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This is Planet Money from NPR.
We have so many ways to communicate these days.
Email, text, WhatsApp, Snap.
Recently some people have been communicating in the Spotify comments of our podcast episodes or working theories that it's teens trying to get around their phone's parental controls.
Thanks for juicing the algorithm, kids, I guess.
But lately and I know this makes me sound like a grandpa I have just been picking up the phone and calling people.
On the phone, there's no subtext.
There's no being left on read.
There's no little ellipsis while you wait for someone to respond.
I'm not saying it's perfect, but it's instantaneous.
Unlike voice memos, which are an assault on human dignity.
You want to tell me something, but don't want to talk to me about it?
Type it out, bro.
Anyways, the phone.
Try it.
It's my 2026 resolution.
More phone.
Not scrolls.
Calls.
I bring this up because lately at Planet Money, it has been so satisfying to call up old sources.
It's for a show we do every year around this time, where we recognize that while we write nice endings to our stories, the music doesn't just fade up on the people we talk to or the storylines we're covering.
Hello and welcome to Planet Money.
I'm Nick Fountain.
Today, we check in on an engineer and patent attorney who made a safer saw.
On the Planet Money game, we have updates.
And on a diamond that may or may not have had a second life.
It's a show we named after the radio great Paul Harvey, who had a radio show called The Rest of the Story.
It's Planet Money.
It's our yearly rest of the story show where we check in on people and stories we've reported on throughout the years.
Our first update comes from Planet Money's consumer disservice correspondent, Lexi Horowitz-Gazi.
Hello?
Nico de la Fontaine.
Alexi, last fall you reported a story about how the subscription business model has basically taken over the economy.
And you have an update about that story.
That's right.
So the episode explained why we're all living in this sort of subscription-based hellscape at the moment where, you know, a lot of us are signed up for way more services than we can keep track of.
And the story started back in the late 90s, when this company called Salesforce started offering their software as a subscription service.
Then we explained how Silicon Valley venture capitalists helped export that model to everything from razors and meal kits to streaming services or, you know, new features on the tractor you just bought.
And a big part of the story, if I recall correctly, was about the downsides of this explosion in subscriptions.
You actually called the show The Subscription Trap.
Because people are not just getting oversubscribed out of forgetfulness.
A lot of companies have also been doing more nefarious things, like making it difficult to cancel on purpose.
But it seemed like this might all be about to change.
That's right.
When we aired the show last fall, the Federal Trade Commission the FTC had just passed this new regulation called the Click to Cancel Rule.
The rule was supposed to require companies to make it just as easy to leave a service as it was to sign up.
And also, it would have put big fines on companies that did not do that.
Then two big things happened.
First, President Trump announced a new FTC chair named Andrew Ferguson, who actually voted against passing the click-to-cancel rule.
He said it was ideologically motivated and rushed through.
And second, a federal appeals court struck down the rule, citing procedural errors.
Here's Ferguson talking to Fox News about it.
Unfortunately, the previous administration, as they often did, cut tons of corners.
They were more concerned about press releases than they were about delivering results for Americans.
They skipped important procedural steps and a court had to strike the rule down.
But this is one of my priorities.
Ferguson said, the agency does still have another tool to fight subscription abuse, including the Restore Online Shoppers Confidence Act, or ROSCA for the real heads.
And they're continuing to bring lawsuits against the most egregious offenders.
So, in summary, this rule that would have maybe gotten us out of the subscription trap is in a kind of limbo for now.
But there is still going to be one-off FTC enforcement actions.
That's right.
Okay, but Alexi, we promised we were going to check in on the people we met along the way.
And one of my favorite parts of your episode was the story of these three brothers who were trying to fix this.
What's up with them?
Right.
So this guy, Harun Mukhtarzada and his three brothers, started a company to help people keep track of their subscriptions and even cancel them.
But for a long time the brothers couldn't figure out how to make this work as a profitable business, until they finally asked the question they'd been avoiding for years.
What if we charged a subscription for this service?
Right.
And I mean, the sheer irony of that is why I personally was adamantly opposed to it.
I just said, this is crazy, guys.
Like, we can't have a subscription cancellation service that charges people a subscription for it.
It just seemed so ridiculous.
But when you're on death's doorstep, basically, you're willing to kind of do whatever.
Soon after they pivoted to a subscription model, the company's revenues started taking off.
Just a few years later, they ended up selling the company for over a billion dollars.
This week I got Haroon, the CEO of Rocket Money, back on the phone and I started by asking him how he'd been thinking about this new click-to-cancel regulation back when it looked like it was going to happen.
Was any part of you worried when you heard there might be tighter government regulation of subscription services, like worried that they might cut into the subscription management business?
No, I think that would be a little dark to feel that way.
Haroon says his company's whole mission is to help people get a hold of their finances.
So they had welcomed Click to Cancel.
They were sad to see it struck down.
But in any event he says his business is still growing just like it was before this whole regulatory back and forth.
Well, I mean, the subscription economy continues to boom.
This year, we saw the average user adding three subscriptions, you know, in the course of a year.
So one every four months.
Okay.
We processed over 10 million cancellations.
This year?
Yeah.
Wow.
I'm realizing I signed up for Mubi to watch the Mussolini miniseries.
And I did not follow my reminder to cancel it.
I'm realizing now I've got to use this update as an excuse to get my house in order again.
It's the right time to do it.
All right, Alexi Horowitz-Gazi, thank you for the update, and thank you for reminding us all.
Once again, it may be time to go out and cancel some stuff.
Maybe you've inspired some New Year's resolutions, sir.
Thank you, Nick.
New year, new us.
Let's cancel some stuff.
Heck yeah.
Except, of course, your Planet Money subscriptions.
Okay, now for a quick update.
You will remember that earlier this year Planet Money's Jeff Guo went out and bought a real also a lab-grown diamond and sent it in the mail to Sarah Gonzalez.
Jeff, what is this?
Is it a fake diamond or a real diamond?
Sarah, it is a one carat, colorless, ideal cut diamond.
It's basically an engagement ring quality diamond.
Wait, this is like creme de la creme, perfect cut, perfect clarity.
Dude, it's stunning.
Jeff joins me now.
Hi, Jeff.
Hey, Nick.
All right.
So remind us how much you paid for that diamond.
Right.
So for context, a natural diamond like this, it would cost four to five thousand dollars.
This, of course, is a lab grown diamond.
It is a real diamond.
It was just grown in a lab.
And we got it off a Chinese e-commerce website back in January for one hundred thirty seven dollars.
So cheap, which of course is game changing for the diamond industry and also why you did the show.
Yeah.
So what we learned is that 137 it's pretty close to the wholesale price for a decent one carat lab grown diamond.
But here's the weird thing.
At the time, the retail price of a lab-grown diamond like this was still around $1,000.
And that was the lingering question from your episode.
If it is so cheap to make these lab-grown diamonds now, why are prices in stores still so high?
Right.
So, have they dropped since then?
You know, I was looking around online a couple days ago, and the prices are getting cheaper.
So we're down from $1,000 to about $800 now.
Interesting.
Any updates on the specific diamond?
What happened to it?
Did you put a ring on it?
What's going on with the diamond?
Oh, I still have it, Nick.
What?
Wait, you want to see it?
Yes.
Wait, hang on, hang on.
Where is it?
I think it's in here.
Oh, I found it.
Found it.
Here it is.
Oh, it's beautiful.
This is my first time seeing it.
Look at that.
The Planet Money diamond.
Look how sparkly it is, Nick.
Jeff, you still have that thing.
I hear you got some offers for it.
Is that correct?
Oh, yeah.
Someone wrote in asking if he could use it to make an engagement ring for his girlfriend.
What'd you say to that?
I'm so sorry.
I never responded.
I was too busy gazing into the sparkliness of this beautiful diamond.
Interesting.
I'm not trying to sell people diamonds, right?
Hey, Jeff.
Yeah.
You know that guy who asked you for the diamond?
Yeah.
This is him.
This is Adam.
Hey, Jeff.
Hello.
Oh my gosh.
Wait, what?
No, Nick.
Hi, it's great to meet you.
I'm so sorry I never responded to your email.
You know, I've been waiting.
I figured that one day you'd finally get around to it.
And I guess Nick just took care of it for you.
Well, did you ever get around to it?
Well, I know that this is a radio program, but do you guys mind if I share my screen?
Sure, yes.
Oh, it looks like you got engaged.
That's so sweet.
On the banks of a river.
So my now fiance and I live in Seattle.
There's us at Gasworks Park.
It's a picture of her looking at her hand, wondering why she had just said yes to me.
When I emailed you, I was sitting in my car, having just heard this podcast about six months into dating and thinking.
You know, I really like this girl.
You know, then somebody forgot to hit reply.
You look very happy.
Did you make it yourself?
So in lieu of making my own ring, this is actually my parents' engagement ring.
I called my mom, I told her I wanted to propose, and she pulled this thing out for me.
Wow.
The family heirloom is way better.
Are we invited?
No, Jeff, stop it.
Those things are expensive.
Listen, if you guys want to know more about the economics of planning a wedding, just let me know.
You've got about eight months to prepare.
All right.
The awkwardness can end right now.
Jeff, anything you want to say to Adam?
Adam, anything you want to say to Jeff?
Adam, I'm so happy for you.
Congratulations.
Thank you, guys.
This was awesome.
Adam, thank you so much.
Really appreciate it.
And Jeff, I am sorry for hazing you.
But that's all we have.
I can't believe this was an ambush, Nick Fountain.
Sorry, I'm just staring at this diamond now.
Wow, it's so shiny.
It's so pretty.
And it's so precious.
Yes.
One of the most memorable episodes from this year for me was one we did about Gaza.
About how money was literally and figuratively falling apart there.
This was before the ceasefire that was announced in early October.
Food was scarce.
Israel had blocked cash shekels from entering Gaza for about two years.
And the paper cash that was there before the war started was not doing so well.
The money...
That's Mohamed Awad, who was in Gaza.
Sarah Gonzalez was the reporter on the episode, and she has been checking in with Mohamed.
Sarah, hi.
Hey, Nick.
All right.
So big headline update.
Has money been getting into Gaza since the ceasefire?
No.
Israel is still not letting cash into Gaza.
So Mohammed says they still have the same problem.
There is not enough cash.
The cash that's there is falling apart.
But he did say that things have improved significantly.
OK.
And we'll get to that in a bit.
But before, can you just remind us what was going on with Mohammed when we last heard from him?
All right.
Well, first of all, Mohammed had been working with his best friend Al-Aldin in Belgium, basically trying to move shekels that were sitting in bank accounts all around the world so that more people in Gaza would have access to shekels, since Israel had cut Gaza off right.
But the last time we talked to Mohammed He said that the Israeli military had just destroyed his tent in the tent camp that they were living in.
So he, his wife, his two kids, they had all been staying in a relative's home that was partially destroyed.
So there were no exterior walls.
It was like really crowded.
And he actually really preferred having his own tent.
But when we spoke to him at the time, tents were selling for like almost a thousand U.S. dollars.
For just like a normal tent. regular tarp like tent.
And they were not going to spend that kind of money on a new one.
Right.
So that's why they were in this situation.
But as we mentioned in early October, there was that ceasefire.
How have things changed for Mohammed or have they?
Yeah.
So Mohammed said that conditions have improved significantly.
He said, especially since the bombing has stopped.
He said that there are still some breaches.
Now, on the breaches front, there have been many reports of Israel violating the ceasefire, according to the United Nations Human Rights Office.
They say that hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and hundreds injured still, even during the ceasefire.
And there are also reports of Hamas violating the ceasefire, too.
Right.
But, you know, Mohammed says that overall, yeah, things are much better.
Yeah.
What is life like right now?
So he is in his own tent now.
He sent me pictures.
It's like that standard life. white dome-shaped UNICEF tent.
They're growing vegetables.
So they have like, I don't know, like seven rows of vegetables, of greens.
And inside his wife Wala and his daughter Mariam.
They actually made this like really beautiful kitchen floor in their tent in the area that they have set up to be their kitchen.
So they collected broken marble from rubble and they made this like mosaic floor.
And it's actually like really beautiful.
Can I show you pictures?
I'd love that.
Let me show you pictures.
That is quite gorgeous, all things considered.
Yeah.
But I mean, it is still a tent, right, for a family of four.
Muhammad said winter in a tent is making life difficult for them.
Yeah, I can imagine.
As you can imagine.
Yeah.
Sarah, I re-listened to the show earlier today, and what stuck with me were the prices.
How Gazans were paying 32 US dollars for a kilo of tomatoes, like six tomatoes, medium tomatoes, a pack of diapers something very near and dear to my heart right now.
It used to be $6, now it was $75.
Yes, $75 U.S. dollars for diapers in Gaza.
And that was because there were so few goods and so little food being allowed in.
So prices were just getting jacked up like crazy.
Have prices gotten more normal since the ceasefire?
More normal according to Muhammad, but still not what they used to be.
So like, for example, a kilo of tomatoes right now is a little more than three US dollars, down from 32 US dollars.
Eggs have apparently just arrived.
Meat is available now.
Also, that's going for...
$19 a kilo, Mohammed said, and diapers.
Diapers are now a little more than $9 U.S., so that would be like 30 Israeli shekels.
Before the war, that same pack of diapers was more like 20 shekels.
All right, so prices have come down, but the economy hasn't come back, right?
The vast majority of businesses have been damaged or destroyed.
There are very few jobs, but food is now more available.
Yeah.
Okay, Sarah, I did want to ask you.
In the episode, Mohamed told us that his daughter would watch these cooking videos and ask for some of the food in the videos.
Yelling at me, I want this, I want this.
I want this.
It's delicious.
I want this.
Most of her ask about chocolate.
And I promise her and try to promise her to bring it.
Yeah, for two whole years, his four-year-old daughter Mariam would ask her dad for chocolate.
And little update, Mariam finally got some chocolate.
Chocolate, by the way, is selling for about $1.50 to $6 U.S. dollars right now, Muhammad says.
You know, it is kind of a mix of these like really nice developments for this family, but also they're still in a tent.
And I think what is really weighing on the family right now is that Mohammed's wife her name is Wala Ewida
She is pretty sick.
The World Health Organization apparently approved her for medical evacuation from Gaza.
She needs this treatment surgery to remove a mass that is near her pancreas and things can get serious very quick for her.
Doctors in gaza have told the family that there is no treatment for her in gaza, so she has to go somewhere else.
She has been on a travel waiting list since last june, but the process for being approved to leave gaza, even when you are sick, is very, very slow.
Only a few people can leave every month.
So even with the ceasefire, people in gaza still cannot leave often or easily, including when they are Very sick.
All right.
Thanks for the update on Muhammad.
And thank you again for making that show for us.
Thanks, Nick.
Coming up after the break, books, games, power tools, hot dogs.
Joining me now is a man who wears many hats at Planet Money, our executive producer, Alex Goldmark.
Hi, Alex.
Hey, Nick.
How you doing?
You are going to do some business today, some Planet Money business.
What do we got?
Right.
So as you know, Planet Money is making a board game.
Yes.
We did two episodes on this.
We can link to them back in the show notes.
But the refresher is we love games.
It is a super interesting time in the game industry.
But more than that, games are also a way to demonstrate some economic ideas in fun ways.
And we partnered with this kind of famous game company called Exploding Kittens.
We gave them some ideas.
They made them what?
More fun, right?
We gave them like 17 ideas that were like obscure economic concepts and very nerdy.
They made the game way less textbook, way more fun, more of a party.
And along the way, it opened up this like whole door for us and this project.
And I'm now so excited for this because it's turning into something where we get to report on the retail industry, like all of retail from the inside, like everything.
How does a company get into big box stores?
Which shelf space is the most important?
How do you convince the big box retailers to give you that shelf space?
And we now are like getting to be inside this world.
And that's what this project is going to become next year.
Is the game ready for primetime?
Right.
Of course, to actually do all this, we need to have a product that is fun and good.
And so the game needs to work.
And this is where, like, the real update is, it's a thank you.
Thank you to the audience for helping us make it better.
We had a prototype that was messy.
You had to print out, cut out pieces of paper, put it on cards, like, do a lot of work to play it.
And hundreds of you did.
And boy, did you deliver.
It's amazing.
Okay, so we're shuffling the cards.
I will read the instructions.
So the goal is to be the first player to get five green chips.
We had all these recordings, hours and hours of it.
This is the Planet Money game.
We are playtesting it.
They were from families playing at home.
Playing with my son, who is 13 years old.
Should I take his deal or your deal?
Fine, you get two more chips.
They're good.
Teachers played it with classes and gave us, like, economic notes.
Experience gamers who were, like, searching for edge cases.
We did play a second time.
We liked the strategy, that it was variable, that it was limited.
It really feels like we're doing this as a community at this point.
This is also 10, so I won.
He won.
Let's play again.
He won two times!
Thanks, Planet Money.
See you guys.
I love our listeners.
They are the best.
Thank you for playing, guys.
And we shared all of this stuff with Exploding Kittens.
And I know that we have a newer version of the game.
What's the update on where we're at with the game?
New version, if you want to try it.
The rules are clearer.
The game moves faster.
We changed the way you win and made it simpler.
We changed the way turns work.
So the design is more sophisticated.
There may be a little less economics for some of you, which is an interesting thing that's evolving.
We'd like to hear about that.
PlanetMoneyGame.com is where you find version 4.
Send us your feedback on the form there.
We don't need audio this time.
And please do it by January 15th in order to get it into the design of the final version of the game.
Alex, thank you for that update.
I know you have one other very quick update.
I am contractually required to mention it every time I come on mic.
Planet Money is writing a book.
It comes out in April.
We're really proud of it.
And if you pre-order now, you get a special gift, and it will help us get on the bestseller list.
PlanetMoneyBook.com.
Thank you for letting me say that into the microphone.
Thank you, Alex.
Thank you for letting me hijack your show for a segment.
Can I repay you somehow?
I'm glad you asked.
I have an update from my neck of the woods.
Do you remember?
A couple of years ago I went to the suburbs of Portland Oregon, to meet the maker of this safer table saw.
His name was Steve Gass.
I do.
This was the SawStop, the table saw like spinning blade to cut wood, but did not cut fingers.
How many fingers do you think this has saved?
Well over 10,000 fingers now.
10,000 fingers.
Yeah, yeah.
Fingers get saved on SawStops every day now.
And if I remember correctly, this saw can sense when it skims a finger and stops so fast that it does not cut your finger.
And you terrified us by pretending that you were going to put your finger under it.
But you used a hot dog instead.
That moment is feared into my brain.
But what the story...
But what the story was really about was how products get safer and this trade-off of regulations that make something more expensive but also safer versus other ways of making something safer, like suing the company and that kind of incentive.
You pass the test.
You remembered the show to tea.
And you also remember that Steve had been pursuing the first way, regulation.
He had spent years lobbying the Consumer Product Safety Commission to make that finger-detecting technology mandatory for table saws.
But he had been facing fierce opposition from the industry.
The other day, I gave him a ring.
How are you?
Good.
Long time.
Yeah.
Alex, you'll probably remember that when we left off with Steve, it seemed like finally, after two decades, that regulation was finally going to become the rule of the land.
Things were on a promising track.
I think I sort of debated how much to say this was a sure thing or not in our writing, you know?
But I am sensing by the way you are setting this up that that is not how things went down.
That's right.
President Trump has fired three of the five members of the U.S.
Consumer Product Safety Commission, including the head of the independent federal agency.
So that happened in May.
And right there, Steve realized that this regulation was not going to go through.
It's like watching a car wreck and not being able to do anything to prevent it.
In this case, tens of thousands of woodworkers who will be injured seriously life-changing injuries that didn't need to occur.
And that's hard to sit with.
It's frustrating.
It makes me angry because we could do better.
Okay, so his update is he's feeling kind of depressed now and also angry.
He said he's not going to let it get him down too much.
He says he recognizes that this is just one of many anti-regulation steps that the Trump administration is taking.
And he's trying to bring a new product to market, a safer bandsaw, in the hopes that people will just pay for safety.
A market-based solution.
We love it when that works.
Yeah.
I think Steve doesn't think that that always works.
That's why he was, you know, trying to push for this regulation.
But it's another way.
It's a little like Lucy and the football.
And, you know, I'm Charlie Brown.
It just keeps going around.
Thank you for your time.
It was good talking with you again.
Happy New Year.
You too.
Also, Alex, one final update.
Throughout the story, we referred to a particular type of sausage like this.
The beef brat went the brat.
Beef brats, they were cheap.
This is what you put in front of the saw inside of a finger?
Exactly.
And the Midwesterners showed up in the emails.
I am so sorry.
I now know it is called a brat.
I regret the error.
Most thorough update ever.
Thank you.
We put links in the show notes to all the original episodes we mentioned today and a link to buy the book and get that sweet, sweet presale gift.
This episode of Planet Money was produced by Luis Gallo, edited by Alex Goldmark.
Fact-checked by Vito Emanuel.
I'm Nick Fountain.
This is NPR.
Thank you for listening.
Happy New Year.
And that is the rest of... Hey!
Oh!
Actually, one more thing.
As we were putting together this edition of Rest of the Story...
Another update that is just so juicy.
You'll remember that Paul Harvey is the guy behind that old-timey radio show, The Rest of the Story.
His estate is suing Paramount over The Rest of the Story.
Apparently Paramount used an excerpt in their show Landman and the Paul Harvey estate says it was taken out of context and used without permission and they're suing Paramount.
They're asking them to remove the audio and pay them.
Paramount did not respond to our request for comment.
And that is the rest of the story.
Please don't sue us.
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