Segments From This Episode

• April retail sales data add confusion to an already confusing economy

  by Kristin Schwab

  

  Between the pandemic and its economic ripple effects, the consumer experience has been a wild ride.

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• Congress hasn’t had the best record of regulating new tech. Could AI be different?

  by Matt Levin

  

  Generative artificial intelligence is advancing quickly, and it’s not clear if legislators and regulators can keep up.

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• Profits and perverse incentives

  by Krissy Clark

  For-profit welfare companies make big money operating the U.S. welfare system. In Chapter 5 of the latest season of “The Uncertain Hour,” Krissy Clark, host of the Marketplace podcast “The Uncertain Hour,” looks at who really gets a leg up from welfare reform and work requirements. We did into more of the welfare-to-work industrial complex in the latest season of “The Uncertain Hour.” Listen now.

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• How a decline in home sales also trips up retail

  by Samantha Fields

  

  When people buy new homes, they buy a lot of other things too, like furniture, appliances and electronics. When home buying slows, that can have a real ripple effect on other industries.

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• What happened to the Buy Nothing Project?

  by Kai Ryssdal and Richard Cunningham

  

  What started on Facebook evolved into a dysfunctional app and a fractured community, as chronicled by Wired contributor Vauhini Vara.

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