Making a Killing with Bethany McLean

Now that cannabis is "legalish" there are a host of new opportunities for emerging businesses and investments... but also a decent amount of playing wait-and-see. Today, pot is legal in 33 states. But it is still illegal at the federal level. From a financial point of view, too, the short history of cannabis stocks is... high and lows! In this fascinating episode, Bethany talks with Jackson Tilley, author of the book Billion Dollar Dimebag, about the business of cannabis, what he calls the next great American industry. But is it really?  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bethany talks with Jerry Useem, contributing editor to The Atlantic, about online shopping. Who has the power in the ever-expanding world of online shopping - the retailer or the consumer? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Wall Street Journal headline reads: “Families Go Deep in Debt to Stay in the Middle Class.” In the article, we meet several responsible, educated, well-employed families who are making nearly $150,000 a year… yet going deeper into debt with every paycheck. With, it seems, no way out. This is scary because it’s true, it’s widespread, it’s fundamentally disempowering for families, and it’s only going to get worse. For the last two decades, incomes have been pretty much stagnant. Over the same period of time, the average cost of cars, college tuition, health care expenditures, child care, and housing prices have swelled at an alarming rate. In order to bridge this widening gap between earning and costs, the middle class has turned to that knight in not-so-shining armor… financing. Borrowing. DEBT. In this episode, Bethany talks with Ken Brown, the reporter on this WSJ story that has gotten such a huge response.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bethany sits down with Gillian Tett, Chairman of the Financial Times Editorial Board (U.S.) and a British author. Among many other things, she has a way of looking at the big picture questions and implications of Brexit. In the U.S as in the U.K., we’re watching the daily breakdown of the political norms and processes that we’ve all been used to for the last few decades. Which leads to the biggest question of all: Is there a right level of dysfunction in modern democracy?  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One of the questions Bethany has obsessed over in her years of covering big business is this: "What is the line between a visionary and a fraudster?" If any piece of Elon Musk's current empire (Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, etc) works in the long term, he’ll go down in the history books as a visionary. But will the problems he has created, and Tesla’s desperate need for cash, catch up with him? And is the way that his critics are treated, whether with his explicit or implicit consent, a clue to how this might turn out? Or is it irrelevant? To discuss, Bethany sits down with Linette Lopez, a reporter from Business Insider, who has had her own run-ins with Musk and his followers. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1996, a prescription opioid known as OxyContin hit the market. It was among the first opioids to be heavily marketed (yes, legally) and since that time, more than 400,000 Americans have died from opioid overdoses—including some 200,000 from prescription opioids. Millions more continue to struggle with addiction, and entire communities have been devastated by the epidemic. Who or what is to blame? Where is the original sin? Looking for answers, Bethany speaks to NYT reporter Barry Meier about the opioid crisis.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bloomberg writer Peter Robison conducted more than a dozen interviews with former Boeing employees and FAA inspectors, and went through hundreds of pages of internal emails and records. In a piece entitled “Former Boeing Engineers Say Relentless Cost Cutting Sacrificed Safety” he writes this: “The crisis is best understood as part of a larger drama that’s played out as Boeing has reshaped its workforce in an all-consuming focus on shareholder value.” In that pressured environment, what gets sacrificed on the altar of more profits, now? It wasn't supposed to be this way... If this could happen to Boeing, what’s the lesson for other companies? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It isn’t a secret that pension funds, which we all rely on to some degree or another to pay for our retirements, are in dire straits. Ready for a scary number? The combined funding deficit of public pension plans in the U.S., across all 50 states, was reported at an alarming $1.28 Trillion in 2017. Thank goodness we have a savior! It’s the private equity business, right? But… what if it’s not true? What if private equity isn't going to make our retirement plans fat and happy? What if it’s only enriching the Wall Streeters who run these investment firms? In this episode, Bethany talks with Dan Rasmussen about the risks and realities of private equity. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bethany talks with WSJ reporter Sahil Patel about the future of Netflix. Netflix is an incredibly aggressive company with a long term plan to monopolize all our time. There is no chilling going on. CEO Reed Hastings often describes Netflix’s business as a virtuous cycle, saying “We get more customers, we get more money, we can afford more content, we get more customers.” But here’s the thing about virtuous circles: They can turn vicious. Bethany and Sahil discuss what it will take for Netflix to maintain its dominance in the face of extreme competition and many vulnerabilities coming to light.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You don’t name your company "Uber" if you are planning to play by all the rules, make decisions by committee, and be everyone’s friend. But you probably also don’t make it to the top of the tech world by setting everything on fire, just because you can. (You can’t). In this episode, Bethany chats with Mike Isaac, who is in charge of covering Uber for The New York Times. He’s covered the company extensively for the past several years and also just published his book, SUPER PUMPED: The Battle For Uber. As Uber makes the claim: "Cars are to us what books were to Amazon,” Bethany and Mike dig into important questions about Uber's future.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.