Do you listen carefully to our credits every week? Then you might’ve heard of our “silent contributor,” Jasmine Romero, who has been editing “This Is Uncomfortable” for the past year and a half. And all along, she’s also been working on another podcast of her own, “Sacred Scandal: Nation of Saints.” It’s a show with a lot of Uncomfortable themes — immigration, family secrets and how money messes with politics.

We’re sharing the first episode of Jasmine’s pod, but before we jump in, she tells Reema how she reported this deeply personal story about the Salvadoran Civil War, the assassination of a beloved archbishop, and an unsolved murder in her own family. Reema and Jasmine bond over the challenges of reporting personal stories and reflect on how the show’s themes connect to current news events.

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Hey y’all! We’re working on a new season coming at you this August, but over the summer we’re trying something new: The Uncomfortable Book Club! Every other week our newsletter will showcase a book that made us think differently about life and how money messes with it. All the details are in this episode, and when you sign up before June 15 at Marketplace.org/bookclub, you’ll be entered to win some merch from the show. Happy reading!

Doris Tyler has energy well beyond her 80 years. Even after retiring from her career as a music teacher, she remained active in her community — driving to church events, coming up with creative surprises for all her grandchildren. But then one day, she realized her vision was so blurry she couldn’t safely drive. When traditional medical treatment stopped working, Doris’ community came together to help her pay for a brand-new medical technology: stem cell injections. 

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Lorena has been a garment worker in Los Angeles for over twenty years, going to work each day in a small factory to sew trendy fast fashion clothes for pennies per item. But one day, she decided enough was enough, and she took a stand against the poor work conditions and low pay. In part two of our mini-series on fast fashion, we look at the system of production: who pays the price for cheap clothes? And how might that system change for the better?

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What’s behind our desire to reinvent ourselves through fashion? Is it even possible to shop sustainably? This week on the show, Reema sets out to answer these questions with help from fashion educator and sustainable stylist Lakyn Carlton, who shares her own journey away from fast fashion. Plus, producer Alice Wilder takes Reema on a thrifting journey in North Carolina, hunting for work clothes that will allow Reema to feel like herself without breaking the bank. This is Part 1 of our two-part miniseries on the costs of fast fashion. First up, we look at escaping the cycle of overconsumption.

To learn more about how fast fashion impacts climate change, check out this episode from Marketplace’s “How We Survive.” 

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Lindsey Niehay dreamed of being a doctor since she was a teenager. But when she graduated from medical school and started a residency program in emergency medicine, she felt like her weight drew negative attention from colleagues. Then, she learned about the conversations happening behind her back. This is a story about how weight discrimination can derail a career, and why our legal system doesn’t offer the protections you might expect.

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A while back, we asked you to share your money struggles, and we heard from many of you! In today’s episode, we booked a session with financial therapist Megan McCoy to answer your burning financial questions — everything from navigating financial differences among friends and talking to an avoidant partner about money plans, to making big career decisions and learning how to curb spending.

As promised, here are some of the research studies and articles discussed in this episode:

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  1. “Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness,” by Elizabeth W. Dunn, Lara B. Aknin, and Michael I. Norton, as well as Dunn’s TED Talk on the same topic

  
  
  
  
  

• “If Money Doesn’t Make You Happy Then You Probably Aren’t Spending It Right,” by Elizabeth W. Dunn
  
  

• “Heads or Tails: The impact of a coin toss on major life decisions and subsequent happiness,” by Steven D. Levitt
  
  

• “Harvard Study of Adult Development” and an awesome TED Talk by Robert Waldinger, the project’s director
  
  
• Take the Klontz Money Script test to measure your core money beliefs.
  
  

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Nicole and Rachel were deeply in love when they had their first serious fight about money. It seemed easily resolvable, but the disagreement dragged on for months and brought a lot more to the surface than they expected.

This episode originally aired in 2022 and includes a short update at the end about how Rachel and Nicole are doing today.

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Growing up, Haein Shim was taught that if she wanted to succeed, she needed to change her appearance. Shim was raised in South Korea, where a competitive job market and booming beauty industry combined to make careful beauty maintenance all but mandatory for gainful employment. By the time she was a young adult, she was spending hours a day and hundreds of dollars a month on makeup and clothes, until one day her friend asked, “Why do we spend so much money on our appearance?” That question upended Shim’s family, career and sense of self. It led her to join a movement called Escape the Corset, calling for an end to strict beauty standards.

In this episode, we also speak to NPR’s Elise Hu, who spent years reporting on the rise of the K-beauty and how it has impacted Korea’s economy and gender politics. Her book on the subject, “Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture From the K-Beauty Capital,” examines how women like Haein Shim are changing the face of beauty in Korea.

This week, we’re sharing an episode from another podcast we think you’ll love. “Classy” is a new show from Pineapple Street Studios and Audacy exploring the ways that class infiltrates our day-to-day lives. Host Jonathan Menjivar has some hang-ups about class. In this episode, he takes us from a nightclub outside Los Angeles to the halls of a fancy Manhattan prep school, and asks sociologist Rachel Sherman, “Are rich people bad?”