What kind of questions do you think we're gonna get here?

You think they're gonna be like life advice, stock advice, or more like, you know,

boxers or briefs kind of questions?

Um...

Frequently asked questions from Freakonomics Radio.

Here's your host, Stephen Dubner.

I am Stephen Dubner here with my Freakonomics friend and co-author Steve Levitt.

Now, Levitt, this is the first time we're doing this. It's called Frequently asked questions.

These are questions that the readers of our Freakonomics blog and people who listen

to this podcast of send in, what kind of questions do you think we're gonna get here?

I think there are gonna be a mix of economic questions that we have no way to answer.

Like, is this stock market gonna go up and down or when's the recession gonna end?

Mostly what people want us to do is to figure out puzzles.

And that's good, because that's the only thing we actually are any good at.

All right, so you got some coffee there? You got your muffin? You ready to go?

I got some water.

Hi, my name's Tom. I'm Tom from Boston. I'm a big fan of the books.

My question is, I was wondering if you or others have looked at different economic groups

or people, if you have economic personalities, and if you sit in with existing stereotypes.

And what I mean by that is our Americans include the Arctic go getters,

the facts from things, Germans, reserve pragmatists, who are the Romantics, the gamblers, the

critics. Can you see this at an economic level? That's my question.

...