Freakonomics Radio

Dying Is Easy. Retail Is Hard. (Update)

This episode examines the troubled state of Macy's and the broader retail industry through conversations with Macy's CEO Tony Spring, retail veteran and academic Mark Cohen, and author-entrepreneur Jeff Kinney. Spring lays out his Bold New Chapter turnaround plan, including major store closures, real estate monetization, merchandise overhauls, and attempts to translate the marketing power of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade into better in-store experiences. Cohen sharply criticizes Macy's past strategies and questions the viability of the turnaround, while Kinney offers a contrasting example of place-based, community-focused retail through his unprofitable but culturally influential independent bookstore and downtown redevelopment project in Plainville, Massachusetts.

Nov 28, 2025

Is Macy's Thanksgiving Parade Its Most Valuable Asset? (Update)

The episode investigates the hidden economics and logistics of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, focusing on how it is produced, who pays for what, and what value it creates for Macy's, NBC, and New York City. Executive producer Will Koss, NBC executive Jen Neal, city officials, and author Jeff Kinney describe the year‑round production process, brand sponsorships, balloon design and fabrication, helium supply, security, and sanitation. Despite assembling many details, the show concludes that the true costs and financial arrangements around the parade remain largely opaque, and it tees up a second episode on Macy's broader retail challenges.

Nov 27, 2025

654. Is the Public Ready for Private Equity?

The episode examines the push to open private equity and other private markets to retail investors, especially through 401(k) plans, following a Trump administration executive order. Law professor Elizabeth DeFontenay and economist Steve Kaplan explain how private equity works, its historical outperformance versus public markets, and why that outperformance has likely diminished as the asset class has matured and become crowded. They warn that high fees, opaque pricing, illiquidity, and second-tier access mean that ordinary investors are unlikely to benefit from this shift, and that expanding retail exposure could change private markets themselves and increase systemic risks.

Nov 21, 2025

653. Does Horse Racing Have a Future?

This episode of Freakonomics Radio visits the Keeneland September yearling sale to explore how thoroughbred racehorses are bred, evaluated, and sold, and how record auction prices coexist with a shrinking foal crop and declining racing industry. Breeders, buyers, economists, and horseplayers explain the economics of stud fees, the risk-reward profile of buying unproven horses, and how simulcasting, legal sports betting, and computer-driven wagering have transformed the gambling side of the sport. The episode closes by examining racinos, historical horse racing machines, and regulation as key forces that may determine whether horse racing has a viable future in the United States.

Nov 14, 2025

What Happens When You Turn 20

Stephen Dubner first reads the new foreword to the 20th anniversary edition of the book Freakonomics, reflecting on his long partnership with economist Steve Levitt, the unexpected success of their work, and how the world and their own lives have changed over two decades. He then has a live onstage conversation with PBS NewsHour host Jeff Bennett at Sixth and I in Washington, D.C., discussing journalism, data, incentives, curiosity without cynicism, the evolution of Freakonomics Radio, the role of government data and politics, and how to think more clearly in an age of noise, misinformation, and emerging technologies like AI. Audience questions prompt Dubner to talk about riskier findings, career choices, updating past research, decency, and the future of technology and investing.

Nov 12, 2025

652. Inside the Horse-Industrial Complex

This episode examines the modern thoroughbred horse industry, from elite breeding operations in Kentucky to the lived experience and economics of being a jockey and a backstretch worker. Former jockey Richard Migliore describes the physical and psychological demands, risks, and rewards of his nearly 30-year riding career, while industry participants like economist Jill Stowe and farm operator Mark Taylor explain the business structures, sales markets, and breeding strategies that underpin the sport. The conversation also explores how immigration rules shape the racing workforce and how long-standing breeding rules, especially the ban on artificial insemination, help keep Kentucky at the center of the global thoroughbred economy.

Nov 7, 2025

651. The Ultimate Dance Partner

This episode explores the past and present of horses, from their central role in ancient empires and industrial America to their modern status as high-value sport animals in disciplines like dressage. Economist-equestrians and historians explain how horses evolved from "living machines" that powered cities to luxury goods shaped by opaque markets, billionaires, and specialized breeding. The host then visits a New Jersey dressage barn to see training up close and even rides a high-level sport horse himself to experience the human-horse partnership.

Oct 31, 2025

Are Two C.E.O.s Better Than One? (Update)

Stephen Dubner revisits the question of whether companies run by co-CEOs perform better than those with a single chief, exploring both supportive evidence and strong skepticism. CEO advisor Mark Feigen and several current and former co-CEOs describe the benefits and pitfalls of shared leadership, while Yale professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld critiques the model as creating role confusion and undermining decisive authority. Computer scientist Lori Williams adds evidence from pair programming, showing how working in pairs can improve quality and satisfaction, raising the broader question of when two leaders might truly be better than one.

Oct 29, 2025

650. The Doctor Won't See You Now

Stephen Dubner examines the growing shortage of physicians in the United States, exploring both demand-side pressures like an aging population and supply-side constraints in medical education and training. Former CDC director and infectious disease physician Rochelle Walensky outlines workforce data, training bottlenecks, burnout, debt, and rural access problems, while economic historian Karen Clay explains how the early 20th-century Flexner Report raised medical standards but also sharply reduced the number of medical schools and doctors, with complex long-term consequences. Throughout, practicing and former physicians describe how bureaucracy, insurance rules, changing public attitudes, and alternative career options are reshaping the medical profession.

Oct 24, 2025

A Question-Asker Becomes a Question-Answerer

In this feed-drop conversation from Design Matters, Stephen J. Dubner talks with Debbie Millman about his life, from a turbulent religious upbringing and early encouragement from a beloved teacher to his time in a rock band and eventual career as a writer and podcaster. They explore how inhabiting two faith traditions shaped his views on identity and belief, the power of curiosity, the making and impact of Freakonomics, his struggles with hero worship and anonymity, and his evolving thinking on creativity, confidence, and the human side of economics.

Oct 17, 2025

How Can We Break Our Addiction to Contempt? (Update)

Stephen Dubner interviews Arthur Brooks about his argument that American politics has fallen into an addictive cycle of contempt, driven by media incentives, populism, and habits of communication, and that the most effective antidote is deliberately practiced love and warmheartedness. Brooks, drawing on economics, neuroscience, psychology, and his own varied career, explains how contempt differs from anger, how financial crises fuel polarization, and why media and political structures amplify division. He offers concrete techniques for individuals and leaders to reduce contempt, cultivate love as a verb, and reorient politics toward a competition over opportunity rather than mutual hatred.

Oct 15, 2025

649. Should Ohio State (and Michigan, and Clemson) Join the N.F.L.?

Stephen Dubner explores whether U.S. pro leagues like the NFL and NBA should move from closed, monopolistic structures toward a European-style promotion and relegation system that could incorporate top college programs. Guests discuss the historical split between amateur and professional sports in the U.S. and Europe, the economic incentives in closed vs. open leagues, and what a merger between NCAA football/basketball and the major pro leagues might look like. While many theoretical benefits for fans, athletes, and communities are identified, the guests argue that entrenched financial interests make such a shift highly unlikely in practice.

Oct 10, 2025

648. The Merger You Never Knew You Wanted

Host Stephen Dubner explores an ostensibly "absurd" idea: merging the NFL with NCAA football (and possibly the NBA with NCAA basketball) and introducing promotion and relegation, using it as a lens to examine the economics and governance of big-time American sports. The episode details how college sports historically exploited unpaid athletes, the legal and economic changes brought by NIL and antitrust litigation, and how this evolution makes top-tier college sports increasingly similar to professional leagues. It also examines the NFL's cartel-like power, antitrust exemptions, public stadium subsidies, and why a more open, competitive system might address problems like tanking and entrenched inequality.

Oct 3, 2025

Is the U.S. Really Less Corrupt Than China? (Update)

Stephen Dubner interviews political scientist Yuen Yuen Ong about her research on corruption in China and the United States, based on her book "China's Gilded Age." Ong explains her four-part typology of corruption, how certain types of corruption can coexist with rapid economic growth, and why she believes the U.S. and China are both experiencing different versions of a "Gilded Age." She also critiques common corruption metrics, discusses China's evolving political-economic model under Mao, Deng, and Xi, and reflects on the strengths and weaknesses of capitalist prosperity and democracy.

Sep 26, 2025

647. China Is Run by Engineers. America Is Run by Lawyers.

Host Stephen Dubner speaks with analyst and author Dan Wong about his framework for understanding the U.S. and China as, respectively, a "lawyerly society" and an "engineering state." Wong explains how China's engineer-dominated leadership prioritizes rapid infrastructure building, technological capacity, and even social engineering, while the U.S. legal culture emphasizes procedure, litigation, and blocking harmful as well as beneficial projects. Drawing on his years living in China, his family's history, and his book "Breakneck," Wong discusses zero-COVID, the one-child policy, manufacturing and process knowledge, China's global ambitions, and what each country could learn from the other.

Sep 19, 2025