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.

Today we’re talking about food. Specifically, Big Food. In his book, “Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry,” Austin Frerick, agricultural and antitrust policy fellow at Yale, argues the food system is the most consolidated sector in the United States. 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 why Boeing can’t keep up with SpaceX. 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:

• “Lax Antitrust Enforcement Imperils The Nation’s Supply Chains” from Forbes
• “What Is “Big Ag,” and Why Should You Be Worried About Them?” from Union of Concerned Scientists
• “The problem with growing corporate concentration and power in the global food system” from Nature Food
• “Major retailers are offering summer deals to entice inflation-weary shoppers” from AP News
• “US Consumer Confidence Rises for First Time in Four Months” from Bloomberg
• “Inflation now means high prices, not just rising costs” from Axios
• “What do Americans think about inflation?” from The Brookings Institution
• “Boeing Prepared to Fly Crewed Space Taxi With Helium Leak” from Bloomberg

We love to hear from you. Send your questions and comments to makemesmart@marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

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.

If you’ve been feeling hopeless about the news, the election, the economy, the climate crisis and everything else that’s going on, today’s episode is for you. Emily Amick, lawyer and co-author of “Democracy in Retrograde: How to Make Changes Big and Small in Our Country and in Our Lives,” argues we can all become better participants in our democracy. And we don’t need to have a gazillion dollars to do it. On the show today, Amick explains why we should treat civic engagement as self-care, how to find your civic personality and ways to cultivate a news diet that doesn’t put you in a doom loop. Plus, the moment she realized our democracy was headed in the wrong direction.

Then, we’ll get into how voters in Utah fought to protect the power of citizen-led ballot initiatives and why shoppers hide purchases from their romantic partners. Plus, an anime cosplayer was wrong about what it would take to create her own costume.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• “Despite Recent Setbacks, There Is Still Hope For Democracy” from Forbes
• “In ‘Democracy in Retrograde,’ Emily Amick Talks About Political Engagement and Her Cancer Diagnosis” from Teen Vogue
• “What does Utah’s redistricting ruling do to voters’ ability to change laws?” from The Salt Lake Tribune
• “Utah Supreme Court: Lawmakers must heed voter-passed gerrymandering reforms “ from Axios Salt Lake City
• “Amazon’s Prime Day a ‘major’ cause of worker injuries, Senate probe finds” from CNBC
• “US Retail Sales Excluding Autos Rise by Most in Three Months” from Bloomberg
• “Gym Bags, Trunks, Back Doors: How Stealth Shoppers Hide Purchases” from The Wall Street Journal
• “Financial Infidelity Report 2023: Why People Hide Purchases From Partners” from Circuit
• “Inside a UPS warehouse that prioritizes super-fast shipping” from Marketplace

How are you getting involved in civic life? What helps you fend off feelings of hopelessness? Let us know at makemesmart@marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

For our final episode of 2024, we’re throwing a holiday party with music, festive hats, drinks and a game. But we can’t forget about the news. The incoming Donald Trump administration is looking into the feasibility of eliminating the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. We’ll get into it. And, we’ll unpack the public rage over the United States healthcare system that dominated the news this week. Plus, how much do our hosts remember about the biggest business headlines of the year?

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• “Trump Advisers Seek to Shrink or Eliminate Bank Regulators” from The Wall Street Journal
• Opinion | “UnitedHealth Group C.E.O.: Brian Thompson Was Never Content With the Status Quo” from The New York Times
• “UnitedHealth Limits Access to Key Treatment for Kids With Autism” from ProPublica
• “Boeing’s year of turbulence in five charts” from Reuters
• “Why TikTok Faces a U.S. Ban, and What’s Next?” from The New York Times
• “CrowdStrike outage: We finally know what caused it – and how much it cost” from CNN Business
• “SpaceX Polaris Dawn astronauts perform historic 1st private spacewalk in orbit” from Space
• “US ties China in Paris Olympics gold medal count after Americans’ women’s hoops win” from AP News

We’ll be back with new episodes in 2025! In the meantime, you can email us at makemesmart@marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.