x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

The Pie: An Economics Podcast

Becker Friedman Institute at UChicago

Economists are always talking about The Pie – how it grows and shrinks, how it’s sliced, and who gets the biggest shares. Join host Tess Vigeland as she talks with leading economists from the University of Chicago about their cutting-edge research and key events of the day. Hear how the economic pie is at the heart of issues like the aftermath of a global pandemic, jobs, energy policy, and more.

science social sciences

All Episodes

44:57

At What Age Does Family Income Most Shape Your...

The Pie: An Economics Podcast ·

2026/01/06

Standard measures of intergenerational mobility treat parental income as a single average across childhood. In this episode, Steven Durlauf, Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor at the Harris School of Public Policy and Director of the Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility, describes how parental income during the tween and adolescent years (ages 12-18) is far more predictive of adult outcomes than parental income during early childhood.

en-us

34:35

The Pie, Wrapped: Innovation, Faith, Purpose, and...

The Pie: An Economics Podcast ·

2025/12/23

As we close out 2025, host Tess Vigeland highlights research from UChicago scholars. Hyuk Su Kwon, Assistant Professor at the Harris School of Public Policy, explains the design of electric vehicle subsidies. Eduardo Montero, Assistant Professor at Harris, reveals how Seventh Day Adventist churches adapt when members face costly trade-offs between faith and farming. Virginia Minni, Assistant Professor at the Booth School of Business, shares how a one-day purpose workshop where workers connect

en-us

110:53

A Conversation with Roger Myerson: Harmonicas,...

The Pie: An Economics Podcast ·

2025/12/16

In this wide-ranging conversation, Nobel Prize–winning economist Roger Myerson reflects on a career studying how rules shape human behavior, from optimal auction design to Ukraine's decentralization reforms. Myerson explains the foundations of mechanism design and incentive constraints, tracing economics back to Xenophon and arguing that local democracy is what holds democracies together.

en-us

51:08

Chat2Learn: Using Simple Conversation Prompts to...

The Pie: An Economics Podcast ·

2025/12/09

Large gaps in language skills between children from different socioeconomic backgrounds emerge early and persist throughout schooling. In this episode, Ariel Kalil, Professor of Public Policy at UChicago's Harris School, discusses her research on "Chat2Learn," a technology intervention that sends open-ended conversation prompts to parents' phones. The low-cost behavioral nudge increases vocabulary, encourages back-and-forth conversation, and fosters curiosity in young children.

en-us

57:03

Human Capital for Humans: An Accessible Introduction...

The Pie: An Economics Podcast ·

2025/11/25

What's the greatest driver of economic growth? Love. In this episode, UChicago economist Pablo Peña presents his new book Human Capital for Humans, inspired by Nobel laureate Gary Becker's legendary doctoral course. In conversation with host Tess Vigeland, he discusses how simple economic principles illuminate life's biggest matters, from parenting and marriage to jobs and schooling.

en-us

64:40

Liberalism and the Great Enrichment: Why Ideas, Not...

The Pie: An Economics Podcast ·

2025/11/18

Deirdre McCloskey argues the world's jump from $2 to $50 per day in average income came from a radical 18th-century shift: equality of permission, or letting ordinary people have a go at bettering themselves. She traces how liberating human creativity through what she calls the "bourgeois deal" sparked innovation from Holland to Scotland to America, while state control stifled it elsewhere. McCloskey critiques modern economics for reducing humans to "vending machines" and argues we need "humanomics"

en-us

66:26

Economics for Everyone: Teaching the World to Think...

The Pie: An Economics Podcast ·

2025/11/11

According to the TIAA Institute, American adults correctly answered just 49% of basic financial questions in 2024, suggesting a fundamental gap in economic literacy. In this episode Robert Shimer, Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, and John List, Professor of Economics and Director of the Becker Friedman Institute, discuss Economics for Everyone, a groundbreaking program that teaches economic reasoning without the math. From classroom experiments that predict market equilibrium to

en-us

41:27

You Might Also Like: Farmer’s A.I. Manac, from Shocked

The Pie: An Economics Podcast ·

2025/11/04

A warmer world is here. Now what? Listen to Shocked, from the University of Chicago’s Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth, and hear journalist Amy Harder and economist Michael Greenstone share new ways of thinking about climate change and cutting-edge solutions: https://lnk.to/shockedpodcastFD!thepie

en-us

34:56

Economic Cheat Codes: How Game Theory Can Help You...

The Pie: An Economics Podcast ·

2025/10/28

The secret to winning in a rigged economy isn't changing the rules, argues Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather, but mastering the game. In this episode, Fairweather, the first Black woman to earn a PhD from UChicago's Economics Department, reveals economic "cheat codes" for navigating the modern workplace, from decoding performance reviews to discovering your true market value.

en-us

33:20

Moving to Opportunity: Together?

The Pie: An Economics Podcast ·

2025/10/21

When couples move for work, whose career takes the hit? UChicago economist Matt Notowidigdo discusses research showing that when heterosexual couples relocate, men's incomes increase by 10-15% while women's earnings barely budge, generating earnings gaps that last for years. Plus, couples are more likely to move when the man loses the job compared to the woman.

en-us

33:20

Moving to Opportunity: Together?

The Pie: An Economics Podcast ·

2025/10/21

When couples move for work, whose career takes the hit? UChicago economist Matt Notowidigdo discusses research showing that when heterosexual couples relocate, men's incomes increase by 10-15% while women's earnings barely budge, generating earnings gaps that last for years. Plus, couples are more likely to move when the man loses the job compared to the woman.

en-us

105:39

The Economics of Early Childhood: Why the First Five...

The Pie: An Economics Podcast ·

2025/10/08

Nobel laureate James Heckman explains why ages zero to five are critical for brain development and lifelong outcomes. He discusses the Perry Preschool Program's surprising health benefits 35 years later, why low-cost home-visiting programs that engage parents outperform expensive institutional interventions, and how "dynamic complementarity" means early skills beget later skills. Heckman also critiques economics' "credibility revolution," arguing the field has traded big-picture understanding for

en-us

23:19

The Law of Unintended Consequences: How Dobbs Changed...

The Pie: An Economics Podcast ·

2025/09/30

What happened to contraceptive choices when the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision reversed Roe v. Wade in 2022? UChicago's Yana Gallen uses health insurance claims from millions of Americans to examine the ripple effects and reveal surprising patterns.

en-us

34:57

Finding Your Why at Work: The Economics of Purpose

The Pie: An Economics Podcast ·

2025/09/16

Can a day of self-reflection improve workplace performance? UChicago economist Virginia Minni reveals findings from a randomized trial involving nearly 3,000 employees who participated in a "Discover Your Purpose" workshop. Minni explains how bottom-up meaning-making creates lasting change, and why helping employees connect their personal purpose to their daily work benefits both human fulfillment and business results.

en-us

49:51

Stuck: How Housing Regulation Ended America's...

The Pie: An Economics Podcast ·

2025/09/02

America was once a nation in constant motion: One in three Americans moved every year in the 19th century, chasing opportunity from one town to the next. But that mobility has collapsed, falling by more than half since 1970. In this episode, University of Chicago economist Peter Ganong and Atlantic deputy executive editor Yoni Appelbaum explore how housing regulations have created a two-tier system where only high earners can afford to move to opportunity-rich cities.View the related interactive

en-us

25:29

Building Costs vs. Housing Prices: Why Construction...

The Pie: An Economics Podcast ·

2025/08/19

Historically, one major reason has consistently been cited for the growth in housing costs in this country: the rising cost of building homes. But that relationship is changing. In this episode, University of Chicago economist Chad Syverson breaks down 75 years of data to reveal a surprising truth—construction costs and housing prices have become "completely decoupled." From the post-WWII boom to today's record-breaking market, Syverson explains why building materials and labor costs can no longer

en-us

29:55

Pay Isn’t Everything: How Economists Put a Price on...

The Pie: An Economics Podcast ·

2025/08/05

Economists often focus on wages when studying the labor market, but paychecks tell only part of the story. University of Chicago economist Evan Rose and his co-authors surveyed 20,000 Danish workers to put a dollar value on the intangible perks of a job, things like flexible hours, workplace culture, and stress levels. Rose discusses how these “hidden benefits” shape labor markets, why economists need better data on job quality, and what this all means for workers, firms, and policymakers.

en-us

26:31

Decoding Educational Content: A Computational...

The Pie: An Economics Podcast ·

2025/07/22

Textbooks don't just teach facts, they shape how children understand the world and their place in it. In this episode, UChicago economist Anjali Adukia discusses her study of textbooks across public schools, religious private schools, and homeschools. Using advanced AI tools to analyze tens of thousands of pages, she uncovers both unexpected similarities between politically divergent states and meaningful differences in how religious and secular curricula present topics from evolution to gender

en-us

23:22

When Religion Meets the Marketplace: Faith, Farming,...

The Pie: An Economics Podcast ·

2025/07/08

What happens when your religion forbids the production of crops that dominate your local economy? In this episode, UChicago economist Eduardo Montero unpacks new research on the economic costs of religious prohibitions, and how these trade-offs shape church membership, satisfaction, and even sermons.

en-us

26:31

Green Bubble Stigma: Texting, Status, and Market Power

The Pie: An Economics Podcast ·

2025/06/24

A text bubble might seem trivial, until it shapes market dynamics, personal identity, and federal lawsuits. In this episode, UChicago economist Leo Bursztyn discusses how Apple’s green bubble design creates a powerful lock-in effect that reinforces Apple’s market dominance.

en-us

116 results

Similar Podcasts

Classic Radio Science Fiction

solgoodmedia.com

Mission to Mars

Inception Point Ai

The 365 Days of Astronomy

365DaysOfAstronomy.org

Creek Devil

william Jevning

UFO Chronicles Podcast

Nik Hunter