From recording some of the first rap hits to revitalizing Johnny Cash's career, the legendary producer has had an extraordinary creative life. In this episode he talks about his new book and his art-making process — and helps Steve get in touch with his own artistic side.

• SOURCES:
  • Rick Rubin, music producer and record executive.

• RESOURCES:
  • The Creative Act: A Way of Being, by Rick Rubin (2023).
  • “How Google’s AlphaGo Beat a Go World Champion,” by Christopher Moyer (The Atlantic, 2016).
  • “DMC: The Real Story of Aerosmith + Run-D.M.C.’s ‘Walk This Way’,” by Loudwire (2016).
  • “Hurt,” by Johnny Cash, music video (2003).
  • “Walk This Way,” by Run-DMC, ft. Aerosmoth (1986).
  • “It’s Yours,” by T La Rock (1984).
  • “Walk This Way,” by Aerosmith (1975).
  • The Way of Code.

• EXTRAS:
  • “How To Be Creative,” series by Freakonomics Radio (2018).

More than two decades ago, Adam Riess’s Nobel Prize-winning work fundamentally changed our understanding of the universe. His new work is reshaping cosmology for a second time.

• RESOURCES:
  • Adam Riess, astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University.

• SOURCES:
  • "The Nobel Prize Winner Who Thinks We Have the Universe All Wrong," by Ross Andersen (The Atlantic, 2025).
  • "The answer to life, the universe and everything might be 73. Or 67," by Hannah Devlin (The Guardian, 2018).
  • "Adam G. Riess Nobel Prize Lecture," (The Nobel Foundation, 2011).
  • "Breakthroughs 1998," by Floyd Bloom (Science, 1998).
  • "Observational Evidence from Supernovae for an Accelerating Universe and a Cosmological Constant," by Adam Riess, Alexei Filippenko, Peter Challis, Alejandro Clocchiatti, Alan Diercks, Peter Garnavich, Ron Gilliland, Craig Hogan, Saurabh Jha, Robert Kirshner, Bruno Leibundgut, Mark Phillips, David Reiss, Brian Schmidt, Robert Schommer, Chris Smith, Jason Spyromilio, Christopher Stubbs, Nicholas Suntzeff, and John Tonry (The Astronomical Journal, 1998).
  • "1912: Henrietta Leavitt Discovers the Distance Key," (Carnegie Institution for Science).

Uri Simonsohn is a behavioral science professor who wants to improve standards in his field — so he’s made a sideline of investigating fraudulent academic research. He tells Steve Levitt, who's spent plenty of time rooting out cheaters in other fields, how he does it.

• SOURCES:
  • Uri Simonsohn, professor of behavioral science at Esade Business School.

• RESOURCES:
  • "Gino v. President and Fellows of Harvard College," (Court Listener, 2025).
  • "Statement from Dan Ariely," (2024).
  • "Data Falsificada (Part 4): 'Forgetting The Words,'" by Uri Simonsohn, Leif Nelson, and Joe Simmons (Data Colada, 2023).
  • "They Studied Dishonesty. Was Their Work a Lie?" by Gideon Lewis-Kraus (The New Yorker, 2023).
  • "Evidence of Fraud in an Influential Field Experiment About Dishonesty," by Uri Simonsohn, Leif Nelson, and Joe Simmons (Data Colada, 2023).
  • "Signing at the beginning makes ethics salient anddecreases dishonest self-reports in comparison tosigning at the end," by Lisa Shu, Nina Mazar, Francesca Gino, Dan Ariely, and Max Bazerman (PNAS, 2021).
  • "Power Posing: Reassessing The Evidence Behind The Most Popular TED Talk," by Uri Simonsohn and Joe Simmons (Data Colada, 2015).
  • "Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are," by Amy Cuddy (TED, 2012).
  • "Daily Horizons: Evidence of Narrow Bracketing in Judgment from 10 Years of MBA-Admission Interviews," by Uri Simohnson and Francesa Gino (Psychological Science, 2012).
  • "Spurious? Name similarity effects (implicit egotism) in marriage, job, and moving decisions," by Uri Simohnson (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2011).
  • "False-Positive Psychology: Undisclosed Flexibility in Data Collection and Analysis Allows Presenting Anything as Significant," by Joe Simmons, Leif Nelson, and Uri Simohnson (Psychological Science, 2011).

• EXTRAS:
  • "Will We Solve the Climate Problem?" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2025).
  • "Why Is There So Much Fraud in Academia?" by Freakonomics Radio (2024).
  • "When I'm Sixty Four," by The Beatles (1967).