16 Sept 2025, 19:39 UTC399 views2 reactionsread 8 August 2026 File
What Can Whales Teach Us About Clean Energy, Workplace Harmony, and Living the Good Life? (Update)
In the final episode of our whale series, we learn about fecal plumes, shipping noise, and why "Moby-Dick" is still worth reading. (Part 3 of "Everything You Never Knew About Whaling.")
⚡1👍1
13 Sept 2025, 06:51 UTC408 views1 reactionsread 8 August 2026 File
Why Do People Still Hunt Whales? (Update)
For years, whale oil was used as lighting fuel, industrial lubricant, and the main ingredient in (yum!) margarine. Whale meat was also on a few menus. But today, demand for whale products is at a historic low. And yet some countries still have a whaling industry. We find out why. (Part 2 of “Everything You Never Knew About Whaling.”)
⚡1
28 Aug 2025, 18:28 UTC379 views1 reactionsread 8 August 2026 File
The First Great American Industry (Update)
Whaling was, in the words of one scholar, “early capitalism unleashed on the high seas.” How did the U.S. come to dominate the whale market? Why did whale hunting die out here — and continue to grow elsewhere? And is that whale vomit in your perfume? (Part 1 of “Everything You Never Knew About Whaling.”)
⚡1
21 Aug 2025, 19:41 UTC389 views2 reactionsread 8 August 2026 File
Why Does Tipping Still Exist? (Update)
It’s a haphazard way of paying workers, and yet it keeps expanding. With federal tax policy shifting in a pro-tip direction, we revisit an episode from 2019 to find out why.
⚡1👍1
17 Aug 2025, 14:12 UTC329 views1 reactionsread 8 August 2026 File
643. Why Do Candles Still Exist?
They should have died out when the lightbulb was invented. Instead they’re a $10 billion industry. What does it mean that we still want tiny fires inside our homes?
⚡1
10 Aug 2025, 14:15 UTC340 views2 reactionsread 8 August 2026 File
642. How to Wage Peace, According to Tony Blinken
The former secretary of state isn’t a flamethrower, but he certainly has strong opinions. In this wide-ranging conversation with Stephen Dubner, he gives them all: on Israel, Gaza, China, Iran, Russia, Biden, Trump — and the rest of the world.
⚡2
31 Jul 2025, 17:21 UTC327 views1 reactionsread 8 August 2026 File
Why Does One Tiny State Set the Rules for Everyone? (Update)
Until recently, Delaware was almost universally agreed to be the best place for companies to incorporate. Now, with Elon Musk leading a corporate stampede out of the First State, we revisit an episode from 2023 that asked if Delaware’s “franchise” is wildly corrupt, wildly efficient … or both?
⚡1
26 Jul 2025, 06:53 UTC330 views2 reactionsread 8 August 2026 File
641. What Does It Cost to Lead a Creative Life?
For years, the playwright David Adjmi was considered “polarizing and difficult.” But creating "Stereophonic" seems to have healed him. Stephen Dubner gets the story — and sorts out what Adjmi has in common with Richard Wagner.
⚡2
20 Jul 2025, 07:03 UTC307 views1 reactionsread 8 August 2026 File
640. Why Governments Are Betting Big on Sports
The Gulf States and China are spending billions to build stadiums and buy up teams — but what are they really buying? And can an entrepreneur from Cincinnati make his own billions by bringing baseball to Dubai?
⚡1
15 Jul 2025, 10:44 UTC299 views1 reactionsread 8 August 2026 File
How to Make Your Own Luck (Update)
Before she decided to become a poker pro, Maria Konnikova didn’t know how many cards are in a deck. But she did have a Ph.D. in psychology, a brilliant coach, and a burning desire to know whether life is driven more by skill or chance. She found some answers in poker — and she’s willing to tell us everything she learned.
⚡1
7 Jul 2025, 19:51 UTC284 views1 reactionsread 8 August 2026 File
639. “This Country Kicks My Ass All the Time”
Cory Booker on the politics of fear, the politics of hope, and how to split the difference.
⚡1
28 Jun 2025, 09:55 UTC321 views1 reactionsread 8 August 2026 File
638. Are You Ready for the Elder Swell?
In the U.S., there will soon be more people over 65 than there are under 18 — and it’s not just lifespan that’s improving, it’s “healthspan” too. Unfortunately, the American approach to aging is stuck in the 20th century. In less than an hour, we try to unstick it. (Part three of a three-part series, “Cradle to Grave.”)
⚡1
Showing the 12 most recent of 20 posts we hold for @FreakonomicsRadio. View and reaction counts are the latest single reading for each post, not a live figure, and a recent post is still accumulating both. A view count marked ≈ was rounded by Telegram before we ever saw it — t.me prints views in full below 1,000 and to three significant figures above, so ≈1,200,000 means somewhere between 1,150,000 and 1,249,999. Unmarked counts are exact. Text is reproduced from the public post preview and truncated for length.