It’s a Rich Man’s Disney World
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 26 May 2026
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Vacations to a Disney park were never cheap but now, in a reflection of American culture writ large, there are ever more-expensive tiers to pay to get into.
Guest: Dan Curell, management consultant who wrote “Disney and the Decline of America’s Middle Class” for the New York Times.
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm going to try to explain something a little boring to you. |
| 0:10.2 | But before you click away, let me tell you that I'm going to try to explain this boring thing. |
| 0:15.4 | It's an economic concept, by the way, by taking you somewhere magical. |
| 0:21.4 | Walt Disney's Disneyland. |
| 0:23.6 | That's better right. |
| 0:29.1 | The Magic Kingdom. |
| 0:31.4 | Each week as you enter this timeless land, |
| 0:34.2 | one of these many worlds will open to you. |
| 0:39.3 | For the last year, one of these many worlds will open to you. For the last year or so, Dan Corell has been investigating Disney. |
| 0:46.3 | Hey, Tink, some fairy dust, please. |
| 0:53.3 | And so, you know, like I've got like a, not a wall, but certainly a solid four-foot shelf of Disney history books. |
| 1:00.7 | And there's, and that's a fraction of, I mean, this is, you know, Walt Disney ain't Abe Lincoln, but it's close, right? |
| 1:06.1 | Like, he and what he created have been written about kind of extensively. |
| 1:11.1 | Mostly, Dan's been investigating the way Disney World has changed, |
| 1:15.8 | from its founding by Walt Disney himself to now. |
| 1:19.8 | And if you want to see how much Disney's changed, Dan says, |
| 1:23.6 | just search the hashtag Club 33. |
| 1:27.1 | Today I'm doing a house tour because we all know none of you losers will ever be invited here. |
| 1:31.3 | Let's go. |
| 1:32.1 | Allow me to give you an insider look at Club 33 in Disneyland. |
| 1:35.8 | My heart was racing with excitement because like I'm about to go into Club 33 guys. |
| 1:41.3 | This is crazy. |
... |
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