Following Donald Trump's election in 2016, New Yorker reporter Evan Osnos wanted to understand what the president's wealth and status represented in the minds of his supporters – and in American culture at large. Osnos began reporting on the lives of the ultrawealthy, including the small but growing billionaire class. Now, Osnos has published a collection of essays The Haves and Have-Yachts, which explores the American relationship to immense wealth through anecdotes about superyachts, private concerts with pop stars, and doomsday preppers. In today's episode, Osnos speaks with NPR's Frank Langfitt about widening inequality, status anxieties among oligarchs, and what it feels like to live in a new Gilded Age.
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Last month, Marketplace's Mitchell Hartman visited Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he reported on the history of the area's “Black Wall Street” and its destruction during the Tulsa Race Massacre more than a century ago. The city's mayor recently announced a $105 million reparations plan. Tulsa joins a number of localities addressing the racial wealth gap, but if addressed federally, the sum would have to be closer to $16 trillion. We'll hear more. But first: how to tell how factories are navigating tariff pivots.
From the BBC World Service: Oil prices influence the prices of many goods that we buy. Now, mixed signals from President Donald Trump about whether to get involved in the conflict between Israel and Iran are causing volatility in global oil prices and adding to overall economic uncertainty. And, we'll look at how key industries in Thailand are feeling about the prospect of steep U.S. tariffs.
Despite having free primary schools, children in Malawi are lagging behind. According to UNESCO, almost 90% of them cant read a simple sentence at the age of 10, due in part to a shortage of teachers and basic resources. But the government has gone for a high-tech solution — digital tablets.
The workplace wisdom that a university degree is a sure-fire key to success is very much in question—and the trend started long before AI began eating jobs. Russia has launched yet another summer offensive in Ukraine, and appears to be going for broke. And our journalists share their picks for the year’s best books so far.
One Curious City listener was skeptical about whether real people actually win WBEZ’s pledge drive giveaways. They do. But there’s a little more to that answer. Plus, an economist who studies fundraising explains why people give money during pledge drives in the first place.
This episode was originally published on March 3, 2022.
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Photo: Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times
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An “Alternative Economies” special, featuring concrete examples of European experiments with rethinking business as usual… ranging from the reformist, to the downright radical.
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