636. Why Aren’t We Having More Babies?

Not exactly. But their runaway success with games like Wordle says something bigger about the way we live now. (Part one of a series, “We Are All Gamers Now.”) SOURCES: Alex Hardiman, chief product officer at The New York Times. Jonathan Knight, S.V.P. and general manager for New ...  Show more

Great. Then depressed. Then great again. Stephen Dubner gets the full story from David Lang; we also hear from some fans, and the New York Philharmonic’s president. The math and the aftermath of wealth of nations. (Part two of a series.) SOURCES: David Lang, composer and professo ...  Show more

For a long time, the story about the world’s population was that it was growing too quickly. There were going to be too many humans, not enough resources, and that spelled disaster. But now the script has flipped. Fertility rates have declined dramatically, from about five chi ...

Are things really as bad as they seem? Has Gen Z given up hope for the world? And why was the father of positive psychology a lifelong pessimist?

Stephen J. Shaw is a data scientist & demographer. He is the writer and director of ‘Birthgap - Childless World’, a documentary exploring the global decline in birth rates. Check out part one here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6s8QlIGanA SPONSORED BY: EasyDNS - domain name r ...  Show more

Why does the U.S. use Fahrenheit when Celsius is better? Would you quit your job if a coin flip told you to? And how do you get an entire country to drive on the other side of the road?