Biden frames the 2024 presidential race as a fight for democracy while Trump and his allies call the insurrectionists “hostages.” Then, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is hospitalized without informing the White House, conservatives continue to wage war on the Ivy League, and New York Times congressional correspondent Annie Karni joins to talk about a deal to avoid a potential shutdown and the GOP effort to impeach Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary.
For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Amanda Holmes reads Linda Gregg’s “Eurydice.” Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.
This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.
One of the most puzzling developments for economists in recent months is the disconnect between positive traditional economic data and how people say they feel negatively about the economy. Add to that, people's behavior tracks with what economists would normally expect for happy times. So what's going on?
Today on the show, we turn to something economists have tracked for decades called the misery index. Right now, it says America shouldn't be so miserable, but as we've covered before, surveys say otherwise. We identify five reasons that explain the disconnect.
Related Episodes:
Americans don't like higher prices but they LOVE buying new things (Apple Podcasts / Spotify)
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
Today's podcast points out the wet, limp noodle that was Joe Biden's supposedly "fiery" speech about democracy at Valley Forge before joining the world in wonder at the disappearance into a hospital by the Defense Secretary with the world on fire. Give a listen.
Early on in today's interview with author Paul Lynch, he says he was careful not to specify whether his dystopian novel Prophet Song is set in the future. Instead, the gripping tale of an Irish family sticking together through the fall of democracy focuses on the present moment and the personal relationships affected by it. In today's episode, Lynch speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about the power of fiction to break through the noise of news and social media – and the weight of his own platform after winning the Booker Prize.
The ?Ndrangheta are one of Italy?s biggest and most dangerous criminal gangs. One piece of research suggested they have an annual turnover of ?53bn - more than McDonalds and Deutsche Bank combined.
But is that number realistic? Professor Anna Sergi and Professor Francesco Calderoni help us figure out what kind of number makes sense.
Reporter: Perisha Kudhail
Series producer: Tom Colls
Sound mix: Neil Churchill
Editor: Richard Vadon
(Picture: Human hands with strings controlling diagram.
Credit: Boris Zhitkov/Getty Images)
The U.S. economy added a solid number of jobs, the unemployment rate held steady, and a lot of people got raises. But, today we ask whether fewer temporary workers could mean recession, and whether higher wages might cause interest rates to stay high.
