Today is the 13th day of 2022. Not a Friday but the only 13th day of the year. However, based on the two brief items below, it appears to be a lucky day for me.

For many years, I assigned the Freakonomics podcast in my behavioral economics course. The episodes are always informative and well-produced, and in my class, they always led to lively discussions.

As of today, I have achieved an important life goal: appearing on Freakonomics Radio in an episode entitled, “What Do Broken-Hearted Knitters, Urinating Goalkeepers, and the C.I.A. Have in Common?” The topic was superstitions and curses, and I was one of several people interviewed for the show. Apart from my contribution, there is some great material on curses, including sports curses and a discussion of “the sweater curse.”

As of today, the Spanish edition of my book Superstition: A Very Short Introduction (Breve Historia de la Superstición) is out from Alianza Editorial. In the United States, it is available in paperback from Amazon and in e-book format from Barnes & Noble.

The cover of the Spanish edition is somewhat unique in avoiding the more common black cat theme in favor of an image of crossed fingers.

That’s all for now. I hope that January 13th is a lucky day for you, too.

SV