Make Me Smart

We heard you: After our show on climate change, several listeners wanted to know more about nuclear power and its place in the green energy discussion. Joining us is Suzy Hobbs Baker, the creative director of the Fastest Path to Zero Initiative at the University of Michigan. She’ll walk us through the basics of how nuclear power works, its impact on the environment, its tricky economics and, yes, the image problems it can’t shake. By the way, we have an Explainathon coming up and we need your questions! Send your voice memos to [email protected]!

Used to be, gigs were for musicians, artists, folks who did work that didn’t fit neatly in any traditional notion of “employment.” These days, the “gig economy” means something very different: Nearly a fourth of Americans earn money from freelance work, and 44% said “gigging” was their primary source of income. And while the future of work as we know it is still very murky, a new law in California has thrown the gig economy into a transitional moment. Here to talk us through is Marketplace workplace culture correspondent Meghan McCarty Carino.

Used to be, gigs were for musicians, artists, folks who did work that didn’t fit neatly in any traditional notion of “employment.” These days, the “gig economy” means something very different: Nearly a fourth of Americans earn money from freelance work, and 44% said “gigging” was their primary source of income. And while the future of work as we know it is still very murky, a new law in California has thrown the gig economy into a transitional moment. Here to talk us through is Marketplace workplace culture correspondent Meghan McCarty Carino.

Tech giants like Google, Apple and Facebook are seemingly unafraid to take on huge challenges. So why are they relatively quiet about climate change? Molly has spent several weeks reporting around Silicon Valley about tech companies and VCs’ relationship to the climate. We’ll hear some of her interview with Danny Kennedy, runs a nonprofit startup incubator focused on clean energy. Plus: Your thoughts on our women at work episode and a bit about Marketplace’s fall fundraiser.

Tech giants like Google, Apple and Facebook are seemingly unafraid to take on huge challenges. So why are they relatively quiet about climate change? Molly has spent several weeks reporting around Silicon Valley about tech companies and VCs’ relationship to the climate. We’ll hear some of her interview with Danny Kennedy, runs a nonprofit startup incubator focused on clean energy. Plus: Your thoughts on our women at work episode and a bit about Marketplace’s fall fundraiser.

Between the ’70s and ’90s, women were entering the workforce in droves. Then female workforce participation peaked in 2000. What happened? And why are women’s wages still stagnant? We’re picking up our series on the economics of inequality, trying to figure that out with some help from Emily Bazelon, an author, lecturer at Yale Law School and a staffer for The New York Times Magazine. Plus: Back to the Dark Place on deepfakes, and departing producer Shara Morris answers the Make Me Smart question.

Between the ’70s and ’90s, women were entering the workforce in droves. Then female workforce participation peaked in 2000. What happened? And why are women’s wages still stagnant? We’re picking up our series on the economics of inequality, trying to figure that out with some help from Emily Bazelon, an author, lecturer at Yale Law School and a staffer for The New York Times Magazine. Plus: Back to the Dark Place on deepfakes, and departing producer Shara Morris answers the Make Me Smart question.

Deepfake videos can make for a lot of fun … someone’s face on someone else’s body saying something completely out of context — like Bill Hader doing an impression of Tom Cruise with Cruise’s face superimposed. But the implications of this technology are serious, from disinformation to political upheaval. Here to walk us through it is Berkeley School of Information professor Hany Farid. Plus, professional dogsledder Blair Braverman answers the Make Me Smart question.

Deepfake videos can make for a lot of fun … someone’s face on someone else’s body saying something completely out of context — like Bill Hader doing an impression of Tom Cruise with Cruise’s face superimposed. But the implications of this technology are serious, from disinformation to political upheaval. Here to walk us through it is Berkeley School of Information professor Hany Farid. Plus, professional dogsledder Blair Braverman answers the Make Me Smart question.

Talk of a coming recession has only gotten more heated this week, following a meeting of central bankers at Jackson Hole and a bunch of trade back and forth at the G7. Markets rebounded Monday, but the yield curve remains inverted and the global economy is still slowing down. So what now? We called Neil Irwin, senior economics correspondent at “The New York Times,” to help us figure out what we should be watching for, and what happens next