456. How to Fix the Hot Mess of U.S. Healthcare

Freakonomics Radio

• 77 views
• 20 days ago
• 51:52

Medicine has evolved from a calling into an industry, adept at dispensing procedures and pills (and gigantic bills), but less good at actual health. Most reformers call for big, bold action. What happens if, instead, you think small? 

Policymaking Is Not a Science (Yet) (Ep. 405 Rebroadcast)

Freakonomics Radio

• 48 views
• 27 days ago
• 46:01

Why do so many promising solutions — in education, medicine, criminal justice, etc. — fail to scale up into great policy? And can a new breed of “implementation scientists” crack the code?

How Does New York City Keep Reinventing Itself? (Bonus)

Freakonomics Radio

• 34 views
• about 1 month ago
• 52:28

In a word: networks. Once it embraced information as its main currency, New York was able to climb out of a deep fiscal (and psychic) pit. Will that magic trick still work after Covid? In this installment of the Freakonomics Radio Book Club, guest host Kurt Andersen interviews Thomas Dyja, author of New York, New York, New York: Four Decades of Success, Excess and Transformation.

455. Are You Ready for a Fresh Start?

Freakonomics Radio

• 100 views
• about 1 month ago
• 44:03

Behavioral scientists have been exploring if — and when — a psychological reset can lead to lasting change. We survey evidence from the London Underground, Major League Baseball, and New Year’s resolutions; we look at accidental fresh starts, forced fresh starts, and fresh starts that backfire. And we wonder: will the pandemic’s end provide the biggest fresh start ever?

454. Should Traffic Lights Be Abolished?

Freakonomics Radio

• 120 views
• about 1 month ago
• 45:18

Americans are so accustomed to the standard intersection that we rarely consider how dangerous it can be — as well as costly, time-wasting, and polluting. Is it time to embrace the lowly, lovely roundabout?