Pod Paper Scissors Liz Landau and Ben Klemens

When your interaction with another person has an end date, like moving out of a shared apartment, do you still do the dishes? In this episode we talk about repeated prisoner's dilemmas when and end is in sight, and how things fall apart.

The real world is full of "repeated prisoners' dilemmas" in which we face the same situations over and over with the same people. In this episode we discuss the optimal solutions, going all the way back to a contest that required people to mail in computer code.

Buying a house isn't as straightforward as offering a price. Contracts are malleable, and buyer and seller are also negotiating who will bear the risks. Learn how game theory underlies this process.

We discuss a different kind of auction: the second price auction. It resolves many of the problems of the usual auctions, but the game is played a little differently.

Sometimes winners feel like losers. In this episode we talk about auctions, including the concept of the winner's curse and Memorial Day sales.

Why does money have value? Why did every child want a Furby for one holiday season? On this episode, we explore how people's preferences are shaped by what they think other people want.