I'm John Batchler. Artificial intelligence and work. It concerns you, and if not yet, soon enough, or perhaps

you're behind. We are doing what we can to stay even with the revelations of AI and work. I welcome

my two colleagues on this endeavor, this expedition. Jim McTagg, he is in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania,

the best county in the Keystone State,

the former Washington editor of Barron's now a novelist in Lancaster,

fencing with AI.

And Alan Tonelson, my guide and guru,

on manufacturing and trade for many years,

he blogs at Reality check. Most importantly,

he's in Prince George's County within shouting distance of the nation's capital. And he also contends

with AI. So we're learning together. We begin with an anecdote that is a continuation of a conversation

Jim and I had about the economy of Lancaster.

The economy of Lancaster is the economy of Keystone State. The economy of Pennsylvania,

you bet, is the economy of the United States, which we're watching very carefully right now

because of the violence in the Middle East and the global troubles with oil and natural gas.

We begin, however, with French pastry. Jim, a very good day to you. As I recall, you traveled to the Park City Mall and you had a conversation, a very

happy conversation with a young woman pushing a cart filled with extremely attractive looking and expensive pastry made

by her husband, a French chef. It was all very happy and we made ourselves hungry and we made

the audience hungry. And I learned later that sweets are what people in Tehran do after a bombing

raid.

It's compulsive of them.

They take their flat bread and they smear jam and anything sweet on it and eat ravenously.

...