EconomyBeat Podcast #9: Nuke Pills
January 25, 2010roman 2 Comments »
Today on the podcast: be afraid! Fear turns out be a very good thing for certain businesses. When the Weather Service warns of a hurricane, there’s a run on plywood and water. A crime spree sends people to the gun store. And when North Korea or Iran starts making nuclear noise, the orders pour in to a website in North Carolina. Our story today, from WFAE‘s Julie Rose, is one of those awesome news reports that takes you on a journey as the perspective changes. You go from disgust, to understanding, to a slightly different form of disgust, all in under three and a half minutes. Duck and cover, class.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 5:48 — 4.1MB)
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January 25th, 2010 at 9:20 am
What is so disgusting about being prudent? About being prepared? I think you have to research the topic more than just listening to the NPR story.
January 25th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Thanks for writing KI! First off, nothing is disgusting about being prudent. I’m all for it. I was purposely being cryptic with the joke. My train of thought went from horror that such commerce does exist (the “cashing in on fear” aspect of the piece’s title), to completely understanding why someone would want to buy and sell KI pills, to being being put off by the blase nature of the local health department and making it necessary for an independent online seller to exist (but still a little weirded out by the whole thing). The comment in my intro was trying to elicit the listener to decide what part, if any, disgusted them. And, to use a rhetorical flourish by calling something a “great journey” that both started and ended on the same spot (“disgust to a slightly different form of disgust”), mirroring the journey of the story. Ha ha! See? Funny, right? No, well OK. I try.
Anyway, thanks again for commenting. Keep that skeptical ear tuned. I agree, a NPR story (even a good one), is only a starting point. Good call.