People I (Mostly) Admire

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People I (Mostly) Admire

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Freakonomics co-author Steve Levitt tracks down other high achievers for surprising, revealing conversations about their lives and obsessions. Join Levitt as he goes through the most interesting midlife crisis you’ve ever heard — and learn how a renegade sheriff is transforming Chicago's jail, how a biologist is finding the secrets of evolution in the Arctic tundra, and how a trivia champion memorized 160,000 flashcards. To get every show in the Freakonomics Radio Network without ads and a monthly bonus episode of Freakonomics Radio, start a free trial for SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.

  1. 4 DAYS AGO

    Abraham Verghese Thinks Medicine Can Do Better (Update)

    Abraham Verghese is a physician and a best-selling author — in that order, he says. He explains the difference between curing and healing, and tells Steve why doctors should spend more time with patients and less with electronic health records.   SOURCES:Abraham Verghese, professor of medicine at Stanford University and best-selling novelist.  RESOURCES:The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese (2023).“Abraham Verghese’s Sweeping New Fable of Family and Medicine,” by Andrew Solomon (The New York Times, 2023).“Watch Oprah’s Emotional Conversation with Abraham Verghese, Author of the 101st Oprah’s Book Club Pick” (Oprah Daily, 2023).“How Indian Teachers Have Shaped Ethiopia’s Education System,” by Mariam Jafri (The Quint, 2023).“How Tech Can Turn Doctors Into Clerical Workers,” by Abraham Verghese (The New York Times Magazine, 2018).Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese (2009).“Culture Shock — Patient as Icon, Icon as Patient,” by Abraham Verghese (The New England Journal of Medicine, 2008).“The Cowpath to America,” by Abraham Verghese (The New Yorker, 1997).My Own Country: A Doctor’s Story, by Abraham Verghese (1994).“Urbs in Rure: Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection in Rural Tennessee,” by Abraham Verghese, Steven L. Berk, and Felix Sarubbi (The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 1989).  EXTRAS:“Are You Suffering From Burnout?” by No Stupid Questions (2023).“Would You Rather See a Computer or a Doctor?” by Freakonomics, M.D. (2022).“How Do You Cure a Compassion Crisis?” by Freakonomics Radio (2020).The Citadel, by A. J. Cronin (1937).Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852).

    47 min

  2. 26 APR

    156. A Solution to America’s Gun Problem

    Jens Ludwig has an idea for how to fix America’s gun violence problem — and it starts by rejecting conventional wisdom from both sides of the political aisle.    SOURCES:Jens Ludwig, professor of economics at the University of Chicago and director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab.  RESOURCES:Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence, by Jens Ludwig (2025)."Scope Challenges to Social Impact," by Monica Bhatt, Jonathan Guryan, Jens Ludwig, and Anuj Shah (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2021)."Citywide cluster randomized trial to restore blighted vacant land and its effects on violence, crime, and fear," by Charles Branas, Eugenia South, Michelle Kondo, Bernadette Hohl, Philippe Bourgois, Douglas Wiebe, and John MacDonald (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018)."Thinking, Fast and Slow? Some Field Experiments to Reduce Crime and Dropout in Chicago," by Sara Heller, Anuj Shah, Jonathan Guryan, Jens Ludwig, Sendhil Mullainathan, and Harold Pollack (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2016).Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman (2013)."Homicide and Suicide Rates Associated With Implementation of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act," by Jens Ludwig and Philip Cook (Journal of the American Medical Association, 2000).The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs (1992).The University of Chicago Crime Lab."Becoming a Man" (University of Chicago Crime Lab).  EXTRAS:"Do the Police Have a Management Problem?" by Freakonomics Radio (2023)."From prison to Ph.D, this activist fights for peace in Chicago," by Kenya Downs (PBS News, 2016).

    59 min

  3. 12 APR

    155. Helping People Die

    Ellen Wiebe is a physician who helps seriously ill patients end their lives in Canada, where assisted suicide is legal. Is death a human right?   SOURCES: Ellen Wiebe, clinical professor of medicine at the University of British Columbia.  RESOURCES: "The Last Decision by the World’s Leading Thinker on Decisions," by Jason Zweig (The Wall Street Journal, 2025)."Most Americans Favor Legal Euthanasia," by Rachael Yi (Gallup, 2024).Canadian Association of MAID Assessors and Providers."Medical Assistance in Dying: Overview," (Government of Canada).  EXTRAS: "Can Robots Get a Grip?" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2025)."Remembering Daniel Kahneman," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2024)."Does Death Have to Be a Death Sentence?" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman (2011).

    55 min

  4. 5 APR

    Yul Kwon: “Don't Try to Change Yourself All at Once.” (Update)

    He has been a lawyer, an instructor at the F.B.I. Academy, the owner of a frozen-yogurt chain, and a winner of the TV show Survivor. Today, Kwon works at Google, but things haven’t always come easily for him. Steve Levitt talks to Kwon about his debilitating childhood anxieties, his compulsion to choose the hardest path in life, and how Kwon used game theory to stage a victory on Survivor.   SOURCES:Yul Kwon, vice president of product management at Google.  RESOURCES:Teacher Application for ASU Prep Tempe.  EXTRAS:"Are Our Tools Becoming Part of Us?" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2024)."Yul Kwon: 'Hey, Do You Have Any Bright Ideas?' (Part 2)," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021)."Robert Axelrod on Why Being Nice, Forgiving, and Provokable are the Best Strategies for Life," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).

    45 min

  5. 29 MAR

    154. Can Robots Get a Grip?

    Ken Goldberg is at the forefront of robotics — which means he tries to teach machines to do things humans find trivial.   SOURCES:Ken Goldberg, professor of industrial engineering and operations research at U.C. Berkeley.  RESOURCES:"The Bitter Lesson," by Rich Sutton (UT Austin, 2019).R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots): A Fantastic Melodrama in Three Acts and an Epilogue, by Karel Capek (2019)."The Robot in the Cloud: A Conversation With Ken Goldberg," by Quentin Hardy (New York Times, 2014).Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence, by Hans Moravec (1990)."Stochastic Plans for Robotic Manipulation," by Ken Goldberg (Carnegie Mellon University, 1990)."The Two Cultures And The Scientific Revolution," by C. P. Snow (Cambridge University Press, 1959).Dex-NetAncient Wisdom for a Future Ecology: Trees, Time, and Technology.Ambi Robotics."The Telegarden."  EXTRAS:"Feeling Sound and Hearing Color," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2024)."Are Our Tools Becoming Part of Us?" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2024).“My God, This Is a Transformative Power,” by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023)."Drawing from Life (and Death)" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023)."Aicha Evans Wants You to Take Your Eyes Off the Road," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).

    58 min

  6. 15 MAR

    153. We’re Not Getting Sicker — We’re Overdiagnosed

    Suzanne O'Sullivan is a neurologist who sees many patients with psychosomatic disorders. Their symptoms may be psychological in origin, but their pain is real and physical — and the way we practice medicine, she argues, is making those and other health problems worse.   SOURCES:Suzanne O'Sullivan, neurologist and author of The Age of Diagnosis How Our Obsession with Medical Labels Is Making Us Sicker.  RESOURCES:The Age of Diagnosis: How Our Obsession with Medical Labels Is Making Us Sicker, by Suzanne O'Sullivan (2025)."Associations of Depression, Anxiety, Worry, Perceived Stress, and Loneliness Prior to Infection With Risk of Post-COVID-19 Conditions," by Siwen Wang, Luwei Quan, Jorge Chavarro, Natalie Slopen, Laura Kubzansky, Karestan Koenen, Jae Hee Kang, Marc G. Weisskopf, Westyn Branch-Elliman, and Andrea Roberts (JAMA Psychiatry, 2022)."How beliefs about coronavirus disease (COVID) influence COVID-like symptoms? – A longitudinal study." by Liron Rozenkrantz, Tobias Kube, Michael H Bernstein, and John D.E. Gabrieli (Health Psychology, 2022)."Risk factors for worsening of somatic symptom burden in a prospective cohort during the COVID-19 pandemic," by Petra Engelmann, Bernd Löwe, Thomas Theo Brehm, Angelika Weigel, Felix Ullrich, Marylyn Addo, Julian Schulze Zur Wiesch, Ansgar Lohse, and Anne Toussaint (Frontier Psychology, 2022).The Sleeping Beauties: And Other Stories of Mystery Illness, by Suzanne O'Sullivan (2021).Brainstorm: Detective Stories from the World of Neurology, by Suzanne O'Sullivan (2018)."The Trauma of Facing Deportation," by Rachel Aviv (The New Yorker, 2017).It's All in Your Head: True Stories of Imaginary Illness, by Suzanne O'Sullivan (2015).The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, by Bessel van der Kolk (2014)."Explaining the Rise in Youth Suicide," by David Cutler, Edward Glaeser, and Karen Norberg (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2001).  EXTRAS:Counted Out, documentary (2024)."Bringing Data to Life," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023)."Adding Ten Healthy Years to Your Life," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023)."America’s Math Curriculum Doesn’t Add Up," by Freakonomics Radio (2019).Race to Nowhere, documentary (2010).Data Science for Everyone.

    1h 4m

  7. 8 MAR

    Reading Dostoevsky Behind Bars (Update)

    Reginald Dwayne Betts spent more than eight years in prison. Today he's a Yale Law graduate, a MacArthur Fellow, and a poet. His nonprofit works to build libraries in prisons so that more incarcerated people can find hope.   SOURCES:Reginald Dwayne Betts, founder and director of Freedom Reads, award-winning poet, and lawyer.  RESOURCES:Doggerel: Poems, by Reginald Dwayne Betts (2025).“The Poet Writing on Prison Underwear,” by Adam Iscoe (The New Yorker, 2023).The Voltage Effect, by John List (2022).“If We Truly Believe in Redemption and Second Chances, Parole Should Be Celebrated,” by Reginald Dwayne Betts (The Washington Post, 2021).Insurrections, by Rion Scott (2016).The Secret History of Wonder Woman, by Jill Lepore (2014).Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, by Robert M. Pirsig (1974).The Black Poets, by Dudley Randall (1971).“For Freckle-Faced Gerald,” by Etheridge Knight (Poems from Prison, 1968).Felon: An America Washi Tale, by Reginald Dwayne Betts.Freedom Reads.  EXTRAS:“Can a Moonshot Approach to Mental Health Work?” by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).“Can Data Keep People Out of Prison?” by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).“The Price of Doing Business with John List,” by People I (Mostly) Admire (2022).“Why Do Most Ideas Fail to Scale?” by Freakonomics Radio (2022).

    49 min

  8. 1 MAR

    152. Hunting for the Origins of Life

    Chemist Jack Szostak wants to understand how the first life forms came into being on Earth. He and Steve discuss the danger of "mirror bacteria," the origin of biology in poisonous chemicals, and the possibility that life might exist on other planets too.    SOURCES:Jack Szostak, Nobel laureate and professor of chemistry at The University of Chicago.  RESOURCES:Is Earth Exceptional?: The Quest for Cosmic Life, by Mario Livio and Jack Szostak (2024)"Q&A: How ‘Mirror Bacteria’ Could Take a Devastating Toll on Humanity," by Isabella Backman (Yale School of Medicine, 2024)."The virtual circular genome model for primordial RNA replication," by Jack Szostak, Lijun Zhou, and Dian Ding (RNA, 2021)."Protocells and RNA Self-Replication," by Gerald Joyce and Jack Szostak (Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology, 2018)."The Narrow Road to the Deep Past: In Search of the Chemistry of the Origin of Life," by Jack Szostak (Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2017)."Jack Szostak on 'Life in the Lab' (And Autocatalytic Sets)" by Suzan Mazur (Huffington Post, 2014)."Jack W. Szostak Interview" (The Nobel Prize, 2009)."The Miller-Urey Experiment" (National Center for Science Education)."From Old Vials, New Hints on Origin of Life," by Kenny Chang (New York Times, 2008).  EXTRAS:What Is It Like to Be an Addict?: Understanding Substance Abuse, by Owen Flanagan (2025)"UPDATE: What It’s Like to Be Steve Levitt’s Daughters," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2024)."We Can Play God Now," by Freakonomics Radio (2022).

    47 min
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out of 5
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About

Freakonomics co-author Steve Levitt tracks down other high achievers for surprising, revealing conversations about their lives and obsessions. Join Levitt as he goes through the most interesting midlife crisis you’ve ever heard — and learn how a renegade sheriff is transforming Chicago's jail, how a biologist is finding the secrets of evolution in the Arctic tundra, and how a trivia champion memorized 160,000 flashcards. To get every show in the Freakonomics Radio Network without ads and a monthly bonus episode of Freakonomics Radio, start a free trial for SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.

Information

  • Channel
    SiriusXM Podcasts
  • Creator
    Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2025
  • Episodes
    184
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2024 All Rights Reserved
  • Provider
    Sirius XM Radio Inc

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