Every December, a British man named Tom Whitwell publishes a list of 52 things he’s learned that year. These fascinating facts reveal the spectrum of human behavior, from fraud and hypocrisy to Whitwell’s steadfast belief in progress. Should we also believe?
Hey there, it's Stephen Dubner.
The other day I sat back and I took a look at the work we've been putting out on freakonomics radio over the past few months.
I'm really proud of it.
I think a lot of the episodes are very strong, but a lot of the topics are tough.
The continuing opioid epidemic, the political and economic issues around immigration, both legal and illegal, the boom in fraud among academic researchers, and how the private equity industry is making our economy ever more top heavy.
Like I said, good episodes, but yeah, serious stuff.
Also, there are wars going on all over the place.
Our former and maybe future president just became the first presidential felon.
I could go on and on, and im sure you could, too.
Today we are bringing you something a bit different, a bit lighter to head into summer.
Something to think about.
Maybe talk about on your cross country road trip or while you're working in the garden, or maybe flying to another continent to visit family or go to a wedding, or just catch your breath.
As you know, we spend a lot of time on this show simply looking for interesting new things in the world and trying to explain them.
Today's guest is very good at finding such things.
For instance, there is this thing called Takubin.
If you're traveling around Japan, rather than hauling your bags from hotel to hotel, there's a whole system.
Every hotel apparently has it.
You send it on and they ship your bags around for you.
I'd never heard of that before.
And then you sort of think, well, why don't we have that?