Hey there, it's Stephen Dover.

We've all been hearing a lot lately about international trade and especially the restrictions

on trade in the form of tariffs.

President Trump defending his tariff policy on Meet the Press said that restricting trade

means Americans will have to make do with less stuff, but that that's

okay. I don't think a beautiful baby girl needs, that's 11 years old, needs to have 30 dolls.

I think they can have three dolls or four dolls. They don't need to have 250 pencils. They

can have five. Most economists think that tariffs are a 250 pencils. They can have five.

Most economists think that tariffs are a bad idea. They argue that restricting trade has more downsides than upsides. Elon Musk, back when he was still the president's first buddy,

was in that camp, and he reportedly urged Trump to reverse the tariffs.

Musk also posted an interesting video on X, formerly known as Twitter.

There's not a single person in the world who could make this pencil.

Remarkable statement?

Not at all.

There's a lot more to be said about tariffs and free trade, and we will get into that over time.

But for now, here's a simpler question.

Why are they talking about pencils? To answer that, we're playing you this bonus episode, which we made in 2016 and have now updated facts and figures as necessary.

This episode is about the pencil, something apparently simple that turns out to be

very complicated. It begins, hi. Hello. Good morning. Do you have any pencils I'm looking for?

Many pencils. I'm Stephen. Caroline. Nice to meet you. In an unusual New York City shop, a tiny storefront on the Lower East Side.

Back when we made the episode, the shop had just opened.

We sell only pencils, new pencils, rare pencils, antique pencils, novelty pencils, pencil, pencil accessories.

...