Daryl Fairweather, Chief Economist at Redfin and the first Black woman to earn an economics PhD from the University of Chicago, shares her insights on using economic principles to navigate life’s big decisions. She discusses how economic theories can empower personal choices—from negotiating salaries to deciding when to buy a home. Fairweather also advocates for land value taxation as a fairer alternative to traditional property taxes, aiming to improve housing accessibility. Her unique blend of personal experience and behavioral economics makes complex ideas approachable.
36:04
forum Ask episode
web_stories AI Snips
view_agenda Chapters
menu_book Books
auto_awesome Transcript
info_circle Episode notes
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Using Economics in Life
Use economics to achieve your goals in life, like career or love.
Apply economic principles learned in graduate school to everyday situations.
insights INSIGHT
Practical Economics vs. Unexpected Examples
Daryl Fairweather's book focuses on practical life decisions, unlike Freakonomics' unexpected examples.
Her book offers usable economic facts for a better life, focusing on personal experiences.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Daryl's Career Path
Daryl Fairweather's interest in economics started with the 2008 recession and research on foreclosures.
She transitioned from academia to the private sector, relying on economic principles for career advancement.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
In 'Hate the Game', Daryl Fairweather applies high-level economic concepts such as game theory and behavioral economics to everyday life decisions, offering strategies for navigating career, relationships, and personal choices. The book combines personal anecdotes with historical and pop culture references to make economics accessible and empowering for readers.
Rockonomics
A Backstage Tour of What the Music Industry Can Teach Us About Economics and Life
Alan B. Krueger
Rockonomics explores the economics of the music industry, highlighting how technological changes have transformed revenue streams, with live concerts becoming a primary source of income for artists. The book also delves into broader economic concepts such as superstars, inequality, and the gig economy, using the music industry as a case study. Krueger discusses how musicians can succeed in the digital age and how economic lessons from the music industry apply to other sectors.
Freakonomics
A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Andrea Montero Cusset
Steven D. Levitt
Stephen J. Dubner
Freakonomics is a collaboration between economist Steven D. Levitt and journalist Stephen J. Dubner that delves into the riddles of everyday life, from cheating and crime to parenting and sports. The book argues that economics is fundamentally the study of incentives and how people get what they want or need, especially when others want or need the same thing. It covers various topics such as the inner workings of a crack gang, the truth about real estate agents, and the secrets of the Ku Klux Klan, using forceful storytelling and wry insight to challenge conventional wisdom.
The secret insights of economics, translated for the rest of us. Should I buy or rent? Do I ask for a promotion? Should I tell people I’m pregnant? What salary do I deserve? Should I just quit this job? Common anxieties about life are often grounded in economics. In an increasingly win-lose society, these economic decisions—where to work, where to live, even how to live—have a way of feeling fixed and mistakes terminal. Daryl Fairweather is no stranger to these dynamics. As the first Black woman to receive an economics PhD from the famed University of Chicago, she saw firsthand how concepts of behavioral economics and game theory were deployed in the real world—and in her own life—to great effect.
Hate the Game: Economic Cheat Codes for Life, Love, and Work (U Chicago Press, 2025) combines Fairweather’s elite knowledge of these principles with her singular voice in describing how they can be harnessed. Her great talent, unique among economists, is her ability to articulate economic trends in a way that is not just informative, but also accounts for life’s other anxieties. In Hate the Game, Fairweather fixes her expertise and service on navigating the earliest economic inflection points of adult life: whether to go to college and for how long; partnering, having kids, both, or neither; getting, keeping, and changing jobs; and where to live and how to pay for it. She speaks in actionable terms about what the economy means for individual people, especially those who have the sneaking suspicion they’re losing out. Set against her own experiences and enriched with lessons from history, science, and pop culture, Fairweather instructs readers on how to use game theory and behavioral science to map out options and choose directions while offering readers a sense of control and agency in an economy where those things are increasingly rare.
New Books in Economics 
