Endless circle of debt
This Is Uncomfortable
Marketplace
4.6 • 3.6K Ratings
🗓️ 2 December 2021
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When Dalip Singh became taxi driver in New York City, he thought it’d be his ticket to the middle class. It would take years before he discovered that he’d instead bought into a massive lending scam, one that would go on for decades, pushing him and thousands of other drivers into extreme debt. Now, as Dalip and his family try to get ahead, they find themselves struggling against the exact systems they thought were meant to help them.
“This Is Uncomfortable” is Reema Khrais, Donna Tam, Megan Detrie, Peter Balonon-Rosen, Camila Kerwin, Phoebe Unterman, Marielle Segarra and Serena Chow
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | One morning in April of 2020, Felicia Singh came downstairs and saw something strange. |
| 0:09.0 | Her dad's delete was sitting on the couch. |
| 0:12.0 | Usually at this time, he was in the middle of his shift driving a taxi in New York City. |
| 0:16.0 | But when Felicia looked out the front window, his taxi wasn't in its usual spot. |
| 0:21.0 | And I was like, hey, where's the taxi? |
| 0:23.9 | It's not in the driveway. |
| 0:24.9 | It did like, and he's home. |
| 0:26.4 | And that was weird. |
| 0:27.4 | Like, who else would have the taxi? |
| 0:29.4 | Felicia's dad had driven that cab for as long as she could remember. |
| 0:32.2 | He even drove it to the hospital 30 years ago when Felicia was born. |
| 0:35.7 | He has been driving my entire life. |
| 0:39.1 | I don't know him doing something else. |
| 0:41.3 | So that morning, confused, Felicia asked her dad, where's the taxi? |
| 0:46.7 | And he was like, oh, I sold it. |
| 0:49.1 | Like I gave it to the auto shop. |
| 0:52.8 | I was like, you did what? |
| 0:58.3 | Her dad sold his taxi because he could no longer afford the loan payments for his taxi |
| 1:02.9 | medallion. |
| 1:04.2 | The taxi medallion is a permit you need in order to own and drive a yellow cab in New York |
| 1:08.6 | City. |
| 1:09.6 | It's a number that you can find on the cab, either as the license plate or as an actual |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Marketplace, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Marketplace and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.