Category: 3-EconSometimeCommentary

On today's show: we're ... venting.

We at Planet Money are an ensemble show – each with different curiosities and styles. But we recently realized many of us have something in common: We're annoyed consumers.

So we're going to get ranty ... but then try to understand the people annoying us. Like stingy coffee shops, manufacturers that don't design things for repair ... and stores that send way too many emails every day.

Along the way, we learn a very sad thing about satisfaction and the future of skilled labor in the U.S.

(Also, we should all just stop using umbrellas. They have negative consumption externalities. Come on people.)

This episode was produced by James Sneed. It was edited by Marianne McCune, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by James Willetts. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

Find more Planet Money: Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.

Listen free at these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.

Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

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

NPR Privacy Policy

On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Margaret Levi delivers a keynote lecture at the 2024 Markets & Society conference, exploring her latest research on political equality and arguing that it has been poorly conceptualized and measured in comparison to economic equality. She frames political equality around three dimensions: participation, representation, and responsiveness, emphasizing that it is relational and rooted in social interactions and is not merely a matter of resource distribution. Levi highlights new empirical tools for better assessing political equality, including surveys on empowerment, studies of social capital, and network analysis.

Margaret Levi is Professor Emerita of Political Science and Senior Fellow at the Center for Democracy, Development and Rule of Law (CDDRL) at the Freeman Spogli Institute (FSI) at Stanford University. Levi is currently a faculty fellow at CASBS and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, co-director of the Stanford Ethics, Society and Technology Hub, and the Jere L. Bacharach Professor Emerita of International Studies at the University of Washington.

If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Virtual Sentiments, a podcast series from the Hayek Program, is streaming. Subscribe today and listen to season three, releasing now!

Follow the Hayek Program on Twitter: @HayekProgram

Learn more about Academic & Student Programs

Follow the Mercatus Center on Twitter: @mercatus

CC Music: Twisterium

A backstage conversation with Jeffrey Seller, producer of Rent, Avenue Q, and Hamilton. To get subscriber-only episodes, sign up for SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.

The post “Musical Theater Is a Magic Trick” appeared first on Freakonomics.

array(3) { [0]=> string(0) "" [1]=> string(0) "" [2]=> int(0) }

It takes a highly skilled stenographer — and some specialized equipment — to transcribe TV dialogue in real time at 300 words per minute. Will A.I. rewrite the script? Zachary Crockett tries to keep up.

 

• SOURCES:
  • Doug Karlovits, general manager at Verbit.
  • Katie Ryan, live steno captioner at Verbit.

 

• RESOURCES:
  • "The Long Case for Machine Shorthand," by Sam Corbin (New York Times, 2024).
  • "Caption This: Why Subtitling Is Big Business Amid the Content Boom," by Kirsten Chuba (The Hollywood Reporter, 2023).
  • "Everyone Watches TV with Subtitles Now. How’d That Happen?" by Wilson Chapman (IndieWire, 2023).
  • "When is Captioning Required?" (National Association of the Deaf).

Reporter Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi's Aunt Vovi signed up for 23andMe back in 2017, hoping to learn more about the genetic makeup of her ancestors. Vovi was one of over 15 million 23andMe customers who sent their saliva off to be analyzed by the company.

But last month, 23andMe filed for bankruptcy, and it announced it would be selling off that massive genetic database. Today on the show, what might happen to Vovi's genetic data as 23andMe works its way through the bankruptcy process, how the bankruptcy system has treated consumer data privacy in the past, and what this case reveals about the data that all of us willingly hand over to companies every single day.

This episode was produced by Sylvie Douglis and edited by Jess Jiang. It was engineered by Harry Paul and Neal Rauch and fact-checked by Tyler Jones. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

Find more Planet Money: Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.

Listen free at these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.

Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

Music: NPR Source Audio - "Lazybones," "Twirp," and "On Your Marks"

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

NPR Privacy Policy

It’s been in development for five years and has at least a year to go. On the eve of its out-of-town debut, the actor playing Lincoln quit. And the producers still need to raise another $15 million to bring the show to New York. There really is no business like show business. (Part three of a three-part series.)

The post Will 3 Summers of Lincoln Make it to Broadway? appeared first on Freakonomics.

array(3) { [0]=> string(0) "" [1]=> string(0) "" [2]=> int(0) }

President Donald Trump has been loudly critical of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for years now. Since January, the President has accused him of playing politics by keeping interest rates high. Trump has also threatened to oust Powell — which would mark an extraordinary shift away from the independence of the central bank.

Today on the show, three Indicators: a short history of the Federal Reserve and why it's insulated from day-to-day politics; how the Fed amassed a ton of power in recent years; and a Trump executive order that took some of that power away.

The original episodes from the Indicator were produced by Corey Bridges, Brittany Cronin, and Julia Ritchey. They were engineered by Cena Loffredo, James Willetts, and Gilly Moon, and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Kate Concannon is the editor of the Indicator. Follow us wherever you get your podcasts.

This episode of Planet Money was produced by James Sneed and edited by Marianne McCune & Mary Childs. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

For more of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Or, find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook.

Listen free at these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.

Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

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

NPR Privacy Policy

In an episode from 2012, we looked at what Sleep No More and the Stanford Prison Experiment can tell us about who we really are.

The post Is It a Theater Piece or a Psychological Experiment? (Update) appeared first on Freakonomics.

array(3) { [0]=> string(0) "" [1]=> string(0) "" [2]=> int(0) }

The ability to get into any home, car, or safe can be lucrative — but fixing locks is a tough business. Zachary Crockett gets the key information.

 

• SOURCES:
  • Wayne Winton, owner of Tri-County Locksmith Service.
  • Philip Mortillaro Sr., co-owner of Greenwich Locksmiths.
  • Philip Mortillaro Jr., co-owner of Greenwich Locksmiths.

 

• RESOURCES:
  • "Tools of the Trade," by Tim O'Leary (Locksmith Ledger International, 2022).
  • "KeyMe Plans To Use New $35 Million Funding Round To Build 10,000+ Retail Locations," by Marley Coyne (Forbes, 2020).
  • Tri-County Locksmith Service.
  • Greenwich Locksmiths.

 

• EXTRAS:
  • LockPickingLawyer Youtube Channel.

 

Recently, one of our NPR colleagues wrote a message to all of NPR saying he had extra eggs to sell for cheap, but needed a fair way to distribute them during a shortage. What is Planet Money here for if not to get OVERLY involved in this kind of situation?

Our colleague didn't want to charge more than $5, so we couldn't just auction the eggs off. A lottery? Too boring, he said.

Okay! A very Planet Money puzzle to solve.

Today on the show, we go in search of novel systems to help our colleague decide who gets his scarce resource: cheap, farm-fresh eggs. We steal from the world of new product development to try and secretly test for egg love, and we discover a pricing method used in development economics that may be America's next great gameshow.

This episode of Planet Money was produced by Emma Peaslee and it was edited by Marianne McCune. It was fact checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Jimmy Keeley. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

Find more Planet Money: Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.

Listen free at these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.

Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

Music: NPR Source Audio - "Punchy Punchline," "Game Face," "Feeling the Funk," and "The Host Most Wanted"

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

NPR Privacy Policy