Freakonomics Radio

I'm the author of Supermarket USA, Food and Power in the Cold War Farms Race.

I don't mean to deny the power and the might of these weapons systems that were deployed in the space race and all that. But fundamentally, this was a contest to demonstrate that either communism or capitalism was a superior political economic system.

So when the supermarket is upheld as this, you know, effectively missile, this concrete consumer weapon against the claims of communism, it's built on this idea that supermarkets are producing this affordability just through the workings of supply and demand.

Those massive surpluses of cheap corn and later soybeans encourages the rise of industrial meat production, concentrated animal production, livestock feeding operations where that's enabled by cheap grain production.

And it's hard to deny that. On the other hand, we don't apply the same kind of metrics to industrial manufacturing where similarly there's been massive U.S. government investment in science and technology to support economic growth and productivity.

I'm the author of Supermarket USA, Food and Power in the Cold War Farms Race.

I argue yes. The easy answer is that the first declared supermarket was built in the United States.

I think the broader answer is that what makes a supermarket a supermarket is the industrial agriculture system that enables the affordability of mass produced foods.

So when the supermarket is upheld as this, you know, effectively missile, this concrete consumer weapon against the claims of communism, it's built on this idea that supermarkets are producing this affordability just through the workings of supply and demand.

Where the reality is for everything from milk to beef to grain to processed foods of all kinds, there's massive government investment in the science and technology that enables the productivity of American farms from fertilizers to frozen food processes to distribution and so forth.

Wolf's latest book is called Freedom's Laboratory, The Cold War Struggle for the Soul of Science.

That is Audra Wolf. I'm a writer, editor and historian. Wolf's latest book is called Freedom's Laboratory, The Cold War Struggle for the Soul of Science.

Basically, it's the examination of meetings as a workplace phenomenon, trying to understand why they go bad, trying to understand the dynamics that emerge in meetings and trying to figure out how to make them better.

He's written a book called The Surprising Science of Meetings.

Basically, it's the examination of meetings as a workplace phenomenon, trying to understand why they go bad, trying to understand the dynamics that emerge in meetings and trying to figure out how to make them better.

In 1989, Schwarzman published a book called The Meeting, Gatherings in Organizations and Communities.

I would say that meetings are the organization, which is to say that instead of having The Meeting as a place to solve problems, we need to have problems and crises and decisions to produce meetings.

In 1989, Schwartzman published a book called The Meeting, Gatherings in Organizations and Communities.

I would say that meetings are the organization, which is to say that instead of having The Meeting as a place to solve problems, we need to have problems and crises. And decisions to produce meetings.

One of my favorite stories about this, and this is quoted by Ken Oletta's The streets were paved with gold.

One of my favorite stories about this, and this is quoted by Ken Oletta's The streets were paved with gold.

It's kind of like looking at a table of contents of the New York Times over the past 20 years.

all these things, all these ideas that people love to embrace and talk about and pass on are somewhere between bogus and trumped up.

I have to say, so this book is incredibly fun.

It's hugely enjoyable on the one hand, but also hugely sobering on the other because it's kind of like looking at a table of contents of The New York Times over the past 20 years.

That's Nikhil Saval, the author of a book called Cubed, A Secret History of the Workplace.

That's Nikhil Saval, the author of a book called Cubed, a secret history of the workplace.

every environmental problem related to contemporary agriculture ends up having its deepest roots in meat production monocropping excessive applications of nitrogen fertilizer addiction to insecticides rainforest depletion land degradation topsoil runoff declining water supplies even global warming all these problems would be considerably less severe if people ate meat rarely if ever

every environmental problem related to contemporary agriculture ends up having its deepest roots in meat production. Monocropping, excessive applications of nitrogen fertilizer, addiction to insecticides, rain forest depletion, land degradation, topsoil runoff, declining water supplies, even global warming. All these problems, McWilliams writes, would be considerably less severe if people ate meat rarely, if ever.

She set out to answer these questions in a book she called The Year of Living Danishly, Uncovering the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country.

Some of the economists that I spoke to for The Year of Living Danishly put it that actually these high levels of trust have been here that predate the social services and the social welfare system.

She set out to answer these questions in a book she called The Year of Living Danishly, Uncovering the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country.

Some of the economists that I spoke to for The Year of Living Danishly put it that actually these high levels of trust have been here that predate the social services and the social welfare system.

Viking is the author of an international bestseller called The Little Book of Hygge.

Viking is the author of an international bestseller called The Little Book of Hygge.

Whipple has written a book titled How to Win Games and Beat People.

Really the premise for it, I suppose the elevator pitch was it's preposterously overqualified people advising on games.

How many people read my book before it's a failure?

I'm very happy to take that risk.

Whipple has written a book titled How to Win Games and Beat People.

As we mentioned, the title of Whipple's book is How to Win Games and Beat People. Nothing particularly bloodthirsty about that but the subtitle, Defeat and Demolish Your Friends and Family.

Really the premise for it, I suppose the elevator pitch was it's preposterously overqualified people advising on games.

How many people read my book before it's a failure?

I'll just say like, I think both my agent and publisher would agree with this. I'm very happy to take that risk if enough people are prepared to buy my book.

She is also the author of several books, including Victory, the Triumphant Gay Revolution.

Ted Steinberg's latest book is Gotham Unbound, The Ecological History of Greater New York.

Ted Steinberg's latest book is Gotham Unbound, the Ecological History of Greater New York.

I am the director of the 30 Million Words Initiative and author of 30 Million Words Building a Child's Brain.

By the end of the age of three, children born into poverty will have heard 30 million fewer words than their more affluent peers.

And how you explain to families and to this country what a rich language environment is is complex. And what we've done in our research program is we've called it down to what we call the three Ts.

Education doesn't start on the first day of school. It starts on the first day of life.

And I truly believe that until we address education as it should be, in a scientific and biological way, right, because learning begins at day one, that we're never going to move the needle.

I am the director of the 30 Million Words Initiative And author of the recently published book 30 Million Words Building a Child's Brain

When you look at the evidence, what you often find is that trials are conducted in absolutely perfect dream patients.

One of Goldacre's books is called Bad Pharma.

Vinay Prasad wrote the book on medical reversals, literally. It's called Ending Medical Reversal.

Vinay Prasad wrote the book on medical reversals, literally. It's called Ending Medical Reversal.

Among her books are This Republic of Suffering, Death and the American Civil War, and Mothers of Invention, Women of the Slave-Holding South in the American Civil War.

Among her books are This Republic of Suffering, Death and the American Civil War, and Mothers of Invention, Women of the Slave-Holding South and the American Civil War.

Robinson's latest book is called Eating on the Wild Side.

It's fascinating. Almost every page tells you something you don't know about food, especially fruits and veg and herbs. And a lot of it goes back to that split between delicious and nutritious.

Robinson's latest book is called Eating on the Wild Side. It's fascinating. Almost every page tells you something you don't know about food, especially fruits and veg and herbs.

And it is only now do we have the technology and the slowly accumulating wisdom to know how we should transform our food supply to make it optimum for human health.

What we found when we look at managers is that while some might be slightly better than the others, it's not a big difference between one manager to the next in terms of the decisions that they make.

So it's like you kind of need dad in the house.

And the president, if you think about the control that a president might have over the economy for instance, just one area, the president is just a third of our government and we have the legislative and executive branches.

Just this year the former secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Gare Lundestad Published a book called the peace secretary