Enervise Inc. recently found someone to fill a $75,000-a-year job. The new hire said he would move to Cincinnati and report to orientation at 8 a.m. on his first Monday. The day before, he emailed to say he had changed his mind. Taken aback, Aaron Dorfman, the recruiting manager for the facility-services and plumbing company, emailed back. No response. “I called, too, and it was just crickets,” he said. Add another head-scratching new feature to the post-Covid employment landscape: A job isn’t f...
May 11, 2022•6 min•Ep. 61
PIGEON FORGE, Tenn.—Tom and Barb Hansen’s search for a retirement spot reads like the script to a road movie. California’s Lake Tahoe. Sedona and Scottsdale in Arizona. The Ozark Mountains of Missouri. Myrtle Beach, S.C. Over a decade or so, the couple traveled the country to imagine life after Mr. Hansen retired as president of a community bank in the suburbs west of Chicago. In 2018, the Hansens, ages 61 and 60, picked rural Sevier County, Tenn. A lot of other people had the same idea. Retiree...
May 10, 2022•6 min•Ep. 62
PIGEON FORGE, Tenn.—Tom and Barb Hansen’s search for a retirement spot reads like the script to a road movie. California’s Lake Tahoe. Sedona and Scottsdale in Arizona. The Ozark Mountains of Missouri. Myrtle Beach, S.C. Over a decade or so, the couple traveled the country to imagine life after Mr. Hansen retired as president of a community bank in the suburbs west of Chicago. In 2018, the Hansens, ages 61 and 60, picked rural Sevier County, Tenn. A lot of other people had the same idea. Retiree...
May 10, 2022•58 sec•Ep. 63
Adal Rifai lives with a severe case of choice paralysis in grocery aisles, which explains the stash of Everything Bagel ice cream in his freezer. Do I taste garlic? The Chicago-based podcaster has a trick to managing his indecision over ice-cream flavors. “If I see 50 different flavors, and I see some kind of novelty flavor, something that’s off-the-wall,” says Mr. Rifai, 39, “I’ll always go with that.” So the bagel flavor was the obvious choice when he discovered it—a cream-cheese concoction wi...
May 09, 2022•50 sec•Ep. 64
Adal Rifai lives with a severe case of choice paralysis in grocery aisles, which explains the stash of Everything Bagel ice cream in his freezer. Do I taste garlic? The Chicago-based podcaster has a trick to managing his indecision over ice-cream flavors. “If I see 50 different flavors, and I see some kind of novelty flavor, something that’s off-the-wall,” says Mr. Rifai, 39, “I’ll always go with that.” So the bagel flavor was the obvious choice when he discovered it—a cream-cheese concoction wi...
May 09, 2022•6 min•Ep. 65
In a country with more than a million licensed lawyers, it isn’t easy to distinguish the best among them. There’s no gold-dipped Oscar statuette or Olympic medal awarded to attorneys. Instead, validation often takes the form of small wooden plaques, which are plastered all over the office walls and websites of the legal profession. Demand for these plaques is considerable—at least judging by the array of companies offering them. Among them are the “Best Attorneys of America,” “America’s Top 50 L...
May 06, 2022•45 sec•Ep. 66
In a country with more than a million licensed lawyers, it isn’t easy to distinguish the best among them. There’s no gold-dipped Oscar statuette or Olympic medal awarded to attorneys. Instead, validation often takes the form of small wooden plaques, which are plastered all over the office walls and websites of the legal profession. Demand for these plaques is considerable—at least judging by the array of companies offering them. Among them are the “Best Attorneys of America,” “America’s Top 50 L...
May 06, 2022•6 min•Ep. 67
So which do you hit, the cart or the horse? Which do you hit, yourself or your problems? If you start questioning which you should hit, that means you have already started to wander about. But when you actually hit the horse, the cart will go. In truth, the cart and the horse are not different. When you are you, there is no problem of whether you should hit the cart or the horse. When you are you, zazen becomes true zazen. So when you practice zazen, your problem will practice zazen, and everyth...
May 05, 2022•3 min•Ep. 68
The NFT market is collapsing. The sale of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, fell to a daily average of about 19,000 this week, a 92% decline from a peak of about 225,000 in September, according to the data website NonFungible. The number of active wallets in the NFT market fell 88% to about 14,000 last week from a high of 119,000 in November. NFTs are bitcoin-like digital tokens that act like a certificate of ownership that live on a blockchain. Rising interest rates have crushed risky bets across th...
May 05, 2022•42 sec•Ep. 69
The NFT market is collapsing. The sale of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, fell to a daily average of about 19,000 this week, a 92% decline from a peak of about 225,000 in September, according to the data website NonFungible. The number of active wallets in the NFT market fell 88% to about 14,000 last week from a high of 119,000 in November. NFTs are bitcoin-like digital tokens that act like a certificate of ownership that live on a blockchain. Rising interest rates have crushed risky bets across th...
May 05, 2022•6 min•Ep. 70
The pandemic caused serious worries for those traveling the world’s oceans on sailboats , and also silly ones. Australian Guy Chester, alone on the 52-foot GC Sanctuary somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, had just finished season six of “Game of Thrones,” and really wanted the final two seasons. Mr. Chester broadcast a TV-related SOS. In French Polynesia, where the 58-year-old environmental and eco-tourism consultant wasn’t allowed to disembark until going through quarantine, another Australian craf...
May 04, 2022•41 sec•Ep. 71
The pandemic caused serious worries for those traveling the world’s oceans on sailboats , and also silly ones. Australian Guy Chester, alone on the 52-foot GC Sanctuary somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, had just finished season six of “Game of Thrones,” and really wanted the final two seasons. Mr. Chester broadcast a TV-related SOS. In French Polynesia, where the 58-year-old environmental and eco-tourism consultant wasn’t allowed to disembark until going through quarantine, another Australian craf...
May 04, 2022•6 min•Ep. 72
WASHINGTON—On a recent sunny spring day, cardinals, meadowlarks and bobolinks flit through the wooded patch between Kenilworth Marsh and the Anacostia River. A serpentine concrete bike and foot path winds through this pastoral stretch just blocks from a dense working-class neighborhood, but nobody is here. Steps away, a dozen or so neighbors jog and power walk on a synthetic city track. Walkers and bikers say they are afraid of the path through the woods after a series of recent attacks. Cliff R...
May 03, 2022•50 sec•Ep. 73
WASHINGTON—On a recent sunny spring day, cardinals, meadowlarks and bobolinks flit through the wooded patch between Kenilworth Marsh and the Anacostia River. A serpentine concrete bike and foot path winds through this pastoral stretch just blocks from a dense working-class neighborhood, but nobody is here. Steps away, a dozen or so neighbors jog and power walk on a synthetic city track. Walkers and bikers say they are afraid of the path through the woods after a series of recent attacks. Cliff R...
May 03, 2022•5 min•Ep. 74
OMAHA, Neb.—As recently as February, Warren Buffett lamented he wasn’t finding much out there that was worth buying. That is no longer the case. After a yearslong deal drought, Mr. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. BRK.B -2.55% is opening up the spending spigot again. It forged an $11.6 billion deal to buy insurer Alleghany Corp . Y -0.62% , poised to be Berkshire’s biggest acquisition in six years. It bought millions of shares of HP Inc . HPQ -2.53% and Occidental Petroleum Corp . OXY -3.40% An...
May 02, 2022•40 sec•Ep. 75
OMAHA, Neb.—As recently as February, Warren Buffett lamented he wasn’t finding much out there that was worth buying. That is no longer the case. After a yearslong deal drought, Mr. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. BRK.B -2.55% is opening up the spending spigot again. It forged an $11.6 billion deal to buy insurer Alleghany Corp . Y -0.62% , poised to be Berkshire’s biggest acquisition in six years. It bought millions of shares of HP Inc . HPQ -2.53% and Occidental Petroleum Corp . OXY -3.40% An...
May 02, 2022•6 min•Ep. 76
Every night, Sebastian Soto gets ready for bed. He brushes his teeth. He puts on his pajamas. And he travels back to a simpler time. “I cannot go to sleep if I’m not watching ‘Sabrina, the Teenage Witch,’ ” said Mr. Soto. He’s usually out after 10 minutes. Mr. Soto, 34 years old, discovered several years ago the lulling effect that the entertainment of his youth can have on him, a security blanket atop his regular ones. When he introduced his husband, a fellow 34-year-old, to the ritual, he was ...
Apr 29, 2022•42 sec•Ep. 77
Every night, Sebastian Soto gets ready for bed. He brushes his teeth. He puts on his pajamas. And he travels back to a simpler time. “I cannot go to sleep if I’m not watching ‘Sabrina, the Teenage Witch,’ ” said Mr. Soto. He’s usually out after 10 minutes. Mr. Soto, 34 years old, discovered several years ago the lulling effect that the entertainment of his youth can have on him, a security blanket atop his regular ones. When he introduced his husband, a fellow 34-year-old, to the ritual, he was ...
Apr 29, 2022•4 min•Ep. 78
Apple Inc. AAPL -0.15%▼ is making it easier for customers and independent repair technicians to perform surgery on some iPhones and Macs. After years of resisting DIY repairs, Apple opened a new online store Wednesday where anyone can view repair manuals and order replacement parts and tools for certain recent devices. The new Self Service Repair Store sells screens, batteries, cameras and other parts to fix some issues with iPhone 12 and 13 models and 2022’s updated iPhone SE. Later this year, ...
Apr 28, 2022•40 sec•Ep. 79
Apple Inc. AAPL -0.15%▼ is making it easier for customers and independent repair technicians to perform surgery on some iPhones and Macs. After years of resisting DIY repairs, Apple opened a new online store Wednesday where anyone can view repair manuals and order replacement parts and tools for certain recent devices. The new Self Service Repair Store sells screens, batteries, cameras and other parts to fix some issues with iPhone 12 and 13 models and 2022’s updated iPhone SE. Later this year, ...
Apr 28, 2022•5 min•Ep. 80
SANTA BARBARA, Calif.—Business has boomed for Chick-fil-A franchisee Travis Collins during the pandemic, thanks to surging appetite for chicken sandwiches from his drive-through window. Now he’s throwing the works at controlling the lines of cars spilling onto surrounding streets. The city council in this affluent coastal city has proposed declaring his drive-through a public nuisance. Neighbors and city officials say customers hungry enough to brave the crowded lot for Chick-n-Strips or the sig...
Apr 27, 2022•43 sec•Ep. 81
SANTA BARBARA, Calif.—Business has boomed for Chick-fil-A franchisee Travis Collins during the pandemic, thanks to surging appetite for chicken sandwiches from his drive-through window. Now he’s throwing the works at controlling the lines of cars spilling onto surrounding streets. The city council in this affluent coastal city has proposed declaring his drive-through a public nuisance. Neighbors and city officials say customers hungry enough to brave the crowded lot for Chick-n-Strips or the sig...
Apr 27, 2022•5 min•Ep. 82
Twitter Inc. TWTR 5.66% on Monday accepted Elon Musk ’s bid to take over the company, which would give the world’s richest man control over the social-media network where he is also among its most influential users. The $44 billion deal marks the close of a dramatic courtship and a change of heart at Twitter, where many executives and board members initially opposed Mr. Musk’s takeover approach. The deal has polarized Twitter employees, users and regulators over the power tech giants wield in de...
Apr 26, 2022•44 sec•Ep. 83
Twitter Inc. TWTR 5.66% on Monday accepted Elon Musk ’s bid to take over the company, which would give the world’s richest man control over the social-media network where he is also among its most influential users. The $44 billion deal marks the close of a dramatic courtship and a change of heart at Twitter, where many executives and board members initially opposed Mr. Musk’s takeover approach. The deal has polarized Twitter employees, users and regulators over the power tech giants wield in de...
Apr 26, 2022•5 min•Ep. 84
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is shifting monetary tightening into a higher gear. His goal sounds straightforward—lift interest rates to “neutral,” a setting that neither spurs nor slows growth. But there’s a catch: Even in normal times, no one knows where this theoretical level is. And these aren’t normal times. There are good reasons to think the ground beneath the central bank’s feet is shifting and that, after accounting for elevated inflation, neutral may be higher than officials’ ...
Apr 25, 2022•33 sec•Ep. 85
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is shifting monetary tightening into a higher gear. His goal sounds straightforward—lift interest rates to “neutral,” a setting that neither spurs nor slows growth. But there’s a catch: Even in normal times, no one knows where this theoretical level is. And these aren’t normal times. There are good reasons to think the ground beneath the central bank’s feet is shifting and that, after accounting for elevated inflation, neutral may be higher than officials’ ...
Apr 25, 2022•4 min•Ep. 86
Elon Musk said he has lined up $46.5 billion to fund his bid for Twitter Inc., TWTR 0.59% ▲ answering the biggest question that had loomed over his takeover offer. In a regulatory filing, Mr. Musk also said he was considering taking his offer straight to Twitter shareholders , bypassing a board that appears dug in. Twitter said Thursday it was reviewing the newly detailed proposal. The financing commitments—about half in bank debt and half in cash promised by Mr. Musk himself—lend credibility to...
Apr 22, 2022•49 sec•Ep. 87
Elon Musk said he has lined up $46.5 billion to fund his bid for Twitter Inc., TWTR 0.59% ▲ answering the biggest question that had loomed over his takeover offer. In a regulatory filing, Mr. Musk also said he was considering taking his offer straight to Twitter shareholders , bypassing a board that appears dug in. Twitter said Thursday it was reviewing the newly detailed proposal. The financing commitments—about half in bank debt and half in cash promised by Mr. Musk himself—lend credibility to...
Apr 22, 2022•6 min•Ep. 88
Ready to re-create a more normal social life ? Take this opportunity to rethink your circle of friends . We are in a rare moment when we can rebuild our social networks better than they were before the pandemic. Many of us have reflected over the past two years on the things that are truly important and make us happiest at work and at home. Now it is time to do this with our friendships, weighing who matters, what is missing and how to build our A-team. The variety and quality of the friends we ...
Apr 21, 2022•51 sec•Ep. 89
Ready to re-create a more normal social life ? Take this opportunity to rethink your circle of friends . We are in a rare moment when we can rebuild our social networks better than they were before the pandemic. Many of us have reflected over the past two years on the things that are truly important and make us happiest at work and at home. Now it is time to do this with our friendships, weighing who matters, what is missing and how to build our A-team. The variety and quality of the friends we ...
Apr 21, 2022•5 min•Ep. 90
