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Make Me Smart, where we make today make sense. We try. I'm Amy Scott in for Kai, Rizdall. Thank you for joining us on this Wednesday. It is a hot July 10th, at least where we are. Yes, because we, Amy and I are both in the Mid-Atlantic region, Amy's in Baltimore. I'm in DC. Look, it's nothing compared to what they're going through in the Southwest, like hands down prayers and sympathy for all of you all. But it's hot. I saw a couple of jokes. There's
this account called Overheard DC that has all these funny things that people are overheard saying in DC. And there's a lot of commentary about all these NATO diplomats in town. Oh yeah, it's like all the Europeans coming in. It's like, hey, welcome to hell. In their suits. In their suits, who used to their mild European climates and well, not mild anymore. Thank you climate change. But anyway, it's
hot. It's going to be the story of, you know, the future because of choices we have all made in the past, but we can make different choices in the future. And speaking of the future, we are going to move forward and do what we usually do. Some news and some smiles. Let us start with the news. Amy, what you got.
Okay, well, I am worried about my generation today. I learned that the oldest members of generation X are turning 59 and a half this month. That is if you are trusting one definition, which is that the first gen Xers were born in January of 1965. But the significance of that age is that that means they could start with drawing money from retirement accounts like 401Ks without paying a penalty.
But I read this in a story that also says we are the least prepared generation for retirement, at least according to ourselves. This comes from Axios, a piece by Felix Salmon, who got hold of a new survey from BlackRock and will link to that in the show notes. But it found that among Gen X only 60% of us feel on track for retirement compared to 68% of baby boomers 72% of millennials.
And 77% of Gen Z though I have to wonder if the youngest workers are just too far away to really be worrying about it at this point. But anyway, we have the lowest confidence about retirement of any generation and another survey from Aliens, the insurance company found similar results.
It's always thinking, OK, this is just how we feel, but I looked up the median 401K account balance for generation X and according to fidelity, it's $54,500, which you know, if you are nearing retirement is not very much. And apparently Gen X, we began saving on average much later at age 36 compared to 27 for millennials age 20 for Gen Z. So I think, you know, we are behind, which is a little bit troubling. And you know, it's of course never too late to start saving, but that is worrisome.
And as I think about it, and I hadn't given this much thought until I was just listening to you talk, I feel like Gen X was in this really is in this really tough spot where you all started your careers when pensions were still a thing, but we're unlikely to be eligible for pensions.
And as when I started my career as a millennial, everyone kind of knew pensions were out the door and we were encouraged early and often to start saving for retirement like 401K's or 403B's if you're in the nonprofit space. And I started my career when employer matches were a thing and there was a lot of education around that when I entered the workforce in a way that I don't think there may have been for Gen X because a lot of Gen X folks were surrounded by people in the pension system.
And had and those numbers that you were saying were Jen's millennial started saving at 27, whereas Gen X didn't start saving until their 30s that lines right up with roughly that gap between, you know, entering the workforce right and when you might get that education about needing to put into your retirement or needing to, you know, put into a 401K or something like that.
And I also wonder if that was before 401K enrollment was automatic like you had to actually opt in and now in many cases, I think you're just automatically enrolled and start contributing when you start working, which could also be automatic and you have to opt out of it. One of the interesting things about that black rock study though was the biggest disparity in confidence about retirement was was actually by gender.
They found that men were 30% more likely to be confident about having enough for retirement. Only 59% of women feel on track compared to 75% of men, which I thought was also really striking. And I also reflect caregiving though because women are more likely to, you know, have taken a financial hit from being a caregiver at some point in their careers and are more likely to be the people asked to do caregiving for older relatives later in life.
And so I think when women are answering that question, they're not just thinking about themselves, but their ability to kind of manage while knowing what kind of caregiving responsibilities they're likely to take on. Yeah, we're to have left the workforce temporarily for caregiving and not saving during that time. Or just taking the financial hit because men make more money when they become parents, whereas men make women make less money when they become parents, which is just terrible and wild.
Anyway, super interesting stuff. I mean, we were talking about generational wealth gaps the other day. And I think this is really going to start becoming a much bigger story as we keep getting this data.
We keep seeing, you know, as the boomers continue to retire and that's going to shape the economy in really interesting ways as they leave the workforce as they start drawing more on healthcare systems as younger generations start, you know, needing to be caring for their parents and older relatives while also caring for their children. And, you know, also needing to create the tax base to support older generations and the promises our government has made to them.
It's about to be really fraught in a way that I don't think many of us are prepared for. Yep. So what you're looking at today. So, we're looking at generations. Let's jump down to Jen Alpha. And as much as we should all be kind on the internet and tell each other to be kind on the internet, please for the love of God, tell your children to be kind on the internet because there is a horrifying story out of Pennsylvania,
in the New York Times, where the seventh and eighth graders in Malvern, Pennsylvania created all of these false TikTok accounts impersonating their teachers and posting, quoting from the times here, disparaging, lewd, racist and homophobic videos in the first known mass attack of its kind in the United States.
They're calling teachers pedophiles, they're making innuendos about teachers having relationships with each other, you know, making really inappropriate comments about these teachers' families and doing it like in mass. And these teachers are traumatized and horrified and then have to show up in school. And there's very little that the school administration can do about it because these are minors and TikTok and these social media platforms don't give them a lot of tools to fight back.
And all of these kids are, you know, creating these accounts, they're looking at these accounts and these teachers have to show up to school every day and teach while the kids are basically viewing this awful content about them. And it's, it's really mean, it's really cruel and what was really sad for me when I was reading this article is that when the students were confronted about it, the a lot of the students were just like, oh, it's a joke, the teachers are blowing it out of proportion.
And I'm just going to read a couple of these quotes, move on, learn to joke, the other students said about a teacher, I'm 13 years old, she added using an expletive for emphasis and you're like 40 going on 50. And in emails to the New York Times, one of the students said that the fake teacher accounts were intended as obvious jokes, but that some students had taken the impersonations too far. It's like there doesn't seem to be any more worse about it. And the story can be self-awareness.
Yeah, about how damaging the stuff can be to people. And so in addition to please everybody be kind on the internet, please tell your children to be kind on the internet. You never know when you're going to push somebody too far. You never know where somebody is.
And even worse than like a kid, you know, ending up with a black mark on their student records or a bad reference or whatever, can you imagine the trauma if a child does something like this, thinking they're making a joke and they push somebody too far. And it really causes harm. That's something a kid's not going to get over. So just please tell your kids to be kind on the internet. Oh, the dark place thing. There it is. I forgot about that. I went to a dark place. Yeah, so kind everybody.
It was supposed to be an action oriented thing. Be kind. No, it is. That's good. Well, and we can bring it around to, I don't know if you saw at the end of the year, there was this SNL skit, Saturday Night Lives Kit, Y'all won. All these teachers. I'm celebrating the end of the school year and basically saying, Y'all isn't you students won. You you you you have you got us. You've broken us. You've broken us. You've broken us and it made me think of that just in a much much more.
Sad way, but teachers have so much on their shoulders already. I just I really feel for them in this era because things that were hurtful when they were just a nasty note written on the chalkboard or passed around. They just are magnified, you know, so many times by social media and and it's hard. So I hope teachers are out there getting to rest this summer. Yes, teachers deserve their summers off. And I wish that we paid them more so that they could actually fully take their summers off.
So you know what, here's an action thing that folks can do. If you want to support the teachers in your community, a lot of the teachers will put their wish lists on Amazon or on other websites. Go online and figure out the wish list for a teacher in your neighborhood, whether you have kids or not and get them something nice. And a lot of the times I've looked at some of the wish list for teachers in my area. And sometimes they just want things to make their classroom a nicer place.
And so I try to get the things on the wish list that are just like for the teacher, you know, just to make their lives a little bit easier. That is so nice. Go online. Go online and do something nice for a teacher because this is what they are dealing with in the classroom. So there, taking us out of the dark place. Let's move on to the smiles. Sounds good. All right, Amy, what you got? So this summer, the Olympics in Paris are going to be very sparkly, at least in gymnastics.
So two stories today about this. It must be coordinated somehow. The New York Times headline, I'm just going to read is the US gymnast have already set an Olympic record for crystals. The subhead in Paris, Simone Biles and company will be wearing Leotards decorated with with more than 10,000 crystals. So every competition, it seems that the company that designs the women's Leotards for the gymnastics team, they're called GK Elite adds more crystals to these Leotards in 2016 and Rio.
There are about 5,000 in 2021 in Tokyo, it was 6400. Now they've outdone themselves again among the eight options that gymnasts have is one called luminous legacy with more than 10,000 crystals on a base of red, white and blue. Another one is called Freedom's Grace that the Times describes as sort of a Leotard meets lingerie gown and has 3500 crystals and just under a thousand pearls.
And apparently these can get quite heavy, but the athletes really seem to love them and advances in technology have allowed the company to put on more and more crystals that they buy from Souroskies of their super sparkly. But I love this quote from the gymnast, Sunisa Lee, who was the Tokyo Olympic all around gold medalist and is currently on the national team.
She said, quote, I am obsessed with how the lights of the arena reflect off the crystals. I'm always telling GK I need more retail these outfits cost about wood cost about $5,000 each. So this is super expensive. And again, they each have eight of them and then they bring a couple of spares apparently. But today the Washington Post also had a story about this collection and how they're made had a factory in Pennsylvania with some really cool visuals that show this process.
And the former chief of design at GK Elite is quoted as saying, I think we've hit the maximum crystal threshold. We're pretty maxed out on sparkle and shine. But we'll see. They might just keep getting sparklier. I feel like this needs to be like some sort of brand maximum crystal threshold. Right. I know. Sparkles. What was that? What was it a cheerleading movie once where they were talking about the jazz hands?
Oh, yeah. Was that yeah, I'm thinking of like bring it on. Was it bring it on? Yes. No, was it bring it on? No, it was something else. Anyway, I'm sure somebody will know. Okay. So here's mine. Shrek five as a release date. Did you know that there are already five? Yes. I didn't know there are that many. Yes. There there will now be five Shrek's Shrek five is set for 2026 release and several of those big names are coming back Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz.
And this will be timed to the franchise is 25th anniversary. There's a way to make you feel old. Oh my god. Start it. Since the generational things. This is the theme of the show today. I know 25 years since this company decided to make a mockery of Disney in the pettiest move ever.
So yeah, so this feature I'm reading from the Hollywood reporter here. The feature has long been in development and will arrive 16 years after the previous entry Shrek forever after which bowed in 2020 in 2010 and earned 750 to 0.6 million globally. I just want to read a little bit more about Shrek just because we're going down memory lane. The series based on William Steeck's book was hugely successful for Dreamworks, which was then led by Katzenberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg.
And the Shrek Empire, including a pair of feline focused, push and boot spin-offs is the second biggest animated franchise of all time at the box office, grossing $2.9 billion globally. It's also spawned a touring show and a Broadway musical. Dang, that's a franchise. That is quite the franchise. I just took my kids to see or one of my kids to see. This picked me for last night. So you know, it's getting up there too. And I, you know, it was pretty good.
Has staying power. Did you see inside out to? Yes, we also saw that which I loved. The teenage brain is a fascinating thing. I haven't just leave it there. I liked the first inside out movie. I need to go see the second one. Yeah, I think anyone who has ever been a teenager or knows a teenager should see it. Well, that is it for us today. If you have any thoughts, questions, trips down memory lane, thoughts on generational warfare comments you'd like to share with us.
So you can email us at makemesmart at marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508 UB Smart. MakemeSmart is produced by Courtney Bergseeker. Ellen Ralfes writes our newsletter. Today's program was engineered by J C-Bold. Ben Taldé and Daniel Amira composed our theme music, our senior producers, Marissa Cabrera. Bridget Baudner is the director of podcasts and Francesca Levy is the executive director of digital. These are not spirit fingers. These are spirit fingers. These are gold.
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