646. An Air Traffic Controller Walks Into a Radio Studio ...

What does it take to “play 3D chess at 250 miles an hour”? And how far will $12.5 billion of “Big, Beautiful” funding go toward modernizing the F.A.A.? (Part two of a two-part series (freakonomics.com/is-the-air-traffic-control-sy…).)

• SOURCES:• David Strayer (psych.utah.edu/people/faculty/strayer-david.php), professor of cognition and neural science at the University of Utah.
• Dorothy Robyn (itif.org/person/dorothy-robyn), senior fellow at I.T.I.F.
• Ed Bastian (news.delta.com/leader-bio-ed-bastian-chief-exe…), C.E.O. of Delta Airlines.
• Ed Bolen (nbaa.org/about/contact-nbaa/senior-executives/…), president and C.E.O. of the National Business Aviation Association.
• John Strong (mason.wm.edu/faculty/directory/strong-j.php), professor of finance and economics at the William and Mary School of Business.
• Kenneth Levin, retired air traffic controller.
• Olivia Grace (linkedin.com/in/oliviadgrace), former product manager at Slack.
• Polly Trottenberg (nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2025/july…), former deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

• RESOURCES:• “An Air Traffic Controller Speaks Out About Newark Airport (wsj.com/podcasts/the-journal/an-air-traffic-co…),” by The Journal (2025).
• "Why Did Air Traffic Control Reform Efforts Fail (Again)? (enotrans.org/article/why-did-air-traffic-contr…)" by Jeff Davis (Eno Center for Transportation, 2023).
• "Supertaskers: Profiles in extraordinary multitasking ability (link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.3758/PBR.17.4…)," by Jason Watson and David Strayer (Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2021).
• Managing the Skies: Public Policy, Organization, and Financing of Air Traffic Management (amazon.com/Managing-Skies-Organization-Financi…), by John Strong and Clinton Oster (2016).

• EXTRAS:• "Multitasking Doesn't Work. So Why Do We Keep Trying? (freakonomics.com/podcast/multitasking-doesnt-w…)" by Freakonomics Radio (2024).

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