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Freakonomics Radio

77. Playing the Nerd Card

Freakonomics Radio

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.632K Ratings

🗓️ 30 May 2012

⏱️ 5 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The NBA’s superstars are suddenly sporting Urkel glasses -- but is it more than a fashion statement?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

From APM, American Public Media, and WNYC.

0:07.0

This is Freakonomics Radio on Marketplace.

0:11.0

Here's the host of Marketplace, Kyra's Doll.

0:16.0

Time now for a little Freakonomics radio that moment every couple of weeks where we talk to Stephen Dubner.

0:20.0

He is the co-author of the books and the blog of the same name.

0:23.0

It is the hidden side of everything Dubner good to have you back.

0:27.0

Great to be here, Ky. I don't know with the LA teams out of the NBA playoffs now.

0:32.0

I don't know if you're still paying attention.

0:33.0

I am so done with the Lakers.

0:34.0

I was, and people are like, this is where the hate mail from LA comes in.

0:37.0

But I mean, come on, really get over yourself.

0:39.0

Well, there is a trend besides the demise of the Lakers that is unmistakable,

0:44.0

but it's a trend off the court. It's something you see during the post-game press conferences.

0:48.0

And that is that just about every star player, LeBron James and Duane Wade, Kevin Garnett and Kevin Durant,

0:55.0

they're all wearing these big chunky black eyeglasses.

0:58.0

You know, the kind of the Erkle used to wear.

1:00.0

Depending on your time frame, you know, buddy Holly.

1:02.0

But that's right. I saw, who was? I guess it was LeBron.

1:05.0

I saw the press conference from Miami, yeah.

1:07.0

There you go. Now, in the old days, it was pretty uncommon to see many athletes wear any kind of glasses.

1:13.0

So my first thought was simply, hey, you know, maybe poor eyesight is on the rise.

1:18.0

So we reached out to Susan Vitale. She's a researcher at the National Eye Institute.

...

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