A brief meditation on loss, relativity, and the vagaries of show business.<ul><li>RESOURCES:<ul><li><a href="https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/billie-eilish-the-worlds-a-little-blurry/umc.cmc.5waz3hfo9r1133t8arap8b6nq?action=play">Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry,</a> documentary (2021)</li><li><a href="https://amzn.to/3QqHi4k">Genius & Anxiety: How Jews Changed the World, 1847-1947</a>, by Norman Lebrecht (2019)</li><li><a href="https://play.max.com/movie/dea336e8-4feb-4628-93b7-f902380831a9?utm_source=universal_search">The War Room</a>, documentary (1993)</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>EXTRAS:<ul><li>“<a href="https://freakonomics.com/podcast/is-san-francisco-a-failed-state-and-other-questions-you-shouldnt-ask-the-mayor/">Is San Francisco a Failed State? (And Other Questions You Shouldn’t Ask the Mayor)</a>” by Freakonomics Radio (2025)</li><li>“<a href="https://freakonomics.com/podcast/ari-emanuel-is-never-indifferent/">Ari Emanuel Is Never Indifferent,</a>” by Freakonomics Radio (2023)</li></ul></li></ul>

623. Can New York City Win Its War on Rats?

Freakonomics co-author Stephen J. Dubner uncovers the hidden side of everything. Why is it safer to fly in an airplane than drive a car? How do we decide whom to marry? Why is the media so full of bad news? Also: things you never knew you wanted to know about wolves, bananas, pollution, search engines, and the quirks of human behavior.

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