Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, it's a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that at some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?

It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream.

Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds.

Hello and welcome to Freethinking at the Hay Festival.

When I was 17, like so many 17-year-olds, I was looking for a model for life.

I could have turned to Bobby Kennedy, Bob Dylan, or even Bob Monkhouse.

But then I picked up an essay with the title, How to Drive Fast on Drugs while having your

wing-wang squeezed and not spill your drink. I managed to

score higher on some parts of that life advice than others. I never learned to drive. I don't do

drugs. And as for the wing wang, no doubt that was some highly esoteric piece of Chinese Taoism.

But I did end up with a lifelong admiration for the author of that piece, the American

humorist, PJ O'Rourke,

who's back with a new book on his generation, The Baby Boom. P.J. is known for his

rye look at some of the idiocies of life, particularly those parts of it committed by the US government.

And that sideways look is also the hallmark of my other two guests. Stephen Levitt and Stephen

Dubner's book Freakonomics looked at a whole variety of social questions and came up with counterintuitive

answers by using an economist's lens. They've sold over seven million copies and have run the real

danger of turning economics into actual fun. With their new book, Think Like a Freak,

they're suggesting that you too can apply the Freakonomics formula to your own life.

Would you please all welcome my guests here tonight?

Now, your books are very different,

but the issue of thinking lies at the heart of both of them.

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