Better in Person with Stephen Dubner

Latest episodes

Showing 11 · updated from the feed

How to Be a Double Unicorn, with John Urschel

He was thriving in the N.F.L., but then he decided to focus on mathematics — a subject he now teaches at M.I.T. John walks Stephen Dubner through the whole story, teaches

Sep 8
31 min

Amazon Was Supposed to Kill the Bookstore. James Daunt Had Other Plans

He started with one small shop in London. He has since resuscitated both Barnes & Noble and Waterstones. He tells Stephen Dubner exactly how he does it.

Sep 1
31 min

How to Run an Institution in an Anti-Institution Era

Anne Pasternak (Brooklyn Museum) and Michael Roth (Wesleyan University) tell Stephen Dubner how they keep the peace in the middle of a culture war.

Aug 25
36 min

“I Trust Almost Anyone More Than Myself”

The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jennifer Egan talks about confidence, luck, and why it takes 35 drafts to get to the finish line.

Aug 18
42 min

Meet Warren Zanes, the Author and Rocker Behind the Springsteen Movie

When he joined the Del Fuegos, his big brother’s band, all Warren knew how to play was a record player. Things went great for a while — and then it all fell apart. So how

Aug 11
53 min

What If Being a Stranger Is Actually Your Superpower?

Angela Buchdahl was the first Asian American to be ordained as a rabbi, and now she is among the most influential rabbis in the world. She and Stephen Dubner talk about b

Aug 4
33 min

Does it Take a Twisted Mind to Write Twisted Stories?

Harlan Coben doesn’t think so. The mega-best-selling author talks suburbia, impostor syndrome, and what he learned from his college friend David Foster Wallace.

Jul 28
43 min

How Gary Gulman Turned Depression Into Comedy Gold

Gary and Stephen talk about creativity, recovery, getting fired, and holding grudges. They also get outside and play basketball, which is a big part of how Gary stays wel

Jul 21
47 min

Introducing Better in Person with Stephen Dubner

Everyone has a public story. Stephen Dubner wants the rest. On Better in Person, Dubner invites remarkable people into his home for a kind of conversation that’s hard to

Jul 15
2 min

Trusting Your Senses Over Science, with Chef Hillary Sterling

Hillary Sterling was a Brooklyn kid raised on cream cheese sandwiches and canned potatoes. So how did she become one of New York City's best chefs? The Ci Siamo executive

Jul 14
43 min

How a Great Architect Thinks, with Bjarke Ingels

Is the oxymoron really “the secret sauce to everything”? That’s the case Ingels makes in this debut episode of our new video show Better in Person, filmed in Stephen Dubn

Jul 14
42 min

Chart trend

Position in the Documentary chart (US), last 90 days.

#1#38#74JulAugSepOct

#11

all-time peak

82

days in the top 50 since Jul 2026

Chart positions

Where Better in Person with Stephen Dubner ranks today in each Apple Podcasts chart (US, Oct 4, 2026).

#35 ▼ 7 Documentary US

What listeners say

A curated, balanced selection of Apple Podcasts reviews.

This show is really is taking the podcasting arena up a notch. So far, first 5 episodes have all been fascinating. The guests didn’t have much in common/any correlation (not like some podcasts consistently interview actors or spies or whatever). Bottom line; yes, this is worthy of MY time!

KDray1 · Aug 2026

Truly… I can’t wait for more. Bjarke is so gracious and Stephen really makes a personal conversation so interesting and profound. My family and I were cracking up when Stephen made soups for Hillary. Keep going!

Bunnies and dolphins · Jul 2026

I’ve enjoyed “Freakonomics Radio” for years. Stephen Dubner is insightful, clever, and has an engaging delivery that makes even esoteric subjects (Baumol's Cost Disease, anyone?) absolutely riveting. And yet, somehow, Dubner checks all of those skills at the door when he sits down for a long-form interview with a singular person. I tried to listen to all of Bjarke Ingels’s interview and, through grit, made it to the end. As a gourmet (or is it gourmand?) I thought Chef Hillary Sterling would be interesting. She was. Mildly. But by the time I got around to the James Daunt episode I was yawning. Who cares about his wife and/or girlfriend? I yelled at my iPhone and ended up deleting the episode right then and there. Do I subscribe to “Better in Person”? Absolutely not. But for now, SiriusXM Podcasts is forcing episodes of it into the “Freakonomics Radio” feed, which is annoying. I have to manually delete these insertions to avoid hearing these awful interviews. I’ll try back in a year.

nutjob · Sep 2026

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