The economist and social critic Glenn Loury has led a remarkably turbulent life, both professionally and personally. In a new memoir, he has chosen to reveal just about everything. Why?   SOURCE: Glenn Loury, professor of economics at Brown University and host of The Glenn Show.   RESOURCES: Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative, by Glenn Loury (2024). "Amy Wax – The DEI Witch Hunt at Penn Law," by Glenn Loury (The Glenn Show, 2024). "The Conservative Line on Race," by Glenn Loury (The Atlantic, 1997). "Will Affirmative-Action Policies Eliminate Negative Stereot ..read more

From politics and economics to psychology and the arts, many of the modern ideas we take for granted emerged a century ago from a single European capital. In this episode of the Freakonomics Radio Book Club, the historian Richard Cockett explores all those ideas — and how the arrival of fascism can ruin in a few years what took generations to build.   SOURCE: Richard Cockett, author and senior editor at The Economist.   RESOURCES: Vienna: How the City of Ideas Created the Modern World, by Richard Cockett (2023). "Birth, Death and Shopping," (The Economist, 2007). The Hidden Pe ..read more

Nobel laureate, bestselling author, and groundbreaking psychologist Daniel Kahneman died in March. In 2021 he talked with Steve Levitt — his friend and former business partner — about his book Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment (cowritten with Olivier Sibony and Cass Sunstein) and much more.   SOURCES: Daniel Kahneman, professor emeritus of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University.   RESOURCES: Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment, by Olivier Sibony, Daniel Kahneman, and Cass R. Sunstein (2021). Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman (2011).   EXTRAS: "What ..read more

Fareed Zakaria says yes. But it’s not just political revolution — it’s economic, technological, even emotional. He doesn’t offer easy solutions but he does offer some hope.   SOURCES: Fareed Zakaria, journalist and author.   RESOURCES: Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present, by Fareed Zakaria (2024). "The Ultimate Election Year: All the Elections Around the World in 2024," by Koh Ewe (TIME, 2023). "The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism," by Vanessa Williamson, Theda Skocpol, and John Coggin (Perspectives on Politics, 2011). The P ..read more

Lewis got incredible access to Sam Bankman-Fried, the billionaire behind the spectacular FTX fraud. His book is a bestseller, but some critics say he went too easy on S.B.F. Lewis tells us why the critics are wrong — and what it’s like to watch your book get turned into a courtroom drama.   SOURCES: Michael Lewis, author.   RESOURCES: Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, by Michael Lewis (2023). "Column: In Michael Lewis, Sam Bankman-Fried Found His Last and Most Willing Victim," by Michael Hiltzik (Los Angeles Times, 2023). "Even Michael Lewis Can’t Make a ..read more

In her new book The Two-Parent Privilege, the economist Melissa Kearney says it’s time for liberals to face the facts: U.S. marriage rates have plummeted but the babies keep coming, and the U.S. now leads the world in single-parent households. Plus: our friends at Atlas Obscura explore just how many parents a kid can have ..read more

U.S. marriage rates have plummeted. But the babies keep coming, and the U.S. now leads the world in single-parent households. In her new book The Two-Parent Privilege, the economist Melissa Kearney says this is a huge problem, and that it’s time for liberals to face the facts. Plus: our friends at Atlas Obscura explore just how many parents a kid can have.  ..read more

And with her book "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat," she succeeded. Now she's not so sure how to feel about all the attention.  ..read more

It used to be at the center of our conversations about politics and society. Scott Hershovitz is the author of Nasty, Brutish, and Short, in which he argues that philosophy still has a lot to say about work, justice, and parenthood ..read more

In a new book called The Voltage Effect, the economist John List — who has already revolutionized how his profession does research — is trying to start a scaling revolution. In this installment of the Freakonomics Radio Book Club, List teaches us how to avoid false positives, how to know whether a given success is due to the chef or the ingredients, and how to practice “optimal quitting.”    ..read more