https://simplecast.com Mary in America Mary in America is a weekly conversation about how the machine of society works. Journalist and author Mary Childs jumps into the minds of the greatest, most interesting people who are shaping the world we live in, to understand the structures we build, the stories we tell, the games we play, and the choices we make. Why is it like that? Who made it that way? Should we change it? Can we? 2026 Mary in America en Fri, 5 Jun 2026 16:00:00 +0000 Fri, 5 Jun 2026 16:00:12 +0000 https://mary-in-america.simplecast.com Mary in America https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/b48d22d2-c747-4c53-8273-ac3b45ea4fd1/6b45dc26-f91f-415d-82bd-0ec3f9aaadef/3000x3000/maryinamericainstragram1080x1080.jpg?aid=rss_feed https://mary-in-america.simplecast.com episodic Mary in America is a weekly conversation about how the machine of society works. Journalist and author Mary Childs jumps into the minds of the greatest, most interesting people who are shaping the world we live in, to understand the structures we build, the stories we tell, the games we play, and the choices we make. Why is it like that? Who made it that way? Should we change it? Can we? Mary Childs false https://feeds.simplecast.com/EyXv6wCz business,culture,finance,interview Mary in America katherine@maryinamerica.com 56e23b24-af3c-4057-ba61-9a4025d10b88 "Class Apartheid" in America (and cigarettes) Xochitl Gonzalez is a bestselling novelist, but, to me, she’s an economist. Her books are about collisions between economic classes; she captures precarity and luxury, access and scrappiness, often with gentrification as the site of these collisions. She has this freakishly astute lens because, she says, she herself has “changed economic classes,” not once but three times — an experience she’s now writing about in a forthcoming memoir. 

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]]> Fri, 5 Jun 2026 16:00:00 +0000 katherine@maryinamerica.com (Mary in America) https://mary-in-america.simplecast.com/episodes/class-apartheid-in-america-and-cigarettes-CpUX2pkV Xochitl Gonzalez is a bestselling novelist, but, to me, she’s an economist. Her books are about collisions between economic classes; she captures precarity and luxury, access and scrappiness, often with gentrification as the site of these collisions. She has this freakishly astute lens because, she says, she herself has “changed economic classes,” not once but three times — an experience she’s now writing about in a forthcoming memoir. 

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]]> "Class Apartheid" in America (and cigarettes) Mary in America 00:38:21 false full 2 dce94c89-02b8-4a6b-a6e9-74c280ac49ab How to Price the Priceless Al Roth won a Nobel prize for his work helping create a market for matching kidney donors with people who needed kidneys. You know what would really help people who need kidneys though? If they could just buy them. But almost no country allows that, because it feels like it would create bad outcomes, and because it feels gross. Al loves thinking about these awkward intersections of money and morality. He calls these “repugnant markets.” And he has pretty thoroughly convinced me that it would be GOOD to let people pay for organs.

Further Reading: 

Moral Economics: From Prostitution to Organ Sales, What Controversial Transactions Reveal about How Markets Work

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 16:00:00 +0000 katherine@maryinamerica.com (Mary in America) https://mary-in-america.simplecast.com/episodes/how-to-price-the-priceless-ZuRxgyPd Al Roth won a Nobel prize for his work helping create a market for matching kidney donors with people who needed kidneys. You know what would really help people who need kidneys though? If they could just buy them. But almost no country allows that, because it feels like it would create bad outcomes, and because it feels gross. Al loves thinking about these awkward intersections of money and morality. He calls these “repugnant markets.” And he has pretty thoroughly convinced me that it would be GOOD to let people pay for organs.

Further Reading: 

Moral Economics: From Prostitution to Organ Sales, What Controversial Transactions Reveal about How Markets Work

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]]> How to Price the Priceless Mary in America 00:38:50 economics, organ donation, kidney transplant, mary childs, nobel prize, repugnant transactions, al roth, black markets false full 1 926e090c-772a-48b4-8530-4ec35c928505 Introducing Mary in America Wed, 27 May 2026 04:00:00 +0000 katherine@maryinamerica.com (Mary in America) https://mary-in-america.simplecast.com/episodes/introducing-mary-in-america-6NzcqdVG Introducing Mary in America Mary in America 00:01:17 Mary in America, a new show from journalist Mary Childs about why we are the way we are. Out now. Join us. Mary in America, a new show from journalist Mary Childs about why we are the way we are. Out now. Join us. news, business, economics, interview, culture false trailer