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Listener feedback and questions and #saltfacts abound, so here’s a little bonus and the first of our many Mailbag episodes! Enjoy other people’s opinions!

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Woo, we made it to episode ten! Listen to us discuss single-resource economies and how we all wish we knew Black Panther a little bit better than we do! Good thing it comes out in theaters soon, so we can all catch up.

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Merry Holidays, y’all! We talk the hubris of Clark Griswold and his Christmas lights that can be seen from space. Would he be able to actually afford to run lights bright enough to cause a crisis at the power plant? How do you read an electric meter? Why does this movie make Liz so dang uncomfortable?

All this and more on this episode!

Notes:

Dan’s spreadsheet!

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Yippee Ki-Yay, We like to PARTY!

Does the Nakitomi corporation and the city of LA lose more money letting John McClane fight bad guys in his bare feet than if they just let Alan Rickman and the other fancy Germans get away with all the money and blow up the building? Is Nakitomi just a front for a very large scale crime ring? Does Damon know how much buildings are worth?

Learn these things and more on this episode!

NOTES:

Dan’s Spreadsheets! (Be nice, he worked hard!) This includes links to all of Dan’s sources, plus an overwhelming amount of money!

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Is the little provincial town that Belle’s from living removed from time, in an egg-based economy? Is Gaston their prince? Listen to us discuss the Town That France Forgot!

NOTES

Correction! Liz was wrong, Perrault didn’t write Le Belle et Le Bete, it was actually written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. BOO, LIZ.

The Beauty and the Beast Christmas Special, if you dare.

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Certainly a man who doesn’t half-ass two things when he could whole-ass one thing knows how to plan for his retirement and the financial security of his kids. But Parks and Rec’s Ron Swanson takes things to another level entirely. Dan digs up the dirt (err… gold?) on Ron Swanson’s secret buried savings!

How much gold could one public servant possibly save, after all?

NOTES

Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Occupational Outlook Handbook”

Parks and Rec Wiki, “Duke Silver”

Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi, “All Your Worth”

OnlyGold.Com, “Historical Gold Prices”

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Welcome to the episode where we finish recording and go right off to jail! Dan teaches Liz and Damon how to do cook books and do crime*, a la Andy Deuxfrain…. Doofrain?… Dufresne.

*but then we don’t do crime, and neither should you. We offer no advice and we take no responsibility! No criming allowed!

And as always, thanks very much to Charlsey Miller for our theme song! Check out her music (and buy some of her albums!) at CharlseyMiller.com

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Harry Potter’s world is certainly very magical, but not incredibly economically practical. Is Ollivander charging wizards and witches enough for their wands, or is he destined to go out of business? Is it possible that everything in the Wizarding World is government subsidized? This is part one of a non-consecutive, ongoing collection of Harry Potter-themed episodes.

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Have you finished bingeing the second season of Stranger Things? Don’t worry, no spoilers here! When we recorded this, we had no idea what a hero Steve would turn out to be. What we DID know was that those kids stole a bunch of salt to make Eleven’s sensory-deprivation-kiddie-pool, and SOMEONE was going to have to pay for that. How much could salt possibly cost, you ask? Well. It’s surprising in every way you can imagine!

NOTES:

The Economist, “Salt Sellers”

And as always, thanks very much to Charlsey Miller for our theme song! Check out her music (and buy some of her albums!) at CharlseyMiller.com

LISTEN HERE!

Welcome back! In this episode, we talk Derry, Maine, where, if you time it right, nothing bad will ever happen to you! But if you’re a kid there every 27-30 years, hoo boy watch out! Turtle from Entourage can’t save you from the folksy elder god in the sewer system, and neither can the Gerber Life Grow-Up Plan.

Can you get life insurance in Derry? Join us to find out!

NOTES!

Cracked, “‘Entourage’ is so Bad Pirates Don’t Want to Steal It”

So You Don’t Have To, Liz’s other podcast! (That Entourage Episode will be back up and available sometime soon!)

Credit for our lovely theme song goes to the miraculous Charlsey Miller! Check out here stuff here!