This is Planet Money from NPR.

Like most gyms, inner city weightlifting in Boston offers one-on-one training sessions

for people to shed pounds and get ripped.

But behind the dumbbells and the treadmills is a deeper purpose.

The gym is a nonprofit founded with the mission of providing opportunities to people at risk

of poverty and incarceration and helping them forge friendships with wealthier people

who might be able to give them a helping hand.

In a city weightlifting does this by recruiting people who are economically disadvantaged,

often fresh out of prison, and it offers them a pathway to become trainers.

Then pairs these trainers with well-to-do clients.

And it's found that John Feynman says that they're seeing amazing results with this model.

Personal training does create this really unique setting that allows for those power dynamics

to flip, for those really genuine relationships to form because the value is going both ways.

And I think that really transcends a lot.

It's no secret that it pays to have friends in high places or gym clients in high places.

But a new groundbreaking research project substantiates this in a profound way.

It shows that relationships that cross-class lines are crucial for long-confolks to climb

the economic ladder.

Hello and welcome to Planet Money.

I'm Greg Rizalski.

And I'm Darian Woods.

Today on the show we have two new studies that look at unexpected economic relationships.

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