The Man Responsible For Why You're Broke
Frugal Friends Podcast
Jen Smith & Jill Sirianni | Backyard Ventures
4.6 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 24 February 2026
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Your overconsumption may not be your fault because one man helped shape what consumerism looks like today. In this episode, Jen and Jill show how Edward Bernays made buying feel emotional and personal, while a system designed to influence our natural desires fueled it.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The man responsible for why you're broke. |
| 0:03.1 | I love shopping so much that I could go literally every single day. |
| 0:10.7 | Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, |
| 0:15.9 | embrace simplicity, and live a rich in your life. |
| 0:20.4 | Here are your host, Jen and Jill. |
| 0:27.1 | Welcome frugal friends. I'm Jen. I'm Jill. |
| 0:30.1 | And there is a single man whose ideas explain why buying things feels emotional, personal, and even patriotic. I don't know if he |
| 0:42.3 | was actually single, but he is singular. There's a singular man. Yeah. So if you've ever felt |
| 0:49.3 | like your shopping habits say something about who you are as a person, that wasn't an accident. |
| 0:56.5 | That's on purpose. |
| 0:57.3 | And today we're going to introduce you to the man responsible for that. |
| 1:00.8 | That's right. |
| 1:01.7 | Your overconsumption may not be your fault, despite everyone telling you to pull yourself |
| 1:08.7 | up by your bootstraps. |
| 1:10.4 | And that does not mean you don't have |
| 1:12.1 | autonomy and responsibility over your actions. That's not what we're saying. But I know someone is |
| 1:19.0 | going to come for us in the comments for that statement. So we're not saying you don't have |
| 1:24.2 | responsibility. But it is also important to recognize that the |
| 1:28.2 | system built around us was built around us intentionally, not by happenstance. And we were not the |
| 1:37.4 | ones who built it. It was built back. It started a hundred years ago. And we're going to talk about one of the men in particular |
| 1:47.0 | who started that. But first, you may be wondering, Jen, what are you wearing? That is a beautiful |
| 1:53.8 | necklace. And I'm going to let you in on this like like, beautiful, what cost me, this necklace. |
... |
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