Show notes
Hey smarties! We’re on a break for the holidays and revisiting some of our top episodes from 2024. We can’t do this show without you and we still need your support. If you can, donate today to keep independent journalism going strong into 2025 and beyond. Give now to support “Make Me Smart.” Thank you so much for your generosity, happy holidays and we’ll see you in the new year.
You’ve heard about Big Tech. What about Big Food? Walmart, Driscoll’s and Fair Oaks Farms are just some of the companies that dominate our food industry, says Austin Frerick, agricultural and antitrust policy fellow at Yale. He’s the author of the new book “Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry,” in which he argues the food system is the most consolidated sector in the United States today.
“There’s also this illusion of choice. Like, you can look at the peanut butter area in the grocery store, and you see all these different brands, but it’s really one company that does like 50-60% of it,” Frerick said.
On the show today, Frerick explains how the American food system became so concentrated, how that’s inflated prices and eroded quality, and what we should do about it. Plus, Walmart’s role as king of grocery kings.
Then, we’ll get into how American consumers are buckling, resisting and adapting to higher prices. And, why Boeing can’t keep up with SpaceX.
Later, a listener shares their take on why positive economic indicators aren’t ringing true for many folks lately. And, an expert on youth mental health (and former guest on “Make Me Smart”) was wrong about how teens curate their social media feeds.
Here’s everything else we talked about today:
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