Freakonomics 10 years on: Stephen J Dubner and Steven D Levitt on what they got right and wrong

A decade ago, the first Freakonomics book tied together a number of bright ideas about economics and the modern world in a quirky, accessible way, and sold in vast numbers. Now, as the fifth volume comes out, Freakonomics is a brand in itself - and the two men behind it have as many critics as plaudits

Quite soon after the Freakonomics guys, Stephen J Dubner and Steven D Levitt, walk into their office on New York's Upper West Side for our interview, the scene resolves itself into the kind of well-packaged anecdote with which they love to begin their books. Dubner's small, wiggly, six-month-old dog, Fifi, is jumping all over me. And I - for some reason feeling like I have to explain the cute behaviour of someone else's animal - say it's probably because I smell like my cat.

"She's never met a cat," says Dubner, the journalist, in his declarative New York accent, "I don't know if she even knows what a cat is."

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