Kai Ryssdal, one of the most recognizable voices on business and the economy as the host of NPR's Marketplace, is coming to Louisiana for two events hosted by WWNO and WRKF, and you — our audience — are invited.
Ryssdal will be at Le Petit Theatre in New Orleans on Thursday (Sept. 24) for a conversation with Peter Ricchiuti, a Tulane University finance professor and host of WWNO's Out to Lunch. Showtime is set for 7 p.m. For ticket information, click here.
Then on Friday (Sept. 25), Ryssdal will headline WRKF’s 10th Annual Founders Luncheon at the Crowne Plaza Baton Rouge, where he'll again hold a conversation with Ricchiuti. Click here for ticket information.
Ahead of his trip to Louisiana, Ryssdal joined WWNO's Morning Edition host Bob Pavlovich for a conversation on past trips to New Orleans, his career at Marketplace, the political state of our economy and the importance of public media. You can read a transcript below.
The following conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
BOB PAVLOVICH, HOST:
It's the most-listened-to business program on radio and television. NPR's Marketplace reaches over 10 million listeners each week, sharing the latest in business and economic news.
Joining us now is the host of that program, Kai Ryssdal, who's coming to New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Thanks for speaking with us, Kai.
KAI RYSSDAL: Absolutely happy to do it, Bob.
PAVLOVICH: You spent some time in the South when you were in aviation officer candidate school in the U.S. Navy. Were you able to visit the New Orleans area during that time?
RYSSDAL: A couple of times. I also went to school in Atlanta. I went to Emory, so we made some trips to New Orleans. So it is not a city that is unfamiliar to me.
PAVLOVICH: Your undergraduate degree is in history from Emory. Your graduate degree is in national security studies from Georgetown. What drew you to the host position in Marketplace?
RYSSDAL: They offered me the job. This is a very long story made short, but I was working at the public radio station in San Francisco, KQED, and they had an opening for the Marketplace Morning Report host job — this was back in 2001. I was hired for that job, and then four years later I got the afternoon show.
PAVLOVICH: Nearly everyone I speak with about Marketplace, they all say the same thing. [The show is] able to break down complicated economic issues into understandable terms.
Tell us a little about the process of making these issues more broadly comprehensible. Is that your influence as host?
RYSSDAL: Look, it's not all me. I am the guy who gets to sit in front of the microphone every day, but there is a team of producers, reporters, editors and engineers who actually do the grunt work and the really hard work to get this program on the air.
A couple of things about what we do, how we do it and why we do it: First of all, we do it because, as Gary Stern, the former president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve, said, "People have to understand the economy so that they can understand the forces that shape their lives." And you need look no further than gas prices today to understand why that matters. So that's the first thing.
The second part, though, is that economic stories and economic news can be really boring. I mean, let's be honest about it. Sometimes it's not the most entertaining stuff in the world. So what Marketplace does, and on the days when we do it really well, it kinda sings, is make it accessible and understandable so that people want to listen to this news that is sometimes maybe not the most dynamic thing in the world.
PAVLOVICH: In the current state of the economy and politics right now, is it possible to separate the two?
RYSSDAL: Oh, boy... politics from economics? Yeah, no, not really. For a lot of reasons.
One, we're deeply politicized right now in all respects, but the Trump administration is involving itself in the economy in ways that we have not seen in a very, very long time. That changes things. We're taking stakes in publicly traded companies. The president says, "So what if gas prices go up?" Those are things that affect stock values. They affect consumers' pocketbooks. So the economy and the political system right now are pretty deeply intertwined.
Let me back up for a minute, though, and say, look, the American economy, while a dynamic and vital beast, has always been an artifact of American politics. American politicians have never once been able to keep their hands out of the economy. So that in and of itself is not new, but the level at which it's happening now is something to see.
PAVLOVICH: Is it just that Donald Trump's more overt about exerting that influence?
RYSSDAL: No, I think he's... Well, yes, he's more overt, but he's doing it in ways that are substantively different.
When the Obama administration and the Bush administration before him took stakes in car companies, and we did [Troubled Asset Relief Program] for the big banks, number one, we got repaid all that money — plus, with profit. They did it in a moment of existential crisis for this economy. The Trump administration is doing it, and the president is doing it — and he has said this — because he can. Because he thinks he ought to. So it's different.
PAVLOVICH: Kai, what's the hardest part of your job?
RYSSDAL: The hardest part of my job is... Well, a couple of things. Number one, we only get half an hour... which is kind of a bummer, but also it's a blessing in a way, because I think if we went too much beyond half an hour, people might lose interest. So that's a good and a bad.
The toughest part, honestly, is bringing it on a day when the news is either grim or exceptionally boring. There are days when the economic news is, like, retail sales and leading economic indicators, and that's just no fun. But then there are days like Fridays, when I get to talk to really smart people on our live segment up at the top of the show, and that kinda keeps it going.
PAVLOVICH: There's been some big economic developments in Louisiana over the last year or so. Is there anything here catching the Marketplace eye?
RYSSDAL: Well, oil and gas, right? I mean, that's the beating heart of the American economy right now. We're the biggest oil exporter in the world, and a huge part of that is thanks to what happens in Louisiana. So that, I think, is the thing that's really driving it.
PAVLOVICH: Y ou've been involved with public radio for a couple of decades.
RYSSDAL: You're killing me, Bob. You're killing me, man.
PAVLOVICH: You host the most-listened-to business program on radio or television. As you see it, what's the importance of public radio?
RYSSDAL: Oh, I could go on, but let's cut to the chase. We do things that commercial broadcasting simply does not or cannot do. And I'm talking public radio, public media, the digital affiliates of those branches. We have time. We have the luxury of context. We have the luxury of a deeply, deeply informed audience, and we have a true mission to make sure that American citizens and the people who live in this country are informed about the state of our democracy.
There is nothing more important in what we do every single day, whether it's you guys at WWNO, whether it's Marketplace, whether it's [Steve] Inskeep on Morning Edition or Juana Summers on All Things Considered or anybody in between. The most important thing we do is keep the citizenry informed, and we make ourselves accessible and available so that we can do that.
PAVLOVICH: You'll be appearing in Baton Rouge, as I said, and New Orleans. What are you looking forward to?
RYSSDAL: The food.
Here's the serious answer: I spend way too much of my life in a small, soundproof room — I'm sure you can sympathize. One of the real benefits about trips like this is that I get out and meet actual people who listen to the program and who understand what it is that we do. And it's a message I try to bring back to the production staff, the reporters, the editors and the engineers here...
They are not the talent, for better or worse, and so they don't get these benefits that I get. But every time I go out, I bring back the messages that people who listen to this program tell me in person how much they value what we do, how important it is and what an effect we have, literally, on their lives. And that's revitalizing in every sense of the word.
PAVLOVICH: Kai Ryssdal, host of Marketplace. Thanks for spending some time with us.
RYSSDAL: Glad to do it, Bob.