Forum From the Archives: Are We in a New Gold Rush?

SPEAKER_2 (0:03)

Support for KQED podcasts comes from the San Francisco Marin Food Bank. The culinary event, One Big Table, on October 3rd, features celebrated Bay Area chefs, dancing and more, all to help end hunger.

Tickets at sfmfoodbank.org/onebigtable.

SPEAKER_1 (0:24)

Your credit card company is hoping you don't hear this. They're charging you 21% APR interest, making it hard to pay down your balance. A home equity loan from Rocket Mortgage could cut your interest rate by more than half. So you could wipe out your high interest credit card debt with the equity you've built in your home without touching your current mortgage rate. See how much you could save at rocketmortgage.com. Rocket Mortgage LLC, licensed in 50 states. In MLS consumer access.org number 3030, call 800-4-ROCKET for full program details.

SPEAKER_3 (0:54)

This episode is brought to you by ChatGPT.

Hey, it's Bill Simmons from the Bill Simmons Podcast. Have you guys heard about ChatGPT work? It's the new way to use ChatGPT for bigger multi-step projects. And when you need more than just answers, give ChatGPT work access to your apps and files. And it can create real work documents like spreadsheets, slides, and structured reports. Get started at chatgpt.com by selecting work mode available on Plus and Pro plans.

Alexis Madrigal (1:25)

Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. Gold is having a moment, writes New Yorker staff writer Jennifer Wilson. Earlier this year, it traded as high as $5,500 an ounce as an unstable economic outlook has central banks and investors buying gold to hedge their bets.

Gold's been embraced by the far right reality TV producers and Donald Trump, of course. But it's also that it's just gold.

Add it all up and we've now got hobbyists and full-time prospectors headed up to the foothills where the California gold rush began. Wilson explores all these angles in her latest piece, How Americans Caught Gold Fever Again, and she joins us this morning. Welcome, Jennifer.

Jennifer Wilson (2:09)

Thank you for having me.

Alexis Madrigal (2:10)

Oh my God.

Ed (2:12)

Set us up a little bit here.

Alexis Madrigal (2:14)

It's the price of gold, right? I mean, that's part of it. Gold used to be, was shocking when it was $2,000 an ounce. Now it's way more, I think around $4,500 an ounce. But it's also the cultural stuff.

Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson (2:26)

I mean, I think that there's just a longing for what the California gold rush represents in the American psyche. It was this time when, you know, anyone or so we think, anyone could go out to California and become rich. I mean, like the idea of the American dream really actually starts in 1848 when gold is discovered in California.

And people are, you know, these days, it's like people aren't struggling to get ahead, they're struggling to stay afloat. And so it makes sense to me that people would feel just a longing for that era.

Alexis Madrigal (3:02)

It's like the American dream, but a side hustle.

Jennifer Wilson (3:06)

Yes.

Alexis Madrigal (3:07)

Or reality TV show too.

Jennifer Wilson (3:09)

That's the other thing. Oh my God. Yeah. That's how I initially got into this piece is I found out about this show called Gold Rush, that was apparently like the top rated show for men on Friday nights. And that it had beaten the baseball playoffs one year. And I was like, I've never even heard of this. How is this possible?

And that's when I really learned about this entire world of gold fever, of amateur prospecting clubs, of pay dirt at the month clubs. And as you mentioned, influencers. I found this guy named Pioneer Pauly, and he's got these videos of himself like panning for Golden Creeks. He even has an ASMR video of his hand just caressing a pile of gold nuggets, and his videos have 300 million views.

Alexis Madrigal (3:52)

Oh, my gosh.

I mean, I was trying, you know, I am a man in the demographic for which Gold Rush is the number one show on Friday night. And I was trying to figure out, I was like, do I feel this in myself? Do I feel this desire for gold? And I have to say the answer is no. But it made me wonder how much is the political valence of this? And we're going to talk more about this later in the show. How much is this like, gold has become right coded or something because of Donald Trump and all the gilding of everything? Or maybe just because these shows present gold prospecting as like the ultimate blue collar job?

Jennifer Wilson (4:32)

Yeah, I mean, Trump's whole thing is, you too can have my riches if we just go back to this earlier time in America where men were men. I mean, so there's definitely a lot of that. I think that people are also feeling anxious and scared and gold feels like something real, something that you can touch.