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Jena links Taylor Swift albums to fatal car crashes

Tuesday, March 31, 2026 · from 2 podcasts
Modern WisdomFreakonomics Radio
  • Album releases from stars like Taylor Swift cause measurable spikes in fatal car accidents.
  • Blockbuster movies glorifying speed, like Fast and Furious, increase speeding tickets.
  • Smartphone distraction for music selection turns cultural events into a public health hazard.

When a superstar album drops, the death toll on American highways rises. Harvard economist Bapu Jena, in an NBER paper, identifies major music releases as a new variable for fatal car crashes. The smartphone has turned the act of selecting a new song into a lethal distraction, with millions of drivers reaching for their phones simultaneously on release day.

This behavioral spillover is specific to the content consumed. Jena’s data shows speeding violations spike near theaters showing *Fast and Furious* movies, but not for releases like *Harry Potter*. The art directly influences driver aggression.

Bapu Jena, Freakonomics Radio:

- After Fast and Furious movie releases, there is an increase in speeding behavior.

- You do not see an increase in speeding behavior when the Hunger Games movies come out.

Co-author Christopher Worsham, an ICU physician, points to the dangerous overlap of using our most distracting device for in-car entertainment. The urgent desire for cultural novelty overrides road safety, creating predictable surges in accidents similar to the 6% jump in traffic deaths seen on Tax Day.

Until autonomous cars remove the human element, our playlists and viewing habits remain a quantified public health risk.

PsychologySocietyHealth

Source Intelligence

What each podcast actually said

Modern Wisdom
Modern Wisdom

#1078 - New Studio Launch Party - Indian Fetishes, Betting on Wars & Tom Cruise • Mar 30

  • Phil Collins wrote 'In the Air Tonight' on the invoice from the painter who had an affair with his wife.
  • Dolly Parton composed both 'Jolene' and 'I Will Always Love You' in a single songwriting session.
  • Sylvester Stallone wrote the script for 'Rocky' in three days by painting his windows black to ignore time.
  • Before his success, Stallone was so poor he sold his dog; after Rocky hit, he paid $25,000 to buy it back.
  • Chris Williamson argues great art often emerges from a pressurized breakdown, not a comfortable, steady grind.
  • Stallone hated the writing process and wrote Rocky in three days simply to be done with it.
  • Dolly Parton later treated writing two of history's most lucrative songs in one session as a casual 'good writing day.'

Also from this episode:

Culture (1)
  • Stallone turned down a million-dollar offer for the Rocky script because the studio wouldn't let him star in it.
HistoryMediaPhilosophy
Freakonomics Radio
Freakonomics Radio

668. Do Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny Have Blood on Their Hands? • Mar 27

  • Harvard's Bapu Jena finds major album release days, like for Taylor Swift, cause measurable spikes in fatal car crashes.
  • Jena argues smartphones have turned music selection into a lethal distraction, replacing the radio's low-risk dial.
  • The effect is an example of behavioral spillover, where a cultural event triggers a specific, dangerous real-world action.
  • Traffic deaths jump 6% on Tax Day, linking psychological stress from looming deadlines to fatal driving errors.
  • Jena's research shows speeding violations spike on highways near theaters showing *Fast and Furious* movies upon release.
  • That speeding effect is absent for releases of movies like *Harry Potter* or *The Hunger Games*, according to Jena.
  • Co-author Christopher Worsham notes we use our smartphones, the most distracting device ever invented, to control in-car entertainment.
  • Jena previously found mortality rates for high-risk heart patients drop when senior cardiologists are away at conferences.
  • He argues senior doctors are more likely to perform invasive, risky procedures that can occasionally kill a patient.
PsychologyHealth