2025 president of the National Association of Realtors.Chad Syverson, professor of economics at the University of Chicago.Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. RESOURCES:"Heterogeneous Real Estate Agents and the Housing Cycle," by Sonia Gilbukh and Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham (NBER Working Paper, 2024)."Real Estate Commissions and Homebuying," by Borys Grochulski and Zhu Wang (Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Working Paper, 2024)."The Relationship Between Home Prices and Real Estate Commission Rates: Implications for Consumers and Public Policy," by Stephen Brobeck (Consumer Federation of America, 2022)."The Relationship of Residential Real Estate Commission Rate to Industry Structure and Culture," by Stephen Brobeck (Consumer Federation of America, 2021)."Competition in the Real Estate Brokerage Industry: A Critical Review," by Panle Jia Barwick and Maisy Wong (Economic Studies at Brookings, 2019)."Hidden Real Estate Commissions: Consumer Costs and Improved Transparency," by Stephen Brobeck (Consumer Federation of America, 2019)."Market Distortions when Agents are Better Informed: The Value of Information in Real Estate Transactions," by Steven D. Levitt and Chad Syverson (NBER Working Paper, 2005).The Residential Real Estate Brokerage Industry, staff report by the Los Angeles Regional Office of the Federal Trade Commission (1983).

17 Jan 53min