Freakonomics Radio

Everyone makes mistakes. How do you learn from them? Lessons from the classroom, the Air Force, and the world’s deadliest infectious disease.

RESOURCES:

• Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well, by Amy Edmondson (2023).
• "You Think Failure Is Hard? So Is Learning From It," by Lauren Eskreis-Winkler and Ayelet Fishbach (Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2022).
• "The Market for R&D Failures," by Manuel Trajtenberg and Roy Shalem (SSRN, 2010).
• "Performing a Project Premortem," by Gary Klein (Harvard Business Review, 2007).

EXTRAS:

• “How to Succeed at Failing,” series by Freakonomics Radio (2023).
• "Moncef Slaoui: 'It’s Unfortunate That It Takes a Crisis for This to Happen,'" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2020).

SOURCES:

• Will Coleman, founder and C.E.O. of Alto.
• Amy Edmondson, professor of leadership management at Harvard Business School.
• Babak Javid, physician-scientist and associate director of the University of California, San Francisco Center for Tuberculosis.
• Gary Klein, cognitive psychologist and pioneer in the field of naturalistic decision making.
• Theresa MacPhail, medical anthropologist and associate professor of science & technology studies at the Stevens Institute of Technology.
• Roy Shalem, lecturer at Tel Aviv University.
• Samuel West, curator and founder of The Museum of Failure.

Giving up can be painful. That's why we need to talk about it. Today: stories about glitchy apps, leaky paint cans, broken sculptures — and a quest for the perfect bowl of ramen.

RESOURCES

• "Data Snapshot: Tenure and Contingency in US Higher Education," by Glenn Colby (American Association of University Professors, 2023).
• Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, by Angela Duckworth (2016).
• "Entrepreneurship and the U.S. Economy," by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2016).
• "A CV of Failures," by Melanie Stefan (Nature, 2010).

EXTRAS

• “How to Succeed at Failing,” series by Freakonomics Radio (2023).
• "Annie Duke Thinks You Should Quit," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2022).
• "How Do You Know When It’s Time to Quit?" by No Stupid Questions (2020).
• “Honey, I Grew the Economy,” by Freakonomics Radio (2019).
• “The Upside of Quitting," by Freakonomics Radio (2011).
• "The Ramen Now - Rapid Desktop Cooking for Delicious Meals," Kickstarter campaign by Travis Thul.

In medicine, failure can be catastrophic. It can also produce discoveries that save millions of lives. Tales from the front line, the lab, and the I.T. department.

RESOURCES:

• Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well, by Amy Edmondson (2023).
• "Reconsidering the Application of Systems Thinking in Healthcare: The RaDonda Vaught Case," by Connor Lusk, Elise DeForest, Gabriel Segarra, David M. Neyens, James H. Abernathy III, and Ken Catchpole (British Journal of Anaesthesia, 2022).
• "Dispelling the Myth That Organizations Learn From Failure," by Jeffrey Ray (SSRN, 2016).
• "A New, Evidence-Based Estimate of Patient Harms Associated With Hospital Care," by John T. James (Journal of Patient Safety, 2013).
• To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System, by the National Academy of Sciences (1999).
• "Polymers for the Sustained Release of Proteins and Other Macromolecules," by Robert Langer and Judah Folkman (Nature, 1976).

EXTRAS:

• "How to Succeed at Failing," series by Freakonomics Radio (2023).
• "Will a Covid-19 Vaccine Change the Future of Medical Research?" by Freakonomics Radio (2020).
• "Bad Medicine, Part 3: Death by Diagnosis," by Freakonomics Radio (2016).

We tend to think of tragedies as a single terrible moment, rather than the result of multiple bad decisions. Can this pattern be reversed? We try — with stories about wildfires, school shootings, and love.

RESOURCES

• Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well, by Amy Edmondson (2023).
• "Michigan School Shooter Is Found Eligible for Life Sentence Without Parole," by Stephanie Saul and Dana Goldstein (The New York Times, 2023).
• "How Fire Turned Lahaina Into a Death Trap," by Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Serge F. Kovaleski, Shawn Hubler, and Riley Mellen (The New York Times, 2023).
• The Violence Project: How to Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic, by Jillian Peterson and James Densley (2021).
• "I Was Almost A School Shooter," by Aaron Stark (TEDxBoulder, 2018).

EXTRAS

• "Is Perfectionism Ruining Your Life?" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).
• "Why Did You Marry That Person?" by Freakonomics Radio (2022).
• "What Do We Really Learn From Failure?" by No Stupid Questions (2021).
• "How to Fail Like a Pro," by Freakonomics Radio (2019).
• "Failure Is Your Friend," by Freakonomics Radio (2014).

Claudia Goldin is the newest winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics. We spoke with her in 2016 about why women earn so much less than men — and how it’s not all explained by discrimination.

John Ray is an emergency C.E.O., a bankruptcy expert who takes over companies that have succumbed to failure or fraud. He’s currently cleaning up the mess left by alleged crypto scammer Sam Bankman-Fried. And he loves it.

RESOURCES:

• "United States of America v. Samuel Bankman-Fried, a/k/a 'SBF,'" by the United States District Court Southern District of New York (2023).
• "Does FTX’s New CEO Have the Worst Job in Corporate America?" by Ben Cohen (The Wall Street Journal, 2022).
• "John J. Ray III, a St. Joseph’s Grad From Pittsfield, Is Earning $1,300 an Hour to Sort Out the Remains of the FTX Cryptocurrency Collapse," by Larry Parnass (The Berkshire Eagle, 2022).
• "'Pit Bull' Fights to Pick Up Enron's Pieces," by Ameet Sachdev (Chicago Tribune, 2007).

EXTRAS:

• “The Secret Life of a C.E.O.,” series by Freakonomics Radio (2018-2023).
• "Did Michael Lewis Just Get Lucky with Moneyball?" by Freakonomics Radio (2022).
• "Does the Crypto Crash Mean the Blockchain Is Over?" by Freakonomics Radio (2022).
• "What Can Blockchain Do for You?" series by Freakonomics Radio (2022).

If two parents can run a family, why shouldn’t two executives run a company? We dig into the research and hear firsthand stories of both triumph and disaster. Also: lessons from computer programmers, Simon and Garfunkel, and bears versus alligators.

RESOURCES:

• "How Allbirds Lost Its Way," by Suzanne Kapner (The Wall Street Journal, 2023).
• "Is It Time to Consider Co-C.E.O.s?" by Marc A. Feigen, Michael Jenkins, and Anton Warendh (Harvard Business Review, 2022).
• "The Costs and Benefits of Pair Programming," by Alistair Cockburn and Laurie Williams (2000).
• "Strengthening the Case for Pair Programming," by Laurie Williams, Robert R. Kessler, Ward Cunningham, and Ron Jeffries (IEEE Software, 2000).

EXTRAS:

• "The Facts Are In: Two Parents Are Better Than One," by Freakonomics Radio (2023).
• "The Secret Life of a C.E.O.," series by Freakonomics Radio (2018-2023).

In her new book The Two-Parent Privilege, the economist Melissa Kearney says it’s time for liberals to face the facts: U.S. marriage rates have plummeted but the babies keep coming, and the U.S. now leads the world in single-parent households. Plus: our friends at Atlas Obscura explore just how many parents a kid can have.

The union that represents N.F.L. players conducted their first-ever survey of workplace conditions, and issued a report card to all 32 teams. What did the survey reveal? Clogged showers, rats in the locker room — and some helpful insights for those of us who don’t play pro football.

For show notes, visit freakonomics.com/podcast/when-is-a-superstar-just-another-employee/

For all the speculation about the future, A.I. tools can be useful right now. Adam Davidson discovers what they can help us do, how we can get the most from them — and why the things that make them helpful also make them dangerous. (Part 3 of "How to Think About A.I.")