Freakonomics Radio

Anne Pasternak (Brooklyn Museum) and Michael Roth (Wesleyan University) tell Stephen Dubner how they keep the peace in the middle of a culture war.



If you'd like to see the video version of Better in Person, you can watch it on YouTube or Apple Podcasts.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Museums are purging their collections of looted treasures. Can they also get something in return? And what does it mean to be a museum in the 21st century? (Part 3 of an updated series originally published in 2023.)



SOURCES:

Patricia Allan, museum consultant, former curator of world cultures for the Glasgow Museums.

Andrea Bayer, deputy director for collections and administration at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

Victor Ehikhamenor, Nigerian writer and artist.

Patty Gerstenblith, professor emeritus of law at DePaul University College of Law.

Tom Wilkening, professor of economics at the University of Melbourne.





RESOURCES:

"After Seizures, the Met Sets a Plan to Scour Collections for Looted Art," by Robin Pogrebin and Graham Bowley (The New York Times, 2023).

"Nigeria Benin Bronzes: Buhari Declaration 'Blindsides' Museum Officials," by Barnaby Phillips (B.B.C., 2023).

"Shared Stewardship and Ethical Returns Policy," by the Smithsonian Ethical Returns Working Group (2022).

"Protecting Antiquities: A Role for Long-Term Leases?" by Michael Kremer and Tom Wilkening (Working Paper, 2015).





EXTRAS:

“Stealing Art Is Easy. Giving It Back Is Hard,” series by Freakonomics Radio (2023).



Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jennifer Egan talks about confidence, luck, and why it takes 35 drafts to get to the finish line.

If you'd like to see the video version of Better in Person, you can watch it on YouTube or Apple Podcasts.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The world’s great museums are full of art and artifacts that were plundered during an era when plunder was the norm. Now there’s a push to return these works to their rightful owners. Sounds simple, right? It's not. (Part 2 of an updated series originally published in 2023.)

 

SOURCES:

Matthew Bogdanos, assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and chief of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit.

Nicholas Cullinan, director of the British Museum.

Victor Ehikhamenor, Nigerian writer and artist.

David Frum, staff writer at The Atlantic.

Dan Hicks, professor of contemporary archaeology at the University of Oxford and curator of world archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum.

Bénédicte Savoy, professor of art history at the Technical University in Berlin.



 

RESOURCES:

"These Looted Treasures Are Home. What Now?," by Alex Marshall (New York Times, 2025).

"France's Long-Awaited Restitution Policy Is Finally Here," by Vincent Noce (The Art Newspaper, 2023).

Africa’s Struggle for Its Art: History of a Postcolonial Defeat, by Bénédicte Savoy (2022).

"Who Benefits When Western Museums Return Looted Art?" by David Frum (The Atlantic, 2022).

"Museums in England and Wales to Gain Powers to Dispose of Objects on Moral Grounds," by Dalya Alberge (The Guardian, 2022).

The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution, by Dan Hicks (2020).

"The Restitution of African Cultural Heritage. Toward a New Relational Ethics," by Bénédicte Savoy and Felwine Sarr (2018).



 

EXTRAS:

"Can a Museum Be the Conscience of a Nation?," by Freakonomics Radio (2025).

"The Hidden Side of the Art Market," by Freakonomics Radio (2021).



Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When he joined the Del Fuegos, his big brother’s band, all Warren knew how to play was a record player. Things went great for a while — and then it all fell apart. So how did he wind up writing definitive books on Springsteen and Tom Petty? 

If you'd like to see the video version of Better in Person, you can watch it on YouTube or Apple Podcasts.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.