A Thousand Natural Shocks With Gabe S. Dunn

Gaby's in a panic after reading Jane Mayer's Dark Money - and you should be, too. Jane joins Gaby for a deep-dive into the sinister inner workings of political messaging and the billionaires who fund it - with catastrophic results for poor and marginalized people all across the country. Jane is a staff writer for The New Yorker, where she first began the reporting on the influence of money...

Gaby explores the conundrum of saving for retirement. So much of the rhetoric around retirement has to do with rewarding yourself for a life of hard work - but what if you can barely afford to live your life in the present? Why should you bother fixating on the future? Featuring Bola Sokunbi (clevergirlfinance.com), Ken Raskin (Allison's dad), and Piggy and Kitty of bitchesgetriches.com. Learn...

Why does the idea of a businessman as president make so much sense to people? Especially when the actual president is a terrible businessman? Gaby explores the enduring myth of trickle-down prosperity - and learns some surprising facts about the religious tradition that seems to underpin a lot of Donald Trump's "morals." Featuring Helaine Olen (author of Pound Foolish), TIME correspond...

Everybody loves babies - they're adorable, and if you're a comedian, they're the best audience you could ever hope for. But childbirth is also an emotional and financial minefield. Worse, American society has some warped ideas about who gets to make the choice about whether to have a baby in the first place. This week, Gaby wanders through the minefield with guests Anna Sale (Death, Se...

Gaby tries to figure out why on earth people a) spend a fortune on weddings, and b) want to get married in the first place. Featuring Jasmine Lilly (Avowed podcast), Anne Chertoff (Anne Chertoff Media), Rebecca Eisenberg (Upworthy), and the one and only Caryn Grainer, our first member of the Bad With Money Three-Timers Club. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Adve...

Gaby tries to understand the social philosophies behind her tax return. Joined by Taxgirl (TM) Kelly Phillips Erb (Forbes), Laura Mandanas (Autostraddle.com), and Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, she explores the way our tax code reflects our cultural values, for better or (surprise!) for worse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Advertising Inquiries...

Gaby finds out how credit cards actually work, about ten years too late. Laura Adams (Money Girl podcast), Mandi Woodruff (MagnifyMoney.com, Brown Ambition podcast), and Lillian Karabaic (Oh My Dollar podcast) explain the deceptively simple concepts behind these devious plastic rectangles, as well as the troubling economic psychologies they exploit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastc...

Why is it so hard for us to conceive of health care as a basic human right? Gaby talks to victims of the relentlessly profit-driven American healthcare system - a father whose wife died early in their marriage, resulting in a million dollars worth of bills (Eric Ashley); a non-smoking, marathon-running comedian who developed testicular cancer at age thirty (H. Alan Scott); and a YouTuber who was f...

Season 2 of "Bad With Money" kicks off with a deep-dive on student loans, which leaves Gaby more convinced than ever that it's time to start a socialist revolt. Featuring Kelly Peeler (NextGenVest), Eugenia Kim (Angry Alumni Association), and Josh Radnor (How I Met Your Mother, Liberal Arts).TW: homophobic language Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Ad...

Gaby closes out the season with reflections on her journey thus far, and checks in with her parents and listeners about how the show has affected their lives. For more information on Mark Baumer, visit barefootacrossamerica.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Gaby is joined by Lisa Servon, author of The Unbanking of America, and Nicole Aschoff, managing editor of Jacobin magazine, for a frank discussion of the deeply twisted ways that banks - and capitalism in general - treat consumers. They explain the evil in painstaking detail, prompting Gaby to wonder if it's time to don a tinfoil hat and move to a commune. Learn more about your ad choices. Vis...

Sara Benincasa has battled depression, agoraphobia, and endless Internet haters en route to a career as a writer. It would all be exhausting enough on its own - except, of course, that Sara's had to claw her way to every dollar she's ever made, juggling a hilarious variety of side gigs to feed her addiction to putting words on the page. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoice...

Andrew Ti, host of the "Yo, Is This Racist?" podcast, joins Gaby to talk about the ways that money is part of a system which is, in fact, pretty racist. We often assume that earning lots of money helps to erase class distinctions - but as Andrew explains, it actually only makes things more complicated. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Advertising Inquiri...

Ashley C. Ford tells the story of how she went from being a class anxiety basket case to being slightly less of a class anxiety basket case. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Kevin Allison is the creator of RISK! and a former cast member of MTV's The State. Once The State went off the air, Kevin found himself adrift, broke, and hopeless in New York City at the tender age of 23. He found himself wandering the streets, literally shouting at the heavens, asking when, and how, he was going to find another job. This week, Kevin's harrowing story of how money literal...

"Welcome to Night Vale" co-writers Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor have created a worldwide phenomenon with their oddball style of audio storytelling. "Night Vale" famously eschews advertising dollars in favor of making a direct appeal to its fans. Their message is simple: "If you love what we make, you should feel good about paying for it."  Learn more about your ad choices...

Eden Dranger and Steve Basilone are just like Gaby - comedians with poor life skills. As we've learned, that's not a great combination when it comes to money. For Eden and Steve, it was particularly bad when their parents died, leaving them in charge of closing out their estates - a process which turns out to be as complicated financially as it is emotionally.  Learn more about your ad cho...

Sydney Leathers was a student in a small town before she became infamous for sexting with former Congressman Anthony Weiner. Now, she proudly and unabashedly earns her living as a sex worker - and she's not interested in your judgement or your redemption narratives, thank you very much. Gaby talks to her about the wild twists in her personal story - and also gets some advice on sex work, just...

When Gaby left BuzzFeed, a lot of people were confused. Why would anyone leave a job that seemed like a dream-come-true for creatives? The reality, of course, was much more complicated. First, Gaby is joined by Bloomberg's Rebecca Greenfield, who explains that companies like BuzzFeed are often using perks to mask troubling employment practices. Then, Brittany Ashley, who was fired by BuzzFeed...

Hank Green is a bonafide media mogul. He's been supporting himself as an artist on the Internet for nearly a decade. Among (many) other things, he's the co-founder of Vidcon, the annual gathering of tens of thousands of YouTubers and their fans. Now he's got something even bigger up his sleeve: the Internet Creators Guild, which aims to band artists together to push back against the ri...

An audio essay in which Gaby explains the tortured plight of content creators on YouTube, featuring the voices of some of the medium's most original creators. Too often, Gaby reveals, artists who are simply trying to keep the bills paid are branded as sellouts. Left without much in the way of options or support, many artists are beginning to view the situation as hopeless. This is an audio ver...

YouTube content creators basically have two options: get rich or die vlogging. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Stephanie Beatriz grew up as an immigrant kid in Texas, and now she's on top of the world. She shares her surreal and inspiring story with Gaby, as America prepares to reckon with itself as a nation of immigrants following the presidential election. Plus: Why Oh Why host Andrea Silenzi on the depressing economics of breakups. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices...

Stephanie Beatriz (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) joins Gaby to talk about growing up in Texas as an immigrant with risky creative dreams. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Gaby's comedy partner Allison Raskin makes a triumphant return to the podcast to talk about the psychological quandaries of "success," both real and imagined. Plus, Sara Schaefer shares her journey from profligate standup comedian to moderately successful standup comedian - and the peculiar role that stuffed animals have played in her quest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podc...