The World Is (Still) Drowning in Sludge
About this episode
Stephen Dubner explores the origins and costs of various forms of bureaucratic sludge.
Insurance forms that make no sense. Subscriptions that can’t be cancelled. A never-ending blizzard of automated notifications. In this update of a 2025 episode, Stephen Dubner discovers where all this sludge comes from — and how much it’s costing us.
People in this episode
Host: Stephen Dubner
Topics covered
- insurance
- subscriptions
- automated notifications
- sludge
- costs
Keywords
- insurance forms
- subscriptions
- automated notifications
- bureaucracy
- 2025 episode
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