Big Take

After the murder of George Floyd and subsequent protests in 2020, corporate America made bold promises to address racial disparities in the workplace. And they delivered. Bloomberg’s Jeff Green and Rebecca Greenfield join this episode to dig into the data about US companies’ DEI efforts.

Read more: Corporate America Promised to Hire a Lot More People of Color.
It Actually Did.

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Hundreds of thousands of people charged with crimes in the US each year are incarcerated while they await trial. Often it’s because they can’t afford to pay bail. New York City’s pretrial supervised release program aims to change that. A judge can opt to release some defendants under the supervision of a caseworker, who monitors their progress as they await their day in court. Bloomberg’s Fola Akinnibi and Sarah Holder join this episode to talk about how the program works, the fraught politics around it–and why it may become a blueprint for other cities and states.

Read more: America Is the World Leader in Locking People Up. One City Found a Fix

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Catch up on some of the week’s biggest stories from the US and across the globe. Bloomberg’s Rosalind Mathieson, Mario Parker and Ben Sills join this episode to talk about the major issues on the table at the United Nations meeting in New York; the Biden administration’s push for a deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia; and the ongoing US auto workers strike. 

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Bloomberg’s Shawn Donnan and Maeva Cousin join this episode to explain how rising political tensions around the world are leading to a re-ordering of trade and commerce into rival economic blocs.

Read more: The Global Economy Enters an Era of Upheaval

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The Dollar General retail chain has 19,000-plus locations, more than Walmart and Wendy’s combined. Its business model is to open in towns too small to support bigger retailers, sell necessities at low prices and keep staff to a minimum, sometimes as few as one or two people per shift. This bare bones approach has led to profits but also numerous OSHA citations and millions of dollars in proposed fines against the company since 2017. 

Bloomberg reporters Josh Eidelson and Brendan Case join this episode to talk about their reporting on Dollar General, what current and former employees say about what it’s like to work there–and how the company has responded. 

Read more: Why Dollar General Might Just Be the Worst Retail Job in America

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Bloomberg Businessweek national political correspondent Joshua Green joins this episode to describe a political phenomenon that’s emerging in parts of the US: red states encroaching on blue cities. In Nashville, Austin and elsewhere, Republican legislatures have successfully used supermajorities to block liberal reforms and enact conservative policies.

Read more: The Hostile Takeover of Blue Cities by Red States

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On Friday, US auto workers started an unprecedented strike against all three of the legacy Detroit carmakers. If the standoff isn’t resolved quickly, it could ripple through the US economy. 

Bloomberg’s Detroit Bureau Chief David Welch joins this episode to talk about what the union is demanding–and whether the companies will give them what they want.

Read more: How Auto Executives Misread the UAW and Ignited a Historic Strike

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There were many global issues on the table at the G-20 summit in New Delhi. But arguably the real center of attention at the India meeting was India itself–and the ambitious agenda of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Bloomberg’s Sudhi Ranjan Sen and Daniel Ten Kate join this episode to discuss what came out of the gathering of leaders—and how India is asserting itself on the world stage.

Read more: India’s Moment Has Arrived, and Modi Wants a New Global Order

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Retail work has always been hard – long hours and weekend shifts on your feet, a lower pay scale and dealing with disgruntled customers. But in our post-pandemic economy, those issues have only been amplified with shoppers behaving badly and wages not keeping up with inflation, while employees take on ever-expanding roles. As a result, many workers are deciding the job just isn’t worth it.

Bloomberg’s Devin Leonard and Rebecca Greenfield explain the decline of retail workers’ sense of value and respect that is leading them to quit in droves. And retail reporter Olivia Rockeman talks about the broader challenges facing brick and mortar stores as they try to compete with growing online sales.

Read more: US Retail Workers Are Fed Up and Quitting at Record Rates

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Since the 1970s, carbon capture and storage (CSS) has been held up as one potential tool to help combat global warming. The idea is to capture carbon dioxide released in the production of fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas, and store it deep underground–instead of letting it escape into the atmosphere. But despite billions of dollars spent, the technology hasn’t quite lived up to expectations. Bloomberg’s Stephen Stapczynski and David Stringer report that now is the make or break time for carbon capture to prove its worth, and they join this episode to talk about whether it’s up to the challenge of slowing climate change.

Read more: Big Oil’s Climate Fix Is Running Out of Time to Prove Itself

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