Sarah Hart investigates the mathematical structures underlying musical compositions and literature. Using examples from Monteverdi to Lewis Carroll, Sarah explains to Steve Levitt how math affects how we hear music and understand stories. freak.ws/4adXdMu

Jonathan Levin is an academic economist who now runs Stanford University, one of the most influential universities in the world. He tells Steve Levitt how he saved Comcast a billion dollars, and why being a nice guy makes him a better college president. freak.ws/3CfdnbP

Hank Green (Hank Green) is an internet phenomenon and a master communicator. He and Steve Levitt talk about the video blog that launched Hank’s career, the economics of the internet, and how a cancer diagnosis prompted him to become a stand-up comedian. link.podtrac.com/6iq238u3

Jane Goodall (Dr. Jane Goodall & the Jane Goodall Institute) changed the way we see animals. She’s not done. The primatologist discusses the thrill of observing chimpanzees in the wild, the value of challenging orthodoxy, and why dying is her next great adventure. link.podtrac.com/g61wlwcq

Owen Flanagan's (owen) newest book details his 20-year dependence on alcohol and pills — and outlines his research on what addiction can tell us about the nature of consciousness. link.podtrac.com/tqfvmr1u

Chemist Jack Szostak (Szostak Lab) wants to understand how the first life forms came into being on Earth. He and Steve Levitt discuss the origin of biology in poisonous chemicals, and the possibility that life might exist on other planets too. link.podtrac.com/xpjgcqry

Reginald Dwayne Betts spent more than eight years in prison. Today he's a Yale Law graduate, a MacArthur Fellow, and a poet. His nonprofit works to build libraries in prisons so that more incarcerated people can find hope. link.podtrac.com/kl3c4osm

Suzanne O'Sullivan is a neurologist who sees many patients with psychosomatic disorders. Their symptoms may be psychological in origin, but their pain is real and physical — and the way we practice medicine, she argues, is making health problems worse. link.podtrac.com/z694z6yi

Can robots get a grip? Ken Goldberg is at the forefront of robotics — which means he tries to teach machines to do things humans find trivial. link.podtrac.com/lfe5rkfg

Things haven’t always come easily for Yul Kwon. Steve Levitt talks to Kwon about his debilitating childhood anxieties, his compulsion to choose the hardest path in life, and how Kwon used game theory to stage a victory on Survivor. link.podtrac.com/7252p357

On this week’s episode: Ellen Wiebe is a physician who helps seriously ill patients end their lives in Canada, where assisted suicide is legal. Is death a human right? link.podtrac.com/9d8q7di3

Jens Ludwig has an idea for how to fix America’s gun violence problem — and it starts by rejecting conventional wisdom from both sides of the political aisle. link.podtrac.com/ie6vqtrm

Abraham Verghese (Abraham Verghese) is a physician and a best-selling author. He explains the difference between curing and healing, and tells Steve Levitt why doctors should spend more time with patients and less with electronic health records. link.podtrac.com/n2jx3tid

John Green (🐢🐢🐢John Green🐢🐢🐢) returns to the show to talk about tuberculosis — a disease that kills more than a million people a year. Steve Levitt has an idea for a new way to get treatment to those in need. link.podtrac.com/0wz6ed2l

Historian Tom Holland (Tom Holland) escaped a career writing vampire novels to become the co-host of the podcast “The Rest Is History.” At Steve Levitt’s request, he compares President Trump and Julius Caesar and explains the culture wars. link.podtrac.com/ilq5qs9f

Palliative physician B.J. Miller (BJ Miller) asks: Is there a better way to think about dying? And can death be beautiful? link.podtrac.com/l3av7uvf

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a botanist, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and the author of the bestselling “Braiding Sweetgrass.” In her new book she criticizes the market economy — but she and Steve find a surprising amount of common ground. freak.ws/45K3O0L

Psychologist David Yeager thinks the conventional wisdom for how to motivate young people is all wrong. His model for helping kids cope with stress is required reading at Steve Levitt’s new high school. link.podtrac.com/lqow8pah

Former professional poker player Annie Duke wrote a book about Steve Levitt’s favorite subject: quitting. They talk about why quitting is so hard, how to do it sooner, and why we feel shame when we do something that’s good for us. link.podtrac.com/a12tek2e

Twenty years ago, before the “Freakonomics” book tour, Bill McGowan (Bill McGowan) taught Steve Levitt to speak in public. In his new book he tries to teach everyone else. link.podtrac.com/yykfrri3