Welcome to the dinner party download. This is your icebreaker.

Here's a joke that's suitable for mixed crowds. The disciple approaches the master and says,

Master, what is fate? And the master says, disciple, it is that which causes a man to

travel a great distance with a heavy load upon his back,

and which causes a road to spring up under his feet,

and which causes inns and public houses to spring up alongside that road

to stave off hunger and weariness and thirst.

And the disciple says, master, that is fate.

And the master says fate.

I thought you said freight.

I'm Brendan Francis Nuneum.

I'm Rico Gagliano and welcome to the dinner party download,

the show that gives you talking points and bamos to help you win your next dinner party.

Our icebreaker today came from our guest of honor,

Nerdcore superstar MC Frontalot.

You'll be hearing from him later. But first, as with any dinner party, we start off with small talk.

You're going to be talking about the week's news at this weekend's party.

Who better to tell you which news is worth bringing up than the people who report it.

So as usual, we talk to our colleagues over at Public Radio's business show, Marketplace.

Sean Cole, public radio rock star and correspondent and reporter for Marketplace.

What's the story that you're going to be talking about this weekend?

Man, my parties have already started.

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