The World Is (Still) Drowning in Sludge

Insurance forms that make no sense. Subscriptions that can’t be cancelled. A never-ending blizzard of automated notifications. In this update of a 2025 episode, Stephen Dubner discovers where all this sludge comes from — and how much it’s costing us.   SOURCES: Benjamin Handel, professor of economics at UC Berkeley. Neale Mahoney, professor of economics at Stanford University. Richard Thaler, professor of economics at The University of Chicago.   RESOURCES: " Selling Subscriptions, " by Liran Einav, Ben Klopack, and Neale Mahoney (Stanford University, 2023). " The ‘Enshittification’ of TikTok, " by Cory Doctorow (WIRED, 2023). " Dominated Options in Health Insurance Plans, " by Chenyuan Liu and Justin Sydnor (American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2022). Nudge: The Final Edition , by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein (2021). " Frictions or Mental Gaps: What’s Behind the Information We (Don’t) Use and When Do We Care? " by Benjamin Handel and Joshua Schwartzstein (Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2018). " Adverse Selection and Switching Costs in Health Insurance Markets: When Nudging Hurts, " by Benjamin Handel (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2011).   EXTRAS: " Sludge ," series by Freakonomics Radio (2025). " People Aren’t Dumb. The World Is Hard. (Update) " by Freakonomics Radio (2024). " All You Need is Nudge, " by Freakonomics Radio (2021). " How to Fix the Hot Mess of U.S. Healthcare, " by Freakonomics Radio (2021). " Should We Really Behave Like Economists Say We Do? " by Freakonomics Radio (2015). Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.