What exactly is college for?

College budgets, explained

In this episode of the FutureU podcast, higher education experts Jeff Selingo and Michael Horn explore why so many colleges seem to be struggling financially. Hear how college budgets actually work, and why so many are unsustainable. It’s a crash course in revenue, expenses, and the big shifts schools need to make to survive.

College sticker prices are often misleading

1440's editor-in-chief chatted with an economist in this podcast episode to unravel how college tuition really works, who carries the biggest debt, and why the system feels expensive.

The future of higher education in the US

In this episode of Wired’s Have a Nice Future podcast, education journalist Paul Tough joins hosts Gideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode to tackle a big question: Is attending college in the United States still worth it? As tuition climbs and the payoff feels murkier, they dig into what’s broken in higher education, and whether it can be fixed.

Is college worth it?

Higher education has long been viewed as a stepping stone to more stable and higher-paying careers. Estimates suggest a college degree nearly triples average lifetime earnings. But the perception of value is different—only 22% of Americans say college is worth taking out loans for.

The university system has an enrollment problem

Enrollment has dropped over the past few years—especially for men. In this Freakonomics podcast episode, educators and economists explain why they think college enrollment has been on the decline. They also offer solutions and make predictions for the future of college.

The cost of college has more than tripled over the past five decades

Determining the all-in cost for each student’s specific circumstances can be tricky. But what is behind the rise in price? Analysts point to a number of factors—lack of transparency around cost, expansive government support, increased administrative burdens at schools, and more.

Where colleges get their money, visualized

If you're curious about how different colleges and universities generate their revenue, this National Center for Education Statistics webpage offers a clear visual breakdown. See how public, private nonprofit, and for-profit institutions fund their operations, highlighting the differences between funding sources depending on the type of institution.

What are college endowments? An expert explains

College endowments are meant to last forever. That's why some of the oldest, most prestigious schools in the US have lasted so long. A higher education finance expert weighs in on how these funds work and offers fascinating tidbits on how they impact university finances.

Some educators argue society's obsession with colleges at the top of rankings has hurt the US higher education ecosystem

Why are "good colleges" often the ones that accept the fewest students? Speaker Cecilia Orphan argues that society's obsession with colleges that are often private, expensive, and that reject applicants with high frequency has done harm. Instead, she argues, we should focus on regional public universities that meet the needs of students in a cost-achievable manner.

Explore a college affordability and transparency guide

From the US Department of Education, this portal provides everything you need to evaluate colleges. The college scorecard provides handy data on every school, from graduation rates to annual average earnings out of school, while the net cost calculator directs you to each school's calculator that allows you to estimate the cost of college based on your unique circumstances.

Here's why pennies don't make sense

Did you know that pennies cost roughly 3 cents to produce? That fact doesn't seem to make sense, being that pennies are only worth 1 cent each. This podcast episode explains why we still have pennies, plus where they came from, why Americans don't use pennies, and how we got here. Click here to listen.

The surprising economics of sushi

How exactly does a patron of a sushi restaurant in Omaha, Nebraska, get to eat fresh fish caught off the coast of Japan? This episode of the Freakonomics podcast answers this question and explains the impressive feat. Listen to learn about the tricky economics and time-sensitive process behind importing fresh catches to sushi-lovers across America.

Some people are against Black Friday, saying it promotes consumerism

This comprehensive podcast video episode from NYU Professor Scott Galloway offers a deep dive into the economics of Black Friday, Galloway believes Black Friday allows corporations to exploit the worst parts of Americans’ consumerist impulses, and warns Americans should not believe purchasing things leads to greater happiness.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

For-profit schools are not beholden to educational missions

While many private schools are nonprofit organizations, beholden to their missions and boards, some are for-profit entities owned by private individuals or corporations. In some cases, these institutions offer substandard courses and award unaccredited degrees.

Hear an oral history of the Electoral College and why it still exists

This podcast episode traces how the Electoral College emerged from rushed compromises, slavery-era power politics, and party maneuvering—showing why the system looks the way it does today and why efforts to change it have repeatedly stalled.

Credit unions, explained

Proponents of credit unions often point to the fact they’re not-for-profit cooperatives instead of for-profit businesses as a key selling point. This explainer dives into what this looks like in action—instead of pocketing the profits from interest rates, credit unions reinvest that money into the products and services they offer. For customers, this tends to create a more personal and community-oriented experience.

The global horse market is worth about $400B

In this podcast episode from a new series on horses, Freakonomics explores the market around buying and selling some of the world's top sport horses, and the nebulous forces that make them so valuable.

Why does the stock market matter?

Open any newspaper, turn on your local TV news station, or listen to a daily business radio segment, and you’re bound to hear about how the stock market is performing. Netflix created a 17-minute (free) explainer that dives deep into the nitty-gritty of how we got here.

What is the function of money?

Nearly everyone uses some form of money to facilitate day-to-day activities, but what is it, anyways? Economists define money as anything that can be accepted as final payment for goods and services. Shells, beads, corn, and a wide range of objects have acted as money throughout history—explore the common but deceptively abstract concept of money in this eight-minute podcast from the Federal Reserve.

The MBA has been the most popular graduate degree in America since 2010

Referring to MBA programs as “corporate America’s breeding ground,” comedian Dan Toomey recently interviewed experts on MBAs like Adam Grant, as well as MBA students themselves, to get a better idea of why the degree is so popular. Warning: profane language and content.

The creator economy, explained

Many brands pay influencers to advertise their products or services on social media. Platforms such as YouTube, Substack, and Twitch also provide revenue-sharing opportunities for their top creators. Known as the creator economy, it's a system driven by individuals who produce online content for audiences that can be monetized.

The business models behind vaccines

Watch experts weigh in on the prevailing business models of vaccine production, including how the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the industry for good in this 20-minute video from Financial Times.

One podcast professional believes the format needs a new name

In the past few years, the podcast has moved from a purely audio-driven medium to one that doesn’t appear all that different from a television talkshow. Audio engineer Dennis Funk proposes renaming the classic podcast—an artful audio documentary—to distinguish it from the junk posing as the genuine article.

Finding meaning in work matters, but can also happen outside your job

It's a perennial discussion: How do I find meaning in my work? Visionaries attest to the value of aligning your passions with your paycheck, but it isn't always possible. This podcast weighs the pros and cons of such a pursuit.

'Buy one, get one free' is a clever way to get you to spend more money

One Burger King diner recently saw the price of her $2.16 sandwich rise to $3.19 per sandwich when she used a buy-one-get-one-free (or BOGO) coupon. Naturally, she became suspicious about how good a deal BOGO really is. This video explains why BOGO deals are a way for companies to get you to spend more money, rather than less.

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

Learn how to read a prospectus, the juicy document that any company must file with the SEC before going public.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

Hedge funds, the private investment firms that trade a wide swath of financial assets, make money by imposing steep fees on investors and from the fund's investment performance.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

Use this calculator to find the dollar value of your mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care for your children.

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

Doctors differentiate between a phobia and fear by asking patients whether their fear interferes with their day-to-day activities.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

Ebola is a filovirus, meaning it resembles a thread under a microscope, though it sometimes twists and can resemble a bowl of spaghetti.

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

Corals are themselves not coral reefs—the term refers to the tiny marine invertebrates that build the rigid reef.