If you didn’t get a chance to air Freakonomics this past season, good news: we are extending the broadcast window for the five hours of Freakonomics Radio: Season 3 through July 31, 2013. We know it’s been a busy season and that last fall’s election coverage plus a range of other news didn’t allow some stations to air these five great Freakonomics specials, which cover topics like commitment devices, misadventures in baby-making, weird recycling items (like chicken feet) and more. We all think the show’s quality is top-notch and we believe your audiences will agree.
In addition, the next season’s five Freakonomics specials will be available starting July 1, with a broadcast window through December 31, 2013. As Freakonomics touches on “the hidden side of everything,” it offers strong evergreen content to build into your schedules as you see fit. Please take advantage of this extension for your listeners, and let us know if you have any questions.
SEASON 4 OF FREAKONOMICS IS COMING, JULY 2013!
Coming soon: Stephen J. Dubner tackles a new round of topics, including: the differences between men and women, the economic impact of your name, our human propensity for spite, backfiring bounties and the (discriminatory?) practice of tipping. Episode 1 is available in ContentDepot starting July 1st, with subsequent episodes following through the first week of July.
EPISODE 1: WOMEN ARE NOT MEN
Women are different from men, by a lot, in some key areas. For example, the data show that women don’t: drown, edit Wikipedia, commit crime, or file patents at anywhere near the same rate as men do. How else are women different? They have made significant economic gains over the past 30 years and yet they are less happy now. So how do we explain this paradox? In this episode of Freakonomics Radio, host Stephen Dubner looks at some of the ways in which women are not men.
Later in the hour, Dubner talks to Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker about his surprising view of the history of violence: the world is a much more peaceful place than it has ever been.
EPISODE 2: HOW MUCH DOES YOUR NAME MATTER?
When Harvard professor Latanya Sweeney typed her name in Google one day, she noticed something strange: an ad with the heading: “Latanya Sweeney, Arrested?” But she had never been arrested — and neither had the only other Latanya Sweeney in the U.S. So why did the ad suggest so? Thousands of Google searches later, Sweeney discovered that Googling distinctively black names is more likely to produce an ad that suggests a criminal background. In this episode of Freakonomics Radio, host Stephen Dubner investigates the latest research on names. Steve Levitt reveals what a name says about your economic status and race. And University of Chicago political scientist Eric Oliver explains why a baby named Cody is likely to have conservative parents, while Leif was probably born into a liberal family.
EPISODE 3: SPITE HAPPENS
This episode of Freakonomics Radio explores our surprising propensity for spite. We discover the gruesome etymology of the phrase “cut off your nose to spite your face” (it involves medieval nuns). Host Stephen Dubner talks to economist Benedikt Herrmann about “money-burning” lab experiments, in which people often choose to surrender some of their own cash in order to take money away from other participants. We hear the story of super-athlete Bo Jackson’s very costly decision to spurn one particular football team; and Freakonomics Radio producer Katherine Wells talks with biologist E. O. Wilson about whether spite exists in nature.
Later in the hour, we head to Bogota, where the mayor used unorthodox methods – including traffic mimes – to restore order to the city. And Dubner talks to psychologist Robert Cialdini about how much social norms (and good old-fashioned shame) can influence our behavior.
EPISODE 4: THE COBRA EFFECT
If you want to get rid of a nasty invasive pest, it might seem sensible to offer a bounty. But as we’ll hear in this episode of Freakonomics Radio, bounties can backfire. We look at bounties on snakes in Delhi, rats in Hanoi, and feral pigs in Fort Benning, Georgia. In each case, bounty seekers came up with creative ways to maximize their payoff — and pest populations grew. Host Stephen Dubner talks to Steve Levitt about how incentives don’t always work out the way you’d expect.
Later in the hour: if you want to write a book about Winston Churchill, you will have to pay for his words. The Churchill estate, like the holders of other British intellectual property, has powers that are unfamiliar and perhaps shocking to Americans. Dubner talks about who owns words that come out of our mouths.
EPISODE 5: SHOULD TIPPING BE BANNED?
To an economist, tipping is a puzzling behavior — why pay extra when it’s not required? In this episode of Freakonomics Radio, host Stephen Dubner looks at why we tip, which factors affect the amount, and whether tipping should perhaps be eliminated altogether. Research shows that African-American servers earn smaller tips than white servers, so there’s an argument to be made that the practice is discriminatory.
Later in the hour: if you have a parent with the genetic code for Huntington’s disease, a debilitating and ultimately fatal disorder, you have a 50 percent chance of getting Huntington’s yourself. And yet only 5 percent of such people actually get the genetic test to see if they will fall ill. Dubner talks to University of Chicago economist Emily Oster about her research on Huntington’s, and the value of not knowing your future.
For more information on carrying Freakonomics, contact your Stations Relations Representative.