Freakonomics Radio

I'm going to sit on the grass and read a hundred years of solitude for the fifth time.

So my reading of your second-to-last book, The Conservative Heart, was that it was written to help pave the way for the right kind of Republican presidential candidate in 2016, maybe a Jeb Bush type or whatnot.

Yeah. It was my entrant into the ideological sweepstakes of 2016.

To go from, hey man, we can't wait for you to play to being radioactive, it was quite an experience.

I thought the hardest thing I had ever done was win an NBA championship. It turns out that winning a championship was much, much easier than coming to terms with the fact that I'd never play basketball again.

It was like a part of me died. It was like a piece of my life was cut from me, stolen, taken before it's time.

It didn't end the way it's supposed to end. He said, it never does.

And then you get into the real world and you're psychologically tormented and people are telling you, ah, you good.

This is in your memoir, Every Man for Himself and God Against All, which is a title of a film as well, correct?

The one before that is called Every Man for Himself and God Against All, a memoir.

And that you are a ski racer who also raises heritage poultry in Colorado.

And that you are the author of a book called Good to Go about the science of exercise recovery.

An idea I took away from Ken Blanchard's One Minute Manager, which I guess dates me because that book may not even be in print anymore. He just said you should catch people doing something right.

He said, I did read a novel once. It was called Madame Bovary and it was kind of nifty.

And this month, he's publishing a new book called The Third Pillar, how markets and the state leave the community behind.

The Third Pillar is an interesting book and an odd book. It's largely a work of economic history, even though Rajan isn't an economic historian.

His main argument is that the markets and the state have grown so big and powerful and institutional that they're choking off the lifeblood of actual communities, that we've gotten so good at scaling up that it's time for a concerted effort to scale down.

a populist movement believes that ruling elite are corrupt and undemocratic, that the masses have been treated poorly, and that the system ought to be changed because the general will of the people demands it.

It's based on Jane Austen's Emma.

Now, remember, Emma is the one Jane Austen book that Steve Levitt could name.

Clueless, adapted from Jane Austen's Emma, is about a young woman who's constantly scheming to set people up romantically.

In Emma, Emma and her friend, Ms. Weston are talking about Jane Fairfax.

Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever and rich with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence and had lived nearly 21 years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.

And today he is our guest on the latest installment of Frequently Asked Questions in which we compel a noteworthy person to tell us some important truths, such as their favorite sport.

He's written an excellent book called The Signal and the Noise, which is essentially about the folly of prediction.

We spoke back in early March when Nate Silver had two things to celebrate, the one year anniversary of 538 on ESPN.com and the paperback publication of his book, The Signal and the Noise.

It's kind of one of the themes of my book.

So when they talk about my book is how when the personal computer became commonplace in the workforce, the 1970s, then in the home in the early 1980s, it took a while before there were any tangible signs of productivity gains in the economy, meaning like 10 or 15 or 20 years even.

If you want to learn more about his settlement work, he's written two books. What Is Life Worth? And Who Gets What?

Both of us were really taken with Hsieh himself and a book he published called Delivering Happiness.

And my good friend, and you may know him, the psychologist Barry Schwartz has a paradox of choice, The Paradox of Choice guy.

David McCullough who'd written a book that I'd read about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge called The Great Bridge and I just devoured it and sent up my partners let's make a film on this and they looked at me like I was crazy.

the only general cookbooks that exist are The Joy of Cooking by a White Lady.

Tim Harford is an economist and writer who lives in London. His first book was called The Undercover Economist.