In this episode, Kai and Kimberly divide into the back and forth over tariffs. The on-again, off-again levies are making it tough for industries to plan and trade. With all the uncertainty, are markets — from stocks to agriculture — on the verge of becoming untradable? Plus, we’ll wryly smile at a biting, century-old song about farmers who were ticked off about tariffs. (Thanks to our listener, Robert, for sharing his rendition!)

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• “China’s retaliatory tariffs on agricultural goods will squeeze farmers” from Marketplace
• “Chinese tariffs on U.S. farm products take effect as trade tensions mount” by The Washington Post
• “An ‘Untradable’ Market: Trump Sows Profound Uncertainty for Stocks” from The New York Times
• “Nebraska folklore pamphlet: Farmers’ Alliance songs of the 1890’s” from Nebraska Memories, a digitized archival project from the Nebraska Library Commission

Join us tomorrow for “Economics on Tap.” The YouTube livestream starts at 3:30 p.m. Pacific time, 6:30 p.m. Eastern.

A new contender has entered the podcast landscape: wait, is that California Governor Gavin Newsom? His show features a surprisingly conservative guest list, including MAGA stars Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk. Kai and Kimberly break down the fourth wall and discuss whether there’s value in platforming guests who hold a different set of values. Plus, more federal layoffs took place this past week, this time in the U.S. Department of Education and its civil rights division. Then, the hosts get smiley about rescue dogs in a sled dog race (thanks, Abigail!) and the birds in Kai’s neighborhood.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• • “Gavin Newsom Finds Some Surprising Common Ground With Steve Bannon” from The New York Times

• • “Massive Layoffs at the Department of Education Erode Its Civil Rights Division” by ProPublica

• • “U.S. Department of Education Launches “End DEI” Portal” from the U.S. Department of Education

• • “This Iditarod musher is racing with mostly rescue dogs from Alaska shelters” from Alaska Public Media

• • Kai’s been using Merlin Bird ID from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to identify birds in his neighborhood

• • Meanwhile, Kimberly’s uses the Seek app to help her tell the difference between weeds and plants in her garden

Got a question or comment for the hosts? Email makemesmart@marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

Five years ago, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Since then, there have been lockdowns, a recession, two presidential elections and more than a million American lives lost from the disease. In many ways, life feels like it’s back to normal, but David Wallace-Wells, a writer for The New York Times, argues that the pandemic still has a grip on American life, from our faith in public health institutions to the way consumers feel about the economy. On the show today, Wallace-Wells walks us through how Americans neglected to process the seismic impact of the pandemic in the rush to recover from it, and how it’s left us more self-interested and less empathetic. Plus, how this can help explain disgruntled consumers and a growing appetite for risk-taking in the economy.

Then, we’ll get into how responses to public health emergencies have shifted to the realm of the private sector. And, we’ll hear listeners’ reflections on the COVID-19 pandemic, five years on.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• “Opinion | How Covid Remade Our America, Five Years Later” from The New York Times
• “30 Charts That Show How Covid Changed Everything in March 2020” from The New York Times
• “Gyms, pets and takeout: How the pandemic has shifted daily life” from The Washington Post
• “It’s Not the Economy. It’s the Pandemic.” from The Atlantic
• “Opinion | Covid’s Deadliest Effect Took Five Years to Appear” from The New York Times
• “More Universities Are Choosing to Stay Neutral on the Biggest Issues” from The New York Times

Got a question or comment for the hosts? Email makemesmart@marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.