 Speeches were made, the parade’s all done and President Joe Biden got to work this afternoon, signing 17 executive orders and other memos. But who pays for all the festivities on Inauguration Day, especially with the heightened security just two weeks after the pro-Trump siege at the Capitol? That’s just one of the questions we’re answering on this Whadda Ya Wanna Know Wednesday. Plus: Clubhouse and Section 230. Here’s everything we talked about today: “Will Capitol attack hike security costs for Biden inauguration?” from Marketplace “How Much Will the Inauguration Cost, and Who’s Paying?” from the New York Times “Speech on the internet: The First Amendment and Section 230 are different” from Marketplace 

Make Me Smart with Kai and Molly

Who pays for the inauguration?

President-elect Joe Biden says his administration will administer 100 million COVID-19 vaccines in his first 100 days in office. As of today, about 31 million vaccines have been distributed but only 12 million Americans have received the first dose. So what’s realistic? On today’s show, Johns Hopkins University health economist Dan Polsky gives us the lay of the land and tells us what needs to happen. Plus, a listener makes us smart about the 1954 shooting of the U.S. House of Representatives.

For COVID-19 vaccines, “no one seems to think that we have a plan”

 Given the state of the democracy right now, you’d be forgiven for taking your eye off the COVID-19 vaccine ball. Today, we’ll catch you up on how the rollout is going — or, uh, not going. Plus: what MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell was doing at the White House and our capsule reviews of “Wonder Woman 1984.” Here’s everything we talked about today: “Vaccine reserve was exhausted when Trump administration vowed to release it, dashing hopes of expanded access” from the Washington Post “Covid-19 Vaccine Leaders Waited Months to Approve Distribution Plan” from The Wall Street Journal “Photos capture notes from Trump ally leaving the White House on Friday” from The New York Times This Defense Department transcript of a press gaggle with acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller “Atomic Blonde” Finally: We’re approaching our four-year anniversary of doing this show. On that very first episode, we heard from voters on both sides of the political aisle. And so, we want to hear from you again: What do you want people on the other side to know about you? Depending on your politics, feel free to define the “other side” however you like. Send us your answer — voice memo is best — at makemesmart@marketplace.org. 

Wait, what happened to that vaccine stockpile??

 No, not for the president, but his supporters who filmed themselves charging into the Capitol and posted it online. Do they have a “right to be forgotten”? What about accountability for Facebook, where some of those extremists planned the Jan. 6 insurrection? And, oh yeah, what about for the officials at the helm when the water was poisonous in Flint, Michigan? We’re talking about all those stories today, plus Jerome Powell’s Zoom background and the Secret Service’s $3,000 toilet. Here’s links to everything we talked about today: “Nine People, Including The Former Michigan Governor, Were Charged For Their Role In The Flint Water Crisis” from BuzzFeed News “Facebook’s Sandberg deflected blame for Capitol riot, but new evidence shows how platform played role” from the Washington Post “Ex-Olympic swimmer Klete Keller faces 3 federal charges for participation in U.S. Capitol riots” from ESPN “Bellingcat breaks stories that newsrooms envy — using methods newsrooms avoid” from the Washington Post “The $3,000-a-month toilet for the Ivanka Trump/Jared Kushner Secret Service detail” from the Washington Post Jay Powell’s Zoom setup, which Room Rater says is just as good as Kai’s (see above) 

Let’s talk about accountability

 The right-wing social media app Parler has been banned by the major app stores and online hosting services over fears of more violence in the lead-up to President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. Still, it’s looking like the company is trying to restart itself, and we have a listener wondering what’s next. We’ll talk about it on this Whadda Ya Wanna Know Wednesday. Also on the docket: savings rates, stagflation, and “Ted Lasso.” Here’s everything we talked about today: “Why Stagflation Is Back on Some Traders’ Radars” from the Washington Post “Consumer inflation surges in December on higher gas prices, CPI finds” from MarketWatch “Gasoline pushes U.S. consumer prices higher in December” from CNBC “Parler Registers Domain With Epik Hosting Service” from TheWrap “Parler Accuses Amazon of Breaking Antitrust Law in Suspending Hosting Services” from The New York Times More on Parler in this Twitter thread Kai’s interview with Fed President Jay Powell from 2018 

Parler’s attempted comeback

Disinformation expert Nina Jankowicz says conspiracy theories like QAnon are like giant balls of lint, picking up everything in their path: baseless claims of voter fraud, 5G, Hunter Biden, anti-vaccination fiction … and last Wednesday that huge ball rolled straight from President Donald Trump’s rally to the Capitol, thanks in part to Trump’s allies in the media and Congress who legitimized it. So what now? Can we unring that bell? We’ll talk about it, and why Jankowicz says there’s reason to be optimistic. Here’s everything we talked about today: Jankowicz’s latest for Foreign Affairs: “The Day the Internet Came for Them” And her last appearance on Make Me Smart “Disinformation’s big win” from Axios “Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal Has Tested Positive for COVID” from The Cut “Republicans Weigh Trump Censure, Impeachment” from The Wall Street Journal “Fox News to Add Another Hour of Right-Wing Talk as Biden Takes Office” from The New York Times 

“Disinformation laundering” got us here

That’s how Molly describes the lawmakers who still voted against certification of a free and fair election. That’s right: We’re back from our break and still assessing the fallout of last week’s insurrection, egged on by the president, at the Capitol building. On today’s show, we’ll talk about Trump’s few remaining supporters in Congress, the military people who were on the ground that day, the potential for further violence and how corporate America is reacting. Plus on Make Me Smile … more of the same. Here’s everything we talked about today: “FBI memo warns law enforcement across U.S. of possible armed protests at 50 state capitols” from NBC News “Coca-Cola Suspends Political Donations After Capitol Violence” from Bloomberg “Officer resigns as Army investigates her involvement in Washington rally that led to U.S. Capitol riot” from CBS News “JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs join U.S. corporations halting political donations after Capitol riot” from CNBC Molly has been searching “No fly list” on Twitter And finally, this video. 

“Hydra is still inside of SHIELD”

 We were planning to come back anyway, honestly. After pro-Trump insurrectionists broke into the Capitol, egged on by the president, we decided to cut short our holiday break. Then about five minutes before today’s taping, Twitter announced it was banning Donald Trump from his preferred platform. This whole week was a collision of the things we’ve talked about for years: disinformation radicalizing social media users, the offline consequences of online behavior, the peril of private companies acting as a check on a norm-shredding president. It’s been a huge week, and on today’s show, you’ll hear our raw reaction to it. By the way, here’s the Twitter thread Kai mentioned today. Thanks to everyone who joined us live on YouTube today! Subscribe to our channel so you don’t miss the next one. 

Can Twitter end a presidency?

Hey smarties! We’re on a break for the holidays, so we’re revisiting some favorite episodes from 2020. We want to say a big thank you for being part of the Make Me Smart family this year — every voicemail, question and donation makes a huge difference. None of us is as smart as all of us, and we couldn’t do this show without you. There’s still time to donate here. Thanks, happy new year and we’ll be back soon! Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the equal rights amendment to the constitution last week, giving the ERA the support it needs … about three decades after it expired. Many people, some 80% according to one poll, think the U.S. Constitution already includes equal protections for women’s rights, but it doesn’t. On today’s show, we’re going to look more at how we got to this point and what “equal rights” really means for the women’s movement and the economy overall. Here to guide us through is CUNY professor Julie Suk. Her book about the ERA, “We the Women: The Forgotten Mothers of the Equal Rights Amendment,” is out this summer.

A vote for the ERA was long overdue, but it might be too late (rerun)

Hey smarties! We’re on a break for the holidays, so we’re revisiting some favorite episodes from 2020. We want to say a big thank you for being part of the Make Me Smart family this year — every voicemail, question and donation makes a huge difference. None of us is as smart as all of us, and we couldn’t do this show without you. There’s still time to help us raise $500,000 for Marketplace before the end of the year! Donate here. Thanks, happy holidays and we’ll see you in the new year! Does debt matter? For an individual, a household or even a generation, sure it does. But what about a nation? Modern Monetary Theory says no. To help us understand MMT and why it matters in this crisis is Stephanie Kelton. She’s a professor of economics and public policy at Stony Brook University, and she served as an adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. Here are links to what we talked about today: “The Economist Who Believes the Government Should Just Print More Money” in the New Yorker “Is modern monetary theory nutty or essential?” in The Economist “Stephanie Kelton: ‘They’re going to have massive deficits. And it’s fine’ ” in the Financial Times “Dr. Fauci says NFL season is feasible” in the L.A. Times “Twitter Will Allow Employees To Work At Home Forever” in BuzzFeed “Uber Technologies Makes Takeover Approach to Grubhub” in The Wall Street Journal 

Maybe Modern Monetary Theory is an answer to the COVID-19 economic crisis (rerun)

Hey smarties! We’re on a break for the holidays, so we’re revisiting some favorite episodes from 2020. We want to say a big thank you for being part of the Make Me Smart family this year — every voicemail, question and donation makes a huge difference. None of us is as smart as all of us, and we couldn’t do this show without you. There’s still time to help us raise $500,000 for Marketplace before the end of the year! Donate here. Thanks, happy holidays and we’ll see you in the new year! The rock walls, sushi bars and student center bowling alleys at colleges around the country will likely sit empty this fall. The spring semester has shown that online learning has significant limitations, said NYU marketing professor Scott Galloway, and welcoming back students and faculty is going to be like “Contagion 2.” But there’s also an opportunity here, he says, to increase budgets, cut costs and leverage technology to make higher education as accessible as it used to be. Here’s a list of everything we talked about today: “Here’s a List of Colleges’ Plans for Reopening in the Fall” from the Chronicle of Higher Education “What the Shift to Virtual Learning Could Mean for the Future of Higher Ed” from Harvard Business Review “The Coming Disruption,” Galloway’s recent piece for New York magazine “Goldman Sachs says a national mask mandate could slash infections and save economy from a 5% hit” from CNBC “Is it safe to send kids back to school?” from MIT Technology Review “A Look Back On Shirley Chisholm’s Historic 1968 House Victory” from NPR Finally, this painting by Rhonda Brown 

A higher ed crisis is a terrible thing to waste (rerun)

 This is our last episode of the year! After nine months of daily episodes, we’re gonna take a short break. We can’t thank you enough for hanging with us every day, sending voicemails and questions, and chipping in to support us. This show doesn’t work without all of you. Before we go though, we have one more edition of “Economics on Tap” where we’ll talk about vaccine algorithms, media consolidation and, yes, Space Force. Here’s links to everything we covered today: “Only Seven of Stanford’s First 5,000 Vaccines Were Designated for Medical Residents” from ProPublica “Biden’s Transition Team Protests Pentagon’s Halt in Briefings” from Bloomberg “From BuzzFeed to Axios, Digital Media Players Prepare for Deal Frenzy” from The Wall Street Journal “Pence announces Space Force members will be called ‘guardians’” from Politico Thanks again everyone, and don’t forget to pick up a newly restocked KaiPA pint glass and help us hit our $500,000 goal. Once it hits midnight on New Year’s Eve they’re gone! 

See you next year!

 In what feels like a flashback to New York in March, field hospitals are sprouting up around Southern California as the region hit an alarming milestone: ICU capacity at 0%. It’s a grim reminder that even with one approved COVID-19 vaccine and more on the way, we are still in the darkest days of this pandemic. We hope you’re staying home and staying safe for the holidays. But before we talk about that, Molly Wood will break down the latest about that huge, probably Russian hack into the U.S. government. Plus, your chance to implode President Donald Trump’s Atlantic City casino. Here’s everything we talked about today: “More Hacking Attacks Found as Officials Warn of ‘Grave Risk’ to U.S. Government” from The New York Times “I Was the Homeland Security Adviser to Trump. We’re Being Hacked.” from The New York Times “Bar complaint filed against Trump attorneys in Arizona” from 12News “ICU availability in Southern California at 0% amid deluge of COVID-19 patients” from the Los Angeles Times “In New York City, snowfall tops all of last winter’s.” from The New York Times. Check out that photo! “Win a Chance to Destroy Trump’s Casino Like He Destroyed Our Country” from Rolling Stone Here’s the link to that auction “In Historic Move, Biden To Pick Native American Rep. Haaland As Interior Secretary” from NPR This beautiful, musical Christmas dispatch from Camp Davids Make Me Smart is powered by listeners like you — become a Marketplace Investor today! 

All the ICUs in Southern California are full

 We’ve got some really memorable calls from listeners today, y’all. There’s the guy who’s staring down a huge milestone in his life, but can’t stop thinking about eggnog. There’s the listener who asked us to stop and reflect on this crazy year. And, of course, there’s a question about vaccines. We’ll talk about it all on this, our last Whadda Ya Wanna Know Wednesday of the year. Here’s everything we talked about today: “Hospitals Discover a Surprise in Their Vaccine Deliveries: Extra Doses” from The New York Times “What if the US just pays everyone $1,000 to take the Covid-19 vaccine?” from Vox “Why Paying People to Be Vaccinated Could Backfire” from The New York Times Make Me Smart is powered by listeners like you — become a Marketplace Investor today! 

Eggnog by the gallon

 As President-elect Joe Biden mulls forgiving $10,000 in student loan debt — and leading Democrats and others on his left push for more — one of our listeners wants to know: What would that do to the economy, and is it even possible for the White House to do it on its own? To find out, we called University of Michigan public policy, education and economics professor Susan Dynarski. She helps us look beyond the obvious micro-economic benefits and inject some nuance into the conversation about what it actually takes to get out of this $1.6 million hole. Here’s everything we talked about today: “Student Loan Cancellation Sets Up Clash Between Biden and the Left” from The New York Times “Would canceling $10,000 in student debt really help that much?” from Marketplace An interactive map of debt in America “Americans want to cancel student loans — but not all of them” from Vox “The student loan trap” from Marketplace’s podcast “This Is Uncomfortable” “Google CEO delays office return to next September, but axes idea of permanent remote work” from CNBC “USPS ‘gridlocked’ as historic crush of holiday packages sparks delays” from The Washington Post “Is Louis DeJoy’s XPO Logistics divestiture a sham?” from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington Make Me Smart is powered by listeners like you — become a Marketplace Investor today! 

The student loan system has “layers and layers of dysfunction”

Hosted by Kai Ryssdal and Molly Wood, “Make Me Smart with Kai & Molly” is a weekly podcast about the economy, technology and culture. In a time when the world is moving faster than ever, this podcast is where we unpack complex topics, together. Because none of us is as smart as all of us.

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Make Me Smart with Kai and Molly

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