637. What It’s Like to Be Middle-Aged (in the...

After five years, Levitt is ending People I (Mostly) Admire, and will start hosting the occasional Freakonomics Radio episode. We couldn’t be happier. SOURCES:Steve Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics and host of People I (Mostly) Admire. RESOURCES:"How to Help Kids Succeed," by Pe ...  Show more

It regulates 20 percent of the U.S. economy, and its commissioner has an aggressive agenda — faster drug approvals, healthier food, cures for diabetes and cancer. How much can he deliver? (Part two of “The Freakonomics Radio Guide to Getting Better.”) SOURCES:Marty Makary, commis ...  Show more

From John Cheever’s 1964 short story “The Swimmer” to Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling 2006 memoir, “<stro ...

Send us a textJoin Professors Jeffrey Sachs and an expert on religious conflict, Richard E. Rubenstein as they discuss Rubenstein’s book, Aristotle's Children: How Christians, Muslims, and Jews Rediscovered Ancient Wisdom and Illuminated the Middle Ages. Rubenstein skillfully gui ...  Show more

Medieval art memes! Human-faced animals! Drunk monks! And a preponderance of snails. Middle Ages manuscript expert, art history communicator, and Medieval Codicologist Evan Pridmore covers: what those golden illuminated Middle Ages manuscripts were made of, who drew them, why ...

Both Frederick II and King John were excommunicated from the all-powerful church, but why?

Dr. Eleanor Janega and Dr. Felicity Hill explore the complex phenomenon of excommunication in the medieval period, from the politics and propaganda behind this spiritual sancti ...