Arcadia Public Library

In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the landmark book Freakonomics comes this curated collection from the most readable economics blog in the universe. When Freakonomics was first published, the authors started a blog--and they've kept it up. The writing is more casual, more personal, even more outlandish than in their books. Now they've gone through and picked the best of the best. Here, they ask a host of typically off-center questions: Why...

"A new theory of how the brain constructs emotions that could revolutionize psychology, health care, the legal system, and our understanding of the human mind. Emotions feel automatic, like uncontrollable reactions to things we think and experience. Scientists have long supported this assumption by claiming that emotions are hardwired in the body or the brain. Today, however, the science of emotion is in the midst of a revolution on par with the discovery...

Barbara Ehrenreich explores how we are killing ourselves to live longer, not better. She describes how we over-prepare and worry way too much about what is inevitable. One by one, Ehrenreich topples the shibboleths that guide our attempts to live a long, healthy life, from the importance of preventive medical screenings to the concepts of wellness and mindfulness, from dietary fads to fitness culture. We tend to believe we have agency over our bodies,...

"Turn off Your Phone and Turn on Your Brain is a call to live reality as the human beings we are and avoid falling into the deception of a virtual world that is shown as an easy escape from the difficulties of the human experience"--

New York Times bestselling authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with more iconoclastic insight and observations in this long-awaited follow-up to their blockbuster Freakonomics.
In 2005, Freakonomics exploded in the culture, forever changing our understanding of how the world works, how we really make decisions—even how we name our children. This revolutionary book spent two years on the New York Times...

A former journalist and senior adviser in the Obama administration draws from her own experience, the stories she has reported from around the world, and research in biology, psychology, economics, archaeology, and beyond to identify the best ways to make decisions that benefit people over time.

Providing a basic income to everyone, rich or poor, active or inactive, was advocated by Paine, Mill, and Galbraith but the idea was never taken seriously. Today, with the welfare state creaking, it is one of the world's most widely debated proposals. Philippe Van Parijs and Yannick Vanderborght present a comprehensive defense of this radical idea.--

Outlines a deconstruction of the framework for understanding the world of classroom economics, clarifying assumptions and misleading teachings while sharing historical insights into how economism became a prevalent influence in the U.S.