Actuality
American Public Media
Actuality is a bi-monthly podcast jointly produced by Marketplace and Quartz. Every other week, hosts Sabri Ben-Achour and Tim Fernholz take on a different story about the global economy and plug you into the conversation behind the news. An Actuality is what people in the audio business call the clips of tape from interviews, but the word also refers to things as they really are, not as we expect them to be—both of which we aim to bring you, without taking ourselves too seriously.
Location:
United States
Networks:
American Public Media
Description:
Actuality is a bi-monthly podcast jointly produced by Marketplace and Quartz. Every other week, hosts Sabri Ben-Achour and Tim Fernholz take on a different story about the global economy and plug you into the conversation behind the news. An Actuality is what people in the audio business call the clips of tape from interviews, but the word also refers to things as they really are, not as we expect them to be—both of which we aim to bring you, without taking ourselves too seriously.
Twitter:
@Marketplace
Language:
English
Episodes
Male Contraception
6/29/2016
They said it couldn't be done: The "male pill." Actuality asks why men haven't seen a new reversible contraceptive in centuries—and if we need one. We found out why Big Pharma gave up on a male pill, and meet people who want to make it happen anyway.Correction: In this episode we refer to "The Pill" by Jonathan Eig. The correct title of Eig’s book is "The Birth of the Pill."
Duration:00:20:58
UnAmerican Football
6/16/2016
They said it couldn't be done: Soccer makes it in America. Actuality can't turn on the TV without seeing a soccer game — what gives? We talk with U.S. players Crystal Dunn and Matt Besler to figure out how global football became a media cash cow in America.
Duration:00:21:51
Cannabiz
6/1/2016
They said it couldn't be done: Ending the American war on marijuana. This week, Actuality tells the ugly truth about cannabis prohibition and peeks at the green shoots of the nascent legal weed industry — but can the architects of a new market avoid the mistakes of the past?
Duration:00:22:25
Museums: Wherefore contemporary art thou?
5/19/2016
They said it couldn't be done: New art in old museums. Actuality visits an auction house to see a billion dollars of art sold in just a week and learn how this bubbling private market is changing staid public art museums in surprising ways.
Duration:00:16:16
A machine to save the world
5/4/2016
They said it couldn't be done: Nuclear fusion. We visit scientists building a clean power plant that's hotter than the sun — but can they ever deliver? Then: the strange world of cold fusion, the people who hate it and the billionaires betting on it.
Duration:00:20:58
Batman v Hollywood
4/20/2016
They said it couldn't be done: Making superheroes into movie stars. Forty years ago, Hollywood told 27-year-old Michael Uslan a Batman movie would never succeed. More than a dozen big-budget superhero movies will hit the big screen in the next few years. Holy impossibility, Batman!
Duration:00:24:23
Space Internet
4/6/2016
They said it couldn't be done: Internet in space. The dream of a totally connected world is still out of reach. Companies like OneWeb and SpaceX think a global swarm of satellites is the answer. The idea failed before — does it stand a chance today?
Duration:00:19:38
Robot Tastemakers
3/23/2016
They said it couldn't be done: Teaching robots good taste. "Actuality" visits Spotify, where algorithms tell 75 million users what to listen to. Then, Tim and Sabri talk with a world-touring musician and a critic to see if this trend will save the arts — or doom them."Actuality" is brought to you by Marketplace and Quartz. It explores the inner workings of the new global economy, combining the best of our economic smarts. Subscribe to the bi-weekly podcast on iTunes or your favorite audio...
Duration:00:24:23
Smuggler’s Morgue
1/14/2016
This week, Actuality visits a lab at the front line of the fight against a peculiar crime — animal trafficking. The global black market for snakes, sea cucumbers, ivory and the like is hot, but the world is starting to crack down. Plus, whale euthanasia.Subscribe to the Actuality podcast
Duration:00:18:38
What's a deadline?
12/11/2015
This week, Actuality is mostly AWOL, but we bring news of next week's very special end-of-year episode.
Duration:00:01:03
Fear Fast Fashion
11/27/2015
This week, Actuality slips into some fast fashion and learns how it pushes your brain's buttons to make you buy. But the trick means hiding the true cost of the clothes — including some surprisingly bad news for the environment. Plus, bitter cats.
Duration:00:20:29
2015: A Trash Odyssey
10/30/2015
This week, Actuality goes orbital and finds it's quite a mess. Satellites are dodging space trash, and there's business opportunity in cleaning up — but no sexy space garbage trucks yet. Plus, a mysterious piece of space trash is coming back to earth.
Duration:00:27:26
Gimme Shelter
10/16/2015
This week, Actuality examines a New York idealist's battle to win homeless people the right to shelter in the 1970s—and why modern reformers have more ambitious plans to help those left behind when the rent is too high. Plus, a miracle exercise pill.
Duration:00:22:48
Everest Industrial Complex
10/2/2015
This week, Actuality meets two survivors of the deadly avalanche that struck Mt. Everest in April, before making our own ascent of the Everest Industrial Complex. Plus, a flying bag of marijuana destroys a dog house.
Duration:00:26:48
Big Broccoli
9/18/2015
This week, Actuality bites into Monsanto's plans for a new, super-healthy breed of broccoli and what it means for our food supply—but the unexpected consequences may have more to do with the DOJ than GMOs. Plus, the Blob invades the Pacific.
Duration:00:26:28
Sonification
9/4/2015
This week, Actuality plugs into the weird world of sonification — making data into sound. Pythagoras tried to do it with cosmic spheres. Today, sonification pioneers are making music from climate change and cheeseburger data. Plus, can you be allergic to Wi-Fi, and is that a disability?
Duration:00:18:05
Undocumented
8/21/2015
This week, Actuality considers Donald Trump's plans for immigration reform and finds them wanting. And do U.S. farms need more immigrant labor, or do they just need to pay higher wages? Plus, the neuroscience of long-distance Turkish whistling.
Duration:00:21:19
Excessories
8/7/2015
This Week, Actuality gorges itself on caviar to understand why the supply chain behind a luxury good is more important than ever. Also, a semi-aquatic invasive rodent may solve the "fur is murder" problem. Plus, the market in gothic poultry.
Duration:00:23:23
Monsnoozin’
7/24/2015
This week, Actuality stays up past our bedtime to meet a man who slept just 4.5 hours a night for an entire year — and thrived. Then, we get soaked by the world's most economically important weather phenomenon. Plus, a Kazakh sleeping mystery.
Duration:00:20:31
GMOsquitoes
7/10/2015
This week, Actuality scratches that itch with a trip to Key West, Florida, where the only prescription for an outbreak of dengue fever may be genetically altered mosquitoes. Plus, battling giant robots from the U.S. and Japan disappoint Marketplace's Sabri Ben-Achour.
Duration:00:21:30