Your Favorite Episodes of 2020

Thanks to all our loyal listeners who take our EconTalk survey each year.

Here are your Top 10 Episodes of 2020.

• First, two honorable mentions: L.A. Paul on Vampires, Life Choices and Transformation, and Vinay Prasad on Cancer Drugs, Medical Ethics and Malignant. They would have been in the top 10 if we had limited voting to people who had heard every episode.

Now, the Top 10.

• Number 10, a tie between Yuval Levin on A Time to Build and Tyler Cowen on the COVID-19 Pandemic.

• Number 9: Michael Blastland on The Hidden Half.

• Number 8: Jay Bhattacharya on the Pandemic.

• Number 7: Michael Munger on the Future of Higher Education.

• Number 6: Nassim Nicholas Taleb on the Pandemic.

• Number 5, Virginia Postrel on Textiles and the Fabric of Civilization.

• Number 4, Glenn Loury on Race, Inequality, and America.

• Number 3, Matt Ridley on How Innovation Works.

• [Number 2 and Number 1:] And your favorite episodes of 2020–we’re honoring two episodes this year as your favorites, kind of cheating:Steven Levitt on Freakonomics and the State of Economics, and Dwayne Betts on Reading, Prison and the Million Book Project.

The Levitt episode got the most votes. But, among people who heard every episode, Dwayne Betts was by far the biggest vote-getter. That split doesn’t usually happen. So, this year, we’re listing your favorite as a tie.