What is the real cost of cheap goods from China?

Here & Now Anytime

NPR

News

4.1 • 953 Ratings

🗓️ 1 May 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As President Trump's tariffs take effect, many American consumers will have to wean themselves off cheap goods made in China. Former President Joe Biden's economic adviser Jared Bernstein joins us for more. And, as climate change makes heavy rainfall in London more frequent, Here & Now's Chris Bentley reports on the city's "super sewer" system, designed to keep sewage out of the Thames River. Then, Here & Now's James Mastromarino discusses three surprising video game hits: an unexpected remaster of "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion," the French RPG "Clair Obscur: Expedition 33," and indie puzzle game "Blue Prince."

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for here and now anytime comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink software for
0:06.2	technical computing and model-based design. MathWorks accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and
0:13.0	science. Learn more at MathWorks.com.
0:17.4	WBUR Podcasts, Boston.
0:22.6	What's missing here is that people in this country, middle-income people, low-income people,
0:29.7	they simply don't have the resources, the income to pay a lot more for the things they need
0:36.8	and want.
0:38.0	Sure, the American economy might be addicted to low-cost goods,
0:42.9	but a lot of people literally can't afford to have it any other way.
0:47.1	It's Thursday the 1st of May, and this is here and now anytime from NPR and WVUR.
0:52.7	I'm Chris Bentley.
0:56.8	Happy May Day. Today on the show, London debuts its super sewer, the biggest update to the
1:03.4	British capitals plumbing since it first built a proper sewer system after the great stink
1:08.6	of 1858. The Thames were poisoned. The smell was so bad in Parliament that they needed to solve
1:14.6	the problem.
1:15.5	So they tasked the Victorian engineer Joseph Basiljet to engineer a system to solve the
1:21.8	problem.
1:22.5	And we've been relying on his system ever since.
1:24.9	Also, architecture meets the arcane in the breakout video game
1:29.8	blueprints. It is unlike hardly anything I've played, but very much in the vein of these
1:35.4	really intriguing adventure games that spool you through with quick puzzles that make you feel
1:42.7	clever and much deeper mysteries that take hours upon
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.