Nobel Economist: The Market That Lets People Die

Nobel Economist: The Market That Lets People Die

From Into the Impossible With Brian Keating by Big Bang Productions Inc.

June 30, 2026 · 1h 22m

About this episode

A Nobel laureate discusses the implications of market bans on public health and safety.

A Nobel laureate in economics argues the bans we pass to protect our morals are quietly killing people and the data backs him up. Why the line between a market we allow and one we forbid is mostly an accident of disgust. Subscribe if you want science with evidence, not speculation. My guest won the 2012 Nobel Prize for designing the systems that match kidney donors to patients who would otherwise die waiting. We cover why it’s easy to buy heroin but hard to hire a hitman, what surrogacy bans actually do to the babies they’re meant to protect, why paying kidney donors could end a shortage that kills thousands a year, and the trade-off statement he wants every lawmaker to say out loud. He has been called an organ trafficker. He explains why that’s the point. What you’ll hear: Why banning something that people want often makes it more dangerous The kidney market America won’t build and what that silence costs What the hitman vs. heroin ban asymmetry tells us about effective prohibition The McCormick statement: the trade-off acknowledgment most policy debates refuse to make How prediction markets are eroding the boundary between public and private information Whether Milton Friedman…

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Host: Brian Keating

Guest: Nobel laureate

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Organizations: Big Bang Productions Inc.

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