Let's say you need to get something off your chest, but you wouldn't want the whole world to know about it.

Perhaps you have a dear friend you can trust.

Or maybe you would feel better if you had a non-disclosure agreement in place first.

From KERA in Dallas, this is think. I'm Chris Boyd. I realize that sounds extreme, but legal agreements

that guarantee a reward for keeping something secret and a penalty for spilling the beans

have become surprisingly common in the U.S.

Used by companies with trade secrets to protect, but also by divorcing couples, employers with staff at all levels,

and pretty much everybody with any power in Hollywood.

In fact, my guest calls the non-disclosure agreement the defining legal document of our time.

Reeves Whiteman is a features writer at New York

magazine, which published his article Hush Hush Affair. Rebes, welcome to think.

Thanks so much for having me. Just to make sure we're all on the same page here, we should talk

about what a non-disclosure agreement means. Like I didn't realize that by definition, someone asked to sign one

always receive something in return for the promise not to talk about certain things?

Yeah, essentially an NDA, non-disclosure agreement, is a contract like anything else.

And in order for a contract to be enforceable in the courts,

someone has to get something in return. And so one of the just basic foundational things

about an NDA is if you want someone to be quiet, you have to give them something in return.

And we're now seeing that what people are getting in return can be a wide range of different things.

Do the agreements always threaten punishment if the deal is broken by the person who promised to keep silent?

Pretty much. I mean, that's, you know, that's the point of the agreement.

You want someone to stick by it. And so's you know that's the point of the agreement you want you want

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