Make Me Smart: Fat Bear Week Edition

Make Me Smart

Marketplace

Business, News

4.6 • 5.4K Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On today’s show, Alaska Public Media reporter Ava White joins Kimberly to make us smarter about Fat Bear Week and the issues that are top of mind for Alaskans right now. Alaska residents receive an annual check funded by the state’s oil royalties. But its purchasing power is lower than ever. We’ll get into it. Plus, we’ll weigh in on AI live translations and a rise in Hamburger Helper sales during a round of Half Full/Half Empty!

Here’s everything we talked about today:

"Meet the superfans going wild for Alaska’s fattest bears" from Alaska Public Media
"Alaska ignored warning signs of a budget crisis. Now it doesn’t have money to fix crumbling schools" from KYUK
”The 2025 Alaska Permanent Fund dividend will be $1,000” from Alaska Public Media
"North Slope leaders applaud tax breaks for whalers in the GOP megabill” from KNBA
"Why are restaurant chains opening beverage-focused spinoffs?" from Marketplace
"AI is taking on live translations. But jobs and meaning are getting lost." from The Washington Post
"Touchscreens in cars are finally on their way out. Good riddance" from Fast Company
"Hamburger Helper Sales Rise as Americans Try to Stretch Their Food Dollars" from The New York Times

It’s Half-Priced Hoodie Weekend! Give $10 a month to support our journalism today, and we’ll thank you with a cozy Marketplace zip-up hoodie: https://support.marketplace.org/smart-sn

Transcript

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0:00.0	I have to pour the drink very dramatically.
0:05.0	Oh, gosh, too dramatically.
0:07.0	Oh, well.
0:08.0	Hello, everyone.
0:09.0	Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where we make today make sense.
0:13.0	I'm Kimberly Adams, and I just spilled my drink all over my keyboard.
0:17.0	But that's what happens when it's Friday and it's happy hour.
0:19.0	Thank you all for joining us for Economics on Tap.
0:23.1	Some of you may be aware that this week is, currently still, fat bear week,
0:30.3	which is an event annually held by the Katmime National Park and Preserve in Alaska.
0:35.3	And so appropriately, we have Alaska Public Media Reporter
0:38.8	Ava White joining us today. Welcome, Ava. Hi, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited.
0:45.8	I feel like I should partially blame you for my drink disaster just now because you're the one
0:51.7	who suggested that I use my paw-paw drink today.
0:55.4	Well, yeah.
0:57.5	You could have gone with the blueberry lemon.
1:00.2	That's true.
1:00.8	I could have gone with the blueberry lemon.
1:02.4	It's not too late.
1:04.8	Yeah, but we do need to discuss drinks.
1:06.6	So what drink did you bring today?
1:09.1	I have two.
	...

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