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.
Lean Into Hard Things-That's Where Change Happens
This episode of The Ramsey Show features hosts John Deloney and Rachel Cruz taking live calls about the intersection of money, relationships, and life decisions. Callers wrestle with issues like finances in unmarried relationships, supporting struggling family members, investment choices, being upside down on vehicles, a spouse's gambling problem, housing decisions after a breakup, and whether to retire early with substantial wealth. Throughout, the hosts emphasize leaning into difficult conversations and choices-around marriage, boundaries, debt, and work-as the pathway to safety, peace, and long-term change.
#2395 - Mariana van Zeller
Joe Rogan talks with investigative journalist Mariana van Zeller about her high‑risk reporting on global black and gray markets, the end of her TV series "Trafficked," and the launch of her new podcast "The Hidden Third" exploring the underground economy and people living outside the law. They discuss drug cartels, counterfeit money, rehab and insurance fraud, the fentanyl and "tranq dope" crisis, and systemic failures in U.S. drug policy and healthcare. The conversation also covers immigration raids and asylum, pharmaceutical corruption around OxyContin and fentanyl, the explosion of sophisticated online scams and scam factories in Asia, political polarization, and Mariana's belief that empathy‑driven journalism is essential to understanding crime and fixing broken systems.
You Can Stay Broke Or Start Changing
This episode of The Ramsey Show features hosts Dr. John Delony and Jade Warshaw taking live calls about money decisions intertwined with relationships, housing, and long-term goals. Callers wrestle with issues like manipulative parents offering large cash gifts, retirees drowning in credit card debt with an unaffordable house, planning for adoption or surrogacy, and how to buy cars or renovate homes without sabotaging financial peace. Throughout, the hosts emphasize setting boundaries, avoiding debt, prioritizing safety and peace over arbitrage schemes, and following the Baby Steps framework for budgeting, debt payoff, and investing.
The App That'll Be Bigger Than TikTok
The hosts discuss OpenAI's new Sora app for AI-generated video, exploring its onboarding flow, social mechanics, and why it may be more powerful than TikTok as a multiplayer AI experience. They broaden the conversation to AI as a super app (including ChatGPT's Pulse), concerns about OpenAI's growing power, and how AI will reshape content creation, education, therapy, and addiction support. The episode also covers the rise of micro sports betting and prediction markets, new businesses tackling gambling addiction with AI, and the extreme personal data logging practices of Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke alongside their own approaches to life-logging and memory capture with tools like Meta smart glasses.
SYSK's Fall True Crime Playlist: The Harvey's Casino Bombing of 1980
The hosts recount the 1980 Harvey's Casino bombing in Lake Tahoe, a meticulously planned extortion attempt involving a uniquely sophisticated 1,000‑pound dynamite bomb that ultimately detonated without injuring anyone. They walk through the placement of the bomb, the detailed ransom note and helicopter instructions, the failed money drop, the FBI's risky attempt to disable the device, and the investigation that led to mastermind John Waldo Burgess Sr., his family, and accomplices. The episode closes with listener mail about using positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS) in child behavior management.