'LuLaRich' reveals how MLMs mirror the American economy

It's Been a Minute

NPR

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4.6 • 8.8K Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2021

⏱️ 34 minutes

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Summary

Sam interviews women's work and economic justice writer Meg Conley about the documentary series LuLaRich and how vulnerable people still get sucked into multi-level marketing schemes because their shape mirrors the American economy. Then, Harvard Ph.D. candidate and Mormon Studies Fellow at the University of Utah Janan Graham-Russell joins for a game of Who Said That?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey y'all, this is Sam's Aunt Betty.
0:03.0	This week, the multi-level marketing of Lula Row.
0:08.0	Alright, let's start the show.
0:12.0	You're listening to It's Been A Minute from NPR. I'm Sam Sanders.
0:16.0	So I noticed something.
0:18.0	A lot of the TV I've been consuming recently,
0:21.0	the TV that's really hooked me.
0:23.0	All these shows have at least one thing in common.
0:26.0	They all offer a critique and one layer another of capitalism.
0:31.0	Squid Game, the most popular Netflix show ever.
0:35.0	It is all about the lengths people will go to when they experience horrible debt and debt in jobs.
0:41.0	The worst of capitalism.
0:48.0	The white lotus and succession, those shows mock the rich and make the case that too much money can make you an awful person.
0:55.0	Look, here's the thing about being rich.
0:58.0	Okay? It's like being a superhero. Only better.
1:02.0	You get to do what you want. The authorities can't really touch you. You get to wear a costume.
1:06.0	But it's designed by our money.
1:08.0	And there's just other one that I cannot stop thinking about.
1:11.0	Lula Rich.
1:12.0	This one is a documentary all about a multi-level marketing scheme
1:16.0	where mostly stay-at-home moms sell really weird-looking leggings.
1:21.0	There's a few things in the eye of the beholder and some people really want to wear like jack-a-lanterns on their leggings.
	...

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