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Small talk: Gmail, face punch, soaps

Dinner Party Download


Kai Ryssdal: A final note on the way out today. A chance to get away from the headlines and see what else was happening out there this week.

Courtesy of Brendan Newnam, Rico Gagliano and the rest of the Marketplace staff.

Brendan Newnam: Dalasie Michaelis, web developer for Marketplace -- what story are you going to be talking about this weekend?

Dalasie Michaelis: I'm going to be talking about Gmail, which is Google's popular online e-mail service.

Newnam: For any particularly reason?

Michaelis: Well, they're well known for giving users a generous amount of space to store their e-mail messages, almost unlimited. But one guy named Mike Monteiro is, we believe, the first person to run up against the limit.

Newnam: Wait, he filled his Gmail account?

Michaelis: Exactly.

Newnam: Did he try to physically attach the entire state of Texas to one of his e-mails?

Michaelis: Or maybe he tried to attach a copy of Google's earnings for the last 10 years.

Rico Gagliano: Krissy Clark, sustainability reporter -- what story are you going to be talking about this weekend?

Krissy Clark: So the Harvard Business Review reported on this poll from that says that 60 percent of young men, if they had the chance, would punch their work colleagues in the face.

Gagliano: Is it wrong of me to think that that seems like a small number?

Clark: Well, considering I'm looking at you right now and I work with you, I'm a little bit worried. How old are you Rico?

Gagliano: Alas, not that young. Old enough that the only people I want to punch in the face are young men, for being young.

Newnam: Stacey Vanek-Smith, senior reporter for Marketplace -- what's your story.

Stacey Vanek-Smith: Brendan, soap operas are on the decline.

Newnam: Really?

Vanek-Smith: I know! "As the World Turns" got replaced, "Guiding Lights" been canceled -- there are only six soaps left. That's like less than half of what they were in the 70s.

Newnam: How do you know the industry's really dying? Couldn't it be the industry's identical twin, and we're going to find out next year that the industry is still alive?

Vanek Smith: Yes, in a dramatic comeback, it just had amnesia!

Ryssdal: There's oh so much more that Rico and Brendan can do. It's all on their podcast, the "Dinner Party Download."

About the author

Rico Gagliano is the host of Dinner Party Download.


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