175. Why You Should Bribe Your Kids

Americans are having fewer children than they want. Government attempts to boost birth rates haven’t done much. But new research points to a surprisingly simple way to help — and it starts at home. (Part one of a two-part series.) SOURCES:Nick Bloom, professor of economics at Sta ...  Show more

Stephen Dubner recently served on a criminal jury. Twelve strangers — selected randomly and barely paid — took the job seriously. Afterward, he wondered: why can’t our politics work that way? A growing movement, inspired by Athenian democracy, says it can. SOURCES:Terry Bouricius ...  Show more

Children are sometimes perceived as "defective adults", empty epistemic vessels that need to be filled with the knowledge of their elders. In fact, children can teach adults a thing or two when it comes to the getting of wisdom. But does this mean that children are philosophers? ...  Show more

"Most schools and most parents teach reading all wrong. They bully kids into doing it. They pressure them. They tell them, 'Reading is what smart and successful people do.' Then they’re surprised when kids who struggled with reading don’t think they’re smart, and they wonder why ...  Show more

If you’re a parent, teacher, coach, or manager who lives, loves, and works with tweens, teens, and 20s-somethings, you know that young people sometimes act in seemingly head-scratching ways, that you don’t always feel like you’re being listened to, and that it can be frustrating ...  Show more