Is there an audiobook of Freakonomics Rev Ed?

Yes. Freakonomics Rev Ed has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Stephen J. Dubner.

How long is the Freakonomics Rev Ed audiobook?

The Freakonomics Rev Ed audiobook runs 7 hr 51 min.

What formats is Freakonomics Rev Ed available in?

On Amazon, Freakonomics Rev Ed comes as a Kindle ebook, a paperback and a hardcover.

Our review

Freakonomics Rev EdA Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Name: Freakonomics Rev Ed: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Author: Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

4.4/ 5 · Excellent

Freakonomics asks the questions a normal economist never would, then answers them with data and a wicked grin. Levitt and Dubner pull on threads connecting schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers, drug dealers and real-estate agents, and unravel a surprisingly entertaining theory of how the world actually works.

Narrated by Stephen J. Dubner

Audiobook · 7 hr 51 min

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How the narration holds up

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The Review

Our take

When Freakonomics arrived it did something no economics book was supposed to do: it became a phenomenon. The pairing of Steven Levitt, an economist with a gift for asking gleefully strange questions, and Stephen Dubner, a journalist who could make those questions sing, produced a book that treats economics not as a subject about money but as a way of seeing, a toolkit for finding the hidden incentives that shape human behavior. The result is less a textbook than a series of detective stories, and it taught a huge audience to think like an economist without ever feeling lectured.

The questions are the hook, and they are wonderfully odd. Why do drug dealers still live with their mothers? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? How much do parents really matter to how a child turns out? Each chapter takes a premise that sounds absurd and follows the data somewhere genuinely revealing, usually overturning a piece of conventional wisdom along the way. The throughline is incentives, the idea that people respond to rewards and punishments in ways that are often invisible until you look closely, and the authors are relentless about following the numbers wherever they lead, even when the conclusions are uncomfortable.

What makes the book work is the chemistry of its two voices. Levitt supplies the counterintuitive findings and the statistical muscle; Dubner supplies the storytelling that keeps even a chapter on cheating in sumo or the economics of a crack gang feeling propulsive. They have a knack for the memorable reframe, and the famous, much-debated chapter linking the legalization of abortion to a later drop in crime shows both their boldness and their willingness to court controversy. Whether or not you buy every argument, the book models a kind of intellectual fearlessness that's genuinely contagious.

It is worth knowing what the book is not. It has no grand unifying thesis beyond 'incentives matter and conventional wisdom is often wrong,' so readers wanting a systematic education in economics will find it more provocation than curriculum. Some of its findings have been challenged and refined in the years since, the abortion-crime analysis most prominently, and the breezy confidence can occasionally outrun the certainty the data supports. Taken as a rigorous last word it disappoints; taken as an invitation to think differently, it delivers exactly what it promises.

Why you should read

Curious readers who like counterintuitive ideas
Newcomers wanting economics without the jargon
Fans of data-driven storytelling
Anyone who enjoys having assumptions overturned

What to expect

Standalone case studies, not a unified theory
Playful, story-first nonfiction
A focus on hidden incentives
Some findings that later sparked debate

And that invitation is the real gift. Freakonomics is the rare book that changes the questions you ask rather than just the answers you hold, and long after the specific case studies blur you keep reaching for its central move: follow the incentives, distrust the obvious, look at what the numbers actually say. It's smart, funny, fast, and a little mischievous, and it remains one of the most purely enjoyable on-ramps to thinking like an economist that anyone has written.

Reviewed by Ellis · How our reviews are written

Our verdict

4.4/ 5

Excellent

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Where to read or listen

Is there an audiobook of Freakonomics Rev Ed?: Yes. Freakonomics Rev Ed has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Stephen J. Dubner.
Listen free with Audible
We earn from qualifying Amazon purchases.
How long is the Freakonomics Rev Ed audiobook?: The Freakonomics Rev Ed audiobook runs 7 hr 51 min.
What formats is Freakonomics Rev Ed available in?: On Amazon, Freakonomics Rev Ed comes as a Kindle ebook, a paperback and a hardcover.

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Common questions

What is Freakonomics Rev Ed: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything about?: When Freakonomics arrived it did something no economics book was supposed to do: it became a phenomenon. The pairing of Steven Levitt, an economist with a gift for asking gleefully strange questions, and Stephen Dubner, a journalist who could make those questions sing, produced a book that treats…
Is Freakonomics Rev Ed: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything worth reading?: We scored Freakonomics Rev Ed: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything 4.4 out of 5. Freakonomics asks the questions a normal economist never would, then answers them with data and a wicked grin. Levitt and Dubner pull on threads connecting schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers, drug dealers and real-estate agents, and unravel a surprisingly entertaining theory of…

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