Macadamia nuts. Labor shortages. Volcanoes. All that might sound like econ Mad Libs, but they’re all connected to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s entry into the Beige Book this month: labor shortages are hurting macadamia nut harvests in Hawaii.
On today’s show, we take a vacation and talk to someone on the Big Island who runs a macadamia nut farm. He calls them “mac nuts.”
After the shooting of Alex Pretti, the Trump administration is making a leadership change in Minneapolis. Will anything change?
A new Trump administration official has taken over the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
Tom Homan, the White House’s so-called border czar, takes over after the departure of Border Patrol’s Gregory Bovino, who has been the public face of the operation, including encounters that left two American citizens dead.
NPR's Scott Detrow talks to The Atlantic investigative journalist Caitlin Dickerson about Homan's background and what it will mean for Minneapolis.
For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
This episode was produced by Karen Zamora and Vincent Acovino.
It was edited by Courtney Dorning and Sarah Handel.
While unity sounds like a nice thing to have, when it comes to politics and nation-states, experience repeatedly shows that unity is the tool of those who build state power at the expense of freedom.
The political fallout in Minnesota has had a boomerang effect on the Trump administration because of its predisposition to take the hardest-line position on every matter and be provocative rather than resolute and calm. Give a listen.
Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. This week:
Is it true that someone needs to earn £71,000 before they receive more money than a family on benefits?
Did Canadian prime minister Mark Carney get the GDP of Canada and the Nordic countries wrong?
Are 1990s pop icons Right Said Fred right about what they said about church attacks?
Is a sauna really ten times as hot as Wales in the winter?
And Tim hits the science lab treadmill to find out if he can run a four-hour marathon.
If you’ve seen a number in the news you want the team on More or Less to have a look at, email moreorless@bbc.co.uk
Contributors:
Gareth Morgan, benefits expert and author of the Benefits in the Future blog
Joe Shalam, policy director of the Centre for Social Justice
Professor Kelly Morrison, head of physics at Loughborough University
Dr Danny Muniz, a senior lecturer in Exercise Physiology at the University of Hertfordshire
Credits:
Presenter: Tim Harford
Reporters: Nathan Gower, Lizzy McNeill and Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound mix: Gareth Jones and James Beard
Editor: Richard Vadon
President Trump has been storming through corporate America — taking a stake in Intel, demanding a cut of Nvidia’s sales, restricting skilled workers, among other big footed policies.
Meanwhile, corporate leaders have mostly just … rolled over.
Today on the show: As Trump rewrites the rules of doing business, why aren’t business leaders doing more to speak up?
Pennsylvania democratic Governor Josh Shapiro on resisting Trump policies, his faith and whether he plans to run for president.
Shapiro is one of the most prominent Jewish officeholders in the US. In a new memoir “Where we Keep the Light” Shapiro explores his faith, as well as his career in politics… one that's taken him from state representative, to Pennsylvania attorney general to a swing state governor.
For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
This episode was produced by Tyler Bartlam, with audio engineering from Becky Brown.
The president's decision to try and get himself out of the Minneapolis mess offers us a chance to assess just how much trouble he's in, and who's responsible for the trouble—is it his advisers, is it the media-Democratic complex, or is it Trump alone? Give a listen.
“We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada announced last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
It was one of the most significant foreign policy speeches in years, sending shockwaves through the international community. He was describing a dynamic that’s been building for decades — what the scholars Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman call “weaponized interdependence” — that has now reached a tipping point.
I asked Farrell on the show to explain this dynamic, why this is a “rupture” moment and how other countries are responding. He is an international-affairs professor at Johns Hopkins University, is an author of the book “Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy” and writes an excellent Substack, Programmable Mutter.
Note: This episode touches on the clashes over immigration enforcement in Minneapolis and the killing of Renee Good, but it was recorded on Friday, before the killing of Alex Pretti.
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Jack McCordick. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Mary Marge Locker, Kate Sinclair Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota and Isaac Jones. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Annie Galvin, Rollin Hu, Kristin Lin, Emma Kehlbeck, Marina King and Jan Kobal. Original music by Pat McCusker and Carole Sabouraud. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.
Donald Trump caves to the national outrage over Alex Pretti's killing, telling Governor Tim Walz that he'll agree to allow for an impartial investigation and "look into reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota." Lovett, on the ground in Minneapolis, joins Jon and Tommy to talk about what's happening in the state, and to share reactions to the tragedy and Trump's surprising about-face. Then they discuss Congressional Democrats' demands for reforming DHS, which may lead to a partial government shutdown, and a wild New York Magazine piece about the president's health.
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