Small talk: Expensive soccer games, real-life thinking caps
Small talk: Expensive soccer games, real-life thinking caps
TEXT OF STORY
Kai Ryssdal: This final note today, the news slightly off the headlines, courtesy of Brendan Francis Newnam, Rico Gagliano and the rest of the Marketplace staff.
Brendan Francis Newnam: Jeff Tyler, reporter for Marketplace. What story are you going to be talking about this weekend?
Jeff Tyler: I’m going to be talking about extremely rich men kicking each other.
Newnam: Is this maybe about the line at Starbucks in Greenwich in the morning?
Tyler: No, this is a soccer game between Manchester United and Manchester City — the most expensive game in history. The payroll for these two teams combined is $850 million.
Newnam: That sounds like a lot for soccer, but isn’t that like A-Rod’s salary?
Tyler: Actually, if you took the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox and combined their salaries, it would only add up to $380 million.
Newnam: So at least here in America we have our priorities straight.
Tyler: Exactly.
Rico Gagliano: Ethan Lindsay, producer of the Marketplace Morning Report. What story are you going to be talking about this weekend?
Ethan Lindsay: I’m going to be talking about a pool in the U.K. that’s found a new way to pay for the heating bills.
Gagliano: Which is?
Lindsay: They’re going to take the excess heat from a crematorium next door and heat the pool that way. They’re going to save about $750,000 over the next 25 years.
Gagliano: Should I make a joke about body-temperature water? I shouldn’t, right?
Lindsay: I’m not going to do it.
Newnam: Matt Berger, senior web producer for Marketplace. What story are you going to be talking about this weekend?
Berger: Well a scientist in Sydney, Australia, said he’s come up with a real-life thinking cap.
Newnam: I hope it’s as cool-looking as a Kangol hat or something.
Berger: Well not really. But the way it works is it suppresses the left side of your brain by zapping it with electricity so that you can stimulate the creative right side of your brain.
Newnam: So basically, students who party and suppress their brains are actually stimulating their own creativity.
Berger: Yeah, so maybe the original thinking cap’s the beer helmet.
Ryssdal: There’s more where that came from. Rico and Brendan’s podcast is called Dinner Party Download.
Stories You Might Like
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
