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Americans spend more on scratch lottery tickets per year than on pizza. More than all Coca-Cola products. Yet the scratch ticket as a consumer item has only existed for fifty years. Not so long ago, the idea of an instant lottery, of gambling with a little sheet of paper, was strange. Scary, even.

So, how did scratch lotteries go from an idea that states wanted nothing to do with, to a commonplace item? It started in a small, super-liberal, once-puritanical state: Massachusetts. Adults there now spend – on average – $1,037 every year on lottery tickets – mostly scratch tickets. On today's episode, a collaboration with GBH's podcast Scratch & Win, we hear the story of... the scratch-off lottery ticket!

This episode was hosted by Ian Coss and Kenny Malone. Scratch & Win from GBH is produced by Isabel Hibbard and edited by Lacy Roberts. The executive producer is Devin Maverick Robins. Our version of the podcast was produced by James Sneed. It was edited by Alex Goldmark, engineered by Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez, and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Kwame Anthony Appiah delivers a keynote lecture at the 2023 Markets & Society conference, exploring the historical and philosophical complexities of cultural property. Using examples from classical literature, African history, and global museum debates, he critiques modern repatriation efforts for oversimplifying ownership claims. Appiah argues that the ownership and heritage of cultural artifacts are historically complex, traceable through ancestry, territory, and identity. This complexity often creates contradictions in restitution debates. Instead of a narrow focus on repatriation, Appiah advocates for a more nuanced, cosmopolitan approach to heritage and museum collections.

Kwame Anthony Appiah is a Professor of Philosophy and Law at New York University, the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy, and the University Center for Human Values Emeritus at Princeton University. He earned his BA and PhD from the University of Cambridge and has since taught at numerous renowned universities, including Yale, Cornell, Duke, Harvard, Princeton, and NYU.

Appiah has published widely on literary and cultural studies with a focus on African and African American culture, ethics, and identity, including his most recent book, The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity (Liveright Publishing 2018). For his work, he has also received many awards, including the National Humanities Medal. His work on cosmopolitanism, identity, and heritage takes a nuanced and practical approach, embracing the particularities and challenges of living within a complicated social context. He also helps others understand and tackle everyday challenges through his advice column, The Ethicist at New York Times.

This lecture has been published in the Markets & Society Journal, Volume 1 Issue 1, as "Whose Heritage? Preservation, Possession, and Peoples." Learn more about the Markets & Society conference and journal here.

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