Are We in a New Gold Rush?

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2026

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Gold is having a moment,” writes New Yorker staff writer Jennifer Wilson. Earlier this year, it traded as high as $5,500 an ounce as an unstable economic outlook has central banks and investors buying gold to hedge their bets. Gold has been embraced by the far right, reality TV, and hobbyists and full-time prospectors headed up to the foothills where the California Gold Rush began. Wilson explores all these angles in her latest piece “How Americans Caught Gold Fever Again.” We talk to Wilson and experts – and a gold prospector – about the legacy and future of this precious metal. Guests: Jennifer Wilson, staff writer, The New Yorker - her recent article is "How Americans Caught Gold Fever Again" Albert Fausel, owner, Placerville Hardware; part-time gold prospector Quinn Slobodian, professor of international history, Boston University Brian Wallace, executive officer, Indigenous Futures Society Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:00.0	I'm Alexis Madrigal.
1:01.7	Gold is having a moment, writes New Yorker staff writer Jennifer Wilson.
1:06.3	Earlier this year, it traded as high as $5,500 an ounce as an unstable economic outlook has central
1:14.8	banks and investors buying gold to hedge their bets.
1:19.5	Gold's been embraced by the far-right reality TV producers and Donald Trump, of course,
1:25.1	but it's also that it's just gold.
1:32.3	Add it all up, and we've now got hobbyists and full-time prospectors headed up to the foothills where the California gold rush began.
	...

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