¶ Intro
Welcome to Pick of the Pods, the podcast. This is the audio companion to the Pick of the Pods newsletter, which delivers your weekly recommendation of the one podcast you should be listening to right now. The podcast version of Pick of the Pods goes deeper. I'm talking direct to the people who make some of those great podcasts to find out how they do what they do and to hear about what they're listening to.
My guest on this episode works for one of the biggest, oldest, and most respected news organizations in the world and is host of its weekly podcast, Reuters Econ World. Welcome to Pick of the Pods, Carmel Crims.
¶ Carmel Crimmins
Hey Robin, great to be here.
Great to see you, Carmel. Where are you speaking to us from?
I'm speaking to you from Dublin.
And that's where you make the podcast?
It is indeed, although it's a team effort, so we have um people in London and we have people in New York as well.
What is Reuters Econ World?
So it's a weekly vodcast. We moved to video a few months back, um, looking at kind of the economic angles behind the news. So we try and pivot off the kind of the big themes or or news items that are going on in the world, right? So, you know, for instance, when we had um the uh the launch of the war in Iran, for instance, we quickly scrambled and probably cancelled whatever we had planned for for that week's pod to focus on, you know, the idea of a supply shock, right?
So we try and take like an economic principle or idea, you know, it could be geopolitical risk, it could be supply shocks, inflation, uh, safe havens, and try and use that term to dig into what's going on beneath the news.
And
¶ What's Reuters?
uh tell us what Reuters is. I know what Reuters is because I've worked there for 20 years. But for anyone who doesn't, um tell us about that, and presumably working as part of that, you've got access to a huge resource which is the journalists.
Yeah, no, Reuters is it's a it's a fabulous organization, really. It's it's one of the world's biggest independent news organizations, and it kind of fulfills many different roles. One of the main ones though is it's like we're the wholesale supplier of news. So we supply news to the world's news companies, whether they be um, you know, newspapers, I suppose in in old world terms, or websites or broadcast.
So often when you're sitting at home wherever you may be watching, you know, your your your news or or watching YouTube and you're seeing footage from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Australia, wherever, it's often been supplied by Reuters with a script as well. Um and we have journalists, text, um, uh video photographers all over the world, Pulitzer Prize winners, and we we cover the whole waterfront of news, you know, politics, sport, obviously financial markets as well, big focus for us.
And so having a weekly podcast which kind of riffs off kind of the economic uh economic angles behind the news, I'm so lucky that I can tap into all of the journalists that we have who you know report on everything from macroeconomics to central banks to you know finance ministries. So I'm I'm very lucky. It's a great organization.
Why did you focus in on economic news? I guess Reuters uh is uh an economic uh news agency, but it also covers literally everything.
Yeah. Well we have a number of different shows, right? So we so it it's kind of interesting. Reuters, as I say, you know, traditionally would have been seen as a wholesale supplier of news, but we've increasingly focused on you know you know getting to getting the news direct to consumers, right? So having our own kind of customer-facing um platforms, whether that's our our app or our website, and then also podcasts.
So in addition to Econ World, which is is a weekly show, goes out, comes out every Wednesday, um, we actually have a daily news um show as well, Reuters World News. So it's it's 10 minutes, um publishes every day at 6 a.m. Eastern, and that covers, I suppose, all of the kind of the breaking news, the news that you would need to know.
So we decided to, once that was launched, pivot into maybe economics and and sort of financial news uh more deeply once we'd got that show launched, which happened over three years ago, and Reuters Econ World's coming up to its second year anniversary soon.
Right, well, let's hear a bit of it. I'm asking each of my guests to bring in three clips from their shows. And tell us about this first one. This you obviously enjoyed this one a lot because we're going back ooh well over a year and a half now, but it's a it's a it's a lovely subject. Swift and Swiftonomics, yeah. Tell us
¶ Clip 1: Swiftonomics
about this, uh Claire.
Robin, this one's a keeper. I love this because it it hit hit all the markers. It first of all, it it's Taylor Swift, right? So everyone, everyone loves a bit of Tay-Tay. Second of all, it was a it was kind of pivoting off a story or a piece of honestly piece of reporting or research that a correspondent, uh one of my favourite correspondents, Balash Karani, had done out of Frankfurt. Now, Balash is he's an interesting guy, he's our chief ECB correspondent.
Uh, he also happens to be a former Olympian, actually. He was a middle distance runner for Hungary. But he went off and really dug into this whole idea of Swiftonomics, which is this idea that um, you know, Taylor Swift's Eras tour would give an economic boost to whatever city it rocked up in. And, you know, he was he was very analytical about it.
He focused on, you know, took a test case, focused on Stockholm, looked at the benefits, and actually, I don't want to give it away, but you know, spoiler alert, uh Swiftonomics isn't really a thing. It's a nice buzzword, but actually the economic impact, uh it actually Swiftonomics Swifties crowd out other economic players, so you don't actually get certainly not a long-term economic boost. Um, so it was great because he was a great guest, the topic was great.
Yeah, I don't I had a lot of fun with this one.
So I had it again, and basically I came to the conclusion that Swiftonomics is as good as it sounds, it's just it's really not real. You have a temporary marginal impact in certain communities, certain industries, but when it comes to the broader picture, it really doesn't make a difference.
So, what is happening? People are spending a lot of money, right?
Yeah, so let's take a case study because I think case studies tend to illustrate points a lot better than just concepts that we've talked about. So we talked about Sweden for a second, Beyonce going to Sweden having an impact on inflation. But Taylor Swift also came through Stockholm, and Stockholm is a perfect example because A, Beyonce had already been there, right? B because it's a relatively small economy, so if you're going to have an impact, it's easier to measure it on a smaller economy.
And C, Sweden is such a well-organized Nordic country that they already have plenty of statistics for us to look at and measure the actual impact. So I started to go through the numbers in Sweden, and there were a couple of points. So point number one, Americans flocking to Sweden are bringing in lots of new and fresh income.
Yeah.
I looked at booking numbers. That's actually true. If you look at arrivals from the United States, you had on the magnitude of 30%, I think a 31-32% increase in foreign arrivals from the United States. That's a huge jump. That's an absolutely massive jump. But others didn't come. Arrivals from Norway, from Denmark, from Great Britain dropped. Right. Domestic tourism dropped.
Okay.
And when you add it up all the guest nights in hotels, you actually saw a drop, which is counterintuitive. Yeah. It basically turns out that all the Swifties coming to Sweden basically crowded out other people who decided not to come, went elsewhere outside Sweden, or just stayed at home. And the overall impact on bookings was actually negative. So there was no boost for hotels in terms of rooms sold.
So Balash, your reporting suggests that Swiftonomics doesn't exist for Europe. What have Swifties made of your conclusion?
Well, it hasn't been positive, I will admit. Some people have come after me. I got a little bit of hate mail. Not too much, unfortunately. I was hoping for a bit more.
You don't mind being a hater. I'm sorry.
And I drag people down, and why not just enjoy the moment and and why not be positive about it? Oh. But so A, as a central banking correspondent, I don't get mail at all. Especially not hate mail. So it's really nice to get feedback. Um but I'm also into numbers.
Yeah.
You know, I think numbers tell the story and and numbers don't lie.
So what economic benefit could we link to Taylor Swift in Europe? Does she maybe lift consumer sentiment, or does it all get shaken off?
I think if if she makes a difference, then this is exactly where she makes a difference. As in a lot of the economy depends on sentiment. And when people feel good about themselves, about their lives, they're happy. Yeah. They become more confident and they spend more easily. And confidence has this snowballing effect. Confident economies produce more growth. And once you have more growth, companies start to become more confident and start to spend on investments as well.
Yeah.
Now keep in mind this is small scale, right? So and this is all anecdotal. Taylor Swift is not going to turn the European economy around. Yeah. But generally speaking, in the summertime, when people feel better about themselves, they spend more freely. Yeah. That generates a bit more income on the tax revenue side. And if that's persistent enough, then it's going to impact corporate sentiment as well.
And once corporate sentiment starts to improve, then companies start to spend more on their investments. And that's the crucial part that is missing in the European economy right now. Investment is very, very low. Credit is essentially credit growth is at zero. Companies don't want to spend. So that's really where the European economy needs a lot of help.
So that was my guest, Carmel Crims, talking about Swiftonomics there, which yeah, you're breaking hearts here, Carmel. I mean, Taylor Swift, is there nothing
¶ Breaking Swifties' hearts
Taylor Swift can't do? The answer is, well, maybe she doesn't, you know, reverse declines in GDP growth or whatever, which we all just thought if Taylor rocks into town, your economy is saved. But what you what your podcast is saying there is, yeah, maybe not, because a lot of this activity, the hotels would be busy anyway. So I mean, do you really believe that having done that episode, do you really believe that was the case?
I find it hard to believe that a big event like a a massive concert like that, it must have some impact on the local economy.
Yeah, so I mean he Balash just looked at Stockholm as a as a kind of a test case, and and it was indeed the case. And in fact, you know, yes, the kind of the Swifties from overseas, they crowded out domestic tourists. They actually didn't stay as long as well. So in some cases, the impact, say for instance, on hotel bookings was was not as positive at all. Um however, uh, you know, Taylor Swift definitely lifts the spirits of her fans, right? And and they're they are legions.
So perhaps, you know, it might be difficult to capture in the data, but maybe um Taylor gives you know consumers themselves a sort of a boost, which may also then filter down into businesses and and um you know overall demand. That that was that was our positive spin anyway.
Oh thank goodness you had a silver lining.
He got a bit of hate mail about it from the um from the Swifties, but that was okay with him. He's he's not used to getting mail covering haters gonna hate is all I got all I can say.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
Okay, fantastic. Tell us about yourself then. Uh what else have you done in Reuters? Reuters is all over the world. I've worked there myself in various places around the world. What's your story? How did you where did you first start and where have you been? What have you done?
Yeah, so I've I've been all over with them and I I've been with them a long time.
¶ Carmel's journey towards podcasting
I actually joined straight out of college. So I've I've been with Reuters for many years, and you know, perhaps like yourself, got the opportunity to travel. So I've been, you know, worked from from London, um, Germany, the Philippines, um, back home to Ireland, New York, huge variety, and you know, a huge variety of stories as well. I mean, the the Philippines in particular was like a standout.
I was um the deputy bureau chief there, and you just you covered everything from you know volcanoes and earthquakes to um communist rebellions, uh military coups, the whole waterfront. It was when I think about it, it's a fantastic time. Um so yeah, I've been all over and primarily a text journalist, really. And and I suppose, you know, certainly in the last few years before I got into podcasting was very much focused on financial services.
So I I run I ran our Wall Street team when I was based in New York. So um podcasting just came around as an opportunity and I just I decided to leap at it. And you know, it's been such a privilege because you know I've been a text journalist, I suppose, for over 20 years, and and to get the opportunity to try something new is just is fantastic.
I'd be really interested to hear what you think the differences are between text journalism and podcasting, because I've done it, I did exactly the same thing. I was a text journalist, and yeah, you you dabble a little bit in in video news if you're at Reuters, um, but not so much audio. I have my own opinions on the similarities and differences. How did it seem to you transitioning from one to the other?
Yeah, it's so it's fascinating, and actually, you know, as I say, we're we're uh you know what there's way more than just myself on on the podcasting team and Reuters, and we've got a team of people, and and and people come from different backgrounds, and it's interesting how you sort of all bring your own sort of specialities or or maybe even quirks with you.
But for me, the big change was in the first iteration, because we we launched Reuters World News, which is our sort of flagship um news show, as audio, and so it was very much writing to the sound. Um, and so that was something that I had to get used to because traditionally, as a text journalist, you're sort of you know it's called your lead paragraph, your opening paragraph, you're trying to get the whole who, what, why, when, where.
Whereas for audio, you're you're writing to whatever sound you have, and then we shifted to video um in the fall of last year. So then it was like writing to the to the images as well. And and that was also was a new challenge because some listen some people listen to the pod audio only, some people watch it. So you have to cover both bases, so to make sure that there is sound and to make sure that the pictures make sense, you know, sort of join up with the words.
So that that was something that was new for sure. Yeah, and then also just the whole technical aspect of it. I mean, as a text journalist, you're sort of you're you're so lucky. You just you know, you get out your laptop, you you you tap out, you know, you're a kind of a keyboard warrior, off you get, you know, off you go.
Whereas, you know, yourself for for podcasting, uh the recording has to be correct, the microphone has to work, you know, you need to make sure that the the sound is is correct, that the setting works. So that as well was definitely um more of a challenge for me personally.
Yeah, well, talking to technical challenges, I think someone's driving a tractor or something. No, there's a there's a removal truck outside my window. Hey, it adds to the authenticity, and that's what that's what podcasts are are all about, right? The authenticity. Yeah, I mean, I I uh yeah, I mean I've transitioned into video podcasts as well, a bit a bit reluctantly, really, because for me the joy of audio
¶ Video podcasts
really was like it was a bit like written content, but just longer. And uh and you didn't have to worry too much about certainly about the pictures when it was audio only. I mean, for a video podcast like the one we're recording right now, if anyone's listening to this, they can go and watch it on uh on the pop pick of the pod uh YouTube channel. Yeah, but it really is just well, the benefit they'll have is if any guests bring in their own video clips, as you will for your second one.
Your first one was audio only, the one we're about to hear, we can also watch. But really, I'm not worrying too much about visuals for this. So for me, podcasting was very similar to written journalism, just much, much longer. And actually, I I had to um get over my instinct, not instinct, my learned um instinct, whatever the word for that is, from Reuters. I mean, I spent the last few years as an editor in London chopping down other people's stories, cutting them to the bone.
And with audio, I found it might be different for something like a Reuters podcast, where you want it to be punchy and quick and quick in and out. But what I found for the kind of podcast I've made is I don't need to do that. I can let things play out. Do you notice that difference that for text at Reuters you're very, very it's cut to the bone. Shorter is always better, but it's not in podcasting, is it?
It no, although for our daily show we try and keep things succinct, right? Because it's 10 minutes, and so we sort of have this sort of like an unwritten rule, really, that you know, if if if you're when you're writing the script, if if the sentence is you know, if if it bleeds into a second sentence, uh-uh, too long, you know, try and keep it, try and keep it punchy to keep people's attention. Econ world is different, um you know, you can you can sort of be more discursive, that that is true.
We also have a a daily markets podcast, it's sort of you know between five and sort of five, ten minutes. There too as well, the idea is to be punchy. Um so it depends on the show, you know.
Yeah, I've never made a really short, punchy one. Um interesting, but again, that just shows how similar to to writing it is, if if you're gonna strip things down to that. Let's move on then. This is a different thing altogether because this next clip that you've given me is from a live show. Now tell us about doing that.
My god, Rob and I had the absolute fear. So this was to do a live podcast.
I'm scared just thinking about it. I've not done one of these.
I was yeah, I was career suicide. I thought it might have been live
¶ Clip 2: Going live
live streamed. So every year Reuters has um it does a it's called Reuters Next, and it's a live journalism event, and it's held in different locations. But every December um they hold Reuters Next in New York, and the idea is you gather in newsmakers from all sorts of different fields, um, they come in and they're interviewed, there's an there's an audience there, it's all on stage, and much of it is live streamed, and the idea was well, let's actually live stream the pod, let's record it.
Uh, and I thought that's great, that's fine, I think I can handle that. But you will also need audience participation. That was what really put the fear off me. Where it's the idea is, you know, for someone listening to this, they want to hear the audience. So I just had this terrible feeling that I'd go on stage and I'd try and rev up the audience and it would be crickets, you know. But you know what, you gotta love a New York audience.
I had no fear, they were so up for it, and the guests were fantastic. So, a couple of my favorites, we had Sally Busby, who's our North American editor, and Howard Schneider, who's our Federal Reserve coro. He's he's a regular guest on Reuters Econ World. And the topic was Trump's economy. Um, and it was just fantastic to get their insights. You know, they are really uh right in there in the corridors of power, hearing what everyone wants to hear.
Um, and so it ended up I thoroughly enjoyed in the end, I thoroughly enjoyed it, but in the run-up to it, yeah, I absolutely had the fear.
Okay, let's hear and indeed watch a clip from that episode called Trump's Economy Live from New York.
Everybody's been expecting when is when are you gonna see the consumer
¶ "Trump's Economy"
weaken and the retail sales just continue to grow? Is there stress in certain uh parts of the income distribution? Sure, but modestly so. You know, the last Fed report on uh financial instability said overall household balance sheets pretty healthy. Uh you hear uh uh you know narrow tales of uh you know defaults on uh subprime car loans and things like that, but nothing systemic and nothing big. So sure AI, but um embedded you know, kind of resilience.
Uh haven't seen anybody saying when AI disappears, the economy is gonna disappear.
But isn't that like the K-shaped economy, right? Isn't that that consum? I mean, uh one stat that I'm always drawn to is it's like the the top 10% of Americans in terms of income, they account for nearly 50% of consumer spending, right?
It's well uh yes, and uh that's the question sort of of the day is how weak that lower you know branch of of the K is, and you know, does it extend so far up that the whole thing topples over? I don't see many people calling for that, right? The recession odds that I've seen people sort of hover around aren't really out of line with what is normally the case.
But I do think there are political implications of that, right? Even if there aren't economic implications. Right. Because I think one of the things that is very important to remember is that um when Trump won the presidency the second time, um, he went well beyond his base, right? I mean, he actually went well beyond his base and he he did attract um what we might call, you know, lower middle income voters and things like that.
And a lot of the improvement in um, you know, certain demographic groups in the United States was very much driven by people having, or at least. Telling, you know, telling they they said they explained their vote by we trust Trump on the economy. And so I think there is some vulnerability. Um, even if the the vast majority of the economy sails along, as Howard is saying, I think that affordability issue that is clearly why they're nervous about it.
Um, and I think that's an issue for Republicans going forward. Once you have sort of the intrinsic trust among some people that Trump is good with the economy, for future Republicans that is a bit of a challenge, I think, in some ways.
That was a clip from Reuters Econ World, an episode called Trump's Economy Live from New York. Hosted live in New York by my guest Carmel Crims. So at what point did the nerves go away? Was it when you sat down, when you started talking, when the thing was all over?
Yeah, when I sat down and started talking. So initially you walk out on stage and the and the the idea is we have a little like every week
¶ Getting over the nerves
in Econ World we have a quiz, you know, and it's pretty popular. So I decided to ask, sort of puncture the show with quiz questions throughout. So after I did the first one, um, relaxed. It was a question actually about how much people had spent on Black Friday. But when I was practicing it ahead of time, I kept saying Good Friday. So again, I had the fear that I was gonna get, you know, have a mistake on stage, but I didn't, and it was all fine.
And you know what as well mistakes are okay on live podcasts, that's the whole beauty of them. I think people almost want to see that. They they certainly don't want perfection. Um, so yeah, I I enjoyed it when I sat down and and sort of got into the flow of it.
Yeah, this imperfection and then there's making a complete fool of yourself, which is what I would be worried about. I always edit my own podcasts, and there's a few times I've taken out some absolute you know nonsense which I would be scared of. I think maybe I'd be a little less verbose, I hope, at a live event, but maybe the excitement of it would make me want to talk more. I don't know.
But you know though, you're probably your own worst critic, you know. So chances are they really weren't that bad and you didn't need to edit them out in the first place. That's what I find anyway, and that's that is actually the joy of working with the team because you'll get people to listen to it. Like, oh, that's fine, no, leave that in, you know.
Right. So talking of a team, then you have access to I don't know how many journalists work around the world. I mean, what tell me what's it like? Have you got any examples of when it's like, oh yeah, this correspondent was just brilliant explaining this thing or bringing us to uh to a location that most of us will never visit.
Yeah, we've got so many of them.
And I have to say, look, hats off to our reporters around the world because you know, certainly for the daily show, we always nab them when they're at their busiest, you know, because it that is where you know the the news is breaking, and so we want it, and and we're you know, we're asking them to come onto Reuters World News, you know, as I say, just when they're kind of on deadline trying to trying to break news, and and you know, they're always so up for it, which is just it's it's it's
wonderful. Um we've got many stars. Um you know, we also have a weekend podcast called On Assignment, where we actually talk to Caros about their experiences in the field, and they kind of bring they bring us with them on their journey. Um T Maurizari is someone who we we we got him to do a pod um last year just about Syria and and and travel his travels through Syria. That was that was fantastic. Um he's definitely one standout.
We talked about you transitioning from text journalism into audio journalism. These are mostly text journalists. I guess you might be talking maybe to also people in pictures, photographers, um,
¶ Are text journalists good at audio?
video um journalists. But do the do they struggle? Are they a bit kind of struck by the fact that they're speaking down a microphone? Or are they told do they just roll with it?
So they're wonderful. Um often they think, oh, you don't want to you you won't want me, maybe English isn't their first language, and they feel hesitant. And we're like, are you kidding me? You're so articulate, you're so fluent. Um no, they're great. I mean, they people are so people want to be on the shows, it's it's which is we're so lucky for that. No, they've been great.
Like I say, we we we we bug people when they're at their busiest, but people have been so open to appearing on the pod, um, in some cases, you know, frankly, hosting a pod where they where they bring us with them on their reporting. And you know, that's the kind of the whole idea behind our On Assignment podcast, which generally pops up at the weekend, and it's the idea is that the reporter takes you you're taken with the reporter on their on their journey.
We'd one great example recently of Ahmed Jadalah, um, who along with a a visuals crew had gone into Tehran and actually filmed a video diary for us from there. And you know, the team really had gone in to do their day job, which is you know
¶ Tehran video diary
hard enough, you know, c collecting, you know, filming footage uh all over the city, you know, a city that's under attack, um, not an easy place necessarily to work as a journalist. And you know, he he came back out with amazing footage, uh amazing narration, and and the whole product is just it's it's really worth a look, honestly. You know, you get inside Tehran right now, it's it's it's a rare glimpse in into that city.
And like I say, that isn't isn't his day job, um, but he did it with a plum.
I will link to that in the show notes. Yeah, I can tell you firsthand Tehran is not the easiest city to report on, even when it's not at war. I was I believe the last um international correspondent there for Reuters, probably for any UK journalist. Um, and I left in 2012. And yes. Yeah, yeah. I was I was two years a Reuters correspondent in Iran. So it was it was good to see those pictures from from a city that uh yeah, that was my home for a couple of years.
Okay, let's see a clip from that video diary from Tehran.
Behind me, Valley A Square in the center of the haram. We're coming in the
¶ bonus clip: Tehran
middle of the kid. You can see the short of it. But it's not there yet. The city of the Han. But also that's crowded.
Okay, so this is your third clip that you've sent to me, not from uh Reuters in Commonwealth, but from that show you're talking about on assignment. Tell us what happens in this clip.
Yeah, so this is Rich Matthews, um, a
¶ Clip 3: On Assignment
video reporter for us for Reuters, talking about his experiences um reporting in Minneapolis um during the ICE protests. And it's just he really gives you a sense of um the kind of the magnitude of the story. You know, this is someone who's reported from all over the world, from Haiti, from Thailand, just talking about how uh interesting this and sort of multi-layered this this story was. And that's that's what I love about on assignment.
Um, it sort of really allows you, you think you know everything there is to know about a story, but it kind of takes you and takes you deeper because you're you're going with the reporter on their journey and and they take you uh with them and you sort of allow you to sort of see things from all sorts of different sides. So it's it's again really great episode. Definitely worth a listen.
Let's take a listen to that.
To get a sense of what it's been like on the ground covering the situation in Minneapolis, I first called up one of our video reporters, Rich Matthews.
Yeah, it's definitely
¶ ICE protests
called on from Texas.
Rich has been on the ground in Minneapolis since the killing of Renee Good on January 7th. He's also covered protests and civil unrest in the US as well as Haiti and in Thailand. So you've been up there for a couple of weeks. What's one moment in the course of your reporting in Minneapolis that sticks with you?
Man, you know, that's a good question. And normally I would have one or two. I might have ten from this. I mean, it's been one of the most interesting stories I've ever covered in my entire career. One of the things that just jumps out would be the first day that I was observing raids. The very first stop was a gas station, and I saw the agents asking everybody at the pumps for their papers.
The sound of that moment is is really striking. This ice agent walking up to a man pumping gas and and demanding to see his documents. And meanwhile, protesters are drawing attention to the scene.
How do I know you're gonna say?
And then the very next stop was just a bus stop, and the agents jumped out and stopped at the bus stop, and same thing, asked everybody, clearly immigrants, whether they were naturalized or not.
Are you gonna say them again anyway?
There's no way to tell, but they asked everybody for their papers. And I remember Minnesotans later that night, and they said, Hey, that's what we're most upset about. We were told that it would be the worst of the worst, the drug kingpins, the murderers, the rapists, and now they're stopping at gas stations and and grabbing our neighbors. And that is also what changed the city because most of the people who are white, they're saying, hey, we're privileged, we we're not getting stopped.
I mean, it's the heartland, it's the great white north, it's Minnesota nice. And I mean, all those could be cliches, but they're somewhat true. I mean, people in Minnesota are nicer than they are in other places. They just are. And I think that they're having a problem with the violence.
So that was a clip from On Assignment um about what was going on in Minneapolis, the immigration raids and protests. I'm asking each guest to give us a at least one, hopefully two podcast recommendations, what you're listening to right now. I think I did I confuse you, Karma, when I asked for an Eat Your Greens um
¶ Carmel's POP picks
podcast.
That sounds like something your mother tells you to do, and it isn't.
It's exactly what your mother tells you to do.
Listen to it, listen to it no matter what, because you'll learn something.
Exactly, exactly right. So I um I basically I d I didn't want anyone to bring in two, you know, scur scurrilous comedy podcasts. I get you. Yeah.
I get you. Okay. So when I want to yes, I suppose if I had to pick two, when I want one that I kind of want to relax to, I'm going on a run, something that kind of takes me. I do enjoy the rest is history. I bet other people have name-checked that podcast, have they?
It's certainly been mentioned. I don't think anyone's had it as a recommendation yet.
I I enjoy that for like I like the two hosts. They have they have a kind of a very affable, quite funny way about them. And then I just like kind of a deep dive into history, because it sort of you know, it takes me away from kind of the breaking news, the financial news, um, but at the same time allows me to kind of maybe in in some cases understand where we're at right now.
So I'm currently listening to their um series on Iran, the fall of the Shah, which is actually super interesting given everything that's happening right now. Yeah, that's the one I kind of listen to just.
Can I just ask you before you move on to your next one? When it comes to something like the race is history, which has been going for years and they've covered dozens of periods of history often over several episodes.
Yeah.
Do you just kind of go in at random or do you search for a certain like, oh, I want to know about this war or something like that?
I I tend I a couple of I sometimes I go in at random. Other times I'll get recommendations, often from the husband will say, Oh, you should listen to them on X, Y, or Z. Um So yeah, I do not follow them chronologically, that's for sure.
Certainly that one's been recommended to me several times. Uh The Fall of the Shah. Um I I read a lot about it, as I said, before I went to Tehran. Um but yeah, I definitely will try and catch up on that one. Go on, give us your other recommendation then.
The other one, I suppose the um what is it you said, the the Eat Your Greens one? I I listened to the All In podcast, which is you know, a bunch of founders, tech founders, um could almost describe them, I suppose, as tech bros, uh talking about everything, you know, that's going on in certainly in US politics, the world, Silicon Valley.
And I listen to that because I feel like it it kind of keeps me plugged into what that community are thinking, which I think is important given um you know who's in the White House right now and just sort of th the way of things. And they they also do get administration officials on, so whether it's Scott Bessant or Howard Lutnick. So it kind of because I'm not you know, I used to um work from and report from New York and and DC on occasion, I'm not there now.
That that kind of helps me just keep plugged in to really kind of hear what people are thinking.
Yeah, I I've not come across all in, but I'm just looking at their podcast description. I mean, that definitely looks like a brocast to me. It lists it lists the hosts and they cover, and I quote, all things economics, tech, political, social, and poker.
Yeah, exactly. So you get the vibe.
Get the vibe. Uh okay, I'll put links to both of those in the show notes. Now, your dream guest or your dream podcast episode?
¶ Carmel's dream interview
It's got to be Jerome Powell unplugged. I mean, he can bring the guitar with him if he wants, but I would love to get him in a room, relaxed, speaking frankly about yeah, his tenure as as Fed chair.
Why would he bring his guitar?
He's a guitar player in his spare time. I was just thinking of, you know, Jerome Powell Unplugged. I was thinking of that old MTV series. Do you remember that?
Oh, I do. No, no, still YouTube classics. Okay.
Yeah.
Um Jerome Powell, okay, tell us why. What would you ask him?
Well, I mean, you know, he's head of the Federal Reserve, um, the most important, you know, certainly the amongst the most important jobs in the world. Um, and he has been in office uh, you know, in extremely interesting times during COVID, but also during the second um you know, second term of President Trump, um, where we've just seen kind of an extraordinary um uh you know to and fro between the White House and the Fed.
Um and so it would be it would just be great to to hear of his experiences. Now, whether or not he actually would uh come on and and speak frankly is another thing. I mean he's I think this is a person who's very cognizant of the of the role that he plays. Um but yeah, he would be my top guest, I think.
I th I suppose to have him unplugged guitar or or no guitar, it would it would be once he's retired, which will be quite soon, won't it?
And then he'll have to see. We'll have to see. Uh yeah, you're right, his term as chair ends in May, but he could stay on as uh as a board member, um, which would be very unusual. Um so we'll have to watch this space.
I mean, tell us something about central bankers. I at my time at Reuters um I don't think I interviewed any, but I certainly doorstepped them, as we say, and covered their news conferences many countless times. And the
¶ Central bankers - the best or the worst interviewees?
thing about a central bank chief is that every cough and sniff, never mind their words, is recorded and can move a market. So actually, interview I've often thought interviewing a central bank must be one of the most boring interviews possible because they are coached to within an inch of their lives. They know they mustn't say, Oh, the market looks tighter than I expected, or whatever.
Any they have a certain vocabulary they'll only use because the market understands every single literally every single word to mean a certain thing. But is was that your experience, or did you ever enjoy interviewing a central banker?
Well, it's true. I mean, you you can you can interview them on the record, right? But off the record might be slightly different and probably more enjoyable. Um yeah, it's called central bank speak. They have to be so careful about how they um what they say, how they contextualize it. Yeah, I mean I I suppose on the other hand though, because what they say is so important and it's so calibrated, it can make for an interesting interview depending on the message they want to get across.
Right. Well, let's hope Jerome Powell has a happy uh retirement on his own terms, not you know, not inflicted upon him, and that you get to interview him, Carmel, and we'll we'll look forward to that. And tell him to bring his guitar. Remind people where they can find your podcast.
They can find me wherever they listen to their podcast. So we're on all the usual platforms Spotify, YouTube, Apple, obviously Reuters.com
¶ Outro
and the Reuters app. And uh Econ World lands every Wednesday. Uh Reuters World News is seven days a week, and Reuters Morning Bid, our markets show, is also seven days a week. And then on assignment is weekly and tends to drop on a Saturday.
Carmel, thanks very much. For a weekly podcast recommendation. Anyone can subscribe to Pick of the Pods on Substack. You'll get a weekly pick direct to your email box. And follow Pick of the Pods the podcast. You've just heard it. Wherever you get podcasts, Pick of the Pods is a Spinny Hill podcast. It was written and presented by me, Robbie Pomeroy with Music by Far. If you enjoyed the podcast, please give us a rating on your podcast app and tell your friends to listen. They might like it too.
For now, thank you very much, Carmelo Crummins, and thanks to you for listening. And Pick of the Pods will be back soon.
Thank you so much.