Stephen Dubner

5 days ago | freakonomics.com | Amy C. Edmondson |Jillian Peterson |James Densley |Stephen Dubner

Episode Transcript Hey there, it’s Stephen Dubner. I’m sure you’ve heard people say that failure is a great teacher — but how? How does that work? What do we learn from failure that prevents more of the same? How do we not let fear of failure keep us from trying things? We tried to answer those questions, and many more, in a series we first published in 2023. I thought it was worth publishing again — so today, you’ll hear part one.

1 week ago | freakonomics.com | Stephen Dubner

Episode Transcript Over the past few episodes of Freakonomics Radio, we dug into the economics of live theater, and we followed one show on its long journey toward Broadway. In that series, we learned that live theater has become very expensive to produce, so ticket prices have also risen — and, at the same time, attendance is falling. So, if fewer people are watching plays and musicals, what are they watching?

2 weeks ago | freakonomics.com | Stephen Dubner |Michael Rushton

Episode 631 It’s been in development for five years and has at least a year to go. On the eve of its out-of-town debut, the actor playing Lincoln quit. And the producers still need to raise another $15 million to bring the show to New York. There really is no business like show business. (Part three of a three-part series.)

3 weeks ago | freakonomics.com | Stephen Dubner

Episode Transcript Hey there, it’s Stephen Dubner. We are in the middle of a new series on the economics of live theater. It got me thinking about another episode we made, way back in 2012, about the psychology of one particularly fascinating piece of theater — such a fascinating piece that it only closed, finally, in early 2025. The episode also gets into one of the most famous experiments in the history of psychology.

1 month ago | freakonomics.com | Stephen Dubner

Episode Transcript Making something out of nothing is hard. In the beginning, all you have is your imagination; it’s your only tool, your only muscle. But if you are determined — and lucky — that thing in your imagination can become real. And then, if you’re very lucky, people will pay to see it. Rocco LANDESMAN: There’s been theater since the beginning of man, really. What is theater?