Welcome to the dinner party download.

This is your icebreaker.

Here's a joke.

Descartes walks into a bar.

Descartes walks in two bar, Descartes, the philosopher.

And the bartender looks at him and says,

Descartes, hey, how's it going?

Can I get you a beer?

And Descartes says, I think not.

And then he disappears.

I'm Brendan Francis Nuneum. I'm Rico Gagliano.

And from 89.3 KPCC in Los Angeles, this is the dinner party download, the show that gives you talking points and ball moz to help you win your next dinner party. This week's icebreaker came

from Abigail Chapin of

Indyfolk trio, the Chapin sisters. Thanks Abigail. And later on we'll be talking with our guest of

honor, Robert Wagner. Yes, that Robert Wagner. 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 we took a long walk past several cubicles to talk to our colleagues over at Public Radio's business show, Marketplace.

We need a Giblonsky, Marketplace producer and sometimes host of the Morning Report.

What is the story you were going to be talking about at your dinner party this weekend?

Well, I got to bust out one of my favorite headlines I've seen on Forbes.com.

It said something like, you know, while things might be topsy-turvy in the financial markets, it's still a bull market in the bone yard.

...