Hey, it's almost Father's Day.

If you are totally out of ideas for what to get your dad this year, if you're really

scraping the bottom of the barrel, you might want to think about sending him this podcast.

Today, we've got stories about things our fathers gave us, one from my Frekenomics friend

and co-author Steve Levitt, and one from me.

And you'll hear one more story about disciplining kids that'll make any father proud.

Happy Father's Day.

Here's Levitt, reading an essay that's just been published in the new paperback edition

of Super Frekenomics.

Growing up, I was the worst kind of mama's boy.

Never has there been a bigger sissy.

I would cry if an adult gave me a cross look.

I sat on my mom's lap until I weighed nearly as much as she did.

I'd like to kneel point.

It drove my father crazy.

Although I'm sure he would have rather been doing just about anything else, he made

it his mission to turn me into a man.

His initial attempts were pretty standard.

He forced me to play baseball, but mercifully, that experiment ended after just a few years.

He was disgusted by my lack of baseball instincts and my tendency to sit down while playing

shortstop.

The final straw came when my team had a stirring comfort behind victory to win the city championship.

...