We’ve got a lot to talk about today! First, we’re still considering the ways in which the Inflation Reduction Act is going to change our economy. Speaking of change, in July, Americans for the first time spent more time streaming than watching cable. Pause for quick detour into what we’re streaming now. Then, a Make Me Smile for those looking for a solution for hair loss: There might be a pill for that.
Here’s everything we talked about today:
“Why Buying an Electric Car Just Became More Complicated” from The New York Times
“Americans Spent More Time Streaming Than Watching Cable TV in July — a First” from The Wall Street Journal
“Florida’s ‘Stop Woke Act’ for Workplaces Blocked by Federal Judge” from Bloomberg
“An Old Medicine Grows New Hair for Pennies a Day, Doctors Say” from The New York Times
Join us tomorrow for Economics on Tap! We’ll be livestreaming on YouTube starting at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time, 3:30 p.m. Pacific time.
Make Me Smart August 18, 2022 transcript
Note: Marketplace podcasts are meant to be heard, with emphasis, tone and audio elements a transcript can’t capture. Transcripts are generated using a combination of automated software and human transcribers, and may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting it.
Kai Ryssdal: We’re ready. Are you ready? Is your Cat nearby?
Kimberly Adams: I’m ready. The cat is sleeping for the moment.
Kai Ryssdal: Let’s go before it wakes up.
Kimberly Adams: I know, before it wakes up and decides to sing a song of his people. Hi, I’m Kimberly Adams. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where we make today make sense when we’re kitten-sitting.
Kai Ryssdal: Hey everybody, I’m Kai Ryssdal. Thanks for joining us on this – what, Thursday? Thursday? It’s Thursday.
Kimberly Adams: Yes, and on this Thursday we’re going to talk about the news, and then end on – well at least I will end on some make me smiles. Well I’ll let you go first on your news fix, how about that.
Kai Ryssdal: Okay, well, so look, this is, and this is a little bit of kind of why I don’t have a make me smile today. Okay, so I just got back from vacation like four days ago. And while as I think I talked about the other day, it was on a disconnect from my work brain vacation, right, because of the economic status in Argentina and the inflation we talked about and all that. But what I did disconnect from was all the – and look, Bridget, I apologize. This is gonna get us the E, so beat me or whatever you want to do. But from all the [beep] that is in the American media environment right now. You know, all the political he-said-she-said, all the cable television incessant drumbeat of garbage that just takes away from the actual challenges that this country faces and amplifies the ridiculous, and anyway, all of that. And I just, it kind of bummed me out all day. So I went for sort of not really newsy, but more news you can use-y kind of news, as opposed to sort of topical and on the news news, if that makes any sense. Does that make sense?
Kimberly Adams: Sure.
Kai Ryssdal: Thank you for tolerating me. Okay. So anyway, so I’ve got, I’ve got two things. One, which is really just totally news you can use, because it’s going to be useful for many, many people. We talked about the Inflation Reduction Act, yesterday, and how it really, that’s just a branding thing, and blah, blah, blah. But there’s lots in there that will change this economy, one hopes, for the better. The catch is that you really have to pay attention if you think you are going to be able to take care of some of those, or take advantage of some of those provisions. And I speak here specifically about the electric car credits, right. And there’s an article in The New York Times today by Jim Tankersley, laying out some of the restrictions and limits and timelines of when you can get that electric car credit, and for which car you can get it, who you are, and how you’re going to buy it and when you’re going to buy it. So I would encourage everybody to read that piece, but also more importantly, to read in depth into that law, because it’s going to change this economy. And actually, this is something we’re going to talk about on Marketplace tomorrow. God, I’m like going a million miles an hour today. So here’s one of the questions I’m going to pose to people in the wrap tomorrow. When the Biden administration first came out with its economic plan, the vibe was, Joe Biden really wants to change the way that government is involved in this economy, right? After four years of Trump pulling back and cutting regulations and saying we’re not going to do it. Biden, in a generational way not since Lyndon Johnson, said, we’re going to firmly inject the government into this economy. He wasn’t able to do that, because Joe Manchin, and some other stuff yes, but because Joe Manchin. But now here he is, having done a slice of what he wants to do. And I think that’s really interesting. And that’s kind of what the Inflation Reduction Act is all about, the climate change stuff and the medication negotiating thing and all that stuff. It’s just really interesting. So that’s my sort of news news item, read into the inflation Reduction Act and and get smart on what it means. Number two, this is just sort of an interesting little tidbit for those of you spent a lot of time watching TV, which I don’t but clearly I should. We, Americans, spent more time streaming video than we did watching video that comes in over the cable connected to our house in July. And that’s the first time that has happened. And I just thought that was interesting.
Kimberly Adams: I definitely spend more time streaming stuff than I spend watching cable TV. I think I only watched a lot of cable TV in June because I was watching the January 6 series.
Kai Ryssdal: Right? Exactly, exactly.
Kimberly Adams: And I think I watch cable – well, I mean no, because that was Sunday morning talk shows are on regular terrestrial broadcast. You know, watch them on cable, but I guess that counts. Yeah, that’s interesting.
Kai Ryssdal: How we live today.
Kimberly Adams: I don’t watch any of these new big series like the Game of Thrones. House of Dragons. Lord of the Rings.
Kai Ryssdal: I’m not a Lord of the Rings guy. For sure I’ll watch the House of Dragons. I need to catch up on for all mankind. You know what I just started? And this is just I’m way behind the power curve, but I started this on the plane coming back from Argentina. Succession. Holy – since we’ve already got the E Bridget, I’m just gonna say it – holy crap that’s good. Wow.
Kimberly Adams: You know, I haven’t seen it.
Kai Ryssdal: It’s so good.
Kimberly Adams: So I think I’ve talked to you about this. I watch TV for fun.
Kai Ryssdal: It’s so fun in an oh-my-god kind of way. Well, look, yes, it is fun. It is fun. It is fun. Not in a yay-this-is-fun fun kind of way. But oh-this-is-fun, in a sinister and evil kind of way, I guess. Anyway, that’s my ramble on the top of the news fix today. Bridget is probably like pulling out her hair. I don’t even know.
Kimberly Adams: That’s all good. She has a lot of hair.
Kai Ryssdal: Yes, that’s true.
Kimberly Adams: I have a hair related story coming up actually. But first, my news fix.
Kai Ryssdal: It’s what we call a segue, people. It’s what we call a segue.
Kimberly Adams: My news fix is about the Florida law that was supposed to hold back on, basically restrict workplace bias or diversity training videos, saying that they violate the First Amendment. A judge in Florida has issued a preliminary injunction, meaning they can’t start enforcing the law while the court battle gets dealt with, which will probably take forever. The thing about this that was very fascinating to me was the way that the judge talked about this law, which I found to be quite entertaining. And so I’m reading the quote as summarized in Bloomberg, if Florida truly – oh sorry, I have to give one more piece of backstory. A lot of this was this – what is this called? Like the anti woke law, the Stop Woke Act. And the idea is that, you know, there’s too much woke-ism in workplaces and people shouldn’t be bashed over the head with diversity and DEI and anti-discrimination bias, blah, blah, blah. Okay, so here’s what the judge said. If Florida truly believes we live in a post racial society, then let it make its case, but it cannot win the argument by muzzling its opponents, Walker wrote. Because without justification, the law attacks ideas, not conduct, and the plaintiffs are substantially likely to succeed on the merits of the lawsuit. And then, Walker compared Florida to the “upside down”, the parallel and distorted reality threatening the characters in the Netflix series Stranger Things. He said, the first, the first amendment bars the state from burdening speech, but Florida officials have barred private actors from burdening speech. Recently – and this is continuing with the quotes, because they just entertained me greatly. Recently, Florida has seemed like a First Amendment upside down, he wrote. Now like the heroine in Stranger Things, this court is once again asked to pull Florida back from the upside down.
Kai Ryssdal: Wow. Wow wow wow.
Kimberly Adams: I have to say some of these legal rulings lately have been just artful.
Kai Ryssdal: Super entertaining. Totally agree. Totally agree. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. I want to appreciate a lawyer that can craft a good turn of phrase.
Kimberly Adams: Yes. Yeah, that was mine. Okay.
Kai Ryssdal: Here we go.
Kimberly Adams: Now for my hair related story. No, it’s actually kind of fun. This is a New York Times story about this sort of new way of helping people grow their hair, right. And so hair loss, particularly for certain segments of the population is a real issue. And there are millions and millions, probably billions of dollars made off of selling people various things to help them grow their hair. So dermatologists have discovered that the same ingredient that’s in Rogaine, like the shampoos and the foams, actually works better as a low dose pill. And it’s really helping people grow their hair back, by working from the inside out. And it’s just really fascinating, because one of the reasons that Rogaine apparently sometimes – or Rogaine and I’m guessing all the other hair products with this ingredient, and I’m not trying to bash Rogaine but why people struggle to have it work for them sometimes is that it has to go directly on the scalp. And if you have any hair like thinning hair that gets in the way, and so by ingesting it, apparently that really helps. And one of the interesting things in this article is a little bit of back history about Rogaine, so it says, I’m gonna mispronounce this, minoxidil?
Kai Ryssdal: I think it’s minoxidil. Yeah.
Kimberly Adams: Minoxidil, okay. The active ingredient in Rogaine, a lotion or a foam that is rubbed on the scalp was first approved for men in 1988, then women in 1992, and is now generic. The medicine use as a hair growth treatment was discovered by accident decades ago. High dose minoxidil pills were being used to treat high blood pressure, but patients often noticed that the pills prompted hair growth all over their bodies.
Kai Ryssdal: Ah geez. Okay.
Kimberly Adams: So its manufacturer developed a minoxidil lotion eventually named Rogaine and got it approved to grow hair on balding heads.
Kai Ryssdal: Oh my gosh.
Kimberly Adams: So, hope for those of us struggling with thinning hair and such. So there you go. But apparently it’s not like an approved treatment. Doctors are just like, doing it.
Kai Ryssdal: Off label prescriptions, right? That’s the deal. Off label use. Right? Right.
Kimberly Adams: Yes, that’s what it’s called. Okay. And now for the fun one, which is this really cute story in CNN about a little eight-year-old girl who was chatting with an ISS astronaut – oh my gosh.
Kai Ryssdal: Hey! Here he is! What’s his name?
Kimberly Adams: His name is Yuki, and he just walked on my keyboard. Now I don’t have my story.
Kai Ryssdal: We just end it right there. We just end it right there. Come on, karma. That’s it for us today. I’m coming back tomorrow for Economics on Tap with Amy Scott. Kimberly’s gonna be off. Save it for next week. Come on we can always use another one. Come on, now is too good…
Kimberly Adams: In the meantime, send us your thoughts and questions. Our email is makemesmart@marketplace.org Or leave us a message at 508-U-B-SMART.
Kai Ryssdal: Oh, man. That’s great. Make Me Smart is produced by Marissa Cabrera. Olivia Zhao is our intern.
Kimberly Adams: Today’s episode was engineered by Juan Carlos Torado and mixed by Jayk cherry. Bridget Bodnar is the Senior Producer. Donna Tam is the Director of On Demand, and the resident kitten is Yuki. Jasper is sleeping quietly nearby, being calm.
Kai Ryssdal: A mature cat.
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