Solidarity with our friends and colleagues at @postguild.bsky.social.

had the great privilege of joining @bmluse.bsky.social and @wailinwong.bsky.social on today's episode of It's Been a Minute, talking through why the job market really does still suck despite topline (emphasis on topline) economic numbers looking sanguine as ever www.npr.org/2026/01/26/n...

"And the marquee entry on his résumé is his eight years, from 2011 to 2019, as mayor of Chicago, a city that eats politicians alive. He made mistakes and enemies. They’ll come back to haunt him." Ctrl-F “Laquan McDonald” <Not found>

Charles Yang of Time for Three absolutely slaying me. I would lose my mind if I heard this live. Even crappy phone speakers made me scream and cry.

in no way the most important thing but it is incredibly jarring how many times people have opened up their devices in the last year to see autoplay videos of people being killed

If you're in Chicago, come see me with Alex Mayyasi and Adriana Robertson on April 23!

Can confirm,currently at work, putting together some banger episodes on Greenland’s critical minerals and Big Beef for later this week. Subscribe to NPR’s The Indicator wherever you get your podcasts. www.npr.org/podcasts/510...

This is a great cathartic rage listen for those of us who lived through this drama

My middle schooler this morning: "I don't want to go to school. I don't care that education is a privilege." Me: "Who said that?" Her: "MALALA!" [storms out the door]

A tiny Freddy Krueger just rang my doorbell and wished me a "Happy 6-7." I love Halloween!

Susan Stamberg, an original National Public Radio staffer who went on to become the first U.S. woman to anchor a nightly national news program, has died. n.pr/4qjVMDS

"Officers pulled out his REAL ID, which Alabama only issues to those legally in the U.S. But the agents dismissed it as fake." BTW this happened TWICE to the same person!

JUST IN: Chicago journalistsa re suing DHS and ICE over force used against reporters: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

You guys, so many Romance girlies are reading "On Tyranny" that they've broken the Goodreads recommendations algorithm. 10/10; no notes. #romancelandia

At Curriculum Night at the middle school, the social sciences teacher was telling us about the current unit on the Columbian Exchange. The slide said "Three cultures meet," referring to European/African/indigenous. It took every ounce of self control not to yell AND THEN WHAT HAPPENED

I was telling my 12yo about Task and said, "It's about an FBI agent and a robber." Her: "Do they fall in love?" Me: "Um, I don't think so."

Clicked on this article hoping for an announcement that Gap was bringing back its fragrance line from the 90s but nope [throws laptop out of window in anger] www.wsj.com/business/ret...

This reminds me of @caseynewton.bsky.social's erstwhile game show podcast, Converge, where he did a recurring bit asking each guest what they would put on the blockchain. That podcast is from like 5 years ago but I still think about this gag, mostly bc what is the blockchain anyway

All I wanted to do yesterday was pick up my KATABASIS pre-order from the bookstore and start reading. But instead I ended up doing an emergency episode about what's happening at the Fed. Which was, I suppose, its own kind of descent into the underworld. www.npr.org/2025/08/26/n...

A Palantir exec has a WSJ op-ed today arguing that Harvard should expel Chinese students. What if, and I'm just spitballing here, there was some kind of legislation...that banned Chinese people from the U.S., full stop? We could call it, I don't know, the Chinese Exclusion Act...?

Devastated that neither Chicago daily has a film critic anymore. Thanks for a great run, Michael Phillips! I was always too nervous to introduce myself when I saw you in the elevator at Tribune Tower (which is now luxury condos) www.thewrap.com/chicago-trib...

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVINS

Was explaining the Mary Magadalene/Jesus ❤️ theory to my 12yo and she deadpanned, "Hmmm, disciples to lovers"

an incredibly earnest and apolitical post for Vogue about what we lose if (when?) we lose public radio www.vogue.com/article/what...

It has been the honor of my life to serve as Commissioner of BLS alongside the many dedicated civil servants tasked with measuring a vast and dynamic economy. It is vital and important work and I thank them for their service to this nation.

Hear me out—a romance where the jumbotron thing happens, and the rock star feels bad and reaches out to the jilted wife and sparks fly! My other idea is THE DATING COMMITTEE, about 2 economists on the NBER Business Cycle Dating Committee who fall in love while arguing about if we're in a recession

Alec-Nevala Lee interviewed me for NYT! The story mentions Lovecraft (my thesis was on women, eugenics & HPL), how weird it was when they optioned Mexican Gothic, & that I don't watch superhero flicks (sorry! I gorge on Sinners & Nosferatu, not Marvel. mmm... Horror) www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/b...

Happy Pub Day to my better half, Alec Nevala-Lee! His biography of Nobel-winning physicist Luis Alvarez, COLLISIONS, is out today and you should read it if you are into ✅ Oppenheimer / Manhattan Project / WW2 ✅ Dinosaurs ✅ the Keith Hernandez episode of Seinfeld bookshop.org/p/books/coll...

Congrats to Broadway producer Hunter Arnold, who just won a Tony for Best Musical for Maybe Happy Ending. I'm sure this is his second proudest moment after coming on The Indicator to talk to me about the economics of Broadway! www.npr.org/2023/10/18/1...

My theater kid, watching the Tonys: "Hey, it's Darren Criss!" Then the camera pans to George Clooney and she says, "Who's that?" I say "George Clooney" and she says "He made Star Wars?" I explain and then add that his wife is a world-renowned human rights lawyer. "Oh, like Elle Woods."

Jobs Friday AND opening day for Ballerina! Listen to me yap about labor productivity with Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee or about Ballerina with @aishaharris.bsky.social @originalsp.in @trevellanderson.bsky.social www.npr.org/2025/06/06/1... www.npr.org/2025/06/06/1...

My 12yo told me about a girl who drew Xs and wrote UGLY on classmates' yearbook photos, including on a picture of a girl who used to be her friend until they had a falling out relating to spoken word club, and anyway I am just thinking about that today for no reason

I got to see Ballerina last night and my spoiler-free reaction is that if you've ever wondered what would have happened if the Duke of Weselton were actually a psycho killer and took over Arendelle, you're in for a treat!

Pope Char Siu VI

Are you telling me we now have a Pope who's seen the Eagleman insurance TV commercial? Victory Auto Wreckers? Dare I say it, Sybaris Pool Suites?! I am going to hell for that last one but c'mon, those ads were unavoidable

Just imagine that your sibling is ELECTED POPE and within a couplea two tree hours you're correcting the record, calling news orgs being like "Yeah no dat guy der isa Sax fan."

If I were an assignment editor at a Chicago media outlet, I'd be sending someone to get reax from customers at the Portillo's drivethru right now. Maybe I'll just go to the Portillo's drivethru anyway because that chocolate cake isn't going to eat itself

Mentioned Wagner's Tristan & Isolde out loud today and then got a TikTok video of the London Phil playing it 👀 👂 Looks like ISOLDE my data to TikTok

Let's check in on how The Indicator team is doing on this Monday morning

Reading Jamie Dimon's shareholder letter

I did an episode of The Indicator that explains the WTO's role in trade disputes and why the U.S. has tanked its ability to play referee (starting in the Obama years) www.npr.org/2025/03/19/1...

If Trump buys a Tesla, does that purchase count toward GDP or no

My kid has a little frenemy that she knows from various extracurriculars (musical theater, youth orchestra) and I follow this girl on TikTok. Her latest TikTok story is simply a post that says "Please don't DM me unless it's for business inquiry's [sic]!" How did we even get here as a society

If this job requires physical strength and patience and entails all the things described here, maybe we should stop describing this kind of work as low-skilled?!

Thanks to @ericagroshen.bsky.social and @elisegould.bsky.social for chatting with me for this Jobs Friday episode on the integrity of BLS data: www.npr.org/2025/03/07/1...

I watched the first episode of Meghan's cooking show instead of Trump's speech last night. Her one-pot pasta dish looked pretty good so I went to google the recipe and apparently this spaghetti is the worst thing that western civilization has ever produced

Having a very normal conversation with an AI customer support agent

A book rec for those of you who love romance AND economics: The Finest Print by Erin Langston. - set in London in 1848 during a pivotal era for print media - the 3rd act complication involves TAXES, the primary antagonist - the MMC has great forearms (not econ related)

Still thinking about how my 12yo, totally unprompted, said "Somehow heartbreak feels good in a place like this" as we walked into Costco yesterday

This was the last video the algorithm showed me. At least my feed went out on a high note