613. Dying Is Easy. Retail Is Hard.

It may just be being human. Stephen Dubner interviews A.I. performer Tilly Norwood to find out if we are as replaceable as we fear. (Part two of a two-part series.) SOURCES:Sean Astin, actor, president of SAG-AFTRA.Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wired.Ethan Mollick, associate profess ... Show More

Writers, designers, actors, coders, musicians, thinkers — they’re all worried about being replaced by machines. But what if the A.I.s are actually here to help? (Part one of a two-part series.) SOURCES:Sean Astin, actor, president of SAG-AFTRA.Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wired.Eth ... Show More

They say they make companies more efficient through savvy management. Critics say they bend the rules to enrich themselves at the expense of consumers and employees. Can they both be right? (Probably not.) SOURCES:Brendan Ballou, C.E.O. of the Public Integrity Project.Dan Glickbe ... Show More

Younger generations want more experiences and less stuff. That’s a problem for retailers. Deidre Woollard caught up with Kevin Ervin Kelley, architect, experience designer, and the author of “Irreplaceable: How to Create Extraordinary Places that Bring People Together.” They di ... Show More

After a series of failed enterprises in California and Massachusetts, Rowland Macy launches his latest retail store in New York – in the fast-growing metropolis he finds not only success at last, but also a new family to take his legacy forward.Want to listen to the remaining epi ... Show More

What do we lose if we lose the mall? 70 years into their existence, these hulking temples to commerce are surprisingly resilient and filled with contradictions. In this episode, Alexandra Lange, the author of the new book Meet Me at the Fountain: an Inside History of the Mall wal ... Show More

On this episode of Our American Stories, Jonathan Mattox of the Oxford-Ole Miss Rotary Club shares how The Christmas store originated and the impact it has had on the lives of thousands of children; Mike Leven was President and Chief Operating Officer of Las Vegas Sands Corp. One ... Show More

It’s late 2023, and Gap’s new CEO Richard Dickson is trying to revive the brand’s fading fortunes. Dickson is the man who rescued Barbie from cultural irrelevance and turned her into a blockbuster movie star. To do the same at Gap, Dickson finds out that he’ll have to change Gap’ ... Show More

The successful grand opening is rare.But we keep trying.We make it dumber, louder, more predictable, sacrificing nuance in exchange for a chance at mass...Akimbo is a weekly podcast created by Seth Godin. He's the bestselling author of 19 books and a long-time entrepreneur, freel ... Show More

In this classic show recorded live on January 5, 2017 at San Francisco’s Castro Theatre, Josh and Chuck delve into the history and the heyday of the church of consumerism and what it means for local communities and our capitalist society at large when malls die.See omnystudio.com ... Show More

Lazy capitalism and its effectsAkimbo is a weekly podcast created by Seth Godin. He's the bestselling author of 19 books and a long-time entrepreneur, freelancer and teacher.You can find out more about Seth by reading his daily blog at seths.blog and about the workshops at akimbo ... Show More