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).
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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.
After reading something that said her menstrual cycle changes her brain each month, Senior Correspondent Molly Webster goes on a reporting mission to see if that’s true, and, if so, how.
This journey into sex hormones and the brain involves females and males, and exacting self-experimentation. It gets into PTSD, and ends with a new twist on self-care (hint: it’s biological). And, it starts to reveal a sneaky truth: that each one of us is at the mercy of a crashing sea of chemicals inside of us – those things we call hormones.
Special thanks to Emily Jacobs, Laura Pritschet, Pavel Shapturenka, and Dr. Catherine Woolley.EPISODE CREDITS:
Hosted by - Molly Webster
Reported by - Molly Webster
Produced by - Mona Madgavkar
with help from - Molly Webster
Fact-checking by - Diane A. Kelly
EPISODE CITATIONS:
Articles -
**The experiments we feature in this episode are called: 28andMe, 28andOC, and 28andHe, all of which took place at Emily Jacobs lab at the University of California, Santa Barbara.**
The 28 Project (https://zpr.io/CSx6MnwZjRvp), background from the Jacobs lab
For more on how much variability there is between female and male animals, check out this “groundbreaking” study, referenced by Emily Jacobs in our episode
Sex Bias in Neuroscience and Biomedical Research(https://zpr.io/ZRgKZzdNejUA), by Beery AK, Zucker I., Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2011
Dr. Catherine Woolley has revolutionized the field of neuroscience and sex hormones, here’s more about her work …
Sex Differences in the Brain Get Down to the Molecular Level Sex (https://zpr.io/UNCLE9J782N5), by Stephanie DeMarco, PhD, The Scientist.com
Hormonal Effects on the Brain (https://zpr.io/DvNM9EkXdtGG), by Woolley, C.S. and Schwartzkroin, P.A. Epilepsia
Data sets -
28andMe and 28andOC (https://zpr.io/hbXVNTVp2Q7j):
28andHe (https://zpr.io/sZXhfMbMwKb7)
Audio -
In the episode, we mention Dr. Russ Poldrack and the Midnight Scan Club, as inspo for self-experimentation
The Midnight Scan Club (https://zpr.io/CLBhNQSxK844), by Science Friday.
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New York is the latest state to legalize medical aid in dying. Stephen Dubner speaks with the governor who signed the law, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, a death doula — and an ethicist who thinks the very idea is wrong.
SOURCES:
Kathy Hochul, governor of New York.
Suzanne O'Brien, death doula, founder of Doulagivers Institute.
Al Roth, economist at Stanford University.
Daniel Sulmasy, physician, philosopher, director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University.
RESOURCES:
Moral Economics: From Prostitution to Organ Sales, What Controversial Transactions Reveal About How Markets Work, by Al Roth (2026).
"New York Moves to Allow Terminally Ill People to Die on Their Own Terms," by Grace Ashford (New York Times, 2025).
The Good Death: A Guide for Supporting Your Loved One through the End of Life, by Suzanne O'Brien (2025).
The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, by Neil Gorsuch (2009).
EXTRAS:
"Make Me a Match (Update)," by Freakonomics Radio (2023).
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First up on the podcast, wrangling wolves in Europe. After near extermination in much of the continent, wolf numbers have surged up to about 20,000 individuals. Contributing Correspondent Gretchen Vogel joins podcast host Sarah Crespi to discuss the conflicts that have risen as the wolf population grows.
Next on the show, Ph.D. student Carla Bassil talks about designing an e-nose that can hone in on important food smells such as chicken that has gone bad or the presence of allergens including peanuts.
Finally, in a sponsored segment from the Science/AAAS Custom Publishing Office, Erika Berg, director and senior editor of custom publishing, interviews professors Eimear Kenny and Alex Charney about how genomic medicine, artificial intelligence, and large-scale sequencing are transforming the future of patient care. This segment is sponsored by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
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