People I (Mostly) Admire

It was only in his late twenties that America’s favorite brainiac began to seriously embrace his love of trivia. Now he holds the “Greatest of All Time” title on Jeopardy! Steve Levitt digs into how he trained for the show, what it means to have a "geographic memory," and why we lie to our children. This episode originally aired on October 2nd, 2020.

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The dean of Yale’s School of Management grew up in a small village in Guyana. During his unlikely journey, he has researched video-gaming habits, communicable disease, and why so many African-Americans haven’t had the kind of success he’s had. Steve Levitt talks to Charles about his parents’ encouragement, his love of Sports Illustrated, and how he talks to his American-born kids about the complicated history of Blackness in America. This episode originally aired on September 18th, 2020.

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She’s best known for playing neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler on The Big Bang Theory, but the award-winning actress has a rich life outside of her acting career, as a teacher, mother — and a real-life neuroscientist.  Steve Levitt tries to learn more about this one-time academic and Hollywood non-conformist, who is both very similar to him and also quite his opposite. This episode originally aired on September 4th, 2020.

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By cataloging the steady march of human progress, the Harvard psychologist and linguist has become a very public intellectual. But the self-declared “polite Canadian” has managed to enrage people on opposite ends of the political spectrum. Steve Levitt tries to understand why. This episode originally aired on August 21st, 2020.

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In the last episode of the podcast, Stephen Dubner turns the microphone on Steve Levitt. They talk about Levitt’s favorite — and least favorite — moments from the show’s five-year run, his quest to reform education, and his next podcasting gig.
 
SOURCES:Stephen Dubner, host of Freakonomics Radio, co-author of Freakonomics books.

 
RESOURCES:"How to Help Kids Succeed," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2025).
"Feeling Sound and Hearing Color," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2024).
"Richard Dawkins on God, Genes, and Murderous Baby Cuckoos," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2024).
"Arnold Schwarzenegger Has Some Advice for You," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2024).
"Werner Herzog Thinks His Films Are a Distraction," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).
"Drawing from Life (and Death)," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).
"Yuval Noah Harari Thinks Life is Meaningless and Amazing," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2022).
"Is This the Future of High School?," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2022).
"Does Death Have to Be a Death Sentence?," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2022).
"Sal Khan: 'If It Works for 15 Cousins, It Could Work for a Billion People.'" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).
"Jared Diamond on the Downfall of Civilizations — and His Optimism for Ours," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).
"Amanda & Lily Levitt Share What It’s Like to be Steve’s Daughters," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).
"How Rahm Emanuel Would Run the World," by Freakonomics Radio (2020).
The Levitt Lab.

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