People I (Mostly) Admire

エピソード

• 24. Are We Under Threat from a New Kind of Terror? (Replay Ep. 24) 30.05.2026 44分

  Amaryllis Fox is a former C.I.A. operative and host of the Netflix show The Business of Drugs. She explains why intelligence work requires empathy, and she soothes Steve’s fears about weapons of mass destruction. This episode originally aired on April 16th, 2021 and was replayed on January 14th, 2022.
• 23. Greg Norman & Mark Broadie: Why Golf Beats an Orgasm and Why Data Beats Everything 23.05.2026 42分

  Steve Levitt is obsessed with golf — and he’s pretty good at it too. As a thinly-veiled ploy to improve his own game, Steve talks to two titans of the sport: Greg “The Shark” Norman, who was the world’s top-ranked golfer for more than six years; and Mark Broadie, a Columbia professor whose data analysis changed how pros play the game. This episode originally aired on March 9th, 2021.
• 22. Sal Khan: “If It Works for 15 Cousins, It Could Work for a Billion People.” 16.05.2026 43分

  Khan Academy grew out of Sal Khan’s online math tutorials for his extended family. It’s now a platform used by more than 115 million people in 190 countries. So what does Khan want to do next? How about reinventing in-school learning, too? Find out why Steve nearly moved to Silicon Valley to be part of Khan's latest venture. This episode originally aired on April 2nd, 2021.
• 21. Pete Docter: “What If Monsters Really Do Exist?” 09.05.2026 43分

  He’s the chief creative officer of Pixar, and the Academy Award-winning director of Soul, Inside Out, Up, and Monsters, Inc. Pete Docter and Steve talk about Pixar’s scrappy beginnings, why it costs $200 million to make an animated film, and the movie moment that changed Steve’s life. This episode originally aired on March 26th, 2021.
• 20. John Donohue: “I'm Frequently Called a Treasonous Enemy of the Constitution.” 02.05.2026 36分

  He’s a law professor with a Ph.D. in economics and a tendency for getting into fervid academic debates. Over 20 years ago, he and Steve began studying the impact of legalized abortion on crime. John and Steve talk about guns, the death penalty, the heat they took from their joint research, and why it’s frustratingly difficult to prove truth in the social sciences. This episode originally aired on March 19th, 2021.
• 19. Marina Nitze: “If You Googled ‘Business Efficiency Consultant,’ I Was the Only Result.” 25.04.2026 37分

  At 27— and without a college degree — she was named chief technology officer of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Today, Marina Nitze is trying to reform the foster care system. She tells Steve how she hacked the V.A.’s bureaucracy, opens up about her struggle with Type 1 diabetes, and explains how she was building websites for soap opera stars when she was just 12 years old. This episode originally aired on March 12th, 2021.
• 18. Robert Sapolsky: “I Don’t Think We Have Any Free Will Whatsoever.” 18.04.2026 41分

  He’s one of the world’s leading neuroscientists, with a focus on the physiological effects of stress. (For years, he spent his summers in Kenya, alone except for the baboons he was observing.) Steve asks Robert why we value human life over animals, why he’s lost faith in the criminal-justice system, and how to look casual when you’re about to blow-dart a very large and potentially unhappy primate. This episode originally aired on March 5th, 2021.
• 17. Emily Oster: “I Am a Woman Who Is Prominently Discussing Vaginas.” 11.04.2026 41分

  In addition to publishing best-selling books about pregnancy and child-rearing, Emily Oster is a respected economist at Brown University. Over the course of the pandemic, she’s become the primary collector of data about Covid-19 in schools. Steve and Emily discuss how she became an advocate for school reopening, how economists think differently from the average person, and whether pregnant women really need to avoid coffee. This episode originally aired on February 26th, 2021.
• 16. Joshua Jay: “Humans Are So, So Easy to Fool.” 04.04.2026 42分

  He’s a world-renowned magician who’s been performing since he was seven years old. But Joshua Jay is also an author, toy maker, and consultant for film and television. Steve Levitt talks to him about how magicians construct tricks, how Joshua’s academic studies of magic have influenced Levitt’s life, and whether Jesus might have been a magician. This episode originally aired on February 19th, 2021.
• 15. Tim Harford: “If You Can Make Sure You're Not An Idiot, You've Done Well.” 28.03.2026 42分

  He’s a former World Bank economist who became a prolific journalist and the author of one of Steve Levitt’s favorite books, The Undercover Economist. Tim Harford lives in England, where he’s made it his mission to help the public understand statistics. In their conversation, Steve gives Tim some feedback on his new book, The Data Detective, contemplates if it’s possible to tell great stories with data, and Tim explains how making mistakes can be fun. This episode originally aired on February 12th, 2021.
• 13. Yul Kwon: “Don't Try to Change Yourself All at Once.” (UPDATE) 21.03.2026 43分

  He has been a lawyer, an instructor at the F.B.I. Academy, the owner of a frozen-yogurt chain, and a winner of the TV show Survivor. Today, Kwon works at Google, but things haven’t always come easily for him. Steve Levitt talks to Kwon about his debilitating childhood anxieties, his compulsion to choose the hardest path in life, and how Kwon used game theory to stage a victory on Survivor. This episode originally aired in two parts on January 29th and February 5th, 2021 and was updated on April 4th, 2025.
• 12. Sue Bird: “You Have to Pay the Superstars.” 14.03.2026 39分

  She is one of the best basketball players ever. She’s won multiple championships, including four Olympic gold medals and four W.N.B.A. titles — the most recent in 2020, just before turning 40. She also helped negotiate a landmark contract for the league’s players. Sue Bird tells Steve Levitt the untold truth about clutch players, her thoughts about the pay gap between male and female athletes, and what it means to be part of the first gay couple in ESPN’s The Body Issue. This episode originally aired on January 22nd, 2021.
• 11. Paul Romer: “I Figured Out How to Get Myself Fired From the World Bank.” 07.03.2026 34分

  For many economists — Steve Levitt included — there is perhaps no greater inspiration than Paul Romer, the now-Nobel laureate who at a young age redefined the discipline and has maintained a passion for introducing new ideas to staid debates. Levitt finds out what makes Romer a serial “quitter,” why you can’t manufacture big ideas, and what happened when Romer tried to start a charter city. This episode originally aired on January 8th, 2021.
• 10. Suzanne Gluck: “I'm a Person Who Can Convince Other People to Do Things” 28.02.2026 36分

  She might not be a household name, but Suzanne Gluck is one of the most powerful people in the book industry. Her slush pile is a key entry point to the biggest publishers in the U.S., and the authors she represents have sold more than 100 million books worldwide. Steve Levitt talks with Gluck — his own agent — about negotiating a deal, advising prospective authors, and convincing him to co-write Freakonomics. This episode originally aired on December 25th, 2020.
• 8. Peter Attia: “I Definitely Lost a Lot of IQ Points That Day” 21.02.2026 38分

  He’s been an engineer, a surgeon, a management consultant, and even a boxer. Now he’s a physician focused on the science of longevity. Peter Attia talks with Steve Levitt about the problem with immortality, what’s missing from our Covid response, and why nicotine is underrated. This episode originally aired on November 27th, 2020.
• 7. Caverly Morgan: "I Am Not This Voice. I Am Not This Narrative." 14.02.2026 38分

  She showed up late and confused to her first silent retreat, but Caverly Morgan eventually trained for eight years in silence at a Zen monastery. Now her mindfulness-education program Peace in Schools is part of the high-school curriculum in Portland, Ore. Steve Levitt finds out what daily life is like in a silent monastery, why teens find it easier than adults to learn meditation, and what happy children can teach their parents. This episode originally aired on November 13th, 2020.
• 6. Nathan Myhrvold: “I Am Interested in Lots of Things, and That's Actually a Bad Strategy” 07.02.2026 47分

  He graduated high school at 14, and by 23 had several graduate degrees and was a research assistant with Stephen Hawking. He became the first chief technology officer at Microsoft (without having ever studied computer science) and then started a company focused on big questions — like how to provide the world with clean energy and how to optimize pizza-baking. Find out what makes Nathan Myhrvold’s fertile mind tick, and which of his many ideas Steve Levitt likes the most. This episode originally aired on October 30th, 2020.
• 5. Susan Wojcicki: “Hey, Let’s Go Buy YouTube!” 31.01.2026 30分

  She was the sixteenth employee at Google — a company once based in her garage — and now she's the C.E.O. of its best-known subsidiary, YouTube. But despite being one of the most powerful people in the tech industry, few outside of Silicon Valley know the name Susan Wojcicki. Levitt talks with her about the early days of Google, how her background in economics shapes the company's products, and why YouTube's success has created a range of unforeseen and serious issues. This episode originally aired on October 16th, 2020.
• 4. Ken Jennings: “Don’t Neglect the Thing That Makes You Weird” 24.01.2026 42分

  It was only in his late twenties that America’s favorite brainiac began to seriously embrace his love of trivia. Now he holds the “Greatest of All Time” title on Jeopardy! Steve Levitt digs into how he trained for the show, what it means to have a "geographic memory," and why we lie to our children. This episode originally aired on October 2nd, 2020.
• 3. Kerwin Charles: “One Does Not Know Where an Insight Will Come From” 17.01.2026 39分

  The dean of Yale’s School of Management grew up in a small village in Guyana. During his unlikely journey, he has researched video-gaming habits, communicable disease, and why so many African-Americans haven’t had the kind of success he’s had. Steve Levitt talks to Charles about his parents’ encouragement, his love of Sports Illustrated, and how he talks to his American-born kids about the complicated history of Blackness in America. This episode originally aired on September 18th, 2020.