Make Me Smart September 8, 2023 Transcript

Note: Marketplace podcasts are meant to be heard, with emphasis, tone and audio elements a transcript can’t capture. Transcripts are generated using a combination of automated software and human transcribers, and may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting it.

Kimberly Adams 

And of course the cat runs give me more treats. Okay, give me one more second to lure him, aw dang it.

Kai Ryssdal

Give you one more second. Oh no it’s Jayk Cherry engineering today Jayk says “It’s 3:30 on the clock, I must begin.”

Kimberly Adams

Whatever, whatever, we’re doing it. What a great way to start.

Kai Ryssdal

Oh my lord. Here we go, hey everybody, I’m Kai Ryssdal, kind of classic start. This podcast is called Make Me Smart. The tagline is where we make today make sense and special bonus tagline, it is 1000 times that we have done this. It is sane.

Kimberly Adams 

Woohoo, 1000 time. right so wild. And I’m Kimberly Adams that was Kai Ryssdal don’t think you actually identified yourself. But people in the know know.

Kai Ryssdal

And if they don’t know by now, what are they even doing?

Kimberly Adams 

I know right. So thank you everybody for joining us for economics on tap for our 1,000th episode. We are so happy to have you with us to mark this extra special milestone.

Kai Ryssdal

So as I said today’s a special day because it’s 1000 and also shockingly I know too many in the audience there’s a special surprise guest on the pod today.

Kimberly Adams

Drumroll.

Kai Ryssdal

Oh my god it’s Molly Wood

Molly Wood 

My god you guys

Kai Ryssdal

You look exactly the same Molly.

Molly Wood 

Great, that’s what I’m going for. Exactly the same never change at all. You guys look the same except you have so many balloons. Oh my god, I’m so excited to be here. What a great day so wow, I forgot how like stressful it is to like get your news story in and just have your drink ready and like, Oh, my God a little bit.

Kai Ryssdal

As predicted the YouTube chat loves this.

Molly Wood 

Happy 1000th everybody.

Kimberly Adams 

The chat is blowing up, yay!

Molly Wood

Hey gang, hey gang.

Kimberly Adams

All the hearts, all the hearts. Okay, this is episode one thousand. Yes, yes, Episode 1000. Now, before we get to what everybody is drinking, we want to know how many of you in the chat are newsletter subscribers, because if you are you may have received a free Make Me Smart bingo card. There were like three versions of it actually. So have a look. And so feel free if you didn’t print it out yet. You know, you can go and hustle and do it now. And then you can play along and if you haven’t subscribed yet you can do so at you know marketplace.org/newsletters. Also, if you were in the newsletter, you probably saw that my specialty cocktail for the event is the Molly Wood mocktail. So I know right, I will I will say I did mix a little bit of tequila in the actual thing.

Molly Wood 

Since we since we last met friends I have gotten full sober, if you’re curious.

Kimberly Adams

Yay!

Kai Ryssdal

Really?

Molly Wood

Yeah, I just finally was like this makes me feel like crap. Like there’s no you know, there was no other higher reason whatsoever. I was just like, I don’t feel like I like this. And now I feel way better and obvious conclusions like that are super irritating. Because wine is nice. But I was like, Oh, look at that. I have all this energy and I feel amazing, but I did but I mean, I have a fun drink that I’ll get to in a second and more importantly, I came prepared.

Kimberly Adams

Banana pants.

Kai Ryssdal

Oh my god. I forgot my shirt, kill me. Oh my god.

Kimberly Adams 

I remembered my jasper tumbler.

Kai Ryssdal

Oh my god. Molly wins the pod.

Molly Wood 

Now you think I still don’t have my banana pants. Now they have shrunk a little I will say. I luckily I have stopped drinking so I still fit in them.

Kai Ryssdal

All right. Another good benefit by the way.

Molly Wood 

I was rocking the pants.

Kai Ryssdal

Now that’s a benefit. All right.

Kimberly Adams 

I’m happy that I was able to introduce you to the nonalcoholic tequila.

Molly Wood 

She was like there’s nonalcoholic tequila. I was like, You gotta be kidding me as always Kimberly changing the game.

Kimberly Adams 

There’s like orange sec. And so yeah, that’s what this cocktail is. It has nonalcoholic tequila, nonalcoholic orange liqueur. So orange sec, some chili peppers and an orange for garnish because of my see like Molly likes a spicy cocktail. So Molly gets a spicy spicy mocktail. I can say three times fast if I tried. Mockish. it’s been a day

Kai Ryssdal

Molly what are you having?

Molly Wood 

I went for the Mexicola with a lime, but I made my very own chamoy rim dip. I don’t know if you’re familiar with this is the well if you’ve ever gotten a michelada which is like yes, beer. Yeah, it’s the it’s the sort of sweet and spicy stuff that they put on the rim. And I made it by melting down my son has been into chamoy and these little tamarind gummies so perfectly not not the weed kind. Luckily I had all the things I needed. So I melted down these little jelly candies, put some chamoy sauce in there, some fresh lime juice and some tamarind no Tajin spices.

Kai Ryssdal

Sorry Wait, you melted down little jelly candies.

Molly Wood 

Yeah, look at that like that. So, and then I put the dip. It’s so messy that I have to have a plate. It’s kind of a it’s kind of a situation. So I’m going to try this real quick and then switch to my straw.

Kai Ryssdal

Oh my God more power to you.

Molly Wood 

Amazing. Very good. Yeah it was a lot of fun. Big adventure. I brought some water also.

Kai Ryssdal

Oh my lord.

Moly Wood

Chamoy rim dip. I made a little. I’m gonna make a little reel out of it to help promote this episode. Nice. Anyway, that’s what I did. Kai do you have a beer?

Kai Ryssdal

No I have a glass of water because I know I have a soccer game later and I’m having a glass of water. I know, I know, I know.

Molly Wood 

if you want to really rock a soccer game, have a Mexicoke.

Kai Ryssdal

Yeah. No, also, it’s probably good for me to hydrate because it’s 105 degrees in the shed. So you know.

Molly Wood 

Yeesh, I feel that too. I have a story about that for later.

Kai Ryssdal

It’s all good. It’s all good. Okay, then. Okay. Let’s do some news. Actually, Kimberly why don’t you go first.

Kimberly Adams

But we skipped what everybody else is drinking.

Kai Ryssdal

Oh, all right, yeah go ahead, go ahead.

Kimberly Adams 

Yes. Okay. So I was cracking up earlier because Verbeta from the west coast in the Discord is drinking tequila because they say that of all the cocktail ingredients I listed. The only one they had was tequila. So it’s the Molly Wood mocktail in the cocktail version, minus most of the ingredients, but tequila. Yay. So lots of people drinking waters, actually. And bobbanerd is in on the Dihydrogen Monoxide. Jody Pritchard is drinking bee’s knees with Angelic Gin. Boxed rose that Amber Bradshaw has, love it. Let’s see Karl Strauss Oktoberfest that Mike is drinking and Shelly has a Prosecco to party because he can’t stand champagne. so loving. Everybody’s having fun.

Kai Ryssdal 

I just saw Heady Topper go by. Hold on a minute here gets the Heady Topper. WW Heady Topper purchased at the brewery. So there you go. All right. That’s good beer. I’ll have one after the game. All right. Okay. Let us do some news. Kimberly go ahead.

Kimberly Adams 

Okay, so you know, because all of us are the space people on the, you know, party today, I wanted to do a space story. So there was a story on space.com And I’m just going to be the headline. “NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover wraps up MOXIE oxygen-making experiment”. So unbeknownst to me. Exactly right, amongst the various things that the Mars Perseverance rover had on board is a machine that was extracting oxygen from the Martian atmosphere. So that, yes, yes. So in the future, like, they can make their own oxygen on Mars. So let me just say, explain how this works. Okay, so to do to do to scroll down, scroll down. How does it do it?

Kai Ryssdal

Science.

Kimberly Adams

Sciene is how it does it. It’s in the article, it’s in the show notes. But anyway, it’s something about splitting atoms, but it’s successfully has made like a decent amount of oxygen. According the mission is now complete, the device has produced a total of 122 grams of Martian oxygen, roughly the amount of small dog breathes in 10 hours and twice as much as scientists thought MOXIE could make during its tenure, at its most efficient, MOXIE produced 12 grams of the life sustaining element every hour, and the oxygen it made was at least 98% fee pure numbers that bode well for the future scaled up efforts that could support human exploration of the red planet.

Kai Ryssdal

Okay wait, it’s super exciting. It’s really cool. I have two stupid questions. Number one is they can’t bring it back, right? There’s no recovery for any of the stuff that’s up there yet. Right. So it’s all staying there.

Kimberly Adams 

Yeah, but they know how they made it. And so

Kai Ryssdal

Well, no, no, I know. It would be it would be cool to have Martian oxygen on Earth. That’s all I’m saying. It would be cool. Yes. But also is okay, this is a really stupid question. And you’re gonna yell at me, but it’s not really all that stupid. Is Martian oxygen the same as as Earth, oxygen?

Kimberly Adams 

I mean, it’s an element. So I have to imagine yes.

Molly Wood 

Maybe the water. I mean, it’s O2. Right so I guess the question is, is it rain water or tap water?

Kimberly Adams 

By the way I messed up. It’s not splitting atoms as Bailey points out in the chat. It’s splitting molecules, not atoms, because that’s a whole other thing. Thank you, Bailey. Yes, um, but no, I think they’re really straight pulling it because there is some oxygen in Mars’s atmosphere. It’s just not the density that we need to like breathe it, I think I think I think, but anyway, so there’s an article, it’s in there, but this is useful.

Kai Ryssdal

Alright. The chat clearly thinks I’m an idiot, but I love it. Okay. All right. I think that’s not an unreasonable question from a layperson.

Kimberly Adams

It’s not, it’s kind of like moon rocks.

Kai Ryssdal

Let me just say, let me just say,  Iright, right, which, as it turns out, are different. I mean, they’re the same, but they’re different. Anyway.

Kimberly Adams 

Oh, wait, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Edward Hamer. Edward Hamer says in the chat missed out on calling it moxygen. Because it’s MOXIE.

Kai Ryssdal

Ohhhh.

Molly Wood 

It’s not too late.

Kimberly Adams 

Moxygen. Thank you, Edward.

Kai Ryssdal

Gone. Boom. Drop the mic. Okay. I’m just super quick to go with the space thing here just to continue with the theme. And also because I thought that was interesting, because we’ve talked about SpaceX and starship and all that stuff a little bit. So as you know, if you listen to podcasts, because we told you, SpaceX basically blew up their launchpad when they launched that ginormous rocket a number of months ago and did all kinds of damage and it was a very not good scene. Now, the FAA has ordered SpaceX to take dozens of steps before the future starship flights. So those of us who are hoping that that thing would fly again soon. It’s not happening, which is kind of a bummer, because it’s a super cool, super cool looking machine. I think it’s very just awesome. But

Molly Wood 

I mean, is it kind of a bummer considering that they just like sort of incinerated like thousands and thousands of animals and plants by not following any rules and then like, ruin their own path? And maybe finally at long last, regulators are starting to like pay attention and do some stuff. No. But also big ship, I get it.

Kai Ryssdal

Okay, here we go. This should be on a bingo  card somewhere. “What Molly said.” Okay. It Yeah. Okay. So here’s my actual thing. So I’ve been watching a lot of tennis because US Open and it’s always great tennis, and they play late at night. And it’s only 8:30 at night here on the East Coast and I’m on the West Coast. And it’s super fun. Anyway, so yesterday, Coco Gauff, who was 19 years old, the American favorite for that tournament was in the middle of the second set. And climate protesters stopped the event. They were arrested. Except one guy glued his feet to the stadium floor or the seating floor. And it took them 47 minutes to restart the match. So climate protests, yes, excellent. But here we have world caliber athletes interrupted in the middle of their thing. Coco goes on to win. And then she was asked about it at the end of the match at the press conference. And here’s what she said.

Coco Gauff

You know, I always speak about preaching, you know, you know, preaching about what you feel and what you believe in. And it was done in a peaceful way. So I can’t get too mad of it. Obviously, I don’t want it to happen when I’m winning, up 6410. I wanted the momentum to keep going. But hey, if that’s what they felt that they needed to do to get their voices heard, I can’t really get upset at it.

Kai Ryssdal

I thought that was amazingly gracious. I just thought that was great. That’s it.

Molly Wood 

She just pretty much continues to be like one of the greatest things happening in America right now. Totally fantastic. Totally. Yeah.

Kai Ryssdal

Molly Wood, you’re up.

Molly Wood 

I brought a super quick news item. There was a, I have two links, but they’re the same story in classic fashion, nothing really different. I look the same and I think the same. One is that literally right before the show, there was like this brand new scorecard that came out for the first time since the Paris Climate Accords were signed that basically said like, yeah, we have avoided most likely, worst case climate scenarios, but we have not done enough. And for those of you don’t know, I went off to do to make climate the second half of my career. So just like in case you are just getting caught up right this minute.

Kai Ryssdal

I wanna get the plugin here actually. Let’s get the plugin. Please do.

Molly Wood 

All right, thank you. Well I have a new podcast. “Everybody in the pool” is the name of the show and it spotlights climate solutions full stop. Like it’s entrepreneurs, it’s business people who are turning their careers to this it’s very much in the vein of Marketplace because it is like about these capitalist solutions that frankly rich people have to adopt or upper middle class people have to adopt so that pretty soon they become the standards for everybody. So you can find it everybodyinthe pool.com Okay, but then the cool thing that is super Marketplace see is that I saw today an interesting story about how African leaders have proposed what a lot of people think is kind of a silver bullet in the climate fight, which is a carbon tax, a global carbon tax, saying among other things, and the proceeds from attacks like this need to go to help developing countries who have been hit first and hardest by climate change, even though they emit hardly anything compared to the US and China, and increasingly, India. And so there’s just been these moves. There’s the prime minister of Barbados, actually, he’s this amazing woman, Mia Mottley, who has proposed like a complete overhaul of the way the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund work in order to create this kind of funding for developing nations to help them deal with these impacts of climate change. And now you have you know, African leaders proposing this carbon tax, and I my whole deal is like, once the money starts moving, we’re gonna get this stuff fixed. This is big.

Kimberly Adams 

I love optimism on this show. It’s like the complete counter to.

Kai Ryssdal

I’m sitting right here. I love it. I’m so happy to hear this Molly. This is great news. Yes, thank you for this solution for bringing a ray of sunshine into my world.

Molly Wood 

Solutions. I feel like I’ll just show myself out. I’ll put my little envelope back up here.

Kai Ryssdal

Oh boy, oh my goodness.

Kimberly Adams 

Oh boy, you’ve got nothing. But that is it for the news. We’re gonna take a really quick break. And when we come back, we’re going to add even more people to the pool. And that is going to lead us in a game. Everybody in the pool of would you rather so we are going to be right back?

Kai Ryssdal

We are back Molly Wood is here. 1000 episodes of this podcast. Can you bleeping believe it? Also here, I don’t know if he’s been around for all 1000. But no, well, no, because he’s not here on Monday through Wednesday. Anyway, I’ll stop talking to myself. Drew Jostad, the game today is would you rather.

Drew Jostad 

Yeah. And it’s a 1000 themed game. So to kick it off, would you rather read 1000 books or watch 1000 movies?

Kai Ryssdal

Molly you go first.

Molly Wood 

Um, I would rather read 1000 books.

Kai Ryssdal

It’s a lot of work.

Molly Wood

It’s a lot of work. But the movie thing you just have to sit there like the books are more portable, you could be in multiple locations. It seems like a more flexible undertaking. And you could do audiobooks. The movie thing feels like, it just makes my butt hurts. Think about it. Like you just got to sit there for so many hours.

Kai Ryssdal

Right? That’s right. I’m gonna say books do actually. I’m gonna say books too. I will take on that extra work.

Kimberly Adams 

Yeah, I’m gonna say books also, just because you fit more content and interesting and fun story in 1000 books than you can in 1000 movies. And so that’s all you’ve got. I’m gonna go with 1000 bucks in my imagination. So yeah.

Kai Ryssdal

Totally fair. Totally fair.

Drew Jostad 

Would you rather get an extra $1,000 every week for a year? Or have 1000 extra hours in every year?

Molly Wood 

You monster.

Kai Ryssdal

Okay, so wait. So hold on, let’s do a little I can’t do the math on how many hours that are in a year. But, in the average work year, there’s somewhere between 17,015 and 2000 hours. So that’s the average work year.

Kimberly Adams 

I’m taking hours hands down. Hands down and taking hours.

Kai Ryssdal

Are you?

Kimberly Adams

Absolutely, absolutely because this is what my dad said you can always make more money you can never make more time and so if I have the option to make more time I’m taking the time.

Molly Wood 

Tell me again how often you get the $1,000.

Drew Jostad 

Once a week for a year

Molly Wood 

Once a week for a year so 52,000 extra dollars or $52,000. Compared to 1000 extra hours for that one same year.

Drew Jostad 

The prompt says every year which makes me think it might mean every year for the rest of your life?
Molly Wood

The 52,000 or hours? So both?

Kai Ryssdal

No it’s both.

Molly Wood

It’s either one or the other. These have to be symmetrical.

Drew Jostad

One or the other, okay let’s think one year. And I think that works out to like about an extra nine weeks. Like 1000 hours, is that how long that is?

Molly Wood 

Yeah, I’m taking the money for sure. That’s gonna buy me a bunch of time later on those bills

Kai Ryssdal

I’m taking the money too.

Kimberly Adams 

You never let the Marketplace leave your heart.

Molly Wood 

You can tell someone also left to be an investor right? She’s like compounding interest conversation.

Kimberly Adams 

Paul in Minnesota says if you have 1000 more hours, you need more money to do fun stuff during that time. Right? That’s true. All right, what’s next?

Drew Jostad 

Would you rather gain 1000 followers on social media? Or have $1,000 magically appear in your bank account?

Kimberly Adams

$1,000 dollars.

Molly Wood 

Yeah, dollars. Yeah. More followers, more followers more trouble.

Kai Ryssdal

I had to pop out. What’s the what’s the question?

Drew Jostad 

1000 followers or $1,000?

Kai Ryssdal

Oh, money, please. 1000 followers.

Kimberly Adams 

I have never seen people respond with such unanimity and quickness as they would take the money.

Molly Wood 

Times have changed habit. Haven’t they? We’re just all like go no.

Kai Ryssdal

That’s really funny actually. Times have changed.

Kimberly Adams 

For sure. Do you remember that website clout where people for a while were like actually trying to measure how much clout you had based on social media? And now it’s just like, yeah, whatever.

Drew Jostad 

Okay, what’s your would you rather travel 1000 years into the past or 1000 years into the future?

Kai Ryssdal

A thousand years.

Molly Wood 

I feel like this is a tough one for our history buff here.

Kai Ryssdal

Well, no, I’m gonna say no, because because the year you know, 1023 was grim. And, yeah, I mean, I go back, like a couple hundred years, I’d go back 50, 60, 80 years.

Kimberly Adams 

See I definitely would not.

Molly Wood 

Yeah, no uhuh, you definitely would not.

Kai Ryssdal

I’m going I’m going forward. I’m going forward.

Molly Wood 

Same. I don’t need to know.

Kimberly Adams 

I’m gonna. Yeah, I’m gonna have to go future because that was, like 1032. And we didn’t have like antibiotics. And given that my immune system is garbage, I don’t think I would like last five seconds in that environment. So future and fingers crossed and hope for the best.

Kai Ryssdal

Totally. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Drew Jostad 

Would you rather do 1000 More live stream episodes of Make Me Smart or 1000 more live in person episodes?

Kai Ryssdal

Oh, that’s a very good question. That’s a very good question. It would probably kill us because I would be having too many beers in front of too many people. But I would definitely take the live shows, I would definitely take the live shows in a heartbeat. Which if anybody in our corporate overlords offices are listening to this, do not take that to mean we will do anything anywhere. I keep needing to say that, but people need to hear it.

Kimberly Adams 

Just for the record. We haven’t done any more since Seattle. So it’s not like they’re overburdening us with it yet.

Kai Ryssdal

Yet. There you go.

Kimberly Adams

Yet, is what I said, Yeah. I would take the live shows over a reasonable period of time, shall we say? Yeah. Molly, what about you?

Molly Wood 

I mean, I guess given the chance, I would choose live shows. It’s so fun. Okay, which is fun. Yeah. Get everybody out of the sheds and garages and bedrooms and stuff. Like let’s go. Yeah, absolutely. For sure. The world awaits.

Kimberly Adams 

Yes. Now is this the one we do a poll Drew?

Drew Jostad 

That’s all I got. I don’t think I have one for a poll.

Kimberly Adams 

Oh that was it, we’re not even doing a poll. Okay well, that’s good. Everybody was playing along anyway.

Kai Ryssdal

Ends not with a bang, but with a whimper. Somebody hit me. Then I’ll know we’re actually done. All right. So look, that was the 1,000th episode. We’re almost done. But before we go, here’s what some of you had to say about your favorite moments from the last 1000 times we have done this podcast.

Montage

Hey guys, this is James Hobbs and LaGrange, Georgia. Wanted to congratulate you on 1000 shows and let you know my favorite show has to be episode 133. One of my all time favorites, was the very early episode, which you interviewed George Lakoff. I looked at previous voice memo sent to remember a show from July 7 2020. About how school and daycare closures affect families. I was going on a road trip with the family. And that morning, your podcast downloaded to the phone and who else would it be but my sister Susie Baker, and I had no idea she was going to be on the show early on.

You had an interview with the Columbia river boat pilot. That was such a cool episode.And then when you made the shift to a daily podcast during the pandemic, that information and candor helped make me smart about COVID-19 and reinforced the notion that we were all in this together.

I think it’s still essential listening. I refer to people all the time. And for the record, Kai, you still owe us a rendition of the gambler and could you just go watch Neverending Story for Kimberly already? Thanks for all that you guys do, looking forward to a thousand more.

Kai Ryssdal

Okay.

Kimberly Adams 

We can take the gambler now. Okay, go for it, we can do a medley.

Kai Ryssdal

No, I’m not. I’m just doing it. So stop.

Kimberly Adams

You were doing so well.

Molly Wood 

I foolishly called attention to it. That’s on me. That’s I’m out of practice. I forgot.

Kai Ryssdal

I am an introvert, you know.

Molly Wood 

Quietly do his thing in the corner and not call attention to it.

Kimberly Adams 

I was supposed to identify who was in that tape. That was James in Georgia, Lindsay and Miki in Virginia, Susanna and Elizabeth in California. And thank you to everybody who sent in your memories and your thoughts about your time will Make Me Smart. It’s been great.

Kai Ryssdal

That was awesome. It was awesome. Alright, so we’re, we’re done for today. Thank you all for listening for all these 1000 episodes. Gosh, 2017. Six years, 1000 episodes and for joining us today to celebrate and for Molly Wood for taking time out of you busy second chapter of your life. You are as always Molly Wood, awesome. We miss you.

Kimberly Adams

Yay Moly.

Molly Wood 

Thanks gang. Thanks man. Miss you.

Kai Ryssdal

Make Me Smart is produced by Courtney Bergsieker. Today’s episode was engineered by Jayk Cherry. Our intern is Niloufar Shahbandi. Drew Jostad wrote the theme music for our Friday game.

Kimberly Adams 

The team behind the live stream is Emily Macune and Antoinette Brock. Marissa Cabrera is our senior producer. Bridget Bodnar is the director of podcasts and Francesca Levy is the executive director of digital and on demand. And today I don’t think anybody got bingo. St. Louis, Missouri. Inflation. History is cool. For my news fix. Hey, kids, get off my lawn. Jasper. All the way empty. The debt ceiling. Horrible. Bless their hearts.

Kai Ryssdal

You are funny. You are funny. Very well done. Very well done. Oh Snap.