In this episode, Natalia, Neil, and Niki debate President Trump’s proposed tariffs, Weight Watchers’ bid for teenage dieters, and Disneyland’s underpaid workers.
Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show:
- Donald Trump has announced he is slapping high tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, all in the name of national security. Niki referred to Alex Thompson’s Vice article, “Trump’s Tariffs Made Him Labor Unions’ Man of Steel.” Niki also recommended Marc-William Palen’s book The Conspiracy of Free Trade.
- Weight Watchers is reaching out to young teenagers. Natalia referred to Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s New York Times article, “Losing It in the Anti-Dieting Age” and to Joan Jacobs Brumberg’s book The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls. Neil referenced Jennifer Wiener’s New York Times op-ed, “Take Your Daughter to the Movies, Not to Weight Watchers.” Natalia recommended Christy Harrison’s Food Psych Podcast. We discussed the history of Weight Watchers in Episode 19.
- A new report shows that many employees of Disneyland, “the happiest place on earth,” are homeless or hungry. Niki cited a new study, “Working For the Mouse” and the film The Florida Project as well as two books: Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America and Louis Hyman’s forthcoming TEMP: How American Work, American Business, and the American Dream Became Temporary.
In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History:
- Neil shared Anne Ewbank’s Atlas Obscura article, “How Orange (the Fruit) Inspired Orange (the Color).”
- Natalia commented on Drew Schwartz’s VICE article, “Conservatives are Whining Because No One Wants to Date Them.”
- Niki discussed Joseph Bernstein’s Buzzfeed article, “Teach Them Right: How PragerU Is Winning the Right-Wing Culture War Without Donald Trump.”