Quartz Obsession

As individuals, we know it’s not great to have too much debt. But at the macro level, that narrative falls apart. In fact, most governments need some debt to take care of their people, especially in the wake of a crisis like a pandemic. How a country invests in itself—and how its leaders talk about that investment—says a lot about how it sees its future. Sponsored by EY Is your technology moving fast enough to realize your ambitions? Learn more in the latest EY Tech Horizon Survey. Episode art by Eric Helgas, styled by Alex Citrin-Safadi Transcript: https://qz.com/2158771

Between lab-grown meat and veganism going mainstream, we're in an age of abundance for alternative protein options. But one hasn’t been getting as much attention as the others: Edible insects, popular in places like Ghana and Mexico, are nutritious, plentiful, and much less damaging to the environment than, say, a steak. What would it take to put insects in more kitchens around the world? Sponsored by EY. Learn more about sustainable supply chain research from EY. Is your ESG data unlocking long-term value? Episode art by Eric Helgas, styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi Transcript: https://qz.com/2156082

Trust us, the economy has never been more fascinating.

After the release of a great film, it seems natural to us now that they'd want to make another. But this was not always the case. Now that Hollywood seems to almost compulsively turn successful films into franchises, reboots, and cinematic universes, are there good reasons to keep making sequels? Sponsored by Alumni Ventures Photo by Eric Helgas, styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi Transcript: https://qz.com/2144841

Athletes at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics had prosthetics perfectly designed to help them run, jump, or swim as the events required. Now the technology behind those prosthetics is coming to everyday people who need it—and, possibly, to people who don’t. Augmenting able bodies for super-human functions: What could go wrong? Sponsored by Alumni Ventures Photo by Eric Helgas; styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi Transcript: https://qz.com/2141719

They tried to kill disco, but it will never die. The stubbornly upbeat genre came out of an economically turbulent moment—one to which we see a lot of parallels today. So what is it about a crisis that just makes us want to dance? Sponsored by Alumni Ventures Episode art by Eric Helgas, styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi Transcript: https://qz.com/2138049

Fish sticks are more than just an easy way to get kids to eat healthy food. They’re the ocean’s little problem solvers, swimming in to solve a seafood glut after World War II, and to help working parents in need of cheap and easy meals. Now fish sticks might even help solve our latest challenge: an epidemic of global overfishing. Sponsored by Alumni Ventures Photo by Eric Helgas; styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi Transcript: https://qz.com/2133871

It’s the stuff of Bollywood dreams, come to life—the big fat Indian wedding has withstood the test of time, economic turbulence, social reform, and even modern technology. But when you factor in pent-up pandemic demand, can India’s $50 billion industry possibly keep it up? Sponsored by Alumni Ventures Episode art by Eric Helgas; styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi Transcript: https://qz.com/2130303

Google docs has revolutionized the way we work, and now it even functions as a tool for social sharing and political dissent. This is all because the world shifted from saving files locally to storing them in the cloud. But does life in the cloud present risks we aren't thinking about enough? Sponsored by Alumni Ventures Photo by Eric Helgas; styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi Transcript: https://qz.com/2127812

As more people aren’t sure whether or when to have kids, a growing number of them are turning to egg freezing, a relatively new and expensive procedure that could help women become parents outside their biological bounds. But how realistic is any promise of parenthood entirely on your terms? Sponsored by Alumni Ventures Photo by Eric Helgas, styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi Transcript: https://qz.com/2122021

Puffer jackets have been worn by outdoorsmen, rappers, the military, luxury shoppers, and—eventually—everyone. Today, the market is still heating up. But as puffer jackets are worn by more people around the world, the difference between high- and low-end options can be increasingly difficult to parse. Are North Face jackets worth their price tag? Does "puffiness" automatically equal warmth? What do puffers from Prada and Uniqlo have in common? Sponsored by Alumni Ventures Photo by Eric Helgas; styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi Transcript: https://qz.com/2118817

A podcast so nice we're doing it (at least) twice. In season two, Kira and Quartz journalists from around the world dig into the fascinating backstories behind everyday ideas, and what they tell us about the forces changing the way we live and work today.

We learned a lot over the course of season 1. Here are some of our favorite nuggets of information.

In the early 2000s, GE was the world’s most powerful company, and its CEO Jack Welch was a firm believer in the Six Sigma system for eliminating errors in manufacturing. With GE as its poster child, management consultants spread the gospel of Six Sigma to companies everywhere. Now, as GE’s fortunes diminished, so has interest in Six Sigma. But what made this system so special in the first place, and how much is still useful today? Photo by Eric Helgas; styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi Transcript: https://qz.com/2062943

Everyone working from home knows just how painful it is to sit in the wrong kind of chair. Over the course of centuries, the modern office chair has emerged as the pinnacle of ergonomic comfort and support. Today, as a growing number of jobs are behind desks and computers, that design is more important than ever. Photo by Eric Helgas; styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi Transcript: https://qz.com/2084580

After spending decades in relative obscurity, Japanese whisky is finally getting global appreciation for its masterful flavors. Global demand is high, with prices to match. There’s just one problem: There’s no technical definition of Japanese whisky, or formal system to regulate it. Does it matter if not all Japanese whisky is strictly from Japan? Episode art: Photograph by Eric Helgas, styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi Transcript: https://qz.com/2062940

A group of 17 elements make up a little-known group called rare earth metals. They are notoriously tricky to extract, which is unfortunate since they’re key components in smartphones, batteries, motors, and wind turbines, and essential to a clean-energy future. China has a near monopoly on the mining and processing of rare earth metals, but as demand for them rises, other countries are looking to get into the game. Photo by Eric Helgas; styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi Transcript: https://qz.com/2062525

Kudzu, an ornamental vine from Japan, first appeared on US soil in 1876. More than a century later, the plant has proliferated so uncontrollably that it threatens to choke out native plants in the American South. As the world looks for creative solutions to confront climate change, are we fated to keep repeating our same mistakes? Photo by Eric Helgas; styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi Transcript: https://qz.com/2084567

If you’re concerned about sustainability and wellness, chances are you’re a consumer of oat milk, the latest star in the alternative milk scene. But does oat milk have appeal around the world? And who will lose out as big dairy muscles into the alt milk space? Photo by Eric Helgas; styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi Transcript: https://qz.com/2077496

Bigger seat, more legroom, even silk pajamas: Flying business class comes with major perks for travelers. It’s also crucial to the entire airline business model. But given the seats’ outsized carbon footprint, how ethical is it to keep flying business class? Photo by Eric Helgas; styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi Transcript: https://qz.com/2077489

The beat-heavy, electronic music from Nigeria has been gaining a global fan base and is a point of pride across Africa. It’s also finally helping local artists make real money. But is Afrobeats establishing a path to global domination that other genres can follow, or is an entire continent being reduced to one country’s signature sound? Photo by Eric Helgas; styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi Transcript: https://qz.com/2074060

Those internet security tests that ask you to retype blurry numbers or pick out photos of traffic lights have an important job: They stop robots from gumming up the internet. But by using them everywhere, we’re training computers to see the world like we do, and they’re getting really good at it. What happens as it gets harder to prove our humanity online? Photo by Eric Helgas; styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi Transcript: https://qz.com/2060828

The global economy needs true randomness to encrypt messages and make sure elections are honest. But not all randomness is random enough, and humans and computers alike are really bad at generating it. So we turn to natural sources like seismic waves, radioactive decay, and lava lamps (yes, lava lamps) to generate it for us. Photo by Eric Helgas; styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi Transcript: https://qz.com/2062955

It’s anonymous, it’s stable, and it’s accepted pretty much everywhere. And despite the rise of mobile payments and the ubiquity of credit cards, it’s still moving everything around us; more cash is in circulation than ever. We talk about the pros and cons of cash in a world increasingly dominated by mobile payments, and try to figure out if cash is here to stay. Photo by Eric Helgas; styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi Transcript: https://qz.com/2063471

Let's go down the rabbit hole, together. Coming Oct. 12, 2021.