602. Is Screen Time as Poisonous as We Think?
Young people have been reporting a sharp rise in anxiety and depression. This maps neatly onto the global rise of the smartphone. Some researchers are convinced that one is causing the other. But how ...
12 Sep 202440min
601. Multitasking Doesn’t Work. So Why Do We Keep Trying?
Only a tiny number of “supertaskers” are capable of doing two things at once. The rest of us are just making ourselves miserable, and less productive. How can we put the — hang on a second, I've just ...
5 Sep 202458min
What Is the Future of College — and Does It Have Room for Men? (Update)
Educators and economists tell us all the reasons college enrollment has been dropping, especially for men, and how to stop the bleeding. (Part 3 of our series from 2022, “Freakonomics Radio Goes Back ...
29 Aug 202449min
EXTRA: Why Quitting Is Usually Worth It
Stephen Dubner appears as a guest on Fail Better, a new podcast hosted by David Duchovny. The two of them trade stories about failure, and ponder the lessons that success could never teach. SOURCES:Da...
26 Aug 202440min
The University of Impossible-to-Get-Into (Update)
America’s top colleges are facing record demand. So why don’t they increase supply? (Part 2 of our series from 2022, “Freakonomics Radio Goes Back to School.”) SOURCES:Peter Blair, professor of educat...
22 Aug 20241h 11min
What Exactly Is College For? (Update)
We think of them as intellectual enclaves and the surest route to a better life. But U.S. colleges also operate like firms, trying to differentiate their products to win market share and prestige poin...
15 Aug 202450min
EXTRA: Here’s Why You’re Not an Elite Athlete (Update)
There are a lot of factors that go into greatness, many of which are not obvious. As the Olympics come to a close, we revisit a 2018 episode in which top athletes from a variety of sports tell us how ...
12 Aug 20241h 5min
600. “If We’re All in It for Ourselves, Who Are We?”
Tania Tetlow, a former federal prosecutor and now the president of Fordham University, thinks the modern campus could use a dose of old-fashioned values. SOURCE:Tania Tetlow, president of Fordham Univ...
8 Aug 202444min
