Make Me Smart: A very cherry blossomy edition

Make Me Smart March 31, 2023 Transcript

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Kimberly Adams 

All right, cool, then, let us get going.

Amy Scott 

Hey, everybody, I’m Amy Scott. Welcome back to make me smart where we make today make sense. It is Friday, March 31.

Kimberly Adams 

Yes. And I’m Kimberly Adams. Thank you, everyone for joining us for our annual cherry blossom edition of economics on tech. We’re going to have very special cherry blossom themed drinks, we’re going to have news fixes, we’re going to take a brief break, and then we’re going to end with our very fun game Half-full/half-empty. And Amy I know you have an epic drink to share with us. Go for it! What did you get? And I love your decorations?

Amy Scott 

So pretty. Yes. Thanks to Marissa for the decorations. The closet has never looked so good. I’m probably gonna have to leave them up until they get sad and dusty. Yeah, so this is I just, you know, looked for cherry blossom cocktails. This one’s from a website I think it’s called craftandcocktail.co. And I chose this one because it required the the least ingredients. Aome of these were like 10 ingredient cocktails, this one gin, Luxardo, cherry vermouth, lemon juice and a tablespoon of sour cherry jam. You shake it. And then I sent the kids out for these genuine Baltimore cherry blossoms to garnish my drink. So it’s a family family affair. I haven’t tried it yet, though. So you talk about yours. And I’ll take a sip.

Kimberly Adams 

Well, I want to watch you drink it.

Amy Scott 

Oh, yeah, that’s nice. Really nice. Not to sweet. It’s a little cloudy, because I didn’t strain it properly. I’m not much of a bartender. It’s just me so I’m enjoying it.

Kimberly Adams 

And that’s the important part.

Amy Scott 

What are you… what’s on tap for you?

Kimberly Adams 

I do want to say for everybody who maybe is familiar with the DC cherry blossoms where it’s a felony to take the or a federal offense, I should say, to take part of the cherry blossom branches, they got them from a neighbor who gave permission. So..

Amy Scott 

She did indeed give permission. These are not protected cherry trees. They were so nice. And also so perplexed. I don’t think they realize that I host a podcast from my closet. So not that it would make sense anyway, but I’ll explain and maybe send them a link to the show.

Kimberly Adams 

You have to show at least a photo of it. So yeah, last week. Yeah, last week, I had my nice pretty and pink cocktail. That was the cherry blossom recipe that I made last year. So I went in a completely different direction today because I also had some Luxardo cherries, but I made the mistake at some point months and months ago, putting them in the fridge, which you’re not supposed to do. And they got all crystallized and gross. And so my solution to that was to fill the jar with bourbon. And so the bourbon over the last couple of weeks has been dissolving all that crystallized sugar and getting all that cherry infusion. So I then took that cherry, Luxardo cherry infused bourbon. And it’s half of this glass. Oh, maybe like a third of this glass and ginger ale. That’s it. And I’ve garnished it with two chocolate covered cherries, because you always gotta have a good garnish.

Amy Scott 

Classy. Looks beautiful. How’s it tastes?

Kimberly Adams 

It’s like very rich. Very rich, heavy but it’s nice. I like it. It’s like…. it almost has its own chocolaty flavor. But maybe that’s just because I’m smelling the chocolate covered cherry right next to it. But it’s good. I like it. Alright, let’s move on to the newsfix Amy, why don’t you go first?

Amy Scott 

Yeah, let’s do it. So this one’s on my mind because I’m actually going to take a little bit of vacation. So we’ve talked about this before, you know, Americans don’t tend to take as much time as they could. But there’s a new survey from the Pew Research Center that says nearly 46% of American workers, so close to half, don’t take all of their allotted paid time off. That’s a lot. And what really surprised me, I was thinking, you know, oh, it’s because of stigma and people worried about losing their job if they don’t work hard enough. There is some of that, especially among lower paid workers. But more than half of the people who didn’t use all of their PTO said, they don’t feel the need to take more time off. Hhigher income workers of course, were more concerned about falling behind at work, you know, people whose idea and identities may be kind of wrapped up in their careers or, or their colleagues having to bear the burden of them taking time off. 12% though, this really struck me, said their managers actually discourage them from taking time off. And I think America’s got a work problem. I mean, come on, we need a vacation. We need a vacation. If it’s available to you, and you can afford to, take it! There is a lot more in this survey, though, about how Americans feel about their jobs, which was pretty interesting. There’s a lot of satisfaction with co-workers unsurprisingly. About half of people were satisfied with their jobs overall, 67% were satisfied with their relationships with coworkers, and 62% with their boss, which I thought was pretty interesting. But not surprisingly, only about a third were satisfied with their pay, and their opportunities for promotion at work.

Kimberly Adams 

Boo! Well, at least we all love our colleagues. Heart you Amy!

Amy Scott 

I know. I love my colleagues. I really do. It’s the best part of this job.

Kimberly Adams 

It is, you know. One of the things I tell new people when they come into Marketplace, it’s like you know, it is not cutthroat, nobody’s out to like get you or to stab you in the back. Because we’re all like desperately sending each other emails for help with sources on deadline, everyone comes together to help out and it’s very collaborative. And when you’re talking about people not taking their vacation, I remember a couple years back I actually got a Slack or a call from our wonderful person in HR, who was just like, “Kimberly, if you don’t take your vacation, it’s not all gonna roll over. You have to use it or you’re going to lose it.” Like I had so much banked vacation that I was getting ready to lose it from like, just, you know, the fact that it had been sitting there for so long.

Amy Scott 

That was good of them, to out to you. I feel like, you know, they could have easily just let it go. But you know I guess I get the anxiety about falling behind, about not wanting to burden your co-workers. I totally get that. I just… I’ve become a real believer in switching off for a while because I think we’re just more productive and happier people when we do that.

Kimberly Adams 

And it is a real privilege to be able to do it. So we should take advantage for sure. Okay. Well, mine is related today to Trans Day of Visibility, which is today. And it is a day which is different from Trans Day of Remembrance, which I believe is in November. This is a day just to pay attention to trans people and the issues that they’re facing. Although unfortunately, this week, trans folks have been getting attention in a way that is not so great with the stories that have been coming out about Nashville and some really hateful language and comments around that. But I will not dignify it with repetition. And instead, I will talk that the Washington Post has a really interesting and useful guide about… and it’s called “a guide to the words we use in our gender coverage.” And one of the things I find is a big barrier for people talking about LGBTQIA+ issues is not knowing what words to use, or how to use them properly. And even people who want to be either allies or kind or respectful, or even if they don’t agree just not be rude or mean, don’t know what words to use and which words used to be fine and which words are no longer fine. I remember I took a training in college called “Safe Space training,” which was, I was RA and you could get… do this trainings that you could put a sign on your door so that you could say that your room was an LGBT safe zone. So people who were feeling unsafe or uncomfortable could know that they could always at least go there and it would be a safe space. Right? But as part of that I had to get an education about these issues. And I remember one of the facilitators heard me use the term homosexual. And I said, “Well, we say heterosexual, why can’t we say homosexual?” And he said, “it’s not that it’s wrong, it’s just distancing.” And that so perfectly encapsulated for me the way a lot of these words end up landing. Even if it’s technically accurate, it puts up a wall or puts up a guard, it’s distancing for people, right? And being mindful of how your words are going to land matters. So anyway, the Washington Post has a guide, and they go through how you can use terms like intersex gender, gender identity, gender expression, and transgender as opposed to non-binary or gender fluid and gender non conforming, transphobia, sexual orientation, pansexual, asexual, all these different terms that get thrown around a lot in certain communities accurately, in certain communities not accurately. I know I’m talking about this a long time. I also want to point out a report that came out this week, from the Center for LGBTQ Economic Advancement and Research, aka CLEAR, which is an organization that follows and pays attention to the economic lives of LGBTQ+ folks. And it’s got so much data on the economic experience of, as they qualified here LGBTQI+ people, including some really interesting numbers like: “4 in 10 parents, 40%, reported having out of pocket legal costs related to family formation. Additionally, 43% of LGBTQI+ parents have spent $1,000 or more on out of pocket health care costs related to family formation, and nearly a third have spent more than $5,000. The vast majority of respondents who received gender affirming care, 82%, reported spending some money out of pocket. Nearly half, 46%, of people who have received some form of gender affirming care have spent $5,000 or more out of pocket. A third report spending at least $10,000 out of pocket.” A lot of money.

Amy Scott 

Yeah, cuz a lot of this isn’t covered by insurance, or people don’t have access to insurance because of the economic disadvantages often faced by especially transgender and non-binary folks and other people in the LGBTQIA community.

Kimberly Adams 

Right. Yeah, that’s in the survey as well is that you know, they, LGBTQI+ folks report far lower annual household incomes than adults nationwide, and a lot, and then 73% said they could no longer rely on their family after…. sorry, only 62% were able to rely financially on their family after coming out. And the gap is even larger for transgender respondents. So they said… 73% of folks said that they could rely on their family before telling them about their sexual orientation, which dropped down to 62% after they came out with an even bigger gap for folks who came out as transgender.

Amy Scott 

Wow, that’s really telling.

Kimberly Adams 

Yeah, so I mean, part of visibility of any community is looking at not just sort of what’s in your face, but also the lived experiences of folks and their economic lives as well. So it’s a super interesting study. The Washington Post’s guide, so helpful especially if you don’t necessarily feel comfortable asking somebody the words to say or you just don’t want to put that emotional labor on on somebody so it’s right there in writing. Okay, so that is it for the news fix. What a ride. We are going to take a break when we come back we will play around have half full half empty

Kimberly Adams

Okay, this is half full/half empty, where we go through some of the news topics from the week and tell you how we are feeling about them. And it’s hosted by our very own, the one, the only. Drew Jostad. (Makes her voice seem like there are many people cheering). The crowd goes wild. Drew go ahead.

Amy Scott 

All right, are you half full or half empty on 3d printing cars? Huh, I didn’t hear this one. That’s pretty interesting.

Kimberly Adams 

So Kai did a visit to a factory that is 3d printing kind of everything cars, because I guess people will pay the amount of money to 3d print a car, but also the guy who was trying to sort of ramp up this 3d printing technology happened to also be a car guy and knew how to do this. And so ended up doing it with cars. Um, I’m gonna say half empty. Only because I’m kind of split because the technology it needs to be developed. And if this is how it sort of upscales up great, but I think it’s better used for things like 3d printing houses or 3d printing medical devices, or prosthetics or things like that. But guess it’s not a zero sum game. Sure, let people have their 3d printed cars. Why not? What about you?

Amy Scott 

Well, how are these cars powered? Right? If they are combustion engines then no. We don’t need any more of that. Um, yeah, I don’t know, I mean… having not heard the story, and I don’t want to speak out of turn, but I think I’m half full because, well…. I would like to talk to automotive workers about how they feel about this, because I can imagine this technology, putting people out of jobs, but maybe those are the kinds of jobs that are not as gratifying and folks can be trained to do, to use the technology to to do jobs that they find more exciting. So I guess, yeah, that’s sort of a wishy washy answer. But that’s, that’s the kind of day it is.

Kimberly Adams 

It is indeed. Alright, what’s the next one Drew,

Amy Scott 

As the interest rates climb higher and higher certificates of deposit are getting more and more popular. Are you half full or half empty on the rise of CDs?

Kimberly Adams 

I am half full. I love that they’re coming back. It’s just, it brings back such essential sense of nostalgia, you know. When you’re like, in my case, when I was like a teenager and early in college and just starting to learn how to save and, you know, kind of keeping your money in that little six month or one year certificate of deposit, you know, taught you to kind of just leave it alone for a minute. And these things have been useless as a savings device for what? The last decade or so because interest rates have been so low, and now they’re coming back because banks are desperate for deposits at the moment. Interest rates are higher.

Amy Scott 

I would say, oh, gosh, low power mode. Well, I guess we’re not using the video so it’s alright. Um, if my phone dies, I will still be talking to you. So I’m half full I think? I think it’s yeah, for savers to have… to be actually earning some money on their money. It’s a beautiful thing. But of course the flip side of that is the higher borrowing costs and what it’s gonna mean for the economy going forward, which is still uncertain but we are seeing more signs of the economy slowing, more layoffs, more unemployment claims and so you know, it’s hard not to think about that that aspect of this. But yeah, and earning some interest on your money. I’ve never actually owned a CD makes me want to go out and shop for one.

Kimberly Adams 

Well, you’ll get really good interest rates right now.

Amy Scott 

Yeah. Maybe I should get one for the kids

Kimberly Adams 

Yeah! Alright Drew what’s next?

Amy Scott 

Are you half full or half empty on return free tax filing? Hmm. I’m gonna say half empty. Sounds great to not have to go through the effort, but I’m kind of a… I don’t want to say control freak. I like to… I like to you know, know what is being filed or what’s being said about my experiences and my money. And I don’t know if I trust it to like an automated system. I mean, it took us almost a year to get our refund from the IRS this past tax season. And there was no way to find out what was going on. There was no, you know, way to get an update, we just had to trust that eventually we were going to get our money. And so I’m not… I’m a little wary of leaving such a big thing in my life to an automated system.

Kimberly Adams 

I’m actually half full on this. The vast majority of people have very simple tax situations. And there’s like this whole industry built up around something that people end up paying for that they don’t need to. And even people like the IRS tweeted out the other day that if you make something like less than $60,000 a year, you can file your taxes for free. Click here, you know, because it’s so… But nevertheless, a lot of people end up paying for taxes when they don’t need to just to basically put in put in basic numbers and be like yeah, that’s right, file. And many other countries just do that automatically just tell you if there’s an issue. And then you only would need to do extra if you have an unusual situation. So saving people time, potentially saving people money. I’m gonna go half full. Also, you know, there’s been recent funding increases to the IRS so that we don’t have those kind of backlogs that we did last year. People have been getting their refunds faster this year. And yeah, I’m gonna go half full on it. I would like to not have to do my taxes.

Amy Scott 

Yeah ask me in a couple of weeks when taxes are due and maybe I’ll be like, yeah. You haven’t done your taxes yet?  I not done them yet.

Kimberly Adams 

Oh, man.

Amy Scott 

I mean, what incentive do I have right? After my recent experience.

Kimberly Adams 

Marielle, used to. Marielle used to do her taxes by hand. She did a story about how she’s got like spreadsheets and everything. It’s wild.

Amy Scott 

Oh I love it.

Kimberly Adams 

All right. Last one Drew.

Amy Scott 

Last one. We here at Half-full/Half-empty love to keep you, keep you up on the weirdest foods we can find. Are you half full or half empty on cup noodles breakfast. It’s flavored as pancakes, maple syrup, sausage and egg. I saw that today. Oh, wow.

Kimberly Adams 

I have yet to encounter a cup of noodles that I did not like so even though it sounds awful to me and I don’t like eggs, I’m gonna go half full. I’d probably try it. I’d eat it. I’d probably eat it.

Amy Scott 

All right, well, just to be saucy. My cup of noodles is half empty. Because gross

Kimberly Adams 

You almost made that go out my nose Amy. My cup of noodles is half empty. Alright. We have been going on far too long.

Amy Scott 

Yeah, someone’s got a vacation to start.

Kimberly Adams 

I know right? Are we done? Do you have another one Drew?

Amy Scott 

That’s all I got.

Kimberly Adams 

Alright. Thank you! We’re done. Thanks, Drew! Alright that is it for us today. We will be back next week. If you have questions that you want to hear us answer on our what do you want to know Wednesday show related to the economy, business, tech. And you know we sometimes venture into other topics but not if we can avoid it. Anyway, let us know. You can

Amy Scott 

You can leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART or email makemesmart@marketplace.org

Kimberly Adams 

Thank you for doing the dance with me Amy,

Amy Scott 

We’re always bobbing our heads.

Kimberly Adams 

Make Me Smart is produced by Courtney Bergsieker. Today’s episode was engineered by Jayk Cherry. Drew Jostad wrote the theme music to Half-Full/Half-Empty. Antonio Barreras is our intern.

Amy Scott 

The team behind our Friday game is Mel Rosenberg, Emily Macune and Antoinette Brock. Marissa Cabrera is our acting senior producer. Bridget Bodnar is the director of podcasts. And Francesca Levy is the executive director of Digital.

Kimberly Adams 

You got it before it faded all the way out. It wasn’t totally out. I think you made it.