From politics and economics to psychology and the arts, many of the modern ideas we take for granted emerged a century ago from a single European capital. In this episode of the Freakonomics Radio Book Club, the historian Richard Cockett explores all those ideas — and how the arrival of fascism can ruin in a few years what took generations to build.

• SOURCE:
  • Richard Cockett, author and senior editor at The Economist.

• RESOURCES:
  • Vienna: How the City of Ideas Created the Modern World, by Richard Cockett (2023).
  • "Birth, Death and Shopping," (The Economist, 2007).
  • The Hidden Persuaders, by Vance Packard (1957).
  • "An Economist's View of 'Planning,'" by Henry Hazlitt (The New York Times, 1944).
  • The World of Yesterday: Memoires of a European, by Stefan Zweig (1942).

• EXTRA:
  • "Arnold Schwarzenegger Has Some Advice for You," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2024).

Nobel laureate, bestselling author, and groundbreaking psychologist Daniel Kahneman died in March. In 2021 he talked with Steve Levitt — his friend and former business partner — about his book Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment (cowritten with Olivier Sibony and Cass Sunstein) and much more.

• SOURCES:
  • Daniel Kahneman, professor emeritus of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University.

• RESOURCES:
  • Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment, by Olivier Sibony, Daniel Kahneman, and Cass R. Sunstein (2021).
  • Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman (2011).

• EXTRAS:
  • "What’s the Secret to Making a Great Prediction?" by No Stupid Questions (2021).
  • "The Men Who Started a Thinking Revolution," by Freakonomics Radio (2017).
  • "How to Be Less Terrible at Predicting the Future," by Freakonomics Radio (2016).

Fareed Zakaria says yes. But it’s not just political revolution — it’s economic, technological, even emotional. He doesn’t offer easy solutions but he does offer some hope.

• SOURCES:
  • Fareed Zakaria, journalist and author.

• RESOURCES:
  • Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present, by Fareed Zakaria (2024).
  • "The Ultimate Election Year: All the Elections Around the World in 2024," by Koh Ewe (TIME, 2023).
  • "The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism," by Vanessa Williamson, Theda Skocpol, and John Coggin (Perspectives on Politics, 2011).
  • The Post-American World, by Fareed Zakaria (2008).
  • The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad, by Fareed Zakaria (2003).

• EXTRAS:
  • "Is the U.S. Really Less Corrupt Than China?" by Freakonomics Radio (2021).

Lewis got incredible access to Sam Bankman-Fried, the billionaire behind the spectacular FTX fraud. His book is a bestseller, but some critics say he went too easy on S.B.F. Lewis tells us why the critics are wrong — and what it’s like to watch your book get turned into a courtroom drama.

• SOURCES:
  • Michael Lewis, author.

• RESOURCES:
  • Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, by Michael Lewis (2023).
  • "Column: In Michael Lewis, Sam Bankman-Fried Found His Last and Most Willing Victim," by Michael Hiltzik (Los Angeles Times, 2023).
  • "Even Michael Lewis Can’t Make a Hero Out of Sam Bankman-Fried," by Jennifer Szalai (The New York Times, 2023).
  • "Michael Lewis Goes Close on Sam Bankman-Fried — Maybe Too Close," by James Ledbetter (The Washington Post, 2023).
  • "What You Won’t Learn From Michael Lewis’ Book on FTX Could Fill Another Book," by Julia M. Klein (Los Angeles Times, 2023).
  • "Michael Lewis’s Big Contrarian Bet," by Gideon Lewis-Kraus (The New Yorker, 2023).
  • "He-Said, They-Said," by John Lanchester (London Review of Books, 2023).
  • "Downfall of the Crypto King," by Jesse Armstrong (The Times Literary Supplement, 2023).
  • "FTX Debtors vs. Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried," in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (2023).
  • Federal Prosecution of Election Offenses: Eighth Edition, by Richard C. Pilger (2017).
  • "Pay Candidates to Drop Out? That Should Be Legal," by Stephen L. Carter (Bloomberg, 2016).
  • "The History of the Term 'Effective Altruism,'" by William MacAskill (Effective Altruism Forum, 2014).

• EXTRAS:
  • "Is This 'The Worst Job in Corporate America' — or Maybe the Best?" by Freakonomics Radio (2023).
  • "A Million-Year View on Morality," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2022).
  • “Did Michael Lewis Just Get Lucky with 'Moneyball'?” by Freakonomics Radio (2022).

In her new book The Two-Parent Privilege, the economist Melissa Kearney says it’s time for liberals to face the facts: U.S. marriage rates have plummeted but the babies keep coming, and the U.S. now leads the world in single-parent households. Plus: our friends at Atlas Obscura explore just how many parents a kid can have.

The economist Amy Finkelstein explains why insurance markets are broken and how to fix them. Also: why can’t you buy divorce insurance?

And with her book "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat," she succeeded. Now she's not so sure how to feel about all the attention. 

No — but he does have a knack for stumbling into the perfect moment, including the recent FTX debacle. In this installment of the Freakonomics Radio Book Club, we revisit the book that launched the analytics revolution.