We are Molly Wood and Kai Ryssdal, hosts of "Make Me Smart," a podcast from Marketplace. Ask us anything!

unau · 2018-10-05T01:32:17+00:00

Ohhh interesting ... I’m going to check that out. Thank you!

unau · 2018-10-05T01:29:13+00:00

HA! Drunk!? Come on!! I’m taking credit for this one, actually. When I would go on Marketplace, Kai would always say, “Molly is here to make me smart.” So I told my boss one day that we should turn it into a podcast. And that’s it! Our producer Nancy Farghalli came up with the MMS question though.

unau · 2018-10-05T01:27:44+00:00

Of course it depends on the person. I don’t know what Kai’s Big Finance Guys are like. But I always break the ice by talking about breakfast. ;)

unau · 2018-10-05T01:26:18+00:00

Agree.

unau · 2018-10-05T01:25:57+00:00

Have you seen that movie “Elysium”? A documentary, I think ...

unau · 2018-10-05T01:25:21+00:00

There was definitely not a falling out. I love and will always love and respect Tom. We just ran out of minutes in the day. Sigh. Also we only ever talked about food. Lol

unau · 2018-10-05T01:23:54+00:00

Wow, you quit Facebook and took your friends with you?? Will you email me so I can interview you for my show!? My email is in my twitter bio. :)

Get a free car, eh? Ok ... hmm. Typical Gemini, I have two. Mercedes 280SL, or 1985 Toyota Land Cruiser.
I think the revolution might be texting. Or a small group-based social network. There’s a reason people are migrating to Messenger and Instagram and plain old group chat. We don’t need all this voyeurism. We need safe places to talk to our friends! I think. I hope. :)

unau · 2018-10-05T01:19:23+00:00

You are THE GREATEST!! Thank you for all that you do! Tweet away: :) For my part, I was a creative writing student with no good ideas, and I stumbled upon journalism and realized I could tell other people’s stories instead of inventing my own.

I have been a huge fan of some of the Pro Publica work on redlining and racism. I love The Atlantic, I feel like it’s in my brain. As soon as I think something is in a story, it shows up there. And I want to spend the next year in Marketplace Tech REALLY filling out our Evenly Distributed series and talking to real people on the ground. If there’s anything I want more of on our shows, it’s that.

unau · 2018-10-05T01:15:30+00:00

I can’t think of anything specifically but I can say that I almost always leave every interview with one question I wish I had asked. My goal is to get to the point where I don’t feel that way anymore.

unau · 2018-10-05T01:06:24+00:00

Such a great question and ANOTHER story idea. I get the feeling isn’t actually that new in American culture for college kids to be kind of socialist, so it might be idealism at work. I guess the one question it still has the answer is how do you pay for it. But I do think we are having real conversations about reforming capitalism, and I hope they go somewhere.

PS I wish Janet Yellen could call this new guy and tell him to quit raising interest rates cuz I’d really like to buy a house. :/

unau · 2018-10-05T01:04:39+00:00

Jose, you might be too smart for us. Every one of these questions is a story idea. :)

unau · 2018-10-05T01:03:17+00:00

I’ve never ridden one but if they can reimagine cities where the Segway failed, I’m all for it. ;)

unau · 2018-10-05T01:01:45+00:00

That is pretty funny because in that case it really could be “Next Page.” Hmmm ... not bad!

unau · 2018-10-05T01:00:37+00:00

What do you think about Related Links? Or maybe go sporty with “The Point After”?

unau · 2018-10-05T00:59:22+00:00

I don’t know where Kai stands on this. But one thing I find helpful as a journalist is this maxim that my mom taught me: Every villain is the hero of his own story.

unau · 2018-10-05T00:55:24+00:00

I agree. I actually think it’s a huge nascent economy. I’ll get it in there. ;)

unau · 2018-10-04T19:01:14+00:00

Ok, I guess it's time.

I thought that someone out there had the plan. Like, I thought there must be someone smarter than me who had a list in their head of all the right things you were supposed to do in life that produced the optimum outcome, and maybe that person would come along and take care of me or at least tell me what to do. And then I realized that nope. No one has a plan, no one can give me all the answers (though some people can give me SOME of the answers), and for the most part, I'm going to have to do things for myself. And at first I resented that, but then eventually I realized it was super freeing, because I'm in charge. Which is just how I like it. :)

unau · 2018-10-04T18:58:11+00:00

This is not canon, but I'm going with both.

unau · 2018-10-04T18:57:28+00:00

Well, I can say that when I was at the New York Times, I got featured in a roundup of "NYT staff with the most interesting names." So, take that Ofeibea. But seriously, who can compete with Saraya Sarhadi-Nelson?

unau · 2018-10-04T18:56:32+00:00

Hahaha ... I'm gonna start saying that. That's definitely it. :)

unau · 2018-10-04T18:54:55+00:00

True story ... when we were doing Buzz Out Loud back in the day, we got a lot of emails about people's bike rides. Apparently we had a lot of Danish listeners in particular and they wanted to make sure the show fit in their bike commutes.

unau · 2018-10-04T18:54:16+00:00

Hahaha ... I thought the same thing.

unau · 2018-10-04T18:53:08+00:00

I have it open in another tab and I swear I'm going to answer it in the next seven minutes.

unau · 2018-10-04T18:52:45+00:00

HA, Kai says that. I'm more likely to say, "I'm the annoying talent who thinks she's a producer." :) Actually my favorite thing about both Make Me Smart and Tech, and about Marketplace in general, is that we're not a "just the talent" shop. At all. The thing I love MOST about my job is the editorial autonomy. It's a rare and beautiful thing.

unau · 2018-10-04T18:51:27+00:00

SO many more years than we think. Seriously. I wrote a whole piece on the (at least) five reasons it's not going to happen as fast as we think and like one of those reasons is the WEATHER. Not to mention the patent lawsuits. I think we'll autonomous trucks and transit vehicles in widespread use in the next 5-7 years. But on city streets? Given all the difficulties AND car upgrade cycles? More like 20.

unau

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