Short Wave - Why Your Brain Loves Sales

This Cyber Monday, a meditation on holiday sales. A quick trip to pick up presents can turn into an hours-long shopping spree thanks to all the ways stores use research from fields like consumer neuroscience and neuromarketing to entice you. Retailers create urgency and scarcity to push you to give into the emotional part of your brain, motivated by the release of dopamine.

But with the help of NPR business correspondent Alina Selyukh, we get into the psychology of sales and discounts: Why it's SO hard to resist the tricks stores use — and some tips to outsmart them.

Read Alina's full story here.

Questions about the science driving the world around you? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

The Indicator from Planet Money - How Trump’s tariffs plan might work

President-elect Donald Trump made a lot of economic promises on the campaign trail, but none as sweeping as his plan to enact tariffs. Trump believes taxing imports from other countries will help reduce the U.S. trade deficit and raise money for things like tax cuts. Today on the show, how might these tariffs work and will they work? Or is everything about to get more expensive?

Find more of Kyla Scanlon's work on YouTube and TikTok.

Related episodes:
What are Trump's economic plans (Apple / Spotify)
Why tariffs are SO back (Apple / Spotify)
Trade wars and talent shortages (Apple / Spotify)
A brief history of tariffs

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Music by
Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

NPR's Book of the Day - In comedian Youngmi Mayer’s new memoir, laughter is a lifeline

Comedian, writer and podcast host Youngmi Mayer was raised in Korea and Saipan with a Korean mom and a white American father. Their relationship was strained at times as Mayer navigated her family's generational trauma and often took on a parental role. She pushed through these struggles, and others, through humor–and that strategy frames her new memoir, I'm Laughing Because I'm Crying. Mayer speaks with NPR's Juana Summers about her family story in today's episode. They also discuss Mayer's original pitch for the book's title, relatability in Asian American storytelling and how she became a standup comedian.

To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

What Next | Daily News and Analysis - The House’s Gift to Trump

The House already voted to pass the “The Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act.” But with Donald Trump returning to the White House next year, some Democrats are viewing the power that the bill gives the executive branch—to label non-profit organizations as “funding terrorism” and strip them of their non-profit status—in a new light.


But is it too late? 


Guest: Emily Tamkin, global affairs journalist and the author of The Influence of Soros and Bad Jews.


Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the What Next show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen.


Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It Could Happen Here - Occupied America and the Primal Father

Garrison and Robert discuss the fascist rhetoric of the 2024 Trump campaign.

Sources:

https://cominsitu.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/theodor-w-adorno-freudian-theory-and-the-pattern-of-fascist-propaganda-5.pdf 

https://apnews.com/article/turning-point-election-2024-donald-trump-2b3580134a6b19dff18771c3fdb0f11a 

https://www.denver7.com/follow-up/aurora-pauses-closure-plans-of-apartments-at-center-of-venezuelan-gang-claims-after-court-appoints-caretaker
https://sentinelcolorado.com/metro/aurora-police-id-more-armed-men-in-viral-video-no-venezuelan-gang-ties-reported/
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-live-trump-holds-campaign-rally-in-aurora-colorado
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/06/politics/trump-anti-immigrant-comments/index.html 

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/10/trump-authoritarian-rhetoric-hitler-mussolini/680296/ 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

array(3) { [0]=> string(150) "https://www.omnycontent.com/d/programs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/78d30acb-8463-4c40-a5ae-ae2d0145c9ff/image.jpg?t=1749835422&size=Large" [1]=> string(10) "image/jpeg" [2]=> int(0) }

Good Bad Billionaire - Peter Thiel: Paypal mafioso

What do Airbnb, Facebook, Spotify, and LinkedIn all have in common? Peter Thiel. They made his fortune, but he’s since rejected Silicon Valley for being too "woke". He’s a contradictory character: a libertarian who made billions from big state surveillance; an intellectual who purports to hate politics, but who’s poured millions into political campaigns, including Donald Trump’s 2020 bid. Some call him a free-thinking genius, while others say he wants to watch Rome burn. Simon Jack and Zing Tsjeng tell the intriguing story of Peter Thiel, the man who ousted Elon Musk from their company PayPal, and who’s signed up to be cryogenically frozen. Then they decide if they think he’s good, bad, or just another billionaire.

We’d love to hear your feedback. Email goodbadbillionaire@bbc.com or drop us a text or WhatsApp to +1 (917) 686-1176.

To find out more about the show and read our privacy notice, visit www.bbcworldservice.com/goodbadbillionaire

The Economics of Everyday Things - Greeting Cards (Replay)

The tradition of sending cards to loved ones was in decline — until it was rescued by a new generation. But millennials have their own ideas about what sentiments they want to convey. Zachary Crockett is thinking of you on your special day.

 

  • SOURCES:
    • Mia Mercado, writer and former editor at Hallmark.
    • George White, president of Up With Paper and former president of the American Greeting Card Association.