Grief and work in the time of war

Make Me Smart November 17, 2023 Transcript

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Kai Ryssdal 

Hey everybody I’m Kai Ryssdal. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where we make the day make sense. It is thank the Lord Friday, Friday, Friday the 17th of November.

Kimberly Adams 

Yes, yes, it is. And I’m Kimberly Adams. Welcome everybody to Friday where we do our weekly happy hour economics on tap. Thanks everybody who is in the YouTube live stream the folks joining on the fan run Discord. And yeah, happy Friday to all.

Kai Ryssdal 

We will do what we usually do on a Friday. Well, this news we’ll take a break then we’ll play around with half full, half empty with I think Drew’s in today. I think I heard him down line. But before we get to it, what are you drinking Ms. Adams?

Kimberly Adams 

So I am drinking what we talked about this on Monday, you are not here but Wisconsin has named its official cocktail, the brandy old fashioned. So I made a brandy old fashion and we did a little poll in the YouTube chat prior to the show for folks who are on earliest whether I should garnish it sweet or savory. And it’s weird because it’s a sweet drinkish. But they wanted a savory garnish, which is apparently things that people do in Wisconsin. So I have an old fashioned garnished with olives.

Kai Ryssdal 

Wow. Wow. I couldn’t even think of what it’s in it.

Kimberly Adams 

This has Sprite in it.

Kai Ryssdal

Why?

Kimberly Adams 

Because that’s how they make it. They make it with brandy instead of whiskey.

Kai Ryssdal 

Oh, Wisconsin? The great state of Wisconsin?

Kimberly Adams 

The great state of Wisconsin. And you put Sprite in it, you put orange slices in it, and the maraschino cherries and bitters and, you know, salty things on top. So, here we go.

Kai Ryssdal 

Interesting. Interesting. I was just gonna say I am such a cocktail neophyte that I didn’t I couldn’t even process like savory garnishes, but anyway. Yeah, I’ve got things to do. And I have to be up late tonight. And I was up stupidly early this morning. So I’m having a cup of coffee. Just a quick perusal of the YouTube chat here. Patricia Long is having a Humble Sea non-alcoholic fog IPA. Alright, so Patricia Long I need you to hook me up with this Humble Sea non-alcoholic foggy IPA. Pretty good. Can you get them in California? And what is the finish taste like? I’ve talked about Athletic hazy IPAs here non-alcoholic versions and as I’ve said the the finished tastes to me like wet cardboard. So how is the finish on this one? That’s my question. Matthew Finco says in the chat, we do not do olives in an old fashioned sweet in Wisconsin. So I’m just saying,

Kimberly Adams 

Wait, so I did it wrong. I’m sorry. I tried.

Kai Ryssdal 

You did what the people wanted right. The people are with you, Kimberly but the great state of Wisconsin is not.

Kimberly Adams 

Well maybe there’s a different version of old fashion, of the Wisconsin old fashion to be done with the savory. I’m sorry, I did not mean to disrespect the Wisconsin old fashioned. I tried.

Kai Ryssdal 

Alright, so Patricia Long says lots of citra notes on this hazy IPA. The palate is pretty close to actual IPA. All right. Okay, I’ll take that. I will. I will take that. Cool. Now just call me back to remind myself what what it was anyway, shall we? Should we get on with things here?

Kimberly Adams 

Yeah, let me go with a couple of mine first, because on the heavy side, and then I want to switch to my happier one totally. So the first one is this piece and Al Jazeera. The headline is, “If Gaza was were in your city, how much of it would be destroyed?” And you know, you can’t ignore the scenes of, you know, absolute devastation out of Gaza as a ongoing war continues. And you know, you’re talking about a relatively small area with 2.3 million people packed into it. And according to this Al Jazeera piece, Israel’s dropped more than 25,000 tons of explosives on the Gaza Strip, which is just 141 square miles in size. That’s the equivalent of two nuclear bombs landing on an area that a quarter the size of London. As of November 10, half of Gaza’s homes 222,000 residential units have been damaged with more than 40,000 completely destroyed. The reason this piece is interesting is because they then go on to project, the layout of Gaza onto different cities around the country around the world, sorry. So and then map over it where the destruction is so that you can see what it would look like in your city. And well, if you live in one of these big cities, and if you go down, they have Los Angeles, they have New York, they have Miami as well, just for context, because I think it’s when you think about war, it’s so often hard to conceptualize the spaces that we’re talking about. And especially when it comes to Gaza, just how small of an area we’re talking about when people are supposed to flee from one area to another, and you know, can’t. And so there’s not much to say, you know, in our lane about this, but I thought this was a really interesting visual, and with the idea that context and being able to sort of see things in a different way is useful to people, I wanted to highlight that. Now what is in our lane is an article that one of our colleagues, I forget who posted in our Slack channel, earlier this week, about what it’s like to be working when, in the midst of all of this, if you are a Palestinian, those who were listening when Reema was hosting. I guess it was like two weeks ago and how challenging it has been for her. And she shared that she’s lost some family members in Gaza, and since then has lost even more, who’ve been killed in the bombings. And The Guardian has a piece about just how challenging it is for people working to work through this. Right. And I have to admit, I imagine you know, a lot of and I don’t have to imagine I’ve spoken to some of our Jewish colleagues who are also really struggling. But I thought that this was an important piece and just a reminder to be kind and gentle with your colleagues, regardless of where they land on this. As this this awfulness just continues. So those were the two darker ones wanted to share.

Kai Ryssdal 

Yeah, so so let’s keep going with your with your lighter one because you know, mine is mine just stupid.

Kimberly Adams 

Okay, lighter one to Portugal, where I saw this story in Canary Media, which is clean energy journalism for a cooler tomorrow. And they said for nearly a week, a country of 10 million met customer needs with wind, hydro and solar, a test run for operating the grid without fossil fuels. Portugal just ran the entire country on one 100% renewable energy for six days in a row, which shows that yes, that’s a smaller scale, but it can be done with intention and effort and organization. And Portugal did it. It started it’s decar-, I’m reading here. It started its decarbonization journey with some legacy hydropower, but no nuclear capacity or plans to build any. That meant it had to figure out how to cut fossil fuel use just by maximizing new renewables. It committed to building renewables early and often pledging a 2050 deadline for net zero carbon emissions in 2016, several years before the European Union as a whole found the conviction to take that step. Portugal’s last coal plants shut down and 2022 leaving imported fossil gas as the backstop for on demand power. But they did it and so go Portugal.

Kai Ryssdal 

Yeah, that’s cool. That’s cool. I don’t know anything about the politics of Portugal. But one wonders what the political dysfunction level is there that let all this happen that has let them build the infrastructure and all of that stuff you need to get that done. You know what I mean?

Kimberly Adams

Yeah, yeah. All right. Well you got?

Kai Ryssdal 

Well my mine’s just a stupid goofy thing about about Sam Altman being fired from OpenAI. So it’s not really I mean, it was it was it was a lighter item, just because all the other news honestly is it’s just terrible, right? There’s Elon Musk and anti-semitism on Twitter. There’s obviously the global anti-semitic rise, I just can’t. So anyway, we’ll just we’ll just go on. How about that? Should we just go on, let’s just go on. We’re gonna take a break, lighten the mood a little bit, half full half empty when we come back after we pay some bills.

Kimberly Adams 

Okay, now it is time to play our wonderful game half full, half empty, which is hosted by the oh so wonderful our very own, Drew Jostad. Take it away.

Drew Jostad 

All right, coming up into next year’s election season, Netflix and Prime Video have said they will not air political ads, HBO and Paramount among those who will. Are you half full or half empty on political ads on streaming?

Kai Ryssdal

This one’s yours.

Kimberly Adams 

Well, I am going to go half empty on political ads on streaming. However, I do want to shout out the story. Because the story was done by our very own DC intern Maya Hoff. Maya Marshall Hoff, who’s been working on this for most of the time that she’s been with Marketplace in DC. And I mean, she has been on the streaming companies for months trying to get them on the record about whether or not they were going to allow political ads on streaming. And so many of them were cagey and dodgy about it. So good on her for her work on this, but I’m half empty to on the actual thing happening.

Kai Ryssdal 

On the same you know, what I saw this week that kind of stunned me that Meta is going to allow political ads that say that the 2020 election was fraudulent. You can’t impugn the character of future elections, but you can say the prior election was fraudulent, which just blows my mind. Absolutely blows my mind.

Kimberly Adams 

Okay, I’m switching to all the way empty.

Kai Ryssdal 

All the way empty. Yeah, that’s fair. That’s fair. Totally lighter note, Chuck Kleinktecht wants to know where Jasper is.

Kimberly Adams 

Downstairs, I would call for him, but he’s deaf. But there’s nothing I can do. He will come if he chooses. What’s next?

Drew Jostad 

Next, with Bumble stock price in trouble, they’ve replaced their CEO. Are you half full or half empty on dating apps losing their spark?

Kai Ryssdal 

Also, also, you first Kimberly Adams.

Kimberly Adams 

Mmm hmm. I’m really torn on this one. I think they are a necessary evil in the world of dating these days. However, my experiences have been mixed, to put it mildly. And I am not on Bumble. I haven’t been in a while. DC Bumble is interesting to put it mildly. But uh, I have heard pretty consistently from most of my single friends, women friends in particular, not so much the men, that they’re kind of over the dating apps. And you know, Kristen Schwab has done a lot of reporting on this and, you know, people are legit hiring matchmakers and stuff and dating coaches and shelling out for it, but it’s rough out here, man.

Kai Ryssdal 

Yeah, I whatever Kimberly said I’m gonna go with because I haven’t been on the dating market in a very very very long time.

Kimberly Adams

Count yourself lucky.

Kai Ryssdal

Oh, I know. I do. I can’t imagine what it’s like out there. Now. Truly, I can. Although I suppose every generation says that. Just super quick to correct myself. Chuck Kleinknecht, the middle middle K in Chuck Kleinknecht is silent. Okay, so Chuck, I apologize. I bet every generation says it’s tough out there. I bet they do. I bet they do.

Kimberly Adams 

Yeah, I guess I’ll just do with it and like read Pride and Prejudice.

Kai Ryssdal 

It’s universally acknowledged. Anyway, Drew what do you got?

Drew Jostad 

This week, Martha Stewart announced she’s canceling her Thanksgiving dinner. Are you half full or half empty on just skipping it?

Kai Ryssdal 

Wow, this is so interesting. Well, I got a slack from Bridget like on Tuesday Wednesday, which out of nowhere said hey look, Martha Stewart and I have the same Thanksgivings plans, Thanksgiving plans. And what you have to know about Bridget Bodnar is that she is a Martha Stewart devote, shall we say.

Kimberly Adams

Oh is she?

Kai Ryssdal

Oh, my lordy be are you kidding me? Yes. That and the Golden Girls, but um, but I’m, perhaps sharing too much. Anyway, so Bridget? Are you canceling your Thanksgiving plans? Somebody hit me up in the Slack? Holy cow. I can’t even believe this. Anyway, so. So look, all my kids are gonna be home. My mom’s gonna be here. So we’re gonna have full house. So that’ll be nice. And if Thanksgiving is what it takes to make that happen, then I say let’s have some Thanksgiving plans. But you know, to each his own as it were.

Kimberly Adams 

You know, I have such mixed thoughts on Thanksgiving, I really appreciate the idea of like gathering family together and acknowledging what you’re grateful for and being thankful and friends and loved ones and all that jazz. The origins of it problematic, like the origins of so many things in this country, deeply problematic. So there’s that. But in terms of Martha Stewart canceling her Thanksgiving plans, you know what I’m gonna say half full, because I as somebody who does entertain, and I know how overwhelming it can be. I fully respect somebody saying, you know what, not this year. I’m just going to sit this one out every so often. Yeah, so half full.

Kai Ryssdal 

There we go. Alright, what else do we got?

Drew Jostad 

This next next story comes from The New York Times about how it’s healthier for the soil and pollinators to just let the leaves decompose. Are you half full or half empty on unranked leaves?

Kai Ryssdal 

I had not seen this story, but 12 year old me who was out there raking all these leaves on our property with my dad and my little brother when I was a kid, man. Yes, let’s let them stay. Let them stay.

Kimberly Adams 

I’m hopeful this brings back childhood memories of our family home growing up, because I guess the soil in the backyard was like 100% clay. And so for all of my childhood, my parents would just let the leaves stay at the end of the season. And eventually when I was like 10, I was able to have a vegetable garden in the backyard. And so that’s when I first started gardening when I was like 10. And I was able to do that because the soil had started to recover.

Kai Ryssdal 

That’s great. Very cool.

Drew Jostad 

Let’s fire up the pole.

Kimberly Adams 

All right, folks in the YouTube chat, you will be able to weigh in and you know, while you’re there, if you want to hit the like button, we wouldn’t be mad at it.

Drew Jostad 

All right. new survey from Instacart and the Harris poll shows that among the least favorite Thanksgiving sides, candied yams is the worst. Are you half full or half empty on candied yams?

Kai Ryssdal 

Wait, wait. I don’t know if you have the list of available but I wanna hear the rest of the options.

Kimberly Adams 

Yeah I wanna know the rest of the options.

Drew Jostad 

Oh, I don’t know the whole list but the top three least favorite. The top three favorite were candied yams, green bean casserole, and cranberry sauce.

Kai Ryssdal 

How can you okay, how are peas not on that list? How are peas, the worst vegetable known to humankind, how are they not on the list? That’s all I’m saying. For reals, peas are terrible.

Kimberly Adams 

Trying to find this thing. So I read a think piece way back in the day about casseroles in particular. And I think it’s useful to acknowledge here that casseroles in general seem to be and I’m sure I will be added and possibly canceled for this. But they seem to be a lot less common at Black family gatherings and they are at white family gatherings. Don’t know why it’s casseroles are just like seemingly one of these culturally different things. But so except for green bean casserole, which seems to be the outlier. And so because I do remember my sister ones bringing a green bean casserole to Thanksgiving dinner and everyone was like what’s wrong with you? What a casserole really? And so, you know their casseroles do show up occasionally. Alright, I think I found this poll. All right here are the options. Candied yams were 27%, that’s what won. Green bean casserole 25%. Cranberry sauce 24%. Sweet potato casserole 21%. Stuffing 12%. Salad 12%. Mashed potatoes 8%. Dinner roll 7% which I guess everybody likes a dinner roll and that’s a, you know, ranking of sort of the most hated. But you know if you think about this just like a third not even a third of people hate the candied yams. I mean, this is a pretty evenly ish distributed list. It’s not like tons of people hate the candied yams.

Kai Ryssdal 

Alright, so the poll, we’re gonna close that poll Kimberly what do you say?

Kimberly Adams 

Half empty, I actually can deal with like candied yams, but they’re so sweet. I can usually only have like one or two.

Kai Ryssdal 

Yeah, so I’m okay with candied yam, so I’m half empty on them being being the least popular. I will say though, why bother with dinner rolls Thanksgiving. There’s so much other stuff. You know?

Kimberly Adams 

Yeah like there’s stuffing.

Kai Ryssdal 

I know. And potatoes. It’s not like you need starches and carbs and all that jazz. Anyway, poll is in. Yeah, candied yams most hated Thanksgiving side dish, false say 59%. I guess that means half empty. And half full on hating candied yams are 40% of the 189 people who voted. So there you go. Oh, yeah. Oh, sorry. Wait. So so sorry. Somebody with the username toxic. They really just hate the marshmallow version of yams. You cannot. Yeah. Don’t do that. Don’t do that.

Kimberly Adams 

No, no, no. Don’t do that. If you put that on there, then. Yeah, absolutely negative. I won’t eat it. Don’t do that. No, you don’t need it. It’s already sweet enough. Why would you do that? Okay, so thank you for that clarification. That was important. That was important. You know, several people are commenting about the dinner rolls here saying they’re being used to stop up the gravy fair. But you can also do that without stuffing. And the dinner rolls are later. You save the dinner rolls to make your sandwiches later with your leftovers.

Kai Ryssdal 

Oh, well, that’s fair. But I mean, yeah, I get that. But I mean, okay, fine, but that implies you don’t actually eat them at the meal. So why have them at the meal? I’m just saying. I mean, I hear I hear you. I hear you on the on the sandwiches later. Totally. I do.

Kimberly Adams 

Are you doing Thanksgiving at your house this year? Like are you having dinner dinner?

Kai Ryssdal 

We are having dinner dinner and I think it’s like a dozen people. I think

Kimberly Adams 

Do you call it dinner or supper and what time do you eat?

Kai Ryssdal 

Dinner. Well, my mother in law’s coming so we’re gonna fight back against her. What do you mean we’re not eating at 2:30 in the afternoon? And we’re gonna have a reasonable hour of you know, like 6:30 at night. Are you kidding me? Come on. Oh and it’s dinner I don’t know about the whole supper thing.

Kimberly Adams 

It’s funny like to see the distribution of what time people eat dinner. It says like so much about family dynamics often what time people have Thanksgiving dinner.

Kai Ryssdal 

Totally. Totally. Totally. Totally.

Kimberly Adams 

All right. Well, that is it for today. Thank you so much everybody who joined us in the YouTube live stream and chatting and on Discord and everything like that. We are going to be back on Monday. And in the meantime, if you have a question, or comment or some audio you want to share or we’re still looking for your state specific cocktails, which you hopefully won’t mess up as badly as I did this brandy old fashion of Wisconsin. You can send that to us. Our voicemail is 508-U-B-SMART you can also email us makemesmart@marketplace.org.

Kai Ryssdal 

Make Me Smart is produced by Courtney Bergsieker. Today’s episode was engineered by Charlton Thorp. Our intern is Niloufar Shahbandi.

Kimberly Adams 

The team behind our Friday game is Emily Macune and Antoinette Brock. Marissa Cabrera is our senior producer. Bridget Bodnar is the director of podcasts and apparently lover of Martha Stewart and Francesca Levy is the executive director of Digital and on demand.

Kai Ryssdal 

And you know how I know she’s not listening today because there are no Slacks. KAI. Oh wait Bridget’s there! She’s only making a pie. In-laws are hosting. Well there we go that settles it. Bridget was lurking today.

Kimberly Adams

Lurking.