Planet Money Turned Everyday Annoyances Into an Economics Book
Odd Lots
Bloomberg
4.5 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 17 April 2026
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
There are a lot of things to be annoyed about in modern life. The high cost of food and housing and childcare. Dating apps that don't seem to work. The fear of AI replacing you at your job. These are all common complaints and concerns, and each of them can be traced to a specific economic phenomenon or market structure issue. Once you start thinking about the world in this way, you can't unsee it. In this episode, we speak with Planet Money co-host Mary Childs, and contributor to the podcast, Alex Mayassi. They've just written a book called Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life. We discuss how one of Tracy's childhood memories was a reflection of the commodity trap, what Baumol's cost disease tells us about daycare, and why -- despite all these frustrations -- there are still many reasons to be optimistic about economic progress.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thanks for listening to All Thoughts. Follow the show on Amazon Music for more future episodes or just ask Alexa play the podcast, All Thoughts on Amazon Music. |
| 0:10.5 | Today's show is brought to you by Vanguard. To all the financial advisors listening, let's talk bonds for a minute. |
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| 0:56.1 | Vanguard Marketing Corporation distributor. |
| 1:00.8 | Bloomberg Audio Studios, |
| 1:03.3 | Podcasts, Radio News. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots podcast. I'm Tracy Allaway. |
| 1:20.7 | And I'm Joe Wisenthal. |
| 1:22.2 | Joe, you and I have talked about doing a book at various times. |
| 1:25.3 | Yeah, talked about it. |
| 1:27.1 | That's pretty much it. We talk about it, |
| 1:29.2 | and then we get a few emails from, like, agents and publishing houses. There's so much work. |
| 1:34.1 | And then we get distracted. And then we get distracted. But you know, the one thing I was thinking about |
| 1:38.6 | is maybe that idea for a recipe book. Oh, I would totally do that. That may be one that we should |
| 1:43.8 | consider at some point. A cookbook slash supply chain. Yeah, I would totally do that. That may be one that we should consider at some point. |
| 1:45.0 | A cookbook slash supply chain. |
... |
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