NPR.

This is the indicator from Planet Money.

I'm Adrienne Ma.

And just back from her vacation in Tuscany, I am joined by NPR's financial correspondent Maria Aspen. Maria,

welcome to the show. Thanks so much, Adrian. It is great to be here, though I have to admit I'm

sad not to be in Italy anymore. It's always sad not to be in Italy. But it sounds like you had a

pretty awesome vacation. It was, and it was especially delicious, full of wine and sun-ripened tomatoes and lots of local extra virgin olive oil.

I even went on a tour of the groves for one small producer called Olio Piro, hiking through the olive trees on the steep hills of Sejano in southern Tuscany.

It was a ridiculously gorgeous view of the Tuscan countryside. So, of course, I was thinking

about trade policy. Even on vacation, you're thinking about trade policy. You can't take the

econ brain out of the financial reporter.

And especially in the middle of olive oil country. I mean, Italy is one of the world's top

producers of olive oil, and the United States is a huge customer. And now President Trump's

tariffs are making business harder for both olive oil producers and customers. And it turns out they're even complicating other parts of the Trump administration's agenda.

So today on the show, we'll look at what olive oil tells us about the unintended consequences of Trump's tariffs.

That's after the break.

A few days after visiting his olive trees, I caught up with Romance Piro over Zoom.

He moved to Tuscany from France a couple of decades ago and kind of fell into making olive oil.

But now he has the zeal of the converted.

Many people never had the experience of a freshly well-made olive oil. But now he has the zeal of the converted. Many people never had the experience of a freshly well-made olive oil. Many, many,

even here in Italy, so many people drink crap.

Not want to mince words, I hear.

...