Believe it or not, my father is the leading medical researcher on intestinal gas (which has earned him the moniker the “King of Farts” — see here, and here). Two of his fart-sniffing employees recently earned the honor of “worst job in science” in Popular Science magazine for their efforts on his behalf.
Which I [...]

It’s probably poor sportsmanship to do another Oakland A’s post at a time when the A’s have now sunk to a record of 17-31 and are ahead of only one team in the American League.
But I feel like I am still misunderstood when it comes to what I have been trying to say about Billy [...]

I have no idea if Priscilla Owen is a good judge or not, but a fellow named Chris Wildermuth decided to use freakonomics to see why the opinion of her had changed so radically in recent years. His entire riff can be found here, on a blog called Power Line; but here’s a taste:Reading “Freakonomics” [...]

Those of you who like economics detective stories — yes, it’s a pretty limited genre — might want to read this Slate article we wrote, about a sharp young Harvard economist named Emily Oster. Some of the debate in “The Fray” (Slate’s online feedback chatroom) gets into the question that’s been tossed about a lot [...]

There has been a lot written about Freakonomics, but in terms of thoughtfulness, nothing matches the collection of essays assembled at the blog Crooked Timber. There you will find five discussions of Freakonomics done by academics from a range of disciplines, along with my response to these essays.
I’ve also cut and pasted my response below, [...]

On p. 39 of Freakonomics, we make a passing reference to the Chicago Black Sox, the name given to the Chicago White Sox after eight players were found to have colluded with gamblers to throw the 1919 World Series. A reader recently wrote: “The 1919 white sox were not known as the black sox because [...]

I’ve gotten a reputation — totally undeserved — for being able to successfully pick winners at the race track.
When I protest and tell people who approach me about it that I have absolutely no talent or secret, they never believe me. (Perhaps rightly so — if I really did have a secret, pretending I [...]

There have been several requests on this blog for a transcript of the authors’ recent appearance on The O’Reilly Factor. Here it is:
Copyright 2005 Fox News Network, LLC. Fox News Network
SHOW: THE O’REILLY FACTOR 8:37 PM EST
May 9, 2005 Monday
HEADLINE: Unresolved Problem: Book Explores Relations Between Economy, Social Issues
BYLINE: Bill O’Reilly
GUESTS: Steven Levitt, Stephen Dubner
BODY:O’REILLY: [...]

Levitt and Dubner were on The Today Show this morning (Wednesday), discussing Freakonomics. Click here for a video link. Here’s a transcript:
HEADLINE: Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner discuss their book, “Freakonomics.”
MATT LAUER, co-host:We’re back at 8:30 on a Wednesday morning. Coming up in this half-hour, what the heck is “Freakonomics”? It’s a book about economics, [...]

Levitt and Dubner will chat with NBC’s Matt Lauer on Wed., May 18, at about 8:30 a.m. E.D.T.

Two very vocal critics, Steve Sailer and John Lott, have been exerting a lot of energy lately trying to convince the world that the abortion reduces crime hypothesis is not correct. A number of readers have asked me to respond to these criticisms. First, let’s start by reviewing the basic facts that support [...]

Malcolm Gladwell sent me the following e-mail the other day:
thought you would enjoy this. a man in the security line at toronto airport today recognized me, pulled out a copy of freakonomics, and made me sign it. we are totally co-branded! cheers, m.
For what it is worth, neither Dubner or Levitt has ever been recognized [...]

What do the 100+ angry baseball fans who have posted livid responses to my earlier postings about Billy Beane have to say about the new data that has been assembled since I made my first claims? The A’s record is now 14-20. The chances of a team that wins 60 percent of their [...]

I spend much of my time trying to find cheating where other people don’t suspect it. So when I heard about a strange happening in Powerball — 110 people picking five out of six correctly when statistically you would expect only 4-5 such winners — I began to fantasize about a big cheating scandal. [...]

The good news is that Freakonomics is one of Amazon.com’s most popular products in hardcover, on audio CD, and even as a digital download. In hardcover, the other top-sellers include Harry Potter, You: The Owner’s Manual, and so on. On audio CD, it keeps company with a Spanish-language course and a James Patterson thriller. But [...]