The World Is (Still) Drowning in Sludge
24 June - 54 minsInsurance forms that make no sense. Subscriptions that can’t be cancelled. A never-ending blizzard of automated notifications. In this update of a 2025 episode, Stephen Dubner discovers where all this sludge comes from — and how much it’s costing us.
SOURCES:
Benjamin Handel, professor of economics at UC Berkeley.
Neale Mahoney, professor of economics at Stanford University.
Richard Thaler, professor of economics at The University of Chicago.
RESOURCES:
"Selling Subscriptions," by Liran Einav, Ben Klopack, and Neale Mahoney (Stanford University, 2023).
"The ‘Enshittification’ of TikTok," by Cory Doctorow (WIRED, 2023).
"Dominated Options in Healt...
Series Episodes
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677. Can Backgammon Save Us from Ourselves?
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This Is Your Brain on Pollution (Update)
As the Trump administration rolls back environmental regulations, we revisit a 2022 episode that explored the hidden cost of an invisible threat: air pollution.
47 mins
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676. Has America Lost the Plot?
Another war in the Middle East. A retreat from the international order. A presidency built on self-dealing and arbitrary power. It’s enough to make you think the U.S. is in a steep decline — but Fareed Zakaria thinks otherwise.
1 hour 5 mins
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The Vanishing Mr. Feynman (Update)
In his final years, Richard Feynman's curiosity took him to some surprising places. We hear from his companions on the trips he took — and one he wasn’t able to. (Part three of a three-part series originally published in 2024.)
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