The Daily Dive

The midterms are finally here, and which party will take control of Congress hangs in the balance.  Republicans, poised to take over the House, have the lead on the economy, crime, and inflation.  Democrats, lead on the issues of climate change and abortion.  Control of the Senate will be up to a few key races including Pennsylvania and Georgia.  President Biden and former President Obama are making the case that democracy is at stake in this election and former President Trump, painting Democrats as the radical left, could be announcing his reelection bid very soon.  Julia Manchester, national political reporter at The Hill, joins us for a midterm preview.

Next, Americans went on a fast furniture buying spree during the pandemic and very soon it could all be going in the trash.  Fast furniture is mass-produced and relatively inexpensive, think of something you might find at Ikea or Wayfair.  Each year we throw out more than 12 million tons of furniture and some of the materials in fast furniture don’t break down or biodegrade.  Some of these items are only meant to last about five years, so the next spot for them is the landfill.  Debra Kamin, contributor to the NY Times, joins us for what to know.

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This is a compilation of some of the most compelling stories of the week.

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The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates by another 0.75 percentage point to continue fighting inflation.  They have signaled that they may keep raising them, but in smaller increments.  In the meantime, experts say it is time to reassess your financial plans and pay down any high-interest debt immediately, maybe delay you house or car hunt, and put more money into saving accounts.  Julia Carpenter, reporter at the WSJ, joins us for how the latest rate hike impacts you.

Next, this week Netflix launched their ad-based tier in the hopes of attracting more subscribers.  The new tier is called “Basic With Ads” and goes for $6.99 a month.  It will be a big test for a company that resisted placing ads with their content for a long time, but also comes at a time when many other streaming services are doing the same.  Joe Flint, reporter at the WSJ, joins us for what to know and the fight over advertisers and licensing agreements.

Finally, with the rise of quiet quitting and more people returning to work, workers have gotten less productive.  Productivity has had the sharpest drop since 1947 and its hard to pin down exactly why, but experts think one reason is that employees are leveraging the power they gained in the tight labor market.  It’s harder for employers to fire and hire new workers.  Burnout could also be a factor.  Taylor Telford, reporter at the Washington Post, joins us for how productivity is down.

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This is a compilation of some of the most compelling stories of the week.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Each weekday, The Big Take brings you one story—one big, important story. Host Wes Kosova talks to Bloomberg journalists around the world, experts and the people at the center of the news to help you understand what’s happening, what it means and why it matters. Money, politics, the economy and business, energy, the environment, technology—we cover it all on The Big Take. Listen to The Big Take on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1308-the-big-take-84969425/

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Pediatric hospitals are currently packed with kids coming down with respiratory syncytial virus or RSV.  Babies under a year old are being hospitalized at six times the rate from 2019 and overall rates for people of all ages are seven times higher.  The good news is that help could be on the way.  This week, Pfizer announced that a clinical trial of their maternal vaccine prevented 69% of severe cases in infants.  While RSV is mainly thought of as affecting children, it does affect many older Americans and other vaccines are in the final stage of development there as well.  Keren Landman, health and science reporter at Vox, joins us for what to know.

Next, commercial satellites could be the next targets in space.  Private networks that provide aid during wartime efforts could be under the crosshairs as we are seeing with Ukraine and Russia.  SpaceX’s Starlink, which is providing internet to Ukraine after their networks were taken down, is coming under Russian scrutiny. This is prompting the Pentagon and others to think about establishing rules and norms for behavior in space.  Miriam Kramer, space reporter at Axios, joins us for this and news of a “planet killer” asteroid, but don’t worry they say it’s not a threat.

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For now, it seems like all the changes to Twitter are playing out in real-time on the platform itself.  On Tuesday, Elon Musk tweeted that it would be changing the verification method for accounts and that it would be rolled up into its “Twitter Blue” service at a cost of $8 per month.  When verification first started, it was an attempt to combat misinformation.  Heather Kelly, tech reporter at The Washington Post, joins us for why it could soon cost you for the blue checkmark on your profile.

Next, as the holiday shopping season starts to heat up, be sure to check out retailers’ return policies.  Over the pandemic, shoppers have become accustomed to very generous return and shipping policies, but that is changing.  Major retailers are shortening their return windows and even adding restocking fees in some cases.  Returns have increased in costs to these companies to the tune of $761 billion.  Rachel Wolfe, consumer trends reporter at the WSJ, joins us for why it’s getting harder to return unwanted items.

Finally, as doctors continue to look for solutions to address the shortage of organs for transplant, they are increasingly looking to pigs as a possibility.  To that end, we are learning more about David Bennett, who earlier this year received a heart transplant from a pig. While he only lasted three months with the pig heart, researchers found out that the heart took longer to generate a heartbeat than typical humans or pigs.  Amy Dockser Marcus, health and science reporter at the WSJ, joins us for what to know.

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After an extremely hot employment market and people job-hopping their way to better paying positions, it seems like the Great Resignation is cooling off.  While overall job listings are still higher than pre-pandemic levels, demand is falling in areas where remote work really took off such as HR, software development, marketing, and math-related roles.  Emily Peck, markets correspondent at Axios, joins us for how more people are prioritizing job security over pay.

Next, as we approach the midterms and more people than ever are voting by mail, you can track your ballot in about half of states.  The envelopes that carry your mail-in ballots have a number associated with them that corresponds to an individual voter, and that number is used by companies like BallotTrax and Ballot Scout to track the ballot.  Geoffrey Fowler, tech columnist at The Washington Post, joins us for how you can now track your mail-in ballot’s every move.

Finally, there are about eight different types of difficult people that you can work with.  They range anywhere from insecure bosses to office know-it-alls and political operators only looking out for themselves.  But the worst type of people to work with are the passive-aggressive types because it is so common and the hardest to pin down.  Amy Gallo, contributing editor to the Harvard Business Review and author of “Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone,” joins us for how to handle difficult people.

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 Last week, Paul Pelosi, the husband of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, was attacked at their home in San Francisco.  We are now learning more about the attacker who left an extensive online trail of support for conspiracy theories and blog posts railing against Jewish and Black people, the media, and transgender people.  When he entered the home, he kept asking “Where’s Nancy?”  Julia Manchester, national political reporter at The Hill, joins us for what we know about this attack and the broader concern as we see an increase in political violence.

Next, Halloween means it’s time for spooky movies!  Horror movies in general have had quite the evolution in the last 100 years.  Some of the best horror movies have acted as a mirror reflecting our own fears of the time back at us and built upon each other to get us where we are today in the genre.  From the early days with the classic movie monsters, to the slashers and serial killer flicks, all the way to modern horror movies, they have all been commentaries of what is going on in the world at the time. Aja Romano, culture writer at Vox, joins us for the horror century of movies.

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This is a compilation of some of the most compelling stories of the week.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.