Why?  Why Not?
Why? Why Not?

Where do I even begin?

I follow the Planet Money Podcast, mostly because I don’t understand anything about Money, Savings, Spending, The Economy, The Housing Market, Where Dollar Bills Come From, Budgeting, How I’m Gonna Pay Off My $25,000 in Student Loans, or anything else that is remotely considered “financial.” Not that it’s helped at all; I’ve been listening for a couple months now, and I’m still not quite sure I have a clearer understanding of how a bank works. But I do recognize an educational rap song, and a misplaced dollar sign, when I see one.

Yesterday I finally heard the ” ‘Yo!’ Planet Money Raps” episode, and found myself confronted by a number of strange and confusing things. My questions, for the world at large, are as follows:

1.) Does the world really need a rap song where Friedrich Hayek and John Maynard Keynes duke it out in in a Rap called “Fear The Boom And Bust“?

2.) Why do we need Ke$ha to confirm if the song is “legit” or not?

3.) Why am I obsessed with Ke$ha enough to Google the video for “TiK ToK” multiple times?

4.) Is there a way to prevent NPR from negatively impacting my psyche as they try to make sure my misguided obsessions leaks into their everyday news story podcasts?

I used to think that I could listen to NPR and count on some dry, sobering monotone that would cause me to reflect upon my place in the world at large, and reconsider all the terrible things I’ve said / done in the last 20 odd years. Why, instead, am I getting the 2010 economic equivalent of the Space Goblin “Stay In School” rap from Space Ghost Coast To Coast?

And, really: why do I love, “TiK ToK”? Is this an illness?