The view from cattle country
Make Me Smart
Marketplace
4.6 • 5.5K Ratings
🗓️ 20 February 2026
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On today’s edition of “Economics on Tap,” Kimberly is joined by Anna Pope, agriculture and rural affairs reporter for KOSU and Harvest Public Media, to talk about how Oklahoma’s agricultural workers are faring amid wildfires, federal workforce reductions and shifting global trade tensions. One bright spot: beef prices! And, we’ll play a round of Half Full/Half Empty.
Here’s everything we talked about today:
- "Oklahoma fire crews battling several wildfires" from KOSU
- "Oklahoma-based federal ag workforce lost nearly 1 in 5 of its employees last year" KOSU
- "Hunger rose slightly in the U.S., a new report shows. The USDA says it will stop tracking the data" from Harvest Public Media
- "Oklahoma had a bumper wheat crop, but it's not alone. Here's what that means for producers" from KOSU
- "Beef prices keep rising. What will it take to bring them down?" from Marketplace
- "Gen Z Doesn’t Go to the Club. They Party at Coffee Shops Instead." from Texas Monthly
- "Job hunters turn to "reverse" recruiters to get an edge" from Marketplace
- "Americans drank more milk in 2024, reversing a decade-long decline" from Harvest Public Media
We love hearing from you. Leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART or email makemesmart@marketplace.org.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone, I'm Kimberly Adams. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where none of us is as smart as all of us. Thank you for joining us, whether you're watching the YouTube live stream or listening to the podcast, our first live Friday show in a couple weeks. Glad to have you here. If you're new here, |
| 0:22.6 | this is Economics on Tap. It's our weekly happy hour episode. And today we are checking in |
| 0:28.6 | on the agricultural industry in Oklahoma. Bet y'all thought we were going to do terrorists, didn't you? |
| 0:33.6 | No, we're going someplace else. Here to make us smart about this is Anna Pope. |
| 0:37.9 | She covers agriculture and rural affairs for KOSU and Harvest Public Media. |
| 0:43.2 | She's joining us from Oklahoma City. |
| 0:45.0 | Welcome to the show, Anna. |
| 0:46.8 | Hello. |
| 0:48.6 | And I suppose even agriculture is effectively a tariff story as well, but I know you've |
| 0:53.3 | been covering something else in the meantime. |
| 0:55.5 | We're going to get to that in a little bit. |
| 0:57.8 | So, Anna, first thing we do usually is drinks. |
| 1:01.6 | What kind of drink did you bring to Happy Hour? |
| 1:04.7 | I brought some white wine, and then I have a bottle of water here right by me. |
| 1:09.8 | So, yeah. |
| 1:10.8 | Nice. What kind of wine? |
| 1:13.1 | A pinot grigio. Nice. Very refreshing, which I guess is appropriate given your coverage area at the |
| 1:19.3 | moment. I did my old faithful and old fashioned, but to jazz it up, I added some lemon basil lavender tonic that somebody sent me a while |
| 1:31.2 | back from Sweet Haven tonics, so it adds a little extra flavor to it. So, cheers, and welcome to the show. |
| 1:38.4 | Thanks. All right, let's talk about what's happening in Oklahoma. And yes, I know the tariff story is the big one. |
| 1:45.3 | We're going to be getting into that on another show. |
| 1:47.4 | But I did want to check in on Oklahoma because the agriculture industry has been hit really |
... |
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