People I (Mostly) Admire cover art

People I (Mostly) Admire

Freakonomics co-author Steve Levitt tracks down other high achievers for surprising, revealing conversations about their lives and obsessions.

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Every guest on People I (Mostly) Admire

160 guests, ranked by how many people never want them back.

  1. —
    Dambisa Moyo

    30. Dambisa Moyo Says Foreign Aid Can’t Solve Problems, but Maybe Corporations Can · 2 episodes

    0 votes
  2. —
    Jennifer Doudna

    67. We Can Play God Now · Mar 2022

    0 votes
  3. —
    Rahm Emanuel

    36. How Rahm Emanuel Would Run the World · 2 episodes

    0 votes
  4. —
    Sal Khan

    22. Sal Khan: “If It Works for 15 Cousins, It Could Work for a Billion People.” · 4 episodes

    0 votes
  5. —
    Will MacAskill

    86. A Million-Year View on Morality · Aug 2022

    0 votes
  6. —
    Ellen Langer

    133. Pay Attention! (Your Body Will Thank You) · Jun 2024

    0 votes
  7. —
    Ingrid Newkirk

    139. How PETA Made Radical Ideas Mainstream · Aug 2024

    0 votes
  8. —
    Jane McGonigal

    77. Can Games Prepare Us for Catastrophes? (Part 2) · 2 episodes

    0 votes
  9. —
    John Arnold

    78. Giving It Away · Jun 2022

    0 votes
  10. —
    John Doerr

    57. What Makes John Doerr Think He Can Save the Planet? · Dec 2021

    0 votes
  11. —
    Joseph Stiglitz

    130. Is Our Concept of Freedom All Wrong? · Apr 2024

    0 votes
  12. —
    Mayim Bialik

    2. Mayim Bialik: “I Started Crying When I Realized How Beautiful the Universe Is” · 3 episodes

    0 votes
  13. —
    Pete Docter

    21. Pete Docter: “What If Monsters Really Do Exist?” · 3 episodes

    0 votes
  14. —
    Aicha Evans

    39. Aicha Evans Wants You to Take Your Eyes Off the Road · Aug 2021

    0 votes
  15. —
    Amanda Levitt
    0 votes
  16. —
    Amaryllis Fox

    24. Are We Under Threat from a New Kind of Terror? (Replay Ep. 24) · 3 episodes

    0 votes
  17. —
    Asmeret Asefaw Berhe

    74. Getting Our Hands Dirty · May 2022

    0 votes
  18. —
    Barry Nalebuff

    80. Get Your Share of the Pie · Jun 2022

    0 votes
  19. —
    Beatrice Fihn

    71. Bombs Away · Apr 2022

    0 votes
  20. —
    Bill McGowan

    161. How to Captivate an Audience · Jul 2025

    0 votes
  21. —
    Brad Gregory

    62. How Does Historian Brad Gregory Make a Boring Topic So Mind-Blowing? · Feb 2022

    0 votes
  22. —
    Carolyn Bertozzi

    Extra: A Rockstar Chemist Wins the Nobel Prize · 2 episodes

    0 votes
  23. —
    Cassandra Quave

    60. Cassandra Quave Thinks the Way Antibiotics Are Developed Might Kill Us · Jan 2022

    0 votes
  24. —
    Caverly Morgan

    7. Caverly Morgan: "I Am Not This Voice. I Am Not This Narrative." · 2 episodes

    0 votes
  25. —
    Charity Dean

    89. A Cross Between Sherlock Holmes and Indiana Jones · Oct 2022

    0 votes
  26. —
    Claudia Goldin

    EXTRA: Nobel Laureate Claudia Goldin on "Greedy Work" and the Wage Gap · 2 episodes

    0 votes
  27. —
    Clementine Jacoby

    105. Can Data Keep People Out of Prison? · May 2023

    0 votes
  28. —
    Conrad Wolfram

    134. Why Do We Still Teach People to Calculate? · Jun 2024

    0 votes
  29. —
    Dan Gilbert

    Turning Work into Play (Update) · 2 episodes

    0 votes
  30. —
    David Helfand

    66. The Professor Who Said “No” to Tenure · Mar 2022

    0 votes
  31. —
    David Keith

    79. Solar Geoengineering Would Be Radical. It Might Also Be Necessary. · Jun 2022

    0 votes
  32. —
    Edward Miguel

    50. Edward Miguel on Collecting Economic Data by Canoe and Correlating Conflict with Rainfall · Nov 2021

    0 votes
  33. —
    Elsa Richardson

    147. Is Your Gut a Second Brain? · Dec 2024

    0 votes
  34. —
    Greg Norman

    23. Greg Norman & Mark Broadie: Why Golf Beats an Orgasm and Why Data Beats Everything · 3 episodes

    0 votes
  35. —
    Harold Pollack

    40. Harold Pollack on Why Managing Your Money Is as Easy as Taking Out the Garbage · Aug 2021

    0 votes
  36. —
    Jill Tarter

    81. Why Bother Searching for Aliens? · Jun 2022

    0 votes
  37. —
    Jonathan Levin

    149. Stanford’s President Knows He Can’t Make Everyone Happy · Jan 2025

    0 votes
  38. —
    Joshua Jay

    16. Joshua Jay: “Humans Are So, So Easy to Fool.” · 2 episodes

    0 votes
  39. —
    Kate Douglass

    EXTRA: Using Data to Win Gold · Oct 2024

    0 votes
  40. —
    Ken Jennings

    4. Ken Jennings: “Don’t Neglect the Thing That Makes You Weird” · 3 episodes

    0 votes

Recent episodes

245 episodes from the feed, newest first.

  1. 38. Sendhil Mullainathan Explains How to Generate an Idea a Minute (Part 2)

    with Sendhil Mullainathan

    Sep 2026
  2. 37. Sendhil Mullainathan Thinks Messing Around Is the Best Use of Your Time

    with Sendhil Mullainathan

    Aug 2026
  3. 36. How Rahm Emanuel Would Run the World

    with Rahm Emanuel

    Aug 2026
  4. 35. David Epstein Knows Something About Almost Everything

    with David Epstein

    Aug 2026
  5. 34. Maya Shankar Is Changing People’s Behavior — and Her Own

    with Maya Shankar

    Aug 2026
  6. 33. Travis Tygart Is Coming for Cheaters — Just Ask Lance Armstrong

    with Travis Tygart

    Aug 2026
  7. 32. Angela Duckworth Explains How to Manage Your Goal Hierarchy

    with Angela Duckworth

    Jul 2026
  8. 31. Peter Leeson on Why Trial-by-Fire Wasn’t Barbaric and Why Pirates Were Democratic

    with Peter Leeson

    Jul 2026
  9. 30. Dambisa Moyo Says Foreign Aid Can’t Solve Problems, but Maybe Corporations Can

    with Dambisa Moyo

    Jul 2026
  10. 29. Bruce Friedrich Thinks There’s a Better Way to Eat Meat

    with Bruce Friedrich

    Jul 2026
  11. 28. Professor Carl Hart Argues All Drugs Should Be Legal — Can He Convince Steve?

    with Carl Hart

    Jun 2026
  12. 27. Daniel Kahneman on Why Our Judgment is Flawed — and What to Do About It

    with Daniel Kahneman

    Jun 2026
  13. 26. Memory Champion Nelson Dellis Helps Steve Train His Brain

    with Nelson Dellis

    Jun 2026
  14. 25. Sam Harris: “Spirituality Is a Loaded Term.”

    with Sam Harris

    Jun 2026
  15. 24. Are We Under Threat from a New Kind of Terror? (Replay Ep. 24)

    with Amaryllis Fox

    May 2026
  16. 23. Greg Norman & Mark Broadie: Why Golf Beats an Orgasm and Why Data Beats Everything

    with Greg Norman

    May 2026
  17. 22. Sal Khan: “If It Works for 15 Cousins, It Could Work for a Billion People.”

    with Sal Khan

    May 2026
  18. 21. Pete Docter: “What If Monsters Really Do Exist?”

    with Pete Docter

    May 2026
  19. 20. John Donohue: “I'm Frequently Called a Treasonous Enemy of the Constitution.”

    with John Donohue

    May 2026
  20. 19. Marina Nitze: “If You Googled ‘Business Efficiency Consultant,’ I Was the Only Result.”

    with Marina Nitze

    Apr 2026
  21. 18. Robert Sapolsky: “I Don’t Think We Have Any Free Will Whatsoever.”

    with Robert Sapolsky

    Apr 2026
  22. 17. Emily Oster: “I Am a Woman Who Is Prominently Discussing Vaginas.”

    with Emily Oster

    Apr 2026
  23. 16. Joshua Jay: “Humans Are So, So Easy to Fool.”

    with Joshua Jay

    Apr 2026
  24. 15. Tim Harford: “If You Can Make Sure You're Not An Idiot, You've Done Well.”

    with Tim Harford

    Mar 2026
  25. 13. Yul Kwon: “Don't Try to Change Yourself All at Once.” (UPDATE)

    with Yul Kwon

    Mar 2026