India has banned nearly half of its rice exports. The news has sent many Americans scrambling to stock up. We’ll explain what the ban means for global food prices. Plus, what should come first, new electric vehicle charging stations or new power lines? And, the hosts weigh in on UFOs during a round of Half Full / Half Empty.
Here’s everything we talked about today:
- “Sen. Duckworth’s Barbie moment” from Politico
- “India’s ban on certain rice exports sends some U.S. consumers scrambling to find it on store shelves” from Marketplace
- “From Rice Ban to War and Heat, Food Inflation Risks Are Back” from Bloomberg
- “Biden Administration Poses Strict Targets for Vehicle Fuel Economy” from The Wall Street Journal
- “The advantages —and drawbacks — of decentralized social networks” from Marketplace
- “NASA Plus is the latest streaming competitor” from The Verge
- “U.S. recovered non-human ‘biologics’ from UFO crash sites, former intel official says” from NPR
- “Could electric planes tempt Americans to fly short distances instead of driving?” from Marketplace
We want to hear your answer to the Make Me Smart question. Leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART and you might be featured in a future episode.
Make Me Smart July 28, 2023 Transcript
Note: Marketplace podcasts are meant to be heard, with emphasis, tone and audio elements a transcript can’t capture. Transcripts are generated using a combination of automated software and human transcribers, and may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting it.
Kai Ryssdal
Alright, well now I know what I look like. Let’s get this show on the road because the sooner we start the sooner I can get out of this shed!
Kimberly Adas
Ooh it’s warm starts.
Kai Ryssdal
Who starts? You start? I start?
Kimberly Adams
You do, you start.
Kai Ryssdal
Alright, I start. Hi everybody, I’m Kai Ryssdal. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where we make the day make sense when we finally get on the air. It is Friday today the 28th day of July.
Kimberly Adams
It is a toasty 28th day of July, you’re gonna be seeing me pat my face this whole time. It’s hot. Thank you everyone for joining us for economics on tap our weekly happy hour. The YouTube live stream is up and running. So thank you to everybody who’s joining us there. All the folks in the fan run Discord, we appreciate you. So today we’ve got news, we’ve got games ,but of course first we have drinks and today our non-alcoholic drinks. Kai What are you drinking?
Kai Ryssdal
Agua. Agua, not necessarily frio but you know just agua in my glass, but you know I got things to do and also I need to hydrate and as much as I would like to have a beer I can’t believe I’m saying this it’s almost too hot to have a beer what I really should be doing is having a bourbon and ginger ale but I can’t because I had too many of those last weekend number one and number two as I said I have things to do.
Kimberly Adams
Is there such a thing as too many bourbons and ginger? Yes, there is.
Kai Ryssdal
Let me tell you, there was last Friday afternoon in Harbor Springs Michigan. Let me just tell you let me just tell you that.
Kimberly Adams
You know, last last weekend seems to be have been a bit of an overindulgence for for both of us because I was reaffirmed in my belief that gin is the devil and it will probably still be another several years before I attempt that again. But I am having a mocktail. It’s this watermelon jalapeno, I think it’s called tepache, it was something it’s like a fermented drink. I believe from Mexico that I have this like zero waste delivery service and they looked interesting. So it’s tasty and I added some non-alcoholic tequila with it. And I was gonna put a jalapeno as the garnish but it’s already pretty spicy. So instead I’ve got this pink amaranth growing in my garden and it felt very like watermelon. So you know it’s got like the little pink stems and stuff.
Kai Ryssdal
What’s an amaranth?
Kimberly Adams
It’s like a type of green vegetable. I think you can like you can cook it like spinach or have it and salad or things and it’s just very colorful. And I’m gonna smoke it. I’m gonna smoke it because why not? Why not smoke it, but while I’m while I’m making fire, do you want to look at what everybody else is drinking?
Kai Ryssdal
Sure. I’ll do a quick spin through the YouTube chat here. “Please stop the echo first of all,” Daniel Romae says so we’re having some problems there. Megan O’Hare is having a Thai basil watermelon mule. “Upside Dawn from Athletic Brewing has a good non-alcoholic beer.” That’s true Nick Monteleone. I’ve, I’ve tried some alcoholic beers, here’s the problem.
Kimberly Adams
I have some here in my house.
Kai Ryssdal
Non-alcoholic beer for me, like, like on the on the front end. when it first hits your tongue, it’s tasty. And then on the back end, it’s like wet cardboard. And that kind of just literally, it’s like a texture thing for me. It’s very bizarre. So how goes the smoking?
Kimberly Adams
Let’s see. Let me get my video back up. So I can see it there. The smoke is smoking. It’s in there. All right. You know? I mean, I haven’t smoked anything with ice yet. So I don’t know what if that’s messing it up. But it’s too hot to not have ice. So I’m gonna leave that for a minute. And then let’s, let’s get to some news in the meantime. Why don’t you go first?
Kai Ryssdal
Alright, let’s see. So there was a thing from The Journal today, it was of course everywhere, but the journal is the one that I saw. New fuel guidance coming from the Biden administration, their new rules would mandate 58 miles to the gallon by 2032. And here’s why I bring it up. But you know, I had an item earlier this week about EV chargers and a consortium of seven big companies that are gonna spend a billion dollars in the aggregate to build new supercharging stations. But now here’s this from NITSA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, on Friday proposed new fuel economy standards for model years 2027 to 2032. Regulating how far vehicles in the US must travel on a gallon of gas, 58 miles to the gallon for light duty cars and trucks by 2032. That is, of course, an average current average is now, by the way is 49 miles a gallon, now required in model 2026. And here’s why I bring this up. In order to make that, EV the carmakers, are going to have to sell more EVs, right? Because you get to aggregate a fleet and then average it out. Right. And so it’s the Biden administration. First of all, as I’ve said on Marketplace many a time, getting the government more involved in the economy, it’s not new, right fuel standards, but this is the Biden administration cranking it up. And it is another step toward getting us not to burn fossil fuels, which this summer has proved to the entire planet, that we’re killing ourselves. So I think that’s that’s a good deal. That’s a good deal.
Kimberly Adams
Yeah. It’s it’s interesting. There still are a lot of people who do not believe that this climate change is being caused by humans and debates. Astonishing. Yeah, well, boy. Okay.
Kai Ryssdal
Let me let me, let me, let me duck into the YouTube chat for one sec. Yes. So Nick Monteleone, pointed out that he just moved to Frogtown here in Los Angeles. And there’s a sandwich or place here called Wax Pper deli, which has a sandwich named after me, it’s the Kai Ryssdal. Here’s the beautiful part of that, because I don’t know who’s running our chat. But somebody responded, “Many of us in Marketplace, love that sandwich and Wax Paper, I can’t speak for Kai,” the funny part about that Wax Paper sandwich. It’s a tuna salad sandwich. Supposed to be really good. I really hate tuna salad. That’s it. I just want to get that out there. Just really want to get that out.
Kimberly Adams
That’s like somebody naming a gin cocktail after me just out of spite.
Kai Ryssdal
Totally. That’s right. All right. Sorry, one more, and then I’ll let you get to it. Charles doll says in the in the chat and this is a really good point. “Chargers without transmission lines are not going to work well. I’m in the utility surveying business and takes about 20 years to get a transmission line built.” I hear you, Charles, I hear you but we’ve got to start someplace. Gotta start someplace.
Kimberly Adams
Although I when I was I remember when I was doing those stories about sort of the shortage of electricians and how like we need to electrify America. But there aren’t enough electricians. This point kept coming up over and over again. They’re like congratulations electrify America, but if the grid doesn’t have, can’t handle it, right, and we don’t have the infrastructure for it, you can build as many chargers as you want. But you’re just going to end up with rolling brownouts and blackouts. And so you need you do need the transmission lines and the renewable energy in order to make the electrification work.
Kai Ryssdal
Totally true. Totally true.
Kimberly Adams
So like you can’t not have one without the other apparently, although it seems like we’re trying so we’ll see how that goes. Okay, I’ve got two. So the first one is supply chains, also slightly related to climate change, also slightly related to war. I missed this earlier in the week. But India has basically put an export ban on rice, right. Let me get the exact language right. This is from Bloomberg “top exporter India banned a hefty chunk of its rice exports last week, sending prices in Asia to the highest level in more than three years. It’s expected that costs are set to surge even further, India’s latest move plus an earlier curve on broken rice affects 30 to 40% of the nation’s total shipments and restrictions could widen to other categories in the event of uneven rainfall and rising domestic inflation.” India is the world’s biggest rice exporter, like half of the world relies on rice as a staple for many of their meals. Yeah, and so this is a pretty big deal in terms of the global food supply layered on top of all of the drama going on in Ukraine with Russia backing out of the grain deal, and now bombing ports in Ukraine to stop the shipment of grain. Russia was meeting with a bunch of African leaders in Russia this week, basically promising them free grain to try to you know, put some pressure on them to back them in, in their war, but global grain commodities. It’s a mess right now. And just as we’re you know, we were all over the show today talking about how inflation is starting to ease up because some of these supply chain issues have been easing up. But food prices globally if those continue to get hammered by climate change because it’s basically a bad harvest in India and crop failures that are making them restrict some of their rice exports. That, I’m reading from Bloomberg “scorching temperatures are rabid, ravaging farms in the US to China and crop harvest, fruit production and dairy output are all coming under pressure. In North America, extreme heat is baking wheat crops and undermining yields. On top of that is the recent arrival arrival of El Nino that may cause further damage to agriculture.” So some Indonesian rice farmers are planting corn and other crops that require less water. But global foods supplies are at risk for a bunch of reasons right now. And that’s likely to continue to show up in inflation as we try to claw our way out of this. So that and I can’t believe I missed that earlier in the week. That’s a big one. But yeah, India, rice exports. My other story is, is it’s a bummer. And it’s not that the other one wasn’t a bummer. But this is a different kind of bummer. Why not ruin everybody’s day on a Friday? There’s one of the Politico newsletters this morning was the story about Senator Tammy Duckworth and apparently, in the Duckworth household, Barbie is a thing and they were all super excited to see the Barbie movie with so she was going she said this is a quote from Duckworth. ““I have a 5-year-old and 8-year-old. We have three Barbie Dream houses, including one I set up — all 900 pieces. So we were super excited for the movie,” and this is from the Politico piece. “As she does wherever she goes, Duckworth checked to make sure the theater was wheelchair accessible. It was. But when they arrived, after buying their tickets, Duckworth learned the elevator to the theater was broken. There was no way for her to get to the show. Duckworth, a former Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot who lost her legs in combat, was frustrated that there had been no signage explaining the problem — and that little support was offered from theater staff about the situation. Duckworth sent her daughters and friends up to the show while she waited outside for them to return.” That’s, that is awful. And it’s such it’s so emblematic of the you know, the encounters that so many people with disabilities encounter all the time where the rules are in place, you know, the Americans with Disabilities Act requires access, and people will you know, have it performatively but not maintain it or not actually make it easy, or make people feel badly if they force somebody to enforce it. And then you end up with situations like this and that was devastating and shame on them to be honest. So that was that.
Kai Ryssdal
Absolutely. Nothing to add.
Kimberly Adams
Yeah. All right now we really got to cheer things up. That’s it for the news. We are going to take a quick break so we could all go cry in the corner, I guess. But when we come back, it will be uplifting and fun. Because Drew Jostad is gonna is going to join us for round of half full half empty, and so we’re gonna be right back.
Kai Ryssdal
Alright half full half empty is the game, Drew is in charge.
Kimberly Adams
You know the smoking of this worked out really well.
Kai Ryssdal
There you go. Take a sip. So Drew gives us topics, we let you know where we stand. Drew let’s go
Drew Jostad
Are you half full or half empty on decentralized social media networks?
Kai Ryssdal
Hmm so I think that was a story on Tech this morning.
Kimberly Adams
So decentralized social media being the Mastodons of the world, of, you know, basically alternatives to the Facebook’s and the Twitter’s so rather than being controlled by one big company controlled by lots of different people in lots of different places. I’ve been on Mastodon for a while now. It’s fine. And I’m in favor. I’m half full on decentralized social networks. I’m half empty on these networks replacing what they want to replace. I don’t think they’re going to be another Twitter or be another Facebook or all these other things. I think they’re going to be something different. And I don’t know what that different is yet, but they’re cool for now.
Kai Ryssdal
Right. Right. That’s exactly right. Exactly what Kimberly said, I don’t think they’re gonna replace what they’re trying to replace. And maybe nothing will and we’ll have to figure out something else. Because tough being replaced. Yeah. All right, Drew. Number two.
Drew Jostad
Okay. Are you half full or half empty on fully electric regional flights?
Kai Ryssdal
Oh, so Stephanie Hughes did this one for us yesterday. There’s a new airline that went public yesterday did not do so well, actually, in its direct IPO, which is a whole different kind of conversation. But turns out most of the trips from 50 to 500 miles in this country happened by car. In Europe, I imagine they happen by plane. But this company is starting up. It’s called Surf Air Mobility. And they want to use battery powered planes to do a lot of these short regional hops. And if you get cars off the road, and is arguably faster and can be demonstrated to be safe. Yes. I’m all in favor. Totally full. Totally full.
Kimberly Adams
Yeah, I’m gonna go all the way full on that one. Because, you know, as we said earlier, we need all the help we can get so full.
Kai Ryssdal
That it’s very crunchy that thing you’re eating.
Kimberly Adams
Oh sorry, I didn’t realize that was gonna.
Kai Ryssdal
It’s all good, it’s all good.
Kimberly Adams
It’s like chewing with my mouth open sorry.
Drew Jostad
Is it the amaranth?
Kimberly Adams
Yes, it is. It is the Amaranth. Yeah, so pretty. Look at the color. Can you see how pink it is?
Kai Ryssdal
Yeah, no, you’re totally good. Totally good. Okay,
Drew Jostad
Cool. Okay, are you half full or half empty on a NASA streaming service for launch coverage and space documentaries?
Kai Ryssdal
Well of course I’m full
Kimberly Adams
Did you see that today?
Kai Ryssdal
I did not actually, I missed it. What’s the story?
Kimberly Adams
So basically, NASA is launching its own streaming service with extra, how did they put it? “Non sci-fi space content.” And it’s, I posted a story about it in our in our Slack channel about and The Verge wrote it up. And it just looks cool. And it’s free and supposed to be family friendly. So I given that streaming services are becoming more expensive and the whole password thing like yes, give the people all the space for free. Yes.
Kai Ryssdal
Totally. Absolutely.
Drew Jostad
All right. This is the last one.
Kimberly Adams
Sorry, Sarah Schlosser says like C-SPAN. Lol, yes like C-SPAN for space. Oh, okay. All right, last one. So this means that everybody in the YouTube chat gets to play along so everybody get ready to vote. And we are going to vamp and not answer right away because this gives me more time to have my mocktail. So go for it Drew.
Drew Jostad
Okay, there was a congressional hearing on Wednesday into unidentified anomalous phenomena.
Kai Ryssdal
Yep, yep.
Kimberly Adams
Unidentified aerial phenomenon.
Drew Jostad
Right. Okay. I guess the question is, are you half full or half empty on aliens?
Kai Ryssdal
Okay. I have thought.
Kimberly Adams
Hmmm can you share your thoughts without tipping your hat?
Kai Ryssdal
Oh, god. Yeah, forgot this was a poll. Yes, I have one thought that I will share without tipping my hat. Or hat. Does one tip one’s hand or hat? I don’t know. Anyway, so…
Kimberly Adams
I mean, you’re not wearing this so.
Kai Ryssdal
Okay, fair. This whole UAP thing, unidentified aerial phenomena. I refuse to use that. I think it’s just bogus cliché, horse poop. They’re UFOs, they’re unidentified and they’re flying and they’re objects. And can we just please not for the sake of I don’t know stupidity, pick a new acronym just because. Also, hey, all you kids get off my lawn.
Kimberly Adams
So I actually think there’s a reason a reasonable explanation for UFOs, for calling them unidentified aerial phenomenon because phenomena. Oh my gosh, every time I say that, I think that LL Cool J song like, I can’t get out of my head. But anyway.
Kai Ryssdal
Well, you know, when you don’t think of that? You know, when you don’t think that is when you call them UFOs.
Kimberly Adams
Fair, but the, you know, in the various reports about this. They’ve also said that sometimes what people think are UFOs are like tricks of light or gases and light reflecting off of different things in the atmosphere, creating visual disturbances right now assuming they’re not lying and trying to you know, hide the real aliens. That is a phenomena in the air aerial phenomena, that’s not a flying object.
Kai Ryssdal
I think that’s a mighty thin read, but okay. And you.
Kimberly Adams
Alright, we’re gonna wait. Maxwell in the chat is like “Aliens get off my lawn.”
Kai Ryssdal
That’s right. There you go. Oh my goodness. Bogus cliche horse poop. Yeah, that’s gonna be my new my new podcast name. Alright. Alright, so let’s call it, let’s figure out how to close this poll because I could never figure out how to do that or somebody is gonna have to Slack me.
Kimberly Adams
I suppose. It just takes a while, be patient
Kai Ryssdal
I know. I know. I know. Man, I’m hungry. Can you hear my stomach burbling?
Kimberly Adams
Oh, wait. Sorry. Before we do this, Ramplo says the acronym was changed in December to anomalous. So maybe Drew, you were right. And I was wrong because it used to be unidentified aerial phenomenon. But now, if it is anomalous then that’s new.
Drew Jostad
The article said it accounts for any phenomena that are maybe in the ocean as well as in the air. I don’t know.
Kimberly Adams.
Ah, you could have told me. I would have accepted it.
Drew Jostad
No, I think it goes both ways. I don’t I didn’t want to argue with you about it.
Kimberly Adams
Sure. All right. Poll results. Yeah, aliens half full 61%, half empty 38%. With a total of 136 votes. Kai, are you have full or half empty on Aliens?
Kai Ryssdal
I’m half empty, but not to not to pile on to our YouTube commenting audience here. But we had 136 votes with 268 people on this chat. What do you people do? Anyway, so here’s, here’s my thought it I absolutely believe that the American government has had contact of some form, whether it’s visual or instrumental, or other data with unexplained aerial phenomena, okay. They might be aliens, we don’t know what they are. I firmly believe also that we are not alone in this universe. The math just doesn’t work out that way. Right. There’s too much universe and too few us, for us to be alone. I will say, however, that the news from this week about that congressional hearing in which this this guy, and I don’t remember whether he’s a former military or an investigator, or what he is said, he knows personally of non-human biologics that have been recovered. I do kind of doubt that.
Drew Jostad
Former Air Force Intelligence.
Kai Ryssdal
Former Air Force Intelligence guy, well, there you go.
Kimberly Adams
Wonder why he’s former. I also think that the math especially after our Tuesday show, is just not totally possible, that we are the only life forms in all of that. And what do they say in the movie? It would be a waste of space.
Kai Ryssdal
Right, right. Right. Right. Right. Exactly. Yeah.
Kimberly Adams
But, was that “Contact?” The movie where they said that?
Kai Ryssdal
I can’t remember, maybe I have to watch that movie.
Kimberly Adams
Somebody will tell us. But I think that yes, there are other life forms out there for sure. I would not be at all surprised if they’ve pinged us in some way. Whether we recognized it or not. I can also fully imagine like, because I’m all into my sci-fi stuff, an advanced, a more advanced entity or civilization than us. Seeing Earth, having a look around and being like, “absolutely not keep it moving. Let them let them do what they’re doing. Leave them off. We don’t need this.” This is not going to contribute helpfully to the universe. I mean so hard pass, that would suck. But yeah, that’s where I am. And everyone says yes, it’s from “Contact.” It’s a Jodie Foster quote, so. And, yes. All right. That is, that’s what we have. That’s it. Thank you everybody for playing.
Kai Ryssdal
Except for the except for the 130 of you didn’t play along. Hello. Sorry. Alright, we’re done. Yeah, Bridget is gonna yell at me or Marissa is gonna yell at me next week. In the meantime, if you haven’t answered the Make Me Smart question, please do. What your what is something you thought you knew, but later found out you were wrong about? You do the voicemail thing at 508-U-B-SMART and you know, maybe we’ll put you on the pod.
Kimberly Adams
Maybe.
Kai Ryssdal
Jayk, there we go. Jayk was leaving us hanging man. Bailey Moore says it’s a Carl Sagan quote.
Kimberly Adams
Oh, no. Oh, okay, anyway, I’ll let y’all fight that out. Make Me Smart is produced by Courtney Bergsieker. Today’s episode was engineered by Jayke Cherry. Our intern is Niloufar Shahbandi. Drew Jostad wrote the music for our game show Half Full, Half Empty.
Kai Ryssdal
The team behind half full half empty is Emily Macune and Antoinette Brock. Marissa Cabrera is our senior producer. Bridget Bodnar is the director of podcasts. And Francesca Levy is the executive director of Digital and on demand at Marketplace, global headquarters. And it’s various branches. But she’s not actually at headquarters.
Kimberly Adams
Yeah, is anybody even there anymore?
Kai Ryssdal
No, there’s like four people there.
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