166. How to Think Like a Freak -- and Other FREAK-quently Asked Questions

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: This episode is a promotional and Q&A-style conversation about the release of Think Like a Freak. Dubner and Levitt discuss the book’s creation, especially their willingness to discard unfinished work, then answer listener questions about bacon, pricing access to content, academic incentives, and the misery of book tours. The throughline is the book’s core message: think deliberately, question assumptions, and avoid autopilot and sunk-cost thinking.

Main Topics: Book launch and promotion (Priority: 5/5): The episode opens by announcing the imminent release of Think Like a Freak, with references to excerpts, events, media appearances, and free autographed book plates. Sunk costs and the writing process (Priority: 5/5): Levitt explains that they twice discarded entire first chapters and started over, using the process as an example of overcoming sunk-cost bias. Thinking deliberately vs. autopilot (Priority: 5/5): The hosts frame the book’s ethos as a reminder that people often fail to think carefully even when the solution is obvious. Bacon question: health, culture, and persuasion (Priority: 4/5): A listener asks about the social and health meaning of the bacon craze; Levitt responds with personal bias, nutrition skepticism, and the limits of trying to persuade people who are already set in their views. Price discrimination and paid access to questions (Priority: 4/5): A listener proposes tiered pricing for questions submitted to the podcast; the hosts debate whether monetizing interaction would help or harm the show’s format and ethos. Academic incentives and intellectual property (Priority: 4/5): A listener asks about Levitt’s financial value to the University of Chicago, prompting a discussion of how universities treat books differently from patents and how historical accident shapes ownership rules. Book tour and performer fatigue (Priority: 3/5): Levitt jokes about hating book tours, attention, and travel, while Dubner frames the tour as part of the promotional cycle for the new book.

Key Arguments: Discarding a nearly finished chapter and starting over was painful but correct, illustrating the book’s warning against sunk costs. Most people operate on autopilot; the book’s central ethos is that thinking carefully is harder and more rare than it should be. The bacon craze likely has little measurable impact on pork production, because bacon is only one small part of a much larger pork market. Nutrition advice is often inconsistent; bacon’s lack of carbohydrates makes it attractive to some modern low-carb thinkers despite concerns about fat and nitrates. Creating a paid, tiered access system for podcast questions would probably damage the show’s character by introducing exclusion and money into a relationship built on openness. The rules governing university ownership of intellectual property versus books are historically accidental and may not reflect a rational design. Levitt believes the podcast/book tour relationship works best as a free exchange of ideas rather than a transactional one. Trying to persuade people who do not want to be persuaded is often a mistake; humor and conversation may work better than argument.

Data Points: Book release date: May 12 (described as "next week" and "Sunday at midnight, also known as Monday") - Announcement of Think Like a Freak launch Past books published: 2 prior books - The hosts note Freakonomics (2005) and Super Freakonomics (2009) before the new release Podcast start year: 2010 - Dubner notes the podcast began in 2010 Listener question pricing proposal: $10 - Adil suggests VIP questions could cost $10 to submit Second-tier question price: $5 - Adil suggests a second-tier submitted question cost Book tour length: 12 days - Levitt reacts to the planned promotional tour schedule Tour framing correction: 1.2 days - Dubner jokes that Levitt initially heard the tour length wrong Audience age: 13-year-olds - The hosts joke that teenagers are the ideal audience for shaping thinking habits University employment detail: University of Chicago - Levitt discusses his position and intellectual property issues there

Pivotal Quotes: "we twice wrote an entire first chapter, thought it was great when we wrote it, and ended up throwing it in the garbage completely and starting over from scratch" — Steve Levitt: Describing the writing process as an example of overcoming sunk costs "even though it is completely and totally obvious that you should think, most people don't do it" — Steve Levitt: Summarizing the book’s core behavioral lesson "there's something about book tours which undo me" — Steve Levitt: Levitt joking about his dislike of promotion and public attention

Implications: Listeners are encouraged to question habits, resist sunk costs, and be skeptical of easy narratives about health, pricing, and institutions. The episode also reinforces the Freakonomics brand: free, conversational, and built on turning everyday questions into incentives-based analysis.