S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on today's show. Sometimes money talk can be confusing , but the host of NPR's Planet Money make it plain in a new book. Hear from them. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. Compound interest. Maximizing shareholder value. Inflationary pressures. When we hear phrases like these , many of us just kind of tune out , get bored , or both. And that's why Planet Money exists. For nearly 20 years , the NPR podcast and reporting team has brought a unique flair for telling stories about money and the economy. Their stories are not only enlightening , but often , well , dare I say , fun ? Well , now they are out with a new book. It is called Planet Money A Guide to Economic Forces that Shape Your Life. KPBS Midday Edition producer and roundtable host Andrew Bracken spoke with author Alex Macy and Planet Money host Sara Gonzales about the book. Here's that conversation.
S2: Sara , I just want to start with you before kind of getting into the book here , I'm wondering if you can first tell us what makes for a really good Planet Money story. Oh , yeah. Be it a podcast or a book.
S3: I mean , I think our core mission is like meet a cool character , like a cool character , a person who is like this at the center of the story , who can really , like , unravel a mystery with us. Um , we want to explain something that , like , you will never look at that thing the same way. Like a gym , uh , your phone , you know , whatever it might be like when you hear a Planet Money episode , you will never think of recycling the same way after you listen to that recycling episode or whatever. Um , and it's like edutainment infotainment. And then I would say also we really throw ourselves into the story , become the story. So for example , when we wanted to understand the record , the , the , the music industry , like how artists make money , how songs make money. We became a record label , Planet Money Records. We released a song , and we did this for the purposes of being able to , like , see every fraction of a penny that came in whenever anybody streamed our song. When we wanted to understand the commercialization of outer space , we shot a satellite into space. Like we throw ourselves into the project in order to understand that world. And the same thing is true with with the book. Like in the process of writing the book , we have also been reporting on the behind the scenes of a book deal , how a book deal comes to be the auction side of things , how you become a best seller , how to like hack , the best seller list , things like that. I think that's like kind of planet money secret sauce , I would say. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So in a word , I mean creativity is just screaming across the way here. Alex , how do you approach then translating Planet Money's unique approach to , you know , telling these stories and bring it to a book form. Yeah.
S4: Yeah. I mean , I think Planet Money has really honed its approach to explaining the economy in an interesting , insightful and entertaining way over like 15 years. So we really kept that core of storytelling , of looking for interesting characters , you know , people experiencing these economic forces. Um , and then one of the big challenges was figuring out , you know , with the book , how to make this feel like something really comprehensive. And so the book is structured into five different sections. Some of the sections are maybe what you would expect about , uh , saving and investing or working career , other sections , maybe a little bit less expected for an econ book , a section about leisure , a section about love and dating. Um , and so then , you know , one of the big challenges was making sure we found really great stories , really great insights for all these kind of different parts of our lives.
S2: And Sarah , your colleague Alex Goldmark kicks off the book by calling the economy , quote , the grandest collaborative project in human history. You know , he goes on to say , it's something we all help to create. And I that really stood out to me , defining the economy as something that we all are part of. I mean , I think maybe it's obvious to some , but it's not the first thing I think of when I think of the economy.
S3: Yeah , right. We are the economy , you and me and yeah , how we spend our day , what we do on the weekends , the things we buy , why we buy them , the things we can't afford to buy. Like that is the economy. Um. It's us. We do say in the book , which I. Which I love , we say that like , uh , 100 years ago , if somebody were to say , like , how is the economy doing ? Like , people wouldn't know what you meant by that. Like , we the concept of the economy was something that was like , created. Right. And so we get into what even created the concept of the economy and how today , you might think of it as things like the cost of living and what you can afford and things like that. But yeah , it's us. It's us man.
S2: Yeah , Alex. I mean , tell me more. You know , in Planet Money fashion , you mentioned you cover such a wide range of subjects in this book. Among the ones that jump out to me is one connecting an infamous baseball contract to teaching something about retirement savings. Tell us about that.
S4: Yeah , so we are talking here about Bobby Bonilla , uh , one time slugger. Um , who has the most infamous contract in sports history ? And that's because Bobby Bonilla has been retired for a very long time. And yet , every year , the Mets sent him a cheque for over $1 million. He is making more than many current Mets players , even though he's been retired for years. And this drives a lot of Mets fans absolutely insane. It feels like the Mets like again. What a Mets thing to do. It's so dumb. We're paying a retired player and.
S2: They have a day named after it , right ? It's like.
S4: Yeah , yeah , like the day the check goes out. Yeah , exactly. People have fun with it. Maybe not the Mets fans , but. But Bobby Bonilla is is maybe our favorite holiday at Planet Money because it it teaches this really important lesson about compound interest about how if you invest money now , the more time you give it , the more it will grow. And kind of like a snowball rolling down the hill the way that like you keep running , grow like more and more snow clumps on until it gets bigger and bigger and bigger at a faster and faster and faster rate. And so , you know , with Bobby Bonilla , what happened is that , you know , he had a when he was still with the mats , he was making around $6 million per year , and he had a season that was just kind of okay. And the Mets didn't really want to be paying him $6 million anymore , but they'd signed a contract. So they came to this agreement like , okay , we won't pay you $6 million now , but we'll pay you that money in the future , like 25 years later. So we can use this money now to hopefully get to a championship. Um , and so if you look at it like what happened with Bobby Bonilla and his $6 million and it becoming , you know , millions of dollars that he's paid every year later , that's basically how retirement planning works. Like , you give up some money now , you invest it , it grows and grows and grows , and then you get a lot more money later. He ended up being paid more around like 25 or $30 million , all told , from that original $6 million. Um , so the reason that it sounds so crazy to people is just because compound interest is so powerful , it kind of breaks our brain. And so Bobby Bonilla Day is this great reminder of like , just how powerful compound interest and economic growth is over , like a long time horizon.
S2: Sarah , you know , that's one of the stories here in this book , but there's so many others.
S3: Um , do I have a favorite ? Yeah.
S2:
S3: Yes I do. Uh , okay. Yes. I think one of my favorite concepts from the book is probably bow Malls Cost Disease. I think that's a fun one. So that one basically explains why goods like a bag of potato chips or like a head of lettuce , uh , or the cost of light to light up your home , get cheaper and cheaper over time because of technological advancements. While services like child care , health care , plays. Getting a haircut do not. And it's because these industries like you can't really innovate your way to cheaper services. So , um , teaching kids , putting on a play , they require about as much labor as they did before the Industrial Revolution. And like and this is Scorsese's okay , so To follow , follow this thread. It doesn't mean that these services like stay the same price forever. Like the ones that require as much labor , it actually means that they get more expensive over time because here's how it works. All right , let's say the potato chip industry , for example , gets more productive. They can make more chips without increasing costs. Their profits go up , they give out raises. And now teachers and theaters , they see those higher wages in the chip industry and they start switching careers like , I'm going to go make more money over there. So then the theaters and the schools have to respond by raising their own wages to keep their staff , but now their costs are up. So they raise prices. And that is Belmont's cost disease. It's like this is why certain things get more expensive over time while other things get cheaper over time. I think that's a fun one.
S2: Yeah , that's really interesting. And there's so many more in here. Alex writes a love letter to insurance , which I don't think I've ever seen before. Um , you know , before.
S5: I go , I think I'm the first. I think I'm the first.
S2: We have about a minute left here , and I just want to leave you something. I'm sure you get asked questions about money all the time from people.
S3: And I'm like , and I tell them the the very first story that I ever did at Planet Money , which , by the way , I started at KPBS , KPBS was my very first job in public. Really ? Yes , I was a morning edition producer there.
S2: Yes , yes.
S3: Yeah , like 16 years ago. Um , but my very first episode for Planet Money was a story about how the world is running out of sand. Because sand is the main ingredient in , uh , glass. That is in our electronics and in concrete. And it was about a time that a beach was stolen in Jamaica in the dead of night. Like people in Jamaica woke up and they were like , where did the beach go ? All of the sand is gone. It would be like if somebody stole , like , the Grand Canyon or something , right ? And it was like the first time that the world became aware that sand had become this thing that was worth , like , stealing. Um , and I feel like that , to me , is like a good way to explain the kind of economic storytelling that we do. It's like things that you it's all the big , huge issues inflation , tariffs , of course , but then it's also these like things that you wouldn't intuitively think of.
S4: I think mine isn't a question , but I will have friends sometimes say , somewhat sheepishly , that they don't really understand investing. They're not sure how to invest , and they think maybe they should go talk to someone or pay someone to do it. Um , and I think , like , these are smart people. These are smart friends. And it breaks my heart a little bit because I think , like , they are absolutely up to the challenge of understanding what's going on there. I think there's a huge industry of people who work in finance , Wall Street , etc. who want people to think this is more complicated than it is. And absolutely , you can go down into the dive into the deep end of finance. That gets very complicated. But the basics of investing , they are quite simple. Obviously we talk about in this book through a great story , and I think , like anyone can understand the basics of saving for retirement investing , how financial markets , how stocks work. And I don't , I think , like you should not feel sheepish. You should just be like , this is something that's interesting that I can figure out and you're absolutely capable of.
S1: That was Planet Money's Alex Mae Yassi and Sarah Gonzalez. Speaking with KPBS Midday Edition producer and roundtable host Andrew Bracken about their new book , Planet Money A Guide to Economic Forces That Shape Your Life. That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
