This American Life: #591: Get Your Money's Worth

July 22, 2016 11:43 PM

Stories of people trying to make sure they get what they paid for, from political change to bedroom slippers. We follow a donor as he vets presidential candidates, and go inside a company wrestling with the consequences of its "no questions asked," lifetime return policy.
posted by ellieBOA (4 comments total)

That intro threw me for a loop-- Even after Jacob Goldstein's contribution in the intro, I kept forgetting I wasn't listening to Planet Money and was listening to TAL.
posted by Sunburnt at 1:40 PM on July 24, 2016 [1 favorite]

The political donor piece was grim. I have this idea bubbling in my head that we should be pushing for an effective maximum wage. There are so many aspects of society being poisoned by unchecked wealth. Perhaps this particular area could be improved by limiting campaign contributions more meaningfully, but really important parts of society, like the housing market for example, are being upended by the fact that some people have ridiculous quantities of money.

Seems like me like if you had an 80 or 90% tax rate over a certain income bracket, you could reign in a lot of misery and manipulation like this.
posted by latkes at 8:27 AM on July 25, 2016

Oh yeah the intro: Since about the second or third year of TAL I have longed for Ira to hand the reigns over to others to host. Only in the last couple years has he started occasionally doing so. I guess the good part of that is now some of the smart, skilled women on the show have spun off their own podcasts which are amazing. Anyhow, I love when there's a guest host. It doesn't take away from Ira's vision, but still gives others a chance to expand the show in their own ways.
posted by latkes at 8:30 AM on July 25, 2016

I was surprised that Doug Deason gave Zoe so much access, though he did come off pretty well overall, except for how he and his dad got glamoured or something by Trump. It was really not how I expected that meeting to go, based on how important the Deasons supposedly thought facts and logic were.

I mean, I fully expected them to end up backing Trump because they fear Hillary (or, to be honest, the down-ballot effects of disinterested republicans staying home on election day) more than the worst that Trump could do. But it really came down to Trump's razzledazzle at the end. Doug couldn't even pretend they had gotten some kind of concessions out of him.

The L.L. Bean story seemed like more of an ad for LL Bean. To the point that I think if Gimlet Media had LL Bean as a sponsor, they would totally have a done series of "ad stories" about the quirks of the Guarantee. Which is why I like the ads on Gimlet, but also interesting in the way that it coloured my view of this story.

I loved... LOVED Zoe and Jacob Go Shopping, and how they both thought that the other was the "better" person. The Condom story was cute too.
posted by sparklemotion at 3:50 PM on July 26, 2016