Assisted dying has been legal in Switzerland since 1942, and now 12 US states plus D.C. have followed. The American movement was slow and contentious, shaped by figures like Jack Kevorkian, and is now arriving in major states like New York.
Where this was said
At 9:31 · chapter starts 5:40
Dubner pivots from the emotional story of Kahneman to a more analytical frame, introducing Al Roth as perhaps the world's leading authority on repugnant transactions — his term for market exchanges that some people want but others morally oppose, even if they can't tell whether the transaction has occurred [1] — Al Roth "Al Roth's concept of 'repugnant transactions' — things some people want and others oppose on moral grounds, regardless of harm — puts assis…" 08:02 . Roth's new book, 'Moral Economics,' dedicates a chapter to the growing acceptance of assisted dying. The conversation first detours through kidney exchange — Roth's signature contribution, which has helped save thousands of lives by matching donors and recipients without cash — to establish his credibility in designing markets where standard pricing mechanisms are socially unacceptable. Roth then defines repugnant transactions and places MAID in historical company with same-sex marriage and interracial marriage, both once banned and now legal. The framing is dispassionate but clarifying: whether a transaction is repugnant is a social fact, not a permanent moral verdict. Roth notes that markets need social support to function, and that his job as a market designer is to understand that social landscape — not just the economics — before intervening.
Al Roth noted that 500,000 people are on dialysis in the United States, with almost 100,000 on the waiting list for a deceased donor kidney.
Al Roth's concept of 'repugnant transactions' — things some people want and others oppose on moral grounds, regardless of harm — puts assisted dying in the same historical bucket as same-sex marriage and interracial marriage. Social support, Roth argues, is what makes or breaks any contested market.
Fei-Fei Li went back to Stanford from Google in 2018 specifically to build a multi-stakeholder governance framework for AI. Her argument: market forces are not societal norms. Just as biology uses IRBs and cars have safety laws, AI needs layered oversight from educators, governments, and the public — not just a few industry titans.
Andrew Santino's personal MCU of political villains is collapsing. He and Bobby speculated that a circulating photo of Mitch McConnell with a Chinese official was AI-generated compositing two separate images.
Mass surveillance is here to stay. The real battle isn't stopping cameras — it's ensuring judges and laws keep that data out of family court and civil disputes, admitting it only for violent crimes and national security. The surveillance economy currently yields more upside than downside, but only if we build the legal guardrails now.
When people cite Scandinavia as proof socialism works, Galloway says they've got it backwards. Northern Europe runs highly competitive free-market economies with more competition in many sectors than the US — they just make sure taxes are actually paid and redistributed. Billionaires and universal healthcare can coexist.
Two percent adjustments to income tax and stamp duty tweaks are deck-chair rearrangements. The UK's competitiveness hinges on four structural levers: currency valuation, energy costs, regulatory burden, and tax rates. Devalue the pound, build 56 nuclear plants, slash red tape, introduce a flat tax — and the country transforms.
Lisbon had one of Europe's worst heroin crises. Then Portugal legalised drugs and redirected all enforcement money into rehabilitation and housing. Crime collapsed. Addiction fell. Then politics moved the money elsewhere, and the problem started creeping back. Chesterton's Fence: you forget why you were spending that money.
Congress passed the Boland Amendment 411 to 0, explicitly banning CIA and Defense Department funds for the Contras. Reagan signed it — then immediately moved the operation deeper underground, essentially responding to a bipartisan prohibition by going more illegal.
The CIA planted mines in Nicaraguan commercial harbors, wrote the Contras' press releases taking credit, and promptly blew up ships from four allied nations. The Wall Street Journal broke the story, Congress erupted, and the Boland Amendments multiplied.
Oliver North was a decorated Marine and devout Catholic with zero covert operations experience. He ran the entire shadow war against Congress — planes, airstrips, arms shipments, shell companies — learning on the job. And by every operational measure, he crushed it.
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