The political debates over immigration can generate a lot of fuzzy facts. We wanted to test Americans’ knowledge — so, to wrap up our special series on immigration, we called some Freakonomics Radio listeners and quizzed them. SOURCES:Zeke Hernandez, professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. RESOURCES:The Truth About Immigration: Why Successful Societies Welcome Newcomers, by Zeke Hernandez (2024, available for pre-order). EXTRA:“The True Story of America’s Supremely Messed-Up Immigration System,” series by Freakonomics Radio (2024).

As the U.S. tries to fix its messy immigration system, our neighbor to the north is scooping up more talented newcomers every year. Are the Canadians stealing America’s bacon? (Part three of a three-part series.) SOURCES:Zeke Hernandez, professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.William Kerr, professor of business administration at Harvard Business School.David Leonhardt, senior writer at the New York Times.Sindhu Mahadevan, creator of This Immigrant Life newsletter.Marc Miller, Member of Parliament and Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship of Canada.Mike Savage, Mayor of Halifax, Nova Scotia. RESOURCES:The Truth About Immigration: Why Successful Societies Welcome Newcomers, by Zeke Hernandez (2024, available for pre-order)."The Border Where Different Rules Apply," by Seth Freed Wessler (The New York Times Magazine, 2023)."Last Year, Canada Became My Home. Feeling Like a Canadian Will Take a Bit Longer," by Sindhu Mahadevan (CBC News, 2023)."Canadians Are Starting to Sour on Migration," (The Economist, 2023).The Gift of Global Talent: How Migration Shapes Business, Economy & Society, by William Kerr (2018). EXTRAS:“The True Story of America’s Supremely Messed-Up Immigration System,” series by Freakonomics Radio (2024)."Is the American Dream Really Dead?" by Freakonomics Radio (2017).

The U.S. immigration system is a massively complicated machine, with a lot of worn-out parts. How to fix it? Step one: Get hold of some actual facts and evidence. (We did this step for you.) (Part two of a three-part series.) SOURCES:Zeke Hernandez, professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.David Leonhardt, senior writer at the New York Times.Sindhu Mahadevan, creator of This Immigrant Life newsletter. RESOURCES:The Truth About Immigration: Why Successful Societies Welcome Newcomers, by Zeke Hernandez (2024, available for pre-order)."Illegal Immigration Is a Bigger Problem Than Ever. These Five Charts Explain Why," by Andrew Mollica, Alicia A. Caldwell, Michelle Hackman, and Santiago Pérez (The Wall Street Journal, 2023).Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream, by David Leonhardt (2023).The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration, by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2017). EXTRAS:“The True Story of America’s Supremely Messed-Up Immigration System,” series by Freakonomics Radio (2024)."And the New Six-Word Motto for the U.S. Is …," by Stephen Dubner (Freakonomics blog, 2008).

She arrived in the U.S. as an 11-year-old refugee, then rose to become Secretary of State. Her views on immigration, nationalism, and borders, from this 2015 interview, are almost strangely appropriate to the present moment. SOURCE:Madeleine Albright, U.S. Secretary of State under President Bill Clinton and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. RESOURCES:"Madeleine Albright, First Woman to Serve as Secretary of State, Dies at 84," by Robert D. McFadden (The New York Times, 2022)."The Case for Getting Rid of Borders — Completely," by Alex Tabarrok (The Atlantic, 2015). EXTRAS:"The True Story of America's Supremely Messed-Up Immigration System," series by Freakonomics Radio (2024)."Is Migration a Basic Human Right?" by Freakonomics Radio (2015).

How did a nation of immigrants come to hate immigration? We start at the beginning, sort through the evidence, and explain why your grandfather was lying about Ellis Island. (Part one of a three-part series.) SOURCES:Leah Boustan, professor of economics at Princeton University.Zeke Hernandez, professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.Roger Nam, professor of Hebrew Bible at Emory University. RESOURCES:The Truth About Immigration: Why Successful Societies Welcome Newcomers, by Zeke Hernandez (2024, available for pre-order)."The Refugee Advantage: English-Language Attainment in the Early Twentieth Century," by Ran Abramitzky, Leah Platt Boustan, Peter Catron, Dylan Connor, and Rob Voigt (NBER Working Paper, 2023).Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success, by Leah Boustan and Ran Abramitzky (2022)."If Liberals Won't Enforce Borders, Fascists Will," by David Frum (The Atlantic, 2019). EXTRAS:"Is Migration a Basic Human Right?" by Freakonomics Radio (2015)."Who Are the Most Successful Immigrants in the World?" by Freakonomics Radio (2013).

Economists have discovered an odd phenomenon: many people who use social media (even you, maybe?) wish it didn’t exist. But that doesn’t mean they can escape. SOURCES:Leonardo Bursztyn, professor of economics at the University of Chicago.Benjamin Handel, professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley. RESOURCES:"When Product Markets Become Collective Traps: The Case of Social Media," by Leonardo Bursztyn, Benjamin Handel, Rafael Jimenez, and Christopher Roth (NBER Working Paper, 2023)."Social Media and Xenophobia: Evidence from Russia," by Leonardo Bursztyn, Georgy Egorov, Ruben Enikolopov, and Maria Petrova (NBER Working Paper, 2019)."Status Goods: Experimental Evidence from Platinum Credit Cards," by Leonardo Bursztyn, Bruno Ferman, Stefano Fiorin, Martin Kanz, and Gautam Rao (NBER Working Paper, 2017)."'Acting Wife': Marriage Market Incentives and Labor Market Investments," by Leonardo Bursztyn, Thomas Fujiwara, and Amanda Pallais (American Economic Review, 2017)."Measuring Crack Cocaine and Its Impact," by Roland G. Fryer Jr., Paul S. Heaton, Steven D. Levitt, and Kevin M. Murphy (Economic Inquiry, 2013). EXTRAS:"Is Facebook Bad for Your Mental Health?" by Freakonomics, M.D. (2022)."Why Is U.S. Media So Negative?" by Freakonomics Radio (2021).

In ancient Rome, it was bread and circuses. Today, it’s a World Cup, an Olympics, and a new Saudi-backed golf league that’s challenging the PGA Tour. Can a sporting event really repair a country’s reputation — or will it trigger the dreaded Streisand Effect? Also: why the major U.S. sports leagues are warming up to the idea of foreign investment. SOURCES:Jodi Balsam, professor of clinical law at Brooklyn Law School.Brandel Chamblee, Golf Channel analyst.Karen Crouse, sports journalist.Bomani Jones, sports journalist.Victor Matheson, professor of economics at the College of the Holy Cross.Alan Shipnuck, sports journalist. RESOURCES:"The New N.F.L. Owners?" by Lauren Hirsch, Kevin Draper, Michael J. de la Merced and Sarah Kessler (The New York Times, 2024)."PGA Tour Raises $1.5 Billion From Group of U.S. Investors," by Lauren Hirsch (The New York Times, 2024)."PGA Tour, LIV Golf Agree to Merge," by Andrew Beaton and Louise Radnofsky (The Wall Street Journal, 2023).Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf's Most Colorful Superstar, by Alan Shipnuck (2022)."Dustin Johnson Paid £100m to Perform Late U-Turn and Join Saudi-Backed Rebel Series," by By James Corrigan and Tom Morgan (The Telegraph, 2022)."Russia Was the Hottest Place in Sports. Now It’s Frozen Out," by Joshua Robinson, Ben Cohen, and Louise Radnofsky (The Wall Street Journal, 2022)."Could This Be the Year ‘Sportwashing’ Backfires?" by Andrés Martinez (The Los Angeles Times, 2022)."The Truth About Phil and Saudi Arabia," by Alan Shipnuck (The Fire Pit Collective, 2022).The New Yale Book of Quotations, by Fred Shapiro (2021)."The Surprising Reason That There Are So Many Thai Restaurants in America," by Myles Karp (Vice, 2018). EXTRAS:"Greg Norman Takes On the P.G.A. Tour," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).

What surprises lurk in our sewage? How did racist city planners end up saving Black lives? Why does Arizona grow hay for cows in Saudi Arabia? Three strange stories about the most fundamental substance we all take for granted. SOURCES:Brian Beach, professor of economics at Vanderbilt University.Marc Johnson, professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the University of Missouri School of Medicine.Amy Kirby, program lead for the National Wastewater Surveillance System at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Natalie Koch, professor of geography at Syracuse University. RESOURCES:Arid Empire: The Entangled Fates of Arizona and Arabia, by Natalie Koch (2023)."How a Saudi Firm Tapped a Gusher of Water in Drought-Stricken Arizona," by Isaac Stanley-Becker, Joshua Partlow, and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez (The Washington Post, 2023)."Arizona Is in a Race to the Bottom of Its Water Wells, With Saudi Arabia’s Help," by Natalie Koch (The New York Times, 2022)."Tracing the Origin of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron-Like Spike Sequences Detected in Wastewater," by Martin Shafer, Devon Gregory, Marc Johnson, et al. (medRxiv, 2022)."Water and Waste: A History of Reluctant Policymaking in U.S. Cities," by Brian Beach (Working Paper, 2022).Water, Race, and Disease, by Werner Troesken (2004).COVID Data Tracker: Wastewater Surveillance, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. EXTRAS:"What Is Sportswashing (and Does It Work)?" by Freakonomics Radio (2022)."Covid-19," series by Freakonomics Radio (2020-2021).

It used to feel like magic. Now it can feel like a set of cheap tricks. Is the problem with Google — or with us? And is Google Search finally facing a real rival, in the form of A.I.-powered “answer engines”? SOURCES:Marissa Mayer, co-founder of Sunshine; former C.E.O. of Yahoo! and vice president at Google.Ryan McDevitt; professor of economics at Duke University.Tim Hwang, media researcher and author; former Google employee.Elizabeth Reid, vice president of Search at Google.Aravind Srinivas, C.E.O. and co-founder of Perplexity.Jeremy Stoppelman, C.E.O. and co-founder of Yelp. RESOURCES:“A Fraudster Who Just Can’t Seem to Stop … Selling Eyeglasses,” by David Segal (The New York Times, 2022).Subprime Attention Crisis: Advertising and the Time Bomb at the Heart of the Internet, by Tim Hwang (2020).“Complaint: U.S. and Plaintiff States v. Google LLC,” by the U.S. Department of Justice (2020).“Fake Online Locksmiths May Be Out to Pick Your Pocket, Too,” by David Segal (The New York Times, 2016).“‘A’ Business by Any Other Name: Firm Name Choice as a Signal of Firm Quality,” by Ryan C. McDevitt (Journal of Political Economy, 2014).In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives, by Steven Levy (2011).“The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine,” by Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page (Computer Networks and ISDN Systems, 1998). EXTRAS:“Is Dialysis a Test Case of Medicare for All?” by Freakonomics Radio (2021).“How Big is My Penis? (And Other Things We Ask Google),” by Freakonomics Radio (2017).

A wide-open conversation with three women who guided Richard Feynman through some big adventures at the Esalen Institute. (Part of our Feynman series.) SOURCES: Barbara Berg, friend of Richard Feynman.Cheryl Haley, friend of Richard Feynman.Debby Harlow, friend of Richard FeynmaSam Stern, content creator at the Esalen Institute. EXTRAS: Richard Feynman Series, by Freakonomics Radio (2024)."The Future of Therapy Is Psychedelic," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).