The Best One Yet - PART 2 👜Birkin: The Handbag That Costs More Than Your House

Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet here: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/


When Jane Birkin's boyfriend ran over her beloved wicker basket, she was stuck lugging a messy tote onto a flight to London. As her Hermès planner exploded across the first-class cabin, her mortified seatmate suggested she needed a bag with pockets. "Hermès doesn't make one with pockets," Jane sighed. He replied: "But I am Hermès." Jean-Louis Dumas, head of the luxury empire, watched Jane sketch her dream bag on an airplane vomit bag. Three years later, the first-ever Birkin arrived as a gift… kicking off what would become the most expensive, hard-to-get handbag design in the world. But this hand-stitched masterpiece wasn’t always the ultimate status symbol. The Birkin didn’t fit in the logo-obsessed 1980s, and didn’t truly pop off until it landed a starring role on Sex and the City. Today, Birkins start at $12,000 with impossible waitlists, while the rarest sell for $450,000—more than some houses—and have spawned multi-million-dollar counterfeit rings. 


Discover how Hermès weaponized scarcity to invent the Holy Grail of handbags;  how a luxury product can outperform the stock market; and why the Birkin Bag is the best idea yet.

Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet for the untold origin stories of the products you’re obsessed with — and the bold risk takers who made them go viral.


Episodes drop every Tuesday, listen here: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/


—-----------------------------------------------------


GET ON THE SHOW: 

Shoutouts: https://bit.ly/4c6ySI5  

Facts: https://bit.ly/4b4lOSR


SOCIALS:

Instagram: https://bit.ly/3KvMYXE 

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypod

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod 


FOR MORE NICK & JACK: 

Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3Kwrmuu

Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/ 

Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/ 


OR LISTEN: 

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/4aQ4kth

Apple: https://bit.ly/4emy04f 


Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ 


—-----------------------------------------------------


ABOUT US: From the creators of Robinhood Snacks Daily, The Best One Yet (TBOY) is the daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. 20 minutes on the 3 business, economics, and finance stories you need, with fresh takes you can pretend you came up with — Pairs perfectly with your morning oatmeal ritual. Hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell.


NEWSLETTER:

https://tboypod.com/newsletter 


OUR 2ND SHOW:

Want more business storytelling from us? Check our weekly deepdive show, The Best Idea Yet: The untold origin story of the products you're obsessed with. Listen for free to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/


NEW LISTENERS

Fill out our 2 minute survey: https://qualtricsxm88y5r986q.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dp1FDYiJgt6lHy6


GET ON THE POD: 

Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts 


SOCIALS:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod 

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypod

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod 

Linkedin (Nick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/

Linkedin (Jack): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/

Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hayek Program Podcast - Chandran Kukathas on “Dialogues on Immigration and the Open Society”

On this episode, Peter Boettke chats with political theorist Chandran Kukathas on his latest book, Dialogues on Immigration and the Open Society

(Routledge, 2025), which addresses the most important ethical and political questions about immigration and aims to teach by questioning rather than preaching. He urges conceptual clarity about terms like “civilization,” “state,” and “immigration,” and argues that framing debates strictly as “justice” disputes is unhelpful amid deep moral disagreement. Building on his book, Immigration and Freedom, he warns that immigration control often curtails citizens’ freedoms and highlights how restrictive policies can create a hostile climate toward migrants even where overall public support for immigration remains strong.

Dr. Chandran Kukathas is Lee Kong Chian Chair Professor of Political Science at School of Social Sciences at Singapore Management University and a Distinguished Affiliated Fellow at the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center. He is the author of Immigration and Freedom (Princeton University Press, 2021) and The Liberal Archipelago: A Theory of Diversity and Freedom (Oxford University Press, 2007).

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

Short Wave - Have a Stutter? It Could Be Inherited

For a long time, scientists have suspected that stuttering — a common speech condition that affects an estimated 1 in every 100 people — could be heritable. Despite how common it is, it's still a remarkably understudied condition.

Geneticists Piper Below and Dillon Pruett were determined to fix that. With the help of 23andMe data, they recently identified 57 genetic regions linked to stuttering in the human genome. Their findings represent a new breakthrough in how researchers think about speech conditions, genetics and the conditions that are linked to them. They're what some are calling a "quantum leap" in the field.

Interested in more human biology and genetics episodes? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.
Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.

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

NPR Privacy Policy

What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Can Congress Stop Trump’s Takeover?

Donald Trump has been working to expand his presidential influence into places that are supposed to operate independently, like the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Federal Reserve, and even into Congress’s constitutionally appointed “power of the purse.” As Congress returns to Washington, is this nominally co-equal branch of government willing to wrest its power back?

Guest: Luke Broadwater, reporter covering the White House for The New York Times. 

Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at 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

NPR's Book of the Day - ‘Friends with Words’ is a book about language, from word origins to regional dialects

For Martha Barnette, griping about grammatical pet peeves is one of the least interesting ways to talk about language. Instead, the co-host of the radio show “A Way with Words” says she’d rather think about word origins, regional dialects, slang, or that phrase your grandma used to say. Her new book Friends with Words is full of surprising facts about language. In today’s episode, she talks with Here & Now’s Peter O’Dowd about the “spark word” that launched her language journey, some of her favorite etymologies, and why people hate the word moist.


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 Could Go Right? - Parent by Numbers with Emily Oster

How can parents use data without becoming overwhelmed by getting things right and wrong? Zachary and Emma welcome Emily Oster, a professor of economics and author of several data-driven parenting and pregnancy books, including Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong and What You Really Need to Know. Known for her data-driven approach to parenting and pregnancy, Oster shares how she accidentally became the center of a pandemic firestorm of controversy, the misconceptions about certain parenting practices, and how parents can navigate the enormous influx of information in the digital age.
What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and The Podglomerate.
For transcripts, to join the newsletter, and for more information, visit: theprogressnetwork.org
Watch the podcast on YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/theprogressnetwork⁠⁠⁠
And follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok: @progressntwrk

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

The Indicator from Planet Money - So long, farewell, super cheap tariff-free shopping

In late July, President Trump signed an executive order to get rid of de minimis, a kind of a loophole where packages valued less than $800 could come into the US without tariffs.

Last week, post offices from India to Austria to France suspended some types of packages to the US. We speak to an Australian jewelry maker, a logistics expert and an economist to learn how this is changing shopping in America.

Related episodes: 
Three ways companies are getting around tariffs 
What olive oil tells us about Trump's tariffs
What is Temu?

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Fact-checking by Cooper Katz McKim. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.  

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

NPR Privacy Policy

Ologies with Alie Ward - Neuropathoimmunology (MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS) with Aaron Boster

Neurons. Immune systems. MRIs. Weed gummies? One of the greats in neurology, Dr. Aaron Boster, takes time to chat all about Multiple Sclerosis, a neurological autoimmune disease close to our hearts. Alie’s mom, your grammapod a.k.a. Fancy Nancy, was diagnosed with MS over two decades ago, and this episode explores in depth the factors that can cause MS, therapies that do – and don’t –  show promise, how diet, exercise and mindfulness actually can help folks who have MS, the oftentimes agonizing journey to a diagnosis, and advice for those who’ve MS for a while – or are newly in the community. Also: yeah, weed. 

Visit the Boster Center for Multiple Sclerosis and follow Dr. Boster on YouTube

A donation went to MS Views and News

More episode sources and links

Other episodes you may enjoy: Disability Sociology (DISABILITY PRIDE), Diabetology (BLOOD SUGAR), Post-Viral Epidemiology (LONG COVID), Dolorology (PAIN), Salugenology (WHY HUMANS REQUIRE HOBBIES), Psychedeliology (HALLUCINOGENS), Cardiology (THE HEART), Somnology (SLEEP)

400+ Ologies episodes sorted by topic

Smologies (short, classroom-safe) episodes

Sponsors of Ologies

Transcripts and bleeped episodes

Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month

OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!

Follow Ologies on Instagram and Bluesky

Follow Alie Ward on Instagram and TikTok

Editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jake Chaffee

Managing Director: Susan Hale

Scheduling Producer: Noel Dilworth

Transcripts by Aveline Malek 

Website by Kelly R. Dwyer

Theme song by Nick Thorburn

Amarica's Constitution - The 64 Percent Question

Trump is keeping the courts active; this week saw a ruling against many of the widespread tarrifs he has sought to impose, and the Fifth Circuit upheld his dismissal of an NLRB member.  Meanwhile, a Fed governor was dismissed, supposedly for cause.  And the social media announcements of supposedly impending executive orders imposing voting requirements such as voter ID kept coming.  And there’s more.  We try to keep it all straight for you, identify the constitutional issues, and look at what the Courts might do.  Meanwhile, your fantastic response to the impending Born Equal release is noted, appreciated, and we respond to it.  CLE credit is available for lawyers and judges from podcast.njsba.com.