Freakonomics, which a lot of people had read, looks at behavioural things, like why most drug dealers live with their mums, and how white crime dropped in New York City, not because of the major purge or extra money in the police force, but because of the contraceptive pill. There were a lot less unplanned kids around, and parents who couldn’t cope, which has a high correlation with crime rates.
A lot of things feed into society and economics in unpredictable ways. And the authors of the book now have a podcast. So, every week, they’re producing more and more of this very witty, very insightful analysis.