Planet Money - The Rest of the Story, 2023

Episode Date: December 29, 2023

It's that time of year again! Our annual year-end tradition of checking in on the stories we've reported and the people we met along the way.We'll hear from a Hollywood strike captain who tried to pull off one last job, an update from the data detective trying to uncover the truth in academic research, and tribute to a very special member of the Planet Money family. Check out the original stories:Vacation, and why the U.S. takes so little of itThe secret entrance that sidesteps Hollywood picket linesDid two honesty researchers fabricate their data?Planet Money Records Vol. 1: Earnest Jackson, Planet Money Records Vol. 2: The Negotiation & Planet Money Records Vol. 3: Making a Hit Subscribe to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoneyLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

We all hear things differently, and that can be tough when there's so much noise. This election year, we're a space to speak up and to listen. Listen to 1A for the latest on Election 2024, only from NPR. This is Planet Money from NPR. This is Planet Money from NPR. One of the best and worst things about our jobs here at Planet Money are the deadlines. They're relentless, but they keep us honest. Because while we're being honest, without deadlines, we would work on stories forever.

Reading that one last paper, doing that one last interview, checking that one last fact. That is, of course, if it weren't for the deadline. Because of deadlines, at a certain point, we fade up the music, read the end credits, turn off our recorders, and go on to thinking about the next story. But it's not like that for the people we talk to for our stories. The music doesn't just fade up on their lives. No, they fight on another day, encounter new obstacles, learn new lessons. And so every once in a while around here, we like

to check in on those people and their stories, call them up and say, hey, how'd that work out for you? It's a show that we've been doing for over a decade here at Plenty of Money, an idea we kind of stole from a radio great, the legendary Paul Harvey, who had a show called The Rest of the Story. Hello and welcome to Planet Money. I'm Nick Fountain. That's our show today, The Rest of the Story. Updates on the stories we've reported and from the people we've met along the way. This message comes from Wondery. Milli Vanilli set the world on fire.

But when their fans learned about the infamous lip-syncing, their downfall was swift. Blame It On The Fame dives into one of pop music's greatest controversies. Follow on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. The news can be disorienting, and it can be really hard to remember how we got here. That's why we started the ThruLine podcast. Every week, we take you on a cinematic trip into the past to better understand the present.

Listen now to the ThruLine podcast from NPR. From your car radio to your smart speaker, NPR meets you where you are in a lot of different ways. Now we're in your pocket. Download the NPR app today. Hey there, it's Amanda Aranchik. Before we get back to the show, a bit of year-end reflection. In 2023, Planet Money followed the wild arc of inflation, of interest rates.

We brought you a series about AI and an episode produced by AI. And we served up another extremely infotaining season of Planet Money Summer School. Of course, we have big plans for lots more cool stuff like that in 2024. But that stuff will not be possible without your help. This is where we want to say a big thank you to our Planet Money Plus supporters and anyone listening who already donates to public media. And to anyone out there who isn't a supporter yet, right now is the time to get behind the NPR network, especially with a big election year coming up. So please join NPR Plus at plus.npr.org or make a tax-deductible donation now at donate.npr.org slash money. And thanks. One of our most popular episodes from this past year was one about vacations, paid time off,

and why Americans have less of it than pretty much the rest of the world. The reporter on that story was Sarah Gonzalez, who joins me now. Hi, Sarah. Hey, Nick. Remind us what prompted this episode, because it's a fun story, actually. Is it fun? Okay, I guess it started off as like a personal

question that I had, which was that I had all of this vacation accrued. So vacation that I had worked for, that I earned this paid time off. It was 200 hours of vacation. I never used it. I was going to lose it. And I didn't even like attempt to fight for it. I was just like, bye bye vacation. And it is not just me. A lot of people in the U.S. leave vacation on the table. And so the larger story became about like, why is that? And also, why does the U.S. get such little vacation generally compared to a lot of other countries? Right. And you sort of go through some of the main theories for why this is. The one that I remember is the Protestant work ethic. Yeah, we debunk that one pretty quickly. There's also a theory that other rich countries take more vacation because their taxes are higher. So there's like less desire to work more when more of your wages are going to get taken, right?

That one was also hard to prove. But then this one economist kind of pointed the finger at labor unions for never even fighting for vacation as a right in the U.S. The episode is great and it ends in this amazing way, which is basically you saying, I'm out of here. I'm about to go take

a two-week vacation. Yeah. The idea is we're never going to get more vacation as workers if we don't ask for it and take it. So I was just like, I'm going to do my part. I'm going to take vacation. So you go on vacation, you come back, and you told us something that I actually found kind of hard to comprehend. I'm not going to lie. I said it was too much vacation. It was too long. I was ready to come home.

Sarah, what happened? Such a tragedy. Okay. I mean, obviously, super, super fortunate to go on a two-week vacation. But, like, I don't know know by day five day six it just it just felt like too much it felt way too indulgent it felt like really selfish and I was just ready to be home doing things I was like I got things to do yeah this was actually one of the themes of the show that people in the U.S. really struggle with not being productive with all of their time. We don't know how to not be productive.

Right. So I actually tried to change my return flight home. No. Tried to move the trip up. We chose not to because it was going to be like ridiculously expensive. So, yeah, the last few days I just was feeling like what a waste of my time. I don't know. I don't know how else to say it.

I do think that the right mix for me would be like a week of time off where you can like relax and be with your family, spend time together, all that. And then another week to like get stuff done, like deep clean my closet, organize my drawers, maybe like plant some flowers, you know? Well, Sarah, may you have many productive days off in 2020. No, wish me the opposite. Wish me that I learn how to like chill out and take vacation where I don't accomplish anything. That is what I want for myself. Of course, that too.

Thank you. Thank you, Nick. All right. See you next year. Thanks. See you next year. Thanks. See you next year. Next up, Planet Money producer Dave Blanchard. Hey, Dave.

Hey, Nick. You were out there covering one of the biggest stories of the year, one of the biggest labor actions of this very labor action-y year, the Hollywood strikes. of this very labor action-y year, the Hollywood strikes. And specifically, you were looking at how there are all these rules to follow for striking, and there's this kind of gamesmanship over how to weaponize those rules. Right, yeah. So it was kind of this back and forth. So in the Hollywood strike, we saw the classic legally protected labor action, the picket.

And the picket line is a way to basically pressure people not to go into work. And that helps inflict as much economic damage as the strikers possibly can, which in this case meant, you know, these unions were picketing at giant Hollywood lots. And so they were just trying to picket at as many of the entrances onto the lots as they possibly could. But then the studios used another part of labor law, which says that picketers can't necessarily picket everywhere. The studios can designate certain entrances to their lots, certain gates, for people who have nothing to do with a strike. So on these lots, that would be like people working on commercials

or things produced by companies the Hollywood unions weren't striking against. They call these unpickable entrances neutral gates. And your story, which was so much fun, was about this strike captain who was singularly obsessed with proving that the studios were abusing this system, this neutral gate system. Yeah, his name is Bill Walkoff. And yeah, he was obsessed because on the very first day of the strike, he had this moment where he was just watching cars stream onto the lot through this

supposedly neutral gate. And he just had the sense that the studios were violating the system. It was a little bit like Ahab seeing the white whale for the first time. It felt like a challenge immediately. Is that what you're saying? You're like, this is my quest now. Oh, yeah. His quest was to prove they were abusing the system because if they did that, the law said then they could start to picket there.

They could flip the gate, turn it from neutral to not neutral. And in our episode, he ends up succeeding. He flips the gate and expands his strike's reach. Right, so that was the story we heard during the strikes. I know that the strikes have ended. Right. That's the big update, right? What other updates do you have for me?

Well, I called Bill to just see what his experience of the end of the strike was because, you know, he was so obsessed with this idea of flipping as many gates as he possibly could. And I was just curious to know if he had like one last job that he was able to pull off before the strike ended. Well, a lot of activity happened toward right at the end of the strike. Bill says the writers had their eye on one particular show that they suspected of cheating,

of using the neutral gate when they weren't supposed to. And I could see that like strike captain fire light up in Bill's eyes as he began talking about it. We even had one very damning piece of evidence. We saw all sorts of equipment that you need to create a stage. And there was a big piece of duct tape across it with the letters DWTS. Dancing with the Stars! Yeah, you got it.

Dancing with the Stars was planning this huge live extravaganza. It was this big deal. And for Bill, this is the opportunity. Because if the Strikers could create a delay here, it's not like the studio can just push back the live taping. It could hypothetically screw up the entire broadcast. So who were the stars in this episode of Dancing with the Stars? Who were you keeping an eye out for that was going in and out?

Allison Hannigan was a big one. She played Willow on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And there's others that I'm forgetting, but it was, I mean. I just want to look it up. So this was Dancing with the Stars. Let's see. I can't tell if looking at the cast of Dancing with the Stars shows how out of touch I am or how out of touch they are. You don't recognize any of these names. I can't tell if that's on me or on them.

Look within, Dave. It's you. That's almost certainly true. But either way, this broadcast was planned for a Tuesday night. But either way, this broadcast was planned for a Tuesday night. And then the weekend before, they started hearing rumors of a deal being made, which, you know, is very exciting in the big picture of the writer's strike. But also, like, Bill had been so obsessed with gate flipping for months. And I just wondered if maybe, like, the smallest part of him was a little bit conflicted with the news. Was there a part of you that was like, just let us get this done and then come to a deal?

I mean, you know, I wanted a deal faster. I don't know. Yes, I kind of wish we had gone through it because we made a lot of plans. But I am really, really, really glad that we came to a deal. They came to a deal. Strike ended. Dancing with the Stars went on as planned. And, you know, as much as Bill did get obsessed with, like, this gate-flipping work,

in the end, of course, he was more than happy to go back to the job he spent his entire life working towards, being a screenwriter. Ah, cool. So he's back to work. He's back in the writer's room. Exactly, yeah. He was lucky enough to be working on a show before the strike. And so he just went back to the same show.

It's the latest Star Trek series. It's called Strange New Worlds. But he didn't know what things would be like when he got back after this really acrimonious and long strike. And there's kind of one moment, the first time he was face to face with the network execs on a Zoom call with some other writers, and it felt like the return to working together could still kind of go either way. The execs were going to give their notes on a script that Bill had co-written. So the meeting started. And there was a real pregnant pause. How is this going to go?

Is it going to be awkward? So we're all waiting for somebody to say something. Pause. How is this going to go? Is it going to be awkward? Right. Right. So we're all waiting for somebody to say something. And then the president of the production company smiled and said, the script was great. We're so glad to have you back. And whew, everybody breathes a sigh of relief. It was a good icebreaker. He also said that the studio execs gave them free donuts and pastries on their first day back in the office. And, you know, there's no more classic olive branch from management than here's some free food.

Works every time. Dave Blanchard is still here. Dave, there is a very important reason for that, and it is that I want to give my update to you. I don't want to do it alone. I'm here for you. Let me be your interlocutor. All right.

So my update is about a show I worked on that was about behavioral science or behavioral economics. And in particular, these two researchers who studied honesty, who it looked like had used fabricated data in some of their work. or behavioral economics. And in particular, these two researchers who studied honesty, who it looked like had used fabricated data in some of their work. And the bigger idea here, of course, was that social science, science in general, is shifting towards being more transparent about research practices, more transparent with data. But as that happens, people, these newfangled data detectives, they're digging into some really significant research and calling into question. Sometimes they're finding outright fraud. And you talked to one of these data detectives who had looked into the honesty researchers' work, and they'd found some real inconsistencies.

Yeah, Yuri Simonson, professor at ESADA Business School in Barcelona. You may remember him for his Microsoft Excel forensic skills. How could I forget? It's like a puzzle that nobody knows the solution to, and then you solve it. I mean, it's like true crime. That's why true crime is so interesting to people and trying to figure it out, right?

And it makes for a good podcast, too. Hopefully. All right, so the other day I got on the phone with Yuri, and yeah, he has a lot of updates, starting from basically right after our episode came out. So we listened to your episode as a family because we were driving to get started on vacation and your episode dropped. And so we listened to it in the highway. A couple of nights later, still on vacation, he's playing cards, playing bridge with his family. And his phone starts blowing up. It's his collaborators from Data Colada,

the blog where he and others posted their investigations. And the reason his phone is blowing up was they got sued. How much money did you get sued for? Well, we and Harvard together, $25 million. You have $25 million sitting around?

Not in change, I don't. And this is because of the story you reported? Oh, I hope not. No, no, no. One of the researchers whose work they looked at, her name is Francesca Gino. She is doing Harvard for, among other things, defamation and breach of contract. And she is doing Data Colada for defamation as well. And again, Yuri found this out while playing cards, while playing bridge.

I mean, it sucked. Because it obviously completely takes away your focus from anything. So we lost, and I blame Francesca for that. Okay, so he lost the card game, but then I guess, like, how does he respond to the lawsuit? I mean, he said he's going to fight it, but that I guess, like, how does he respond to the lawsuit?

I mean, he said he's going to fight it, but that if it drags on, it's going to be very expensive, which brings us to the second Yuri update. Some of Yuri's friends and colleagues organized a fundraiser for Data Kolata's legal defense, and the response was overwhelming. was overwhelming. They've raised something like $375,000 from a bunch of famous academics, a Nobel Prize winner, even some people who they publicly called out or disagreed with. All in all, something like 3,000 people have donated so far. 3,000 people saying, I support this project. That was, it's one of the best things, professional that's happened to me, like seeing that kind of support. Because when you see, when you make a blog post, you know, you hear from the critics

and then you hear from the people who praise you, but you don't know if they have a second motive or something. But when you see 3000 people like this, that feels very like real. So that was pretty heartwarming. Yuri says they're not going to stop doing what they do. They're going to keep pushing the discipline to work better with data. And when people don't, he's going to keep trying to uncover it.

Okay. Well, thanks for that update, Nick. No, thank you, Dave. My pleasure. Coming up, one final update. We saved it for last because it's an emotional one. It's about our inflation song project and its singer, Ernest Jackson. Trials in multiple states, state and federal charges, plea deals, witness testimony, gag orders. The trials of former President Trump are really hard to keep straight.

And that's why we created Trump's Trials, a weekly podcast where we break down the biggest news from each of his legal cases and what it all means for democracy in about 15 minutes. I'm Scott Detrow. Listen to Trump's Trials from NPR. Hey there, this is Felix Contreras, one of the co-hosts of Alt Latino, the podcast from NPR Music where we discuss Latinx culture, music, and heritage with the artists that create it. Listen now to the Alt Latino podcast from NPR. Mike Peska of The Gist calls the new podcast, Landslide, compelling and eye-opening.

A must-listen, says podcast the newsletter about Landslide. The New Yorker writes, terrific. The state of the union is not good. Landslide, the story of how a party and the nation shifted to the right. Part of the NPR Network. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Now for some sad news. Friend of the show, Ernest Jackson, has passed away.

He was 75. Longtime listeners will remember Ernest and his iconic voice from the song Inflation, which Planet Money released last year when we started a record label. For more about his life and how we came to know him, I'm joined now by Erika Barris. Hey, Erika. Hey, Nick. Erika, you worked with Ernest a lot. Tell us how it all started. Right. So it started when we got our hands on this song, this long lost song from the 1970s that had been recorded but never released. And this song was so good.

And it was also just so timely. It was about living under high inflation. And then we got to know more about the musicians behind the song. It was this band called Sugar Daddy and the Gumbo Roo. We learned about the singer and songwriter Ernest Jackson. A lot of people say I sound like Satchmo, Louis Armstrong. And then when we reached out to him and we talked to him, we were so charmed by him. This is a guy who had been singing and performing from the time he was a teenager.

I started singing at first in nightclubs when I was 14. And I mean, I used to have them jumping all on top of the tables, you know. He had a few brushes with fame, but he spent most of his career as a singing waiter in Baton Rouge. Excellent tips. I got double tips because after I served my party, then I hit them with a beautiful song. But he had also, you know, just raised a family and still was gigging around town. But everyone who had ever met him, who had ever talked to him

was like, this is a guy that should have made it, that would have made it, that could have made it if he had just gotten a chance. Like, he had all this talent. I feel like I had the potential. And I, you know, I haven't given up my dream. I pray on it all the time.

So we set out to release the song. And there were all these complicated music industry things we did. But really, we knew that once people heard Inflation, once people heard Ernest's voice, that the song would just take off. And it did. It has two million streams and counting. And it was even on Ernest's favorite radio station. Today we're shining a light on a song sung by one of Bat Rouge's own. Ernest Jackson, backed by Sugar Daddy and the Gumbo Roo.

The song is called Inflation. It's 47 years old. And Erica, I know Ernest had another big update that he was excited to talk to you about. Right. Well, one of the people who heard Ernest had another big update that he was excited to talk to you about. Right. Well, one of the people who heard Ernest on our show was a television writer and producer named Scott Jacobson. Scott's show is called Bob's Burgers. It is a huge deal animated show.

And Scott had actually written a song for a future episode of Bob's Burgers. It was supposed to be sung by this made-up band called the Soul Breezers that had been huge in the 70s, and he needed to cast someone to sing it. I heard Ernest, and it just seemed kind of serendipitous. We needed a voice that had character, that sounded like somebody who had been singing for a long time, but that also had just joy to it. You know, gravitas, gravely gravitas. Scott says, just like us, as soon as he heard Ernest's voice, he could tell Ernest was special. And so he brought Ernest onto the show.

It was a rare kind of treat to be able to take something that I love and fit it into this world. Ernest's vocals, like he changed the song. He inhabited the song. The song is called Gas in My Car. It's about the gas crisis back in the 70s. In my car, I'm gonna get to you, no matter where you are getting. In my car, I'm gonna roll to you, baby. I still am missing you, I wanna see you soon. If I can't get there, what am I gonna do now? You should be mine tonight. We should be sleeping tight. I'm gonna get there. Because you know if there's gas in my car, I'm gonna get to you, no matter where you are, get in my car. I'm gonna roll to you, baby. Yeah, baby.

Ernest was so excited. He called me after the show. He was just like so hopeful that this would open more doors for him. As we were putting together this update, though, his son, Corey, whom we'd gotten to know while working on this project, he called to tell me the news. I offered my condolences. And then we just spent some time talking about his dad. You know, my dad was my best friend, man. You know, we went everywhere together. We did everything together. Yeah,

he was just a joy to be around. He just, he liked to crack jokes, sing, of course. I mean, we'll be talking and then he'll just start singing. You know, the most, the most thing I'm gonna miss about my dad is his smile. You know, he had a smile that could light up a room. Yep. What was all of this like for him this past year? Oh, man, he was in such good spirits, man. He was so happy about that, you know. And he would not stop playing inflation.

He would not stop playing inflation. You know, he looked at it as a big, it was a break for him. You know, he was ecstatic, man. He was happy. Your father, Ernest Jackson, was like one of the most special people, I think, that I've ever met. And we were honored to be a record label for him. And we were honored to share his great talent with the world.

So thank you. Oh, no problem, man. I mean, he's the type of person that needs to be shared, you know? I'm glad I had him as my father, you know? So, yeah, this is definitely going to be a real rough one, Erica. I'm not going to lie to you. It is. A real rough one, Erica.

I'm not going to lie to you. It is. The first time we met Ernest, producer James Sneed, Sarah Gonzalez, and I spent hours talking with Ernest about songs. There was one in particular that we all loved. Will you give me a little Sam Cooke? Let's see. I got, you know, like a change is going to come. I wrote a song on that.

The same music, but I changed the lyrics. How does it go? It goes like, I was born by the river. Oh, Lord. In a little tent. Oh, and just like the river, I've been running. I've been running ever since.

Oh, it's been a long, a long time coming. But I knew a change had to come. Oh, yes, it did. It's been too hard living. But I'm not afraid to die. Because I think I know what's up there beyond those skies. Oh, it's been a long, a long time coming, but I knew

a change had to come. Oh, yes it did. That's a change in your life when you knew a change had to come because life was dictating it to you. You know? It's a good tune. Yes, it's a good tune. And a special thanks to our funder,

the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, for helping to support this podcast. Support for NPR and the following message come from the Kauffman Foundation, providing access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity, regardless of race, gender, or geography. Kauffman.org. NPR brings you the updates you need on the day's biggest headlines. The Senate narrowly passed the debt ceiling bill that will prevent the country from defaulting on its loans.

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