Freakonomics Radio
Hosted by Stephen J. Dubner
A sneak peek at an upcoming series — and a call for would-be radio reporters.
956 words · 13 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
Hey there. It's Stephen Dubner, breaking in to your Freakonomics Radio feed with a special request for your help. Let me explain.
Whoa. So there is a suitcase on the road.
What do you have there?
All right, we'll give you a little bit of adventure here.
That's me and Matt Sparks, a senior VP with Delta Airlines. Matt was driving us across the absolutely massive tarmac at the Atlanta airport when we came upon that suitcase in the middle of the road. It had apparently fallen off a luggage cart. Matt got right on it.
Hey, Phil. It's going to Salt Lake City at 5:56, so it's got about three hours to connect. Will you grab it? I can grab it. Thank you, sir.
All right, so listen, I'm glad you picked up the bag, but it makes me a little nervous that there was just a suitcase sitting in the middle there.
Well, it makes me nervous, too. That's obviously not the way you want to see the process.
The suitcase plainly didn't belong on the tarmac. What about us? What were we doing there? I'll tell you. We are working on a Freakonomics Radio series about airline travel. We've been talking with a lot of people from the industry.
I'm the CEO of Delta Airlines.
I'm a professor and the UPS Chair of Transportation at the University of Pennsylvania. And one of my real specialties is air transportation.
We just transformed travel in Brazil. We fly almost 100,000 people every single day. Just to push that single plane back, there's about 1,200 things that have to happen sequentially.
We've been talking to these folks because we are trying to answer a relatively simple question. Why does everyone love to hate airline travel? There are, to be sure, some legitimate reasons.
Airlines struggling to bounce back from a holiday weekend riddled with thousands of flight disruptions.
After months of chaos at London's busiest airport, Heathrow has taken the extraordinary measure of asking airlines to stop selling tickets.
Things were especially chaotic this summer.
That's when the traveling public decided that COVID was over and they had to go. They didn't care where they were going. They didn't care what price they were going. They were just going someplace.
But if you take a step back and think about how safe airline travel has become, how relatively cheap it is and what it actually provides, it starts to look something like a miracle.
Aviation is such a powerful force in our lives. Experiencing other cultures, traveling to see family, there's so much power.
So we've been trying to figure out how all this happens, especially what goes on behind the scenes. We did some safety training.
Come this way, leave everything, jump and slide. And you're gonna put your hands out right in front of you and arm out in front.
I'm jumping from here, I stand there. You jump from here, arm straight ahead.
There you go.
Nice.
Nicely done.
We also learned how to communicate with pilots. 4535 on the ground for Flash Bear 12.
So in this case, you check, make sure the gate is open and you give instructions. Breakout 3535 LGB Ram, enter lane two to gate 12. Two to 12, 4535, thanks.
And we spent some time at a New York City airport that just had a much-needed makeover.
So this is kind of before and after. These are actual tweets and headlines.
Read that one for me.
Remember when at Joe Biden called at Laguardia Airport a third world country? Well, it still is.
We got to go through some of those unmarked doors you see in airports.
So you're gonna see something that no other passengers or customers are ever gonna get to see.
But that wasn't a great idea.
Along the way, we've learned a lot about air travel, but there's one big thing missing from our story. You, the passenger. So today, we're asking for your help. We are looking for a few people to record some voice diaries of their air travel over the next few weeks. If you like the idea of being a radio reporter, documenting and describing every stage of your journey, you may be one of the people we are looking for. The first step is to send us a quick description of your travel plans. Just use your phone to record a voice memo. Tell us your name, where you're from, and the details of your trip. Where are you going and why? Are you traveling alone or with friends or family or colleagues?
Did you splurge on a first-class seat? Or are you in the back row? Are you a nervous flyer? What are your thoughts on airplane food? We want to document a wide range of trips, so no itinerary is too outlandish or too ordinary. Send that short voice memo to our email, [email protected]. Put "passenger diary" in the subject line. Sound quality counts, so make sure you record in a quiet place and get a good, clear take. If we like what we hear, we will get in touch with detailed instructions. Thanks for the help, and we are excited for you to hear our series on air travel soon.
Would you like to make an announcement?
Absolutely.
Hold that button down right there, and you can say whatever you'd like.
Okay. If you turn to Channel 4 in your audio entertainment system, you will find the podcast channel. You know, Freakonomics Radio is a good one to start with. It is important to put your headphones on first before helping another passenger with their headphones.
The Freakonomics Radio Network, the hidden side of everything.
Page updated September 30, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
