TURNING CONVENTIONAL WISDOM UPSIDE DOWN�
ABC'S "20/20" REPORTS ON "SUPERFREAKONOMICS," FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23
How can a doctor's tie kill you? Can a simple hose stop global warming? Who has gained the most out of women's liberation � a teacher, a trader, a coach or a call girl? Such are the questions that swirl through the brains of economist Steven Levitt and journalist Stephen Dubner. With their first book, Freakonomics, they managed to spin dense, dry data into best-selling cocktail-party fodder. Now "20/20" has the first look at their sequel, SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance, which once again turns conventional wisdom upside down. "20/20" airs on FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.
Women and Pay: As patrons of the world's oldest profession, have men become the unlikely beneficiaries of the feminist movement, and how did it negatively affect school children? Bill Weir reports.
Incentives: Can altruism, our sense of giving, be manipulated, and if so, is that a good or bad thing? David Muir reports.
Healthcare: Can a necktie kill you? What would happen if doctors went on strike? Why should emergency rooms be put in airports? Are women doctors better than men? The SuperFreakonomics authors have some surprising revelations about staying alive. John Berman reports.
Simple Solutions: From polio to automobile deaths, problems that at one time seemed insurmountable were all solved, and often with relatively cheap and/or simple solutions. Can there be simple and cheap solutions � which sometimes get a bad rap in a prosperous world � to today's problems like killer hurricanes, malaria and global warming? "20/20" checks in with a company whose employees say they have worked out solutions to all three. Elizabeth Vargas reports.
Talent: When we look at someone like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods or Mozart, the comfortable story is, "they're so much better than us because, well, they were born ahead of us." But is the idea of raw talent and genius vastly overrated � could it be that, when you get that good at something, you have worked at it in a way that other people have not? Elizabeth Vargas reports.
"20/20" is anchored by Elizabeth Vargas. David Sloan is executive producer.
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