Hey there, it's Stephen Dubner. You are about to hear one more episode of our newest

podcast, The Economics of Everyday Things. I hope you like it, and I hope you'll stick

around to the end to hear my conversation with Zachary Crockett, the host of the show.

And if you want to hear more, just look for the economics of everyday things in your favorite

podcast player and follow or subscribe. Okay, here's Zachary.

Back in 2009, Sean Cypler asked himself a question that has occurred to pretty much everyone

who's ever stayed at a hotel. At the time, Cypler was a bit of a road dog. As a tech executive

in sales, he spent around half his week traveling across the US. Minneapolis, LA, St. Louis,

all over. This is a guy who racked up a lot of nights in hotel rooms.

And on one of those trips, something caught his attention, that little bar of soap in the hotel

bathroom. There's a natural I don't want to waste things in me. And as I would use a bar of

soap one time, there was always a little nag inside of me that I'm leaving it here.

So in that hotel room in Minneapolis, after a couple cocktails, that nag led to asking the question.

I called the front desk and asked what happens to the soap when I'm done with it.

From the Freakonomics Radio Network, this is the economics of Everyday Things.

I'm Zachary Kraken. Today, used hotel soaps. You may not think twice about those little bars.

They leave out for you on the sink. But a lot of thought went into putting them there.

Hotel amenities have evolved over the last 100 years.

Chekaton Dev is a professor at Cornell University's Nolan School of Hotel Administration.

And he says that the earliest hotels actually didn't give you any soap. In fact,

they didn't even give you your own bathroom. It's an early 20th century innovation that hotel

rooms came with a bath attached. In fact, elsewhere, the founder of the Staddle Hotel chain

...