Zachary Crockett

Host and Reporter at The Economics of Everyday Things

Host/Reporter, Economics of Everyday Things (@freakonomics). Previously @thehustle, @voxdotcom, @priceonomics. Repped by @WME. Mountain lover.

Articles

Locksmiths - Freakonomics

4 days ago | freakonomics.com | Zachary Crockett

Episode Transcript For most of us, getting locked out of our house or our car is a pretty miserable experience. But for Wayne Winton, a lock without a key is a thing of beauty. WINTON: When you pick your first lock that’s — that’s one huge dopamine rush. The second is when you open your first car, then when you open your first safe, and when you open your first bank vault.
Fortune Cookies - Freakonomics

1 week ago | freakonomics.com | Zachary Crockett

Episode Transcript At first glance, 37th street in Long Island City, New York, looks a little down on its luck. On one side of the road, there’s a strip of dilapidated warehouses and auto body shops. On the other, there’s a cemetery where mafiosi are buried. You can hear mechanics drilling out tire bolts, and cars honking on the nearby expressway.
Ski Areas - Freakonomics

2 weeks ago | freakonomics.com | Zachary Crockett

Episode Transcript Imagine for a moment that you’re a venture capitalist, and you’re looking for your next big investment. GOODELL: And I’m making a pitch to you. And I tell you that my business is seasonal, labor intensive, weather dependent, capital intensive, and is based on a discretionary recreational activity that has inherent risks. I don’t know if the conversation would go much further.
Toothpaste - Freakonomics

3 weeks ago | freakonomics.com | Zachary Crockett

Over the course of your life, it’s likely that you’ll brush your teeth more than 50,000 times. In the process, you’ll go through 450 tubes — almost 170 pounds — of toothpaste. Toothpaste is one of the first things you use every morning, and one of the last things you use every night. But you might not give it much thought. Unless you’re someone like Stephan Habif. HABIF: I would have to say I spend about 40 to 50 percent of my time thinking and dreaming about toothpaste.
Executive Recruiters

1 month ago | freakonomics.com | Zachary Crockett

Imagine that you’re on the board of directors at a Fortune 500 company, and the CEO just told you she’s going to step down. You have to find an experienced, charismatic, and operationally astute successor, preferably one who knows the industry. And you only have a few months to pull it off. But you can’t exactly reach out to your competitors to see if they’re interested in sending over some of their executive talent.
Mall Cops - Freakonomics

1 month ago | freakonomics.com | Zachary Crockett

There is no greater bastion of capitalism than the American shopping mall. It is a place where, in the course of an afternoon, you can buy a pair of Crocs, eat a Cinnabon, and test out Piña Colada-scented lotion at Bath & Body Works. But it’s also a place where the full spectrum of human behavior is on display — a place where visitors might require protection. And out on the concourse, scanning the crowds for suspicious activity, a guy like Gus Parsons is heeding the call.
Game Show Winnings

1 month ago | freakonomics.com | Zachary Crockett

Back in 2000, Bowen Kerins found himself sitting in the hot seat on the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. At the time, he was a 24-year-old math teacher, earning around $45,000 a year. And as the lights dimmed and the intense music echoed through the studio, he tried to mentally prepare for a series of 15 trivia questions that could change his life.
Chain Restaurant Recipes

1 month ago | freakonomics.com | Zachary Crockett

At first glance, the Shake Shack in New York City’s West Village looks like any other fast-casual restaurant. When you peek through the window, you’ll see customers eating burgers, chicken sandwiches, and crinkle-cut french fries. But in the back of the building, you’ll find a staircase that leads down to a secret kitchen. Down here, underneath the city, chefs are busy inventing Shake Shack’s next big menu item. KARANGIS: The ideas for a new item can come from anywhere, anyone.
Used Golf Balls (Replay)

2 months ago | freakonomics.com | Zachary Crockett |Lashan Wanigatunga

Episode Transcript By his own admission, Lashan Wanigatunga is no Tiger Woods. WANIGATUNGA: I’ve been a, let’s say, a struggling golfer for a long time. Lost a lot of golf balls. In fact, you might say that Wanigatunga is an expert in losing golf balls. He loses around 6 of them every time he goes to the course. His shots end up in the woods, somewhere in the rough, or at the bottom of a pond.
Guide Dogs - Freakonomics

2 months ago | freakonomics.com | Zachary Crockett

A few days a week, Pat McKenna makes an hour-and-a-half commute from his home in Highland Park, New Jersey, to his office in Newark. It involves a bus, a train, and a lot of walking through busy streets and intersections. It’s a complicated journey, and McKenna gets some help from a navigator. MCKENNA: I leave the house at 7 a.m. There are several crossings where we stop. I listen for traffic and he watches for traffic. And when it sounds like the coast is clear, he gets us across an intersection.