After a lucrative career as a thief, Charles Kennedy has an important realization: the real money is in drugs. He rises to become one of the East Coast’s biggest traffickers, throwing coke-fuelled parties and amassing a strange menagerie of pets. But his success attracts the wrong kind of attention.
For more information about this episode, and for a full list of credits, visit crimetownshow.com.
King Camp Gillette came up with an idea which has helped shape the modern economy. He invented the disposable razor blade. But, perhaps more significantly, he invented the two-part pricing model which works by imposing what economists call “switching costs”. If you’ve ever bought replacement cartridges for an inkjet printer you experienced both when you discovered that they cost almost as much as the printer itself. It’s also known as the “razor and blades” model because that’s where it first drew attention, thanks to King Camp Gillette. Attract people with a cheap razor, then repeatedly charge them for expensive replacement blades. As Tim Harford explains, it’s an idea which has been remarkably influential.
Producer: Ben Crighton
Editors: Richard Knight and Richard Vadon
(Image: Razor, Credit: Shutterstock)
There’s no such thing as “the correct time”. Like the value of money, it’s a convention that derives its usefulness from the widespread acceptance of others. But there is such a thing as accurate timekeeping. That dates from 1656, and a Dutchman named Christiaan Huygens. In the centuries since, as Tim Harford explains, the clock has become utterly essential to almost every area of the modern economy.
Producer: Ben Crighton
Editors: Richard Knight and Richard Vadon
(Image: A wall clock. Credit: Shutterstock)
Nate DiMeo is the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Artist in Residence for 2016/2017. He is producing ten pieces inspired by the collection and by the museum itself. This is the second episode of that residency.
This residency is made possible by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Chester Dale Fund.
This episode is written and produced and stuff by Nate DiMeo with engineering assistance from Elyssa Dudley and research Assistance from Andrea Milne. Its Executive Producer is Limor Tomer, General Manager Live Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Music * Kyu and Njuichi from Sylvain Chauvau’s score to Umarete Wa Mita Keredo. * Moonbow by aAirial. * Gisella by K. Leimer from A Period of Review. * Here’s What You’re Missin and And Then it Rained from Bing & Ruth’s album City Lake.