Freakonomics Radio

Gary and Stephen talk about creativity, recovery, getting fired, and holding grudges. They also get outside and play basketball, which is a big part of how Gary stays well. If you'd like to see the video version of Better in Person, watch it on YouTube or Apple Podcasts.

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At first it sounds ridiculous. But it might be inevitable. Guest host Steve Levitt talks to a team that hopes to push A.I. infrastructure off the planet. Part one of a two-part series.)

 

SOURCES:

Blaise Agüera y Arcas, vice president and fellow at Google, C.T.O. of technology and society.

Travis Beals, senior director of product management at Google, Project Suncatcher lead.

Will Marshall, co-founder and C.E.O. of Planet Labs.



 

RESOURCES:

What Is Intelligence?, by Blaise Agüera y Arcas (2025).

"Towards a future space-based, highly scalable AI infrastructure system design," by Blaise Agüera y Arcas, Travis Beals, Maria Biggs, Jessica V. Bloom, Thomas Fischbacher, Konstantin Gromov, Urs Köster, Rishiraj Pravahan, and James Manyika (Google, 2025).

Reason, by Isaac Asimov (1941).



 

EXTRAS: 

"Are Our Tools Becoming Part of Us?," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2024).



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Hillary Sterling was a Brooklyn kid raised on cream cheese sandwiches and canned potatoes. So how did she become one of New York City's best chefs? The Ci Siamo executive chef explains on the second episode of Better in Person. If you'd like to see the video version of Better in Person, watch it on YouTube or Apple Podcasts.

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Like tens of millions of people, Stephen Dubner thought he had a penicillin allergy. Like the vast majority, he didn’t. This misdiagnosis costs billions of dollars and causes serious health problems, so why hasn’t it been fixed? We find out in this update of a 2025 episode.

 

SOURCES:

Kimberly Blumenthal, allergist-immunologist and researcher at the Mayo Clinic.

Theresa MacPhail, associate professor of science and technology studies at Stevens Institute of Technology.

Thomas Platts-Mills, professor of medicine at the University of Virginia.

Elena Resnick, allergist and immunologist at Mount Sinai Hospital.



 

RESOURCES:

Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing World, by Theresa MacPhail (2023).

"Evaluation and Management of Penicillin Allergy: A Review," by Erica S. Shenoy, Eric Macy, and Theresa Rowe (JAMA, 2019).

"The Allergy Epidemics: 1870–2010," by Thomas Platts-Mills (The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 2016).

"Randomized Trial of Peanut Consumption in Infants at Risk for Peanut Allergy," by George Du Toit, Graham Roberts, et al. (The New England Journal of Medicine, 2015).



 

EXTRAS:

"The Freakonomics Radio Guide to Getting Better," series by Freakonomics Radio (2026).

"Doctors Know They Prescribe Too Many Antibiotics. Why Don’t They Stop?" by Freakonomics, M.D. (2022).



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Is the oxymoron really “the secret sauce to everything”? That’s the case Ingels makes in this debut episode of our new video show Better in Person, filmed in Stephen Dubner’s living room.

 

If you'd like to see the video version of Better in Person, watch it on YouTube or Apple Podcasts.

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