Your week at a glance: June 27-July 3, 2022

Here are the latest updates for upcoming programs. PLEASE NOTE: All details are subject to change. Additional details will be shared via ContentDepot as they become available.

Use the links below to visit our dedicated program pages, where you’ll find show logos, digital assets and more.

News

Marketplace

Marketplace (PM)

Week of June 27

  • Kai talks with Michelle Wilde Anderson about her new book The Fight to Save the Town.
  • We often talk about someone’s credit score like it’s a fixed number, but it’s powered by algorithms. And most people have multiple scores, some of them we know about and some we don’t. There are different models that generate different scores for home loans compared to car loans compared to credit card loans. There are known scores like FICO and VantageScore, but also scoring models internal to various banks and lenders – and we know a lot less about what goes into those.

Marketplace Tech

  • Kimberly Adams continues to serve as the interim host of Marketplace Tech.
  • June 27: What exactly is a credit score, and how is it created? The algorithm that generates someone’s score is a story itself. There are different models that generate different scores for home loans compared to car loans compared to credit card loans. There are the known scores like FICO and Vantagescore, but also scoring models internal to various banks and lenders, and we know a lot less about what goes into those. In this episode, we look at the algorithms that generate credit scores, and the people who build them.
  • June 28: The release of the FICO credit score in 1989, an algorithmically calculated, three-digit number was a notable change in the way consumers and “financial citizens” of the United States were defined as “creditworthy.” And while this system has its advantages – lower cost, more efficient in its ability to score millions of Americans, regulations that explicitly do not include protected status data like race or gender – there are plenty of mistakes that have arisen out of this automated system. We’ll lay out the mistakes, problems and issues related to the algorithmic automation of credit scoring and risk assessment and how and why this system isn’t working for many people.
  • June 29: We look at the ways the algorithms that determine credit scores perpetuate, and sometime exacerbate, economic inequality. Bias can enter the scoring process at multiple points, and some fixes to correct for that bias are harder than others. We use the example of a convenience store to demonstrate the way various kinds of data feed into the score.
  • June 30: In 1956, two men, William Fair and Earl Issac, former members of the Stanford Research Institute, founded the Fair Issac company, creating and selling a credit scoring system en masse to those companies and institutions that demanded it. This episode will explore how a confluence of factors – the Post World War II spike in demand for credit, the increasing computerization of the credit risk profile, the public blowback to computerization of people’s credit records, action from Congress and, the consolidation of credit reporting agencies into the “Big Three” we know today – set a stage for the release of FICO’s eventual three digit credit score released in 1989 and it becoming the standard for credit risk assessment in the 90’s.

On Point

  • June 27: Record-high gas prices. Interest rate hikes. A tight job market. Inflation at a 40-year high. We’ll talk through the confusing economy now with Financial Times global business columnist Rana Foroohar. “The real pressures of today–the war and pandemic–starts to collide with the financialization of certainly the last 15 years,” Foroohar says, “if not the last 40.”
  • July 1 (rebroadcast): Who’s to blame for America’s polarized politics? The government? The media? Special interests? No. International affairs expert Tom Nichols says look in the mirror because the problem is all of us. Does America have a culture of narcissism? If so, how is that poisoning politics and threatening democracy?

Arts and Culture

Time Machine from The Current

July 1 – 2003

  • The Time Machine takes a short trip to 2003 this time. The year Beyonce and Yeah Yeah Yeahs released their debut albums. Both The Strokes and the Black Keys showed no signs of a sophomore slump with their 2nd albums. The White Stripes unleashed their Elephant album. Outkast shook it like a polaroid picture. The Postal Service made their only album, which became an electro pop masterpiece. The Scottish band Belle and Sebastian released their best album yet! Radiohead continued to experiment on their Hail to the Thief album.
  • Beyond the world of music: Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry over Texas, all 7 astronauts on board were killed. It was Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King mania. It was tops at box office and won 11 Oscars. American Idol was tops. It was the #1 TV show. Myspace is launched, Tom Brady wins his 2nd Superbowl with the New England Patriots. It’s all 2003 our year on this episode of Time Machine from the Current.

The Splendid Table

New episode – July 1

  • We’re getting ready for the 4th of July weekend with Andy Baraghani, author of The Cook You Want to Be.
  • Then, we’re getting advice on summer sweets from Samantha Seneviratne, author of The New Sugar and Spice.
  • Please note, Francis and friends will be taking your culinary questions! Record your question or comment on your phone using your voice memo app and send it to us at contact@splendidtable.org or leave us a voice message at 800-537-5252. Be creative! Record with your friends!

Timely Selections

Shareable video of the week

All BBC affiliated stations have access to rights-cleared videos produced by the BBC. Use these videos to bolster your social platforms. Set up your account to access the BBC Media Partner Centre and explore the library of videos!

The ‘window’ saving families from domestic violence

tackling domestic violence

  • Description: Police in Iceland have an innovative approach to tackle domestic violence. They target a 24-hour window after an attack is reported. Reporter: Maddy Savage Video Journalist: Benoît Derrier Find out more on People Fixing the World
  • Suggested social copy: Police in Iceland have an innovative approach to tackle domestic violence.
  • Duration: 4 minutes 31 seconds

Questions? Please contact your Station Representative.

APM Presents special of the week

Becoming Muslim

Broadcast Window: July 1, 2022 – Sep 30, 2022

Length: One hour

In Becoming Muslim, we explore the motivations and challenges of converts as they carve out a uniquely American path for being Muslim in the United States. We profile four people who have converted to Islam, and ask: how has their conversion shaped the rest of their lives? Each person offers a different window into this diverse and complex religion. In a religion that’s often partitioned by nationality and culture, how do these new Muslims fit in?

Questions? Please contact your Station Representative.