One of our favorite things to do on this show is present a new idea, or maybe a new way

to think about an old problem.

Way back in 2010, the first year we made for economics radio, we did such an episode,

unbeknownst to us, one of the people who heard it was so inspired by the idea that he would

spend much of the next seven years turning it into something real.

Knowing that this had been a podcast that turned into an idea that ended up becoming a constitutional

amendment and that I had a piece of that thing that had happened, it was just super exciting.

That's Michael Gaudini.

Yeah.

And I am a policy advisor with the City of Austin.

In 2010, he was a 21-year-old college senior in Pennsylvania, interning in a state legislative

office.

I was really trying to get involved more in public policy at the time.

I listened to the Freakonomics podcast on Prislink Savings and I thought it was a really

cool idea that was pretty common sense.

And what you may be wondering is Prislink Savings.

So a Prislink Savings account is basically just a savings account in which you're incentivized

to put more money into your savings account.

The incentive comes in the form of cash payouts.

Unlike a lottery, but unlike a lottery, and that even if you don't win, you still have

your principle.

We kind of wanted to harness the same type of feeling that you get when you play the

...