SuperFreakonomics

By: Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner

Narrated by: Stephen J. Dubner

Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance

The New York Times best-selling Freakonomics was a worldwide sensation, selling more than four million copies in 35 languages and changing the way we look at the world. Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with Superfreakonomics, and fans and newcomers alike will find that the freakquel is even bolder, funnier, and more surprising than the first.

SuperFreakonomics challenges the way we think all over again, exploring the hidden side of everything with such questions as: How is a street prostitute like a department-store Santa? What do hurricanes, heart attacks, and highway deaths have in common? Can eating kangaroo save the planet?

Levitt and Dubner mix smart thinking and great storytelling like no one else. By examining how people respond to incentives, they show the world for what it really is: good, bad, ugly, and, in the final analysis, super freaky.

Freakonomics has been imitated many times over - but only now, with SuperFreakonomics, has it met its match.

©2009 Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (P)2009 HarperCollins Publishers

Worth Your Time

If you read and enjoyed the first book, Freakonomics, listening to the 2nd one is a no-brainer. If you haven't, you don't need to worry about going in order. These are just a series of interesting stories about how people are influenced by incentives. Like books by Malcolm Gladwell, this book will make you think.

As good as I had hoped for!

From their books to the podcast, the material is always very interesting, the audio quality fantastic, and narration engaging. Definitely worth listening to! Thank you.

Surprisingly Interesting!

I have to admit, if this wasn't on sale, it would have never gotten my attention. I was pleasantly surprised by listening to this during my commute. Its somewhat of a wake-up call, about things that never seemed to get any news coverage, because many of these topics are politically incorrect, or just have no place in our current defective media.

Excellent book -- entertaining and educational

I enjoyed Levitt & Dubner's first book ("Freakanomics"), but this book is even better. If you read only one of the two, make it this one. Oftentimes, my attention wanders when I listen to audio books, but not for this book. I really enjoyed (and paid attention to) every minute of this book.

Good read but...

This is as entertaining and thought provoking as Freakonomics (but I still rate "Undercover Economist" above these two.) but the whole chapter about prostitutes was, to put it mildly, difficult to listen to in a family setting! (Not suitable for kids) Just thought I would put in this note of caution so that you can avoid listening to it on your car stereo when your kids are in the backseat. :)

Interesting but random

The last half was more like random stories. Maybe as an economics major I am more interested in the economic studies and teasing out effects from data which they talked in the first half.

monkey prostitution

If you have any interest in economics this book is for you. Nothing sums up the thesis better than the epilogue story.

Incentives

I really enjoy listening to this series! It provides an interesting view of incentives and a gambit of interesting approaches for applying them.

Cool concept for a book.

I liked both books in series, made you think about things in a new light. I think it was worth a credit. Overall about a high 3 or very low 4

Not As Good As Freakonomics

Much weaker than Freakonmics. Although there are some interesting insights, it seems like the authors were desparate to cash in on their first success and lowered the quality of their insights in a rush to get into print. There are far too many pop-science tangents.

One thing is consistent -- the poor naration. As is often the case, an author lacks the naration skills of a professional making the book much harder to listen to. I suggest that if there is a third book, the co-author put aside his ego and hire a pro.