Back in 2017, reporters Kristen Clark and David Conrad came to us with a story that dug into the difficult and often dark places discrimination creates. We start in Venice, Italy, where they meet gondolier Alex Hai. On the winding canals in the hidden parts of Venice, we learn about the nearly 1000-year old tradition of the Venetian Gondolier, and how the global media created a 20-year battle between that tradition and a supposed feminist icon.
We circled back to Alex in 2026, to find out where the canal of life ended up leading after our initial reporting, and we’ve included some heartbreaking and heartwarming updates on Alex’s life at the end of this episode.
Special thanks to Alexis Ungerer, Summer, Alex Hai, Kevin Gotkin, Silvia Del Fabbro, Sandro Mariot, Aldo Rosso and Marta Vannucci, The Longest Shortest Time (Hillary Frank, Peter Clowney and Abigail Keel), Tim Howard, Nick Adams/GLAAD, Valentina Powers, Florence Ursino, Ann Marie Somma, Alex Overington, Jeremy Bloom and the people of Little Italy.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - David Conrad and Kristen Clark.
Produced by - Annie McEwen and Molly Webster.
with help from - Anisa Vietze
Fact-checking for the update by - Angely Mercado
OTHER COOL THINGS:
Books -
The Gondolier, by Alex Hai
Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.
Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
It’s a hard time to run a university: public trust is low, political pressure is high, and finances are fragile. But Daniel Diermeier, who trained as a political scientist, has Vanderbilt humming. How? He says the key is choosing magnets over wedges.
SOURCES:
Daniel Diermeier, chancellor of Vanderbilt University.
RESOURCES:
"Higher Ed’s New Crisis Managers," by Lee Gardner (The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2026).
"Professors Need to Diversify What They Teach," by Jon Shields, Yuval Avnur, and Stephanie Muravchik (Persuasion, 2025).
"A Call for Constructive Engagement," (American Association of Colleges and Universities, 2025).
"2020 Statement on Anthropology and Human Rights," (American Anthropological Association, 2020).
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander (2010).
"Kalven Committee: Report on the University’s Role in Political and Social Action," (The University of Chicago, 1967).
EXTRAS:
Sign up here to pre-screen our new video show.
"'A Low Moment in Higher Education,'" by Freakonomics Radio (2024).
"'If We’re All in It for Ourselves, Who Are We?'" by Freakonomics Radio (2024).
"Do Boycotts Work?" by Freakonomics Radio (2016).
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Insurance forms that make no sense. Subscriptions that can’t be cancelled. A never-ending blizzard of automated notifications. In this update of a 2025 episode, Stephen Dubner discovers where all this sludge comes from — and how much it’s costing us.
SOURCES:
Benjamin Handel, professor of economics at UC Berkeley.
Neale Mahoney, professor of economics at Stanford University.
Richard Thaler, professor of economics at The University of Chicago.
RESOURCES:
"Selling Subscriptions," by Liran Einav, Ben Klopack, and Neale Mahoney (Stanford University, 2023).
"The ‘Enshittification’ of TikTok," by Cory Doctorow (WIRED, 2023).
"Dominated Options in Health Insurance Plans," by Chenyuan Liu and Justin Sydnor (American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2022).
Nudge: The Final Edition, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein (2021).
"Frictions or Mental Gaps: What’s Behind the Information We (Don’t) Use and When Do We Care?" by Benjamin Handel and Joshua Schwartzstein (Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2018).
"Adverse Selection and Switching Costs in Health Insurance Markets: When Nudging Hurts," by Benjamin Handel (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2011).
EXTRAS:
"Sludge," series by Freakonomics Radio (2025).
"People Aren’t Dumb. The World Is Hard. (Update)" by Freakonomics Radio (2024).
"All You Need is Nudge," by Freakonomics Radio (2021).
"How to Fix the Hot Mess of U.S. Healthcare," by Freakonomics Radio (2021).
"Should We Really Behave Like Economists Say We Do?" by Freakonomics Radio (2015).
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Why does one bad experience have the power to overshadow an otherwise good day? Psychologist Alison Ledgerwood explores the negativity bias, the deeply human tendency to hold on to what went wrong and overlook what went right. She explains why our minds are drawn to losses and threats, and what it takes to rebalance our attention. Then, on Your Questions Answered, psychologist David Pizarro returns to respond to your comments about the surprising role of disgust in shaping our lives.
In our companion conversation for Hidden Brain+, we explore how politicians and the media exploit the negativity bias. If you're a subscriber, that episode is titled “Going Negative.” If you're not yet a subscriber, you can get a free seven-day trial of Hidden Brain+ by going to support.hiddenbrain.org or apple.co/hidden brain.
If you love listening to Hidden Brain, you'll love watching it as well! Check out our new YouTube channel for Shankar's videos about how your memory works, tips for performing under pressure, and much more.
Episode illustration by Getty Images for Unsplash+ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
This is the abbreviated version of Checkup's call-in on whether restricting kids' use of social media is the right move for Canada. We hear perspectives from tech experts, young people, psychiatrists and the view from Australia where social media is already banned for children under 16.
This ICYMI episode takes you back to Father's Day in 1990. Canada was in the midst of a culture shift as women joined the workforce in growing numbers, and men taking on more child-rearing responsibilities than past generations. With expectations around fatherhood changing in real time, Checkup asked: “Can Dad really take care of the kids?” Here's what some callers told Dale Goldhawk in 1990.
Medical Assistance in Dying has been available in Canada for 10 years. But the program is not accessible for patients whose only condition is mental illness. Right now, the rules are set to expand to include those patients starting in March 2027. But this week, a Parliamentary committee advised the government to press pause on that plan indefinitely. How does Canada’s decision to pause MAiD for mental illness affect you? Is it the right or wrong thing to do?
Canada plans to restrict kids under 16 from social‑media accounts, with exceptions for safer platforms. Supporters say it protects kids; critics point to Australia, where most teens stayed online despite a ban. Parents, experts and young people weigh in on what really works.
