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Freakonomics Rev Ed: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything Audiobook
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The legendary bestseller that encouraged millions of readers to look at the hidden side of everything
Which is more dangerous: a gun or a swimming pool? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? What do real estate agents and the KKK have in common?
These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much-heralded scholar who studies the riddles of everyday life—from cheating and crime to sports and child-rearing—and whose conclusions turn conventional wisdom on its head. Freakonomics is a groundbreaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning author and journalist. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: freakonomics.
Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives—how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they explore the hidden side of everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The myths of campaign finance. The telltale marks of a cheating schoolteacher. What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world, despite a great deal of complexity and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not unknowable, and—if the right questions are asked—is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking. Freakonomics establishes this unconventional premise: If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work. It is true that readers of this book will be armed with enough riddles and stories to last a thousand cocktail parties. But Freakonomics can provide more than that. It will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.
This revised and expanded edition of the book contains a smattering of bonus material, including selected Freakonomics columns from The New York Times Magazine; a Q&A with Steven Levitt, Stephen Dubner, and Angela Duckworth; and the New York Times Magazine profile Dubner wrote about Levitt that started it all.
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"This book was very inciteful and interesting. I had to read it for a class but I did not mind it at all. The topics are explored in ways you never would have thought of!"
— McKenzie (5 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“The trivia alone is worth the cover price.”
— New York Times Book Review -
“If Indiana Jones were an economist, he’d be Steven Levitt… Criticizing Freakonomics would be like criticizing a hot fudge sundae.”
— Wall Street Journal -
“Eye-opening and sometimes eye-popping”
— Entertainment Weekly -
“It might appear presumptuous of Steven Levitt [as an economist] to see himself as an all-purpose intellectual detective, fit to take on whatever puzzle of human behavior grabs his fancy. But on the evidence of Freakonomics, the presumption is earned.”
— The New York Times -
“An unconventional economist defies conventional wisdom.”
— Associated Press -
“A showcase for Levitt’s intriguing explorations into a number of disparate topics…There’s plenty of fun to be had.”
— Salon -
“Levitt is a number cruncher extraordinaire.”
— Philadelphia Daily News -
“[Leavitt] teases out meaning from juxtapositions that simply would not occur to other researchers…An eye-opening, and most interesting, approach to the world.”
— Kirkus Reviews -
[An] intriguing, quirky look at life and how to understand better the world in a new way.
— Library Journal -
“Refreshingly accessible and engrossing. Journalist Dubner reads with just the right mix of enthusiasm and awe, revealing juicy morsels of wisdom on everything from what sumo wrestlers and teachers have in common to whether parents can really push their kids to greatness…Meaty—and entertaining—listening.”
— Publishers Weekly on the audiobook
Awards
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A Book Sense Book of the Year
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A New York Times bestseller
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A USA Today bestseller
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Shortlisted for the Financial Times Best Book of the Year
Freakonomics Rev Ed Listener Reviews
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Estela Alfaro , 10/15/2021
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Brooke Adams , 4/3/2019
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Park Wyatt, 7/18/2015
About the Authors
Steven D. Levitt is the Alvin H. Baum Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, where he is also director of the Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory. In 2004 he was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal, which recognizes the most influential economist in America under the age of forty. More recently he was named one of Time magazine’s “100 People Who Shape Our World.” He received his BA from Harvard in 1989, his PhD from MIT in 1994, and has taught at the University of Chicago since 1997. He coauthored the bestselling book Freakonomics with Stephen J. Dubner.
Stephen J. Dubner is an award-winning author, journalist, and radio and television personality. He is best known for his books Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics, which have sold more than five million copies in thirty-five languages. The Freakonomics enterprise also includes an award-winning blog, a high-profile documentary film, and a public radio project called Freakonomics Radio, which Dubner hosts. He lives in New York with his family.