Make Me Smart

The White House is walking back its plan to keep the cap on refugees at the historic low set by the Trump administration. President Joe Biden had previously indicated he wanted to raise the limit from 15,000 to several times that, and after much backlash his press secretary now says a final number will be announced next month. On today’s show, we’ll talk about that policy and the administration’s first big stumble. Plus: Kai Ryssdal’s piping hot take on the boba shortage and another round of Half Full/Half Empty.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

Thanks to everyone who joined us live on YouTube! Join us every Friday at 3:30 p.m. Pacific/6:30 p.m. Eastern for happy hour! Subscribe to our channel and sign up for notifications so you don’t miss it.

When you do the numbers on how many people police killed in nonviolent incidents just last year — to say nothing of the video and testimony coming out of multiple American cities this week alone — you can’t come to any other conclusion. This is a broken system. Also on the docket today, with guest host Marielle Segarra: A third vaccine, dating in the pandemic, the U.S. Postal Service and the “denim cycle.”

Here’s everything we talked about on the show today:

As a follow-up to yesterday’s show about cryptocurrencies, one of our listeners wants to know if Coinbase, which went public today, is really a reliable way to buy and sell bitcoin and other blockchain-backed assets. We’ll try and answer without thinking too hard about the money Molly might have lost when another exchange got hacked. Plus, your questions about vaccine appointment bots, the fallout from the mess in the Suez Canal and Kai pulls back the curtain a bit on “Marketplace.”

Here’s everything we talked about today:

Finally: We need your voice memos! Tell us what you think of the show or ask a question for Kai Ryssdal and Molly Wood to answer! Here’s how to do it.

We talk to Gil Luria, the director of research at D.A. Davidson, about who wins and who loses in the mainstreaming of Bitcoin. Plus: Gil answers your questions about Bitcoin mining and the related math problems that are hard to get our heads around.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

Molly’s interview with Gil: “Don’t look now, but Bitcoin is going mainstream,” from “Marketplace Tech”

The 2013 article referencing Gil’s first note about Bitcoin: “Bitcoin Could Be Worth 10-100x Current Price – Analyst,” from StreetInsider.com

“SPAC Boom Faces New SEC Threat With Accounting Crackdown” from Bloomberg

“Darius, ‘World’s Longest Rabbit,’ Is Missing” from The New York Times

We’re going to get the latest year-over-year inflation data early tomorrow morning. It will, in all likelihood, be followed by some misleading headlines — remember what was happening a year ago? Today, we’ll tell you what to keep an eye on. Plus: Kai and Molly talk about Alibaba, fire season, Mars and rhinos to round out this catch-up, grab-bag episode.

Here’s what we talked about today:

Finally: We need your voice memos! Tell us what you think of the show or ask a question for Kai Ryssdal and Molly Wood to answer! Here’s how to do it.

Guest host Scott Tong brought a truly wild story to this grab-bag Friday episode. Coca-Cola is accusing a former employee of stealing trade secrets — not the formula for what goes in the can, but the can itself. We’ll talk about it, some other weird trade secrets and, oh yeah, a 3,000-year-old lost city in Egypt. Plus, another round of our favorite game, “Half Full/Half Empty.”

Here’s everything we talked about on the show today:

Thanks to everyone who joined us live on YouTube for happy hour today! We’re live each Friday at 3:30 p.m. Pacific time/6:30 p.m. Eastern! Subscribe to our channel and sign up for notifications so you don’t miss it.

You can stop cleaning your groceries now. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention affirmed this week what scientists have known for months: COVID-19 is spread primarily through the air, and everyone can tone it down with the wipes and disinfecting sprays. But what could individuals and businesses have been doing while the CDC waited to let us know? Kimberly Adams and Meghan McCarty Carino talk about it, along with the latest disturbing testimony in Derek Chauvin’s trial. But we’re not all hollowed out today. We’ll also chat about LeVar Burton, “Jeopardy!” and anime for Anglophiles.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

Even before COVID-19, there was a housing crisis in much of this country. Now, cities like San Francisco have millions of square feet of empty office space and a persistent housing shortage. One of our listeners wants to know: Why can’t one problem be the other’s solution? We’ll talk about it. Plus, the economic cost of racism against Asian Americans, the changing cosmetics industry and a whole bunch of TV recs.

Here are links to everything we talked about today:

Don’t call it a border crisis. What’s happening at the U.S.-Mexico border — a greater number of migrants, especially unaccompanied minors, with an administration unprepared to process and shelter them all — was actually pretty predictable, said “Reveal” immigration reporter Aura Bogado. On today’s show, Kimberly Adams and Andy Uhler talk with Bogado about what’s changed between administrations and what hasn’t, and the larger economic and climate forces driving the migration each year.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

With your regular hosts on spring break this week, Kimberly Adams is joined by Marketplace workplace culture reporter Meghan McCarty-Carino to talk all things Amazon. The Bessemer, Alabama, union vote isn’t the only labor issue facing the nation’s second-largest private employer. Plus: The changing face of vaccine hesitancy, cicada season and First Contact Day.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

Finally: We need your voice memos! Tell us what you think of the show or ask a question for Kai Ryssdal and Molly Wood to answer! Here’s how to do it.