In the newest show from the Freakonomics Radio Network, host Zachary Crockett explores the hidden side of the things around us. This week: One creature’s trash is another’s cash. (Or, how one man found profit in pee.)

Bonus

Tom Brady, A.D.H.D., and a Really Bad Headache (Bonus)

Jul 11th, 2023 37m 40s

A sneak peek at Bapu's new book, Random Acts of Medicine, available now from Doubleday, and an announcement about the show.

78. Do Kids Cause Divorce?

Mar 31st, 2023 21m 36s

Couples get divorced for all kinds of reasons. Is having kids one of them? Bapu talks about research that investigates what happens to parents who unexpectedly have twins. Plus, an announcement about the future of the show.

77. They Make Minimum Wage. They Could Save Your Life.

Mar 24th, 2023 24m 10s

Doctors and nurses get most of the attention — but a new study suggests we can improve health care by raising wages for a group of workers who are often overlooked.

76. Is a Spoonful of Sunlight the Best Medicine?

Mar 17th, 2023 21m 40s

In hospitals, a softer pillow or a nicer room might be more than just amenities — they could improve outcomes for patients.

75. What Is Sugar Really Doing to You?

Mar 10th, 2023 24m 11s

Americans eat a lot of sugar — and it’s hard to determine how it affects our health. Bapu explains how a new study uses data from the 1950s to help solve the mystery.

74. How Does Playing Football Affect Your Health?

Mar 3rd, 2023 16m 52s

It’s not a new question, but it’s a tricky one to study. Bapu explains why, and talks about how an N.F.L. labor dispute helped him get some answers.

73. Who Pays for Multimillion-Dollar Miracle Cures?

Feb 17th, 2023 33m 19s

The most expensive drugs in the world are treatments for genetic diseases. And more of these cures are on the horizon. How will anyone be able to afford them?

72. What’s Stopping Us From Curing Rare Diseases?

Feb 10th, 2023 34m 23s

Breakthroughs in biotech that seem like science fiction are becoming reality. Why aren’t more patients benefiting from them?

71. What Do COVID-19 and Cancer Have in Common?

Feb 3rd, 2023 28m 28s

mRNA vaccines helped bring the pandemic under control. Could they also train the immune system to fight cancer?

70. Why Are There Still So Few Female Surgeons?

Jan 27th, 2023 29m 25s

Success and failure are hard to measure in medicine. Bapu looks at how surgeons are judged after a bad outcome — and whether men and women are treated the same.

69. Home Sweet … Hospital?

Jan 20th, 2023 30m 22s

We take it for granted that, when people are acutely ill, they should be in the hospital. Is there a better way?

68. The E.R. Doctor’s Dilemma

Jan 13th, 2023 31m 28s

Figuring out which patients to hospitalize and which to safely send home can be tricky. Is there a way to make this decision easier for doctors — and get better outcomes, too?

What Can We Do About the Hardest Patients? (Ep. 51 Replay)

Jan 6th, 2023 30m 4s

A small number of patients with multiple chronic conditions use a lot of resources. Dr. Jeffrey Brenner found a way to identify and treat them. Could it reduce health-care spending too?

67. Why Did This 60-Year-Old Man Collapse at the Supermarket?

1 Dec 30th, 2022 33m 40s

Bapu tries to stump master clinician Dr. Gurpreet Dhaliwal with a medical mystery.

66. Does Health Insurance Make You Healthier?

Dec 23rd, 2022 35m 20s

It’s a surprisingly hard question to answer. Bapu talks with a health economist about a natural experiment that led to some unexpected findings.

65. How Do Pandemics Change Health Care?

Dec 16th, 2022 31m 24s

At the start of the 20th century, there weren’t many hospitals in the U.S. That changed in 1918, thanks to the Great Influenza pandemic. Its effects on health care are still being felt today. Which makes us wonder: will the impact of Covid-19 a

64. Is Facebook Bad for Your Mental Health?

Dec 9th, 2022 35m 40s

Half the world's population uses social media — and a new study suggests that it causes anxiety and depression. Can anything be done, or is it too late?

63. What Medicine Gets Wrong About Race

Dec 2nd, 2022 34m 55s

Some diagnostic tests give distorted results for Black patients. How are doctors trying to change that?

Why Don’t We Have a Cure for Alzheimer’s? (Ep. 49 Update)

Nov 25th, 2022 34m 15s

Promising drugs keep failing in trials. Allegations of fraud have cast a shadow over the field. An expert explains why Alzheimer’s treatments have been so hard to find — and why one clue may lie in the Andes Mountains.

62. Dr. Ashish Jha Anticipated a Pandemic. He Didn’t Think It Would Look Like This.

Nov 18th, 2022 28m 53s

Bapu talks to White House Covid Czar Dr. Ashish Jha about becoming a household name, studying pandemics, and the frustrations of politics. Also, when will he be out of a job?

61. Should You Bother Getting a Colonoscopy?

Nov 11th, 2022 34m 30s

Colonoscopy is strongly recommended for Americans over 45. But a new study suggests its benefits have been overstated. Should we change how we screen for colorectal cancer?