SuperFreakonomics

Journalist Stephen Dubner discusses SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance.

After the astounding success of 2005's Freakonomics, Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt return with another examination of the hidden patterns and behaviors behind everyday phenomena.

Four years in the making, SuperFreakonomics asks not only the tough questions, but the unexpected ones: What's more dangerous, driving drunk or walking drunk? Why is chemotherapy prescribed so often if it's so ineffective? Can a sex change boost your salary?

Combining their rigorous economic approach with their signature wit and curiosity, Levitt and Dubner decipher data so that it's not only compelling but entirely readable, while questioning everything from the common notion that good E.R. doctors save significantly more lives than bad ones to the idea that terrorists come from poor families and are poorly educated. They even conduct experiments of their own, challenging the popular belief that kids are safer in car seats than seatbelts in major collisions. Each chapter offers unique insight into actual, and often surprising, human behaviors--delving into the hidden agendas of nearly every individual, and the incentives that drive them.

This talk was taped on October 29, 2009.