Shows / Mary in America
Mary in America
Mary in America is a weekly conversation about how the machine of society works. Journalist and author Mary Childs jumps into the minds of the greatest, most interesting people who are shaping the world we live in, to understand the structures we build, the stories we tell, the games we play, and the choices we make. Why is it like that? Who made it that way? Should we change it? Can we?
Episodes
- Mary in America
Somebody Has to Pick the Stocks
Adriana Robertson is a law professor at the University of Chicago who, a decade ago, got fixated on index funds. They seemed so important – the best, or maybe…
- Mary in America
They're Spying on You to Charge You More
When we go to buy something – online, on our phones, in person, doesn't matter – there’s an entire invisible infrastructure behind whatever price we see…
- Mary in America
What's So Critical About These Minerals?
Critical minerals and rare earths – special rocks – do everything from make our cars go to treat cancer. But the vast majority of production, processing, and…
- Mary in America
The Millionaires Hiding in Plain Sight
Over a decade ago, Eric Zwick got assigned an unusual project at the U.S. Treasury: Find out how much tax businesses were paying. But the data was a mess, so…
- Mary in America
Min Jin Lee on Education, Grudges, and Her Current and Future Novels
When novelist Min Jin Lee writes a book, she goes deep. She spends years researching, interviewing relevant people whose experiences and jobs will comprise her…
- Mary in America
Why Being Unpopular is Expensive for Countries
Being a country’s central banker is a technical job. But, just like high school, if you are a popular central banker, it pays off. Aditi Sahasrabuddhe is a…
- Mary in America
Emily Oster Doesn't Mind the Haters
Emily Oster is not a doctor. She’s an economics professor at Brown University, and for years she’s been applying her economics lens and ability to read studies…
- Mary in America
The Bond Market Rules Everything Around Me/You/Us
Bonds around the world have been selling off, kind of a lot. And that selloff has sent interest rates on government debt to or near their highest in decades—…
- Mary in America
Why do we love gold so much?
Gold was on a tear in August. People, investors, and central banks around the world were buying more and more, in large part because it’s seen as a stable…
- Mary in America
What Should Not Be For Sale?
If you live in the worlds of financial markets and economics, sometimes it can be hard to remember that not all of life can be neatly packaged into data points…
- Mary in America
AI and Alienation
AI is creating unfathomable wealth for a handful of people, upending labor markets, and jacking up electricity bills for the rest of us. But somehow we have to…
- Mary in America
The AI Hedge Fund Implosion That Wasn't
At the end of July, you may have heard the sound of a hedge fund blowing up. Situational Awareness, a fund focused on the new AI world, had a sudden firesale…
- Mary in America
How to Get to Sesame Street
Making educational content for kids is fun, but also really hard to do well. Kids are not an ideal audience: they are prone to wandering away, getting…
- Mary in America
AI can do it all. Chat, is that bad?
Jae Woo Lee loves coding. To him, it’s an art form, like poetry. He’s a legendary professor of computer science at Columbia, where he teaches advanced…
- Mary in America
What is the International Criminal Court and why are "we" "dismantling" it?
The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio just announced his intention to “dismantle” the International Criminal Court “brick by brick.” Which raised some…
- Mary in America
Has the Government Borrowed Too Much?
Martha Gimbel, economist and cofounder of the Yale Budget Lab, is a normal, cool person, but she has the same disease as me: she’s obsessed with the US debt…
- Mary in America
How the Dollar Became a Weapon
The US dollar is completely dominant all around the world. It shows up in 90% of all foreign exchange transactions every day. Pretty much anywhere in the…
- Mary in America
How Much Does Extreme Heat Cost Us?
It’s really hot. Extreme heat is one of the more invisible – and pernicious – climate-related threats that we have to figure out how to live with. It claims…
- Mary in America
One Default After Another
Liaquat Ahamed is a legendary and Pulitzer-prize-winning author and economic historian who is obsessed with scouring history to find the worst possible…
- Mary in America
Gary Shteyngart, our National Psychic
Bestselling novelist Gary Shteyngart has spent the past 20 years predicting, with trademark pessimism and terrifying accuracy, the immediate future. His novel…
- Mary in America
Who Owns Ancient Art?
Did you hear the one about the lady in Austin, Texas who bought a marble bust at a Goodwill for $34.99 and it turned out to be a Roman antiquity? Well. When…
- Mary in America
"Class Apartheid" in America (and cigarettes)
Xochitl Gonzalez is a bestselling novelist, but, to me, she’s an economist. Her books are about collisions between economic classes; she captures precarity and…
- Mary in America
How to Price the Priceless
Al Roth won a Nobel prize for his work helping create a market for matching kidney donors with people who needed kidneys. You know what would really help…
- Mary in America
Introducing Mary in America
Mary in America, a new show from journalist Mary Childs about why we are the way we are. Out now. Join us. Subscribe to the show! YouTube Instagram TikTok…