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. 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 people want often makes it more dangerous - The kidney market America won't build, and what that silence costs - What the hitman vs. heroin asymmetry reveals about prohibition that works - The McCormick statement: the trade-off most policy debates refuse to make - How prediction markets are eroding the line between public and private information - Whether Milton Friedman was right to be embarrassed by the economics Nobel There's no such thing as a solution. There are only trade-offs. Get the transcript, bonus content, and my Monday M.A.G.I.C. Message: https://briankeating.com/yt Have a .edu email and live in the USA? You automatically win a meteorite: https://BrianKeating.com/edu Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 Support Into the Impossible on Patreon, get my weekly M.A.G.I.C. Message, unfiltered bonus content, and live monthly Office Hours with me: https://www.patreon.com/drbriankeating Join this channel for perks, monthly Office Hours, and your name in the Member Roster at the end of every episode: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join Featured Guest: Alvin Roth Website: https://web.stanford.edu/~alroth/ Moral Economics (book): https://www.amazon.com/Moral-Economics-Prostitution-Controversial-Transactions/dp/1541702018 My books: Losing the Nobel Prize (memoir): http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/hi50U9U Galileo's Dialogue (first-ever audiobook): https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un Twitter/X: https://x.com/BrianKeating Substack: https://briankeating.substack.com Blog: https://briankeating.com/blog Audio-only: https://briankeating.com/podcast