By and large, American households are in a healthy economic position. Yes, unemployment has been rising, but it's still at fairly low levels. Consumer spending has held up well despite terrible sentiment. And many households are sitting on huge stock market gains and have a big home equity cushion. And yet, there are signs of trouble. Most notably, auto loan delinquencies have been surging to their highest level in history. It's the same with student loans, where delinquencies are far higher than normal. So what's going on? On this episode, we speak with Rikard Bandebo, the chief economist at VantageScore, which offers a consumer credit score that's different from the traditional FICO measures. He explains how surging prices, rising interests, and -- crucially -- rising insurance costs have created an auto squeeze. We also discuss what this means for broader consumer health and whether this auto delinquency phenomenon signals something broader about consumer stress.

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You probably already know someone doing peptides — the amino acids that form the basis of popular new drug treatments like Ozempic and Wegovy. Today there are peptides meant to help with everything from weight loss, to cellular regeneration, to improved eye contact while talking. In San Francisco, there are even organized “peptide raves.” Yet most of these underground peptides haven’t been approved by regulators for human use in the US. So where are they coming from? And how do they get here? On this episode, we speak with two guests who have seen this growing subculture up close, Jasmine Sun, an independent writer covering AI and San Francisco culture, as well as Zak David, managing partner of Pirsek Technologies, which runs a peptide supplier, Peptide Partners.

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The politics of AI are already exploding. Whether we're talking about data centers, electricity prices, labor displacement, water consumption, competition with China, or users of chatbots becoming psychotically obsessed, AI is already a major topic in elections. And since there's so much money at stake, the industry is already spinning up super PACs and lobbying arms. Last month, it was reported that a new $100 million AI-industry super PAC called Leading the Future would be directly targeting Alex Bores, a Democrat who is running for his party's nomination for New York's 12th congressional district. Why target Bores? Well, as an New York assemblymember, he has led the push for the regulation of AI at the state level. The industry, of course, views state-level regulation as an existential threat to their business. So on this episode we speak with Alex about how he views AI and the optimal approach to regulation. Alex also has a tech background, and so we talk about the technology more broadly, as well as other issues in contemporary politics.

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