No Stupid Questions Explores the Seven Deadly Sins
Listen to the first episode “Is Sloth a Sin or a Virtue?” now at freakonomics.com or on any podcast platform
Freakonomics Radio Network’s behavioral science podcast No Stupid Questions is beginning a special series exploring the seven deadly sins. In each weekly episode for the next two months, show co-hosts Stephen J. Dubner (co-author of the Freakonomics books) and psychologist Angela Duckworth (author of Grit) will choose one sin and discuss a related question. Like: “Is sloth actually a virtue?” And: “Is our society built on envy?”
In a recent episode, Duckworth announced that she’s working on a new book about self-control. The book is based on research she conducted with psychologist Eli Tsukayama on individuals who seem to exhibit incredible self-discipline in certain areas of life but “totally blow it” in others. To explore these different domains of self-control, Duckworth and Tsukayama created seven measures that reflect the seven deadly sins. In the No Stupid Questions series, Duckworth and Dubner use this new research as a launch pad to explore these behaviors.
“The seven deadly sins series is a fun way to dig deeper into how these ‘sins,’ which are hundreds of years old, affect our lives today,” Duckworth explains. “Everyone has different temptations. How can we change the way we think about them? What sort of situations get us into trouble? And what got left out of that list of seven?”
Despite there only being seven deadly sins, this is an eight-episode series. What’s the eighth sin? Duckworth and Dubner have invited listeners to nominate one extra deadly sin for them to explore in the series finale. Answers will be collected in a survey, a first for No Stupid Questions. Listeners can click here to complete this anonymous questionnaire to see how they rank on each sin and how their answers compare to No Stupid Questions listeners as a whole. The overall survey data will be discussed in the show, but it will not be used for academic research purposes.
“Seven Deadly Sins” Episode Release Dates:
March 5: Sloth
March 12: Gluttony
March 19: Lust
March 26: Wrath
April 2: Envy
April 9: Greed
April 16: Pride
April 23: Sin #8 – By Listener Nomination
Clarification on Names
- No Stupid Questions - A podcast on the Freakonomics Radio Network exploring human behavior
- Freakonomics Radio Network - Independent podcast network, home to four shows (Freakonomics Radio, No Stupid Questions, People I (Mostly) Admire, Freakonomics M.D.) with more to come
- Freakonomics Radio - Flagship show of the Freakonomics Radio Network
About No Stupid Questions
Stephen Dubner, host of Freakonomics Radio, and Angela Duckworth, author of Grit, have spent decades exploring the weird and wonderful ways in which humans behave — Dubner as a journalist and writer, Duckworth as an academic and researcher — and the two have been asking each other interesting questions ever since they became friends years ago. In each episode of No Stupid Questions, Stephen and Angela take turns asking each other a question like:
- Why is it so hard to predict success?
- Can charisma be taught?
- Does familiarity really breed contempt?
- Wouldn’t it be better to have funerals before people die?
- What’s the best advice for being alone in public?
- What’s so good about friendship?
Dubner and Duckworth’s questions lead to crackling conversations that pull in surprising references to research, literature, philosophy, and history. You never know where their talks will go. More often than not, they lead to more questions, like Russian nesting dolls. And that is what each episode of No Stupid Questions will be — a little matryoshka of a conversation.
About Freakonomics Radio Network
Now in its thirteenth year, Freakonomics Radio remains one of the world’s most popular podcasts. As the flagship show of the Freakonomics Radio Network, it has been joined in the past few years by No Stupid Questions, which explores the weird and wonderful ways in which humans behave, with hosts Dubner and research psychologist Angela Duckworth; People I (Mostly) Admire, where Dubner’s Freakonomics co-author Steven Levitt interviews other unorthodox high achievers; and Freakonomics, M.D., which explores the intersection of economics and healthcare with Harvard physician and economist Bapu Jena. Listeners responded enthusiastically to the recent pilot run of a new show from the network called The Economics of Everyday Things, hosted by journalist Zachary Crockett.
For more information about No Stupid Questions or the Freakonomics Radio Network, please contact Ray Padgett (raypadgett@shorefire.com) or Mark Satlof (msatlof@shorefire.com) at Shore Fire Media.