Welcome to people I mostly admire. This is a special bonus episode, a live event

recorded over Zoom and presented by WNYC and The Green Space in New York City.

The event featured Steve Levitt in conversation

with his Freakonomics co-author Stephen Dubner,

covering topics such as the birth of this podcast, the power and limits of data science, and why Levitt's

efforts to make the world a better place usually anger everyone across the political spectrum.

Good evening and thanks for joining us tonight. I'm Stephen Dubner.

I'm one of the co-authors of the Freakonomics book series

and I also host Freakonomics radio which is now

celebrating its 10th anniversary and the man on the other side of your screen is my

Freakonomics friend and co co author Steve Leavitt.

Leavitt would you like to introduce yourself?

Sure, Steve Leavitt and I teach economics

at the University of Chicago for the last 20 years.

I write books with Dubner. more recently I've kind of given up on

academics and decided it would make sense to try and maybe have a little impact

on the real world so I've started a center called Risk at U Chicago that's trying to do good and

against my better judgment I started a podcast all people I mostly admire

you say against your better judgment as if somehow you were press ganged into service.

You were begging to have your own podcast.

Were you not?

No, it's not that you forced me, it's just that I pretty much try to avoid anything that has actual

...