{"podcast":{"title":"The Invisible Hand","slug":"the-invisible-hand-7719857","podcast_index_feed_id":7719857,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/PODAGEN6867737009","website_url":null,"image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/ecd55da6-0690-11f1-8a35-87d682d10069/image/bd2556a194f47efd83996cc639d08bec.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"Emma Reid","episode_count":232,"summary":"Economics isn't boring when Emma Reid explains it. This former Wall Street finance analyst quit her corporate job after watching too many people get scammed by get-rich-quick schemes, including her own father who almost lost his retirement to a pyramid scheme. Now she breaks down everything from inflation to interest rates using stories from her small-town grocery store and her neighbor's questionable crypto investments. Every day, Emma takes one economic concept and makes it make sense. Monday might be why gas prices actually work the way they do. Tuesday could be the real reason your mortgage rate just jumped. She's not trying to make you an economist, just someone who can spot financial BS from a mile away and make smarter money decisions. You'll get the kind of economic education they should have taught you in high school but didn't. No textbook jargon, no boring theory, just practical knowledge you can use when your bank tries to sell you a new credit card or your brother-in-law pitches his latest investment idea. Follow now for daily episodes that actually explain how money and markets really work. New episodes every day—follow now!","last_synced_at":"2026-07-31T16:18:06.182989+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-invisible-hand-7719857"},"episode":{"title":"WTF Do Think Tanks Actually Do? (Spoiler: It's Not What You Think)","slug":"wtf-do-think-tanks-actually-do-spoiler-it-s-not-what-you-think","published_at":"2026-07-30T05:51:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-invisible-hand-7719857/wtf-do-think-tanks-actually-do-spoiler-it-s-not-what-you-think","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-invisible-hand-7719857","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/PODAGEN4752875557.mp3?updated=1776261589","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/PODAGEN4752875557.mp3?updated=1776261589","summary":"Think tanks sound super official, but what do they actually do all day? Emma Reid breaks down these mysterious policy factories that somehow influence everything from your gas prices to your healthcare costs, yet most people have no clue they exist. Spoiler alert: it's way more interesting than you think. 🎯 What You'll Learn: • How 1,800+ think tanks shape policies that affect your wallet daily • Why some think tanks have billion-dollar budgets (and who's writing those checks) • The difference between genuine research and paid propaganda disguised as studies • Which think tank reports actually predicted the 2008 housing crash 👤 Perfect for: lifelong learners and anyone who wants to understand who's really behind the policy changes affecting their daily life. 📍 Chapters: [00:00] Emma Reid introduces the think tank mystery [01:45] What think tanks actually produce (hint: it's not just boring reports) [03:30] The money trail: who funds these policy factories [05:15] How Heritage Foundation and Brookings actually influence your life [07:30] The revolving door between think tanks and government [09:45] Red flags to spot when think tank \"research\" is really lobbying [11:30] Three think tank reports that changed everything Think tanks operate in this weird space between academia and lobbying. They're the people writing position papers that somehow become actual laws. Emma explains how these organizations work, why they matter more than you realize, and how to tell the difference between legitimate research and corporate-funded talking points. Next time you hear a politician cite a study, you'll know exactly how to trace it back to its source and figure out who really paid for that research. 🔔 Never miss an episode: Follow The Invisible Hand on Spotify or Apple Podcasts and tu…","meta_description":"Think tanks sound super official, but what do they actually do all day? Emma Reid breaks down these mysterious policy factories that somehow influence eve…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":885,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-invisible-hand-7719857/episodes/wtf-do-think-tanks-actually-do-spoiler-it-s-not-what-you-think/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-invisible-hand-7719857/wtf-do-think-tanks-actually-do-spoiler-it-s-not-what-you-think.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}