The Dangers of Safety (Rebroadcast)

The Dangers of Safety (Rebroadcast)

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I recently found myself looking back on my musical career — the one I quit. This led me to start looking back on the five-year history of Freakonomics Radio. I started digging through the archives — and kept digging and digging — and finally got to this maiden episode. Why not? I thought. It’s August — time for a repeat — and what’s the worst thing that can happen?

If you’d like, you can read the original blog post that accompanied the episode. A few updates worth considering: Quintin Mikell, then a member of Philadelphia Eagles, is now out of the NFL; Terence Newman is still playing but now he’s with the Vikings. Robert Cantu is now a senior adviser to the NFL’s Head, Neck and Spine Committee, and the whole topic of brain injury has become more pressing. And when we say in the podcast that “more people watch [the Super Bowl] on TV than any other show,” we should have said “any other show in the U.S.” Because American football can’t really compete with futbol. And one more thing: my son Solomon is no longer 9 years old; he’s 15 and his love for football has been eclipsed by his love for, yes, futbol.