Planet Money Turned Everyday Annoyances Into an Economics Book

Mary Childs (0:02)

Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio, News.

Tracy Alloway (0:18)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:22)

And I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:23)

Joe, you and I have talked about doing a book at various times.

Joe Weisenthal (0:26)

Yeah, I talked about it.

Tracy Alloway (0:28)

That's pretty much it. We talk about it, and then we get a few e-mails from like agents and publishing houses.

Joe Weisenthal (0:34)

There's so much work.

Tracy Alloway (0:35)

And then we get distracted.

Joe Weisenthal (0:36)

And then we get distracted. But you know, the one thing I was thinking about is maybe that idea for a recipe book.

Tracy Alloway (0:43)

Oh, I would totally do that.

Joe Weisenthal (0:43)

That may be one that we should consider at some point.

Tracy Alloway (0:46)

A cookbook slash supply chain.

Joe Weisenthal (0:48)

Yeah, about the food and each one and the business of it.

Tracy Alloway (0:51)

I would totally do that. I have some good recipes, too. All right, so we are actually going to get our acts together.

Okay, well, our guests today are people who have actually gotten their act together to publish a book while running a highly successful podcast. It is, of course.

Joe Weisenthal (1:06)

So we're going to learn what to do. We're going to take notes during this episode.

Tracy Alloway (1:10)

Actually, someone who's written two books now, so I don't really know how she does it. But the through line in all of this is, I'm just going to say it, we're going to be talking to one of the Planet Money co-hosts and then a longtime contributor to Planet Money. They've written this new book called Planet Money, A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life.

One of the through lines that I think we share between Odd Lots and Planet Money, is this idea that there are all these hidden economic forces that basically dictate the way we live.

Joe Weisenthal (1:39)

Totally. I mean, there's been especially the less, I mean, it's always the case, right? But especially in the last several years, which is just the sort of the invisible becoming the visible. We see how they shape their life, but there are all these things that we take for granted, etc. And now, they're in our face, and we're only scratching the surface of what we know about them. Right.

Tracy Alloway (2:00)

We all became supply chain experts during COVID. We became trade experts during 2025 And now, we're all going to become commodity experts, given the Iran situation as well. Well, without further ado, we do have the perfect guest.

Joe Weisenthal (2:14)

That's right.

Tracy Alloway (2:15)

The people who actually wrote the book. We're going to be speaking with Alex Mayassi and Mary Childs. So, thank you so much for coming on Odd Lots.

Mary Childs (2:22)

Thank you for having us.

Alex Mayassi (2:23)

Such a pleasure to be here.

Mary Childs (2:24)

It's an honor to finally be the perfect guest.

Tracy Alloway (2:26)

Oh, you've been the perfect guest before again.

Mary Childs (2:28)

I know, but now I'm, it's like the sun is shining on me. I'm the perfect guest.

Tracy Alloway (2:34)

All right, so why a book? And how did you manage to do it between your actual day job of podcasting?

Mary Childs (2:39)

Well, this one's easy for me because I did almost no work. Alex did all of the book work. And so that's what I would recommend in terms of division of labor is to not do the work. Okay, that's my guess.

Alex Mayassi (2:47)

Specialization still has a place.

Mary Childs (2:49)

I think that's great.

Tracy Alloway (2:49)

This is good advice, I think.

Mary Childs (2:51)

Yeah, so just have a friend who's a long time contributor. But basically, I think a lot of our work feeds itself and it's such a different medium of writing and processing. The way that you synthesized some of the episodes, it's kind of crazy because it's a story in a totally different way.

But yeah, it's a very collaborative team effort, is what I would say.

Joe Weisenthal (3:11)

Why don't you talk about your process, Alex? Again, as the one who apparently actually did all the work, Tracy and I are going to have to play rock, paper, scissors if we ever do this.

Alex Mayassi (3:21)

Does the winner write the book or does the loser write the book?

Joe Weisenthal (3:25)

I don't want to write it. I'm busy enough.

Alex Mayassi (3:27)

Because I feel like I won, but enjoy.