Have you ever heard a commonly held belief or a fast-developing worldview and asked: Is that idea right? Or just good on paper? Each week, host Jerusalem Demsas...
Why Is One Chicago Neighborhood Twice as Deadly as Another?
Most gun deaths aren’t premeditated, so how can we stop gun violence before it happens? The University of Chicago economist Jens Ludwig makes the case for thinking differently about the source of America’s gun-violence problem.
Further reading:
Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence, by Jens Ludwig
Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman
Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much, by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir
The study behind Ludwig’s Good on Paper answer: “The Effect of Mentoring on School Attendance and Academic Outcomes: A Randomized Evaluation of the Check & Connect Program”
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57:07
Why States Took a Gamble on Sports Betting
Seven years after the Supreme Court struck down a ban on state-sanctioned sports betting, a more complete picture of the downstream effects of legalization is starting to emerge. As some states see debt delinquency and problem gambling increase, the journalist Danny Funt explains why lawmakers took a gamble on sports betting in the first place.
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54:10
Is Elon Musk Right About Big Government?
Government reform isn’t an exclusively partisan issue, so why does it seem to fall under the purview of Republicans? The researcher Jennifer Pahlka says Democrats need to “get in the game” of government reform and consider working with, instead of against, the aims of DOGE.
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54:41
The Scientist vs. the Machine
Amid handwringing about AI’s effect on jobs, creativity, trust, and the environment, a new study shows the technology’s profound impact on scientific productivity. Aidan Toner-Rodgers, a Ph.D. candidate at MIT, recounts his research that shows the benefits and drawbacks of using AI to discover new scientific materials.
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52:54
The Political Psychology of NIMBYism
What makes someone a NIMBY? The prevailing theory suggests that people support or reject new housing in their neighborhood based on what’s best for them personally. The political scientist David Broockman provides a different explanation—one based on people’s beliefs about important symbols such as cities or tall buildings, rather than self-interest.
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Have you ever heard a commonly held belief or a fast-developing worldview and asked: Is that idea right? Or just good on paper? Each week, host Jerusalem Demsas and a guest take a closer look at the facts and research that challenge the popular narratives of the day, to better understand why we believe what we believe.
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