Client: Econ Nerds

Climate change, police violence, immigrant crime, maternal mortality—are these actual crises or just exaggerated narratives? In this episode of Econ Nerds, we put the data to the test and audit the numbers behind the headlines. There’s a surprising pattern: the reality is far less catastrophic than the rhetoric.

Client: HubSpot - The Hustle

Airlines are scraping perfectly good airplanes — not because they're broken, but because the engines inside them are worth as much as or more than the plane itself. A big part of the problem is time. Engine shop visits that used to take a few months now stretch past 300 days, and when a fleet depends on a tight rotation of engines, every delay cascades into cancellations, wet leases, and higher costs. That's how you end up in a world where a single engine commands lease rates that rival the entire aircraft it's attached to — and where airlines like Air Transat sell their own engines for $85 million just to lease them back. We break down the three colliding forces behind aviation's engine crisis — a massive recall, strained supply chains, and overwhelmed repair shops — and how airlines like Delta are turning the chaos into a billion-dollar business.

Client: Econ Nerds

How do we address risk in public policy? What is the value of a statistical life (VSL)—and why does the government put a price on life? In this episode of Econ Nerds, we tackle one of the most important issues in public policy: comparing risks and making tradeoffs when lives are on the line. Why are people so bad at judging risk? And how did economists build tools that help policymakers make better decisions?

Client: HubSpot - The Hustle

In 2018, Kroger partnered with UK automation company Ocado to roll out a nationwide network of “robot warehouses” — the famous “hive” system. It looked like the perfect corporate tech story… until the economics collided with American geography and American delivery expectations. By late 2025, Kroger announced it would shut down multiple Ocado-powered automated fulfillment sites (including the Frederick, MD facility I visited in this video), take a $2.6B charge related to the network, and pay Ocado a one-time $350M settlement as it “optimizes” the partnership.

Client: Econ Nerds

Trial by ordeal wasn’t medieval madness—it was a surprisingly clever solution to information asymmetry. We laugh when Monty Python mocks scientifically illiterate peasants (and overconfident nobles) in The Holy Grail’s brilliant witch trial scene. But what if medieval justice wasn’t pure superstition?

Client: Econ Nerds

Is China overstating its GDP? China’s official GDP numbers don’t quite add up—and economists are playing detective. In this Econ Nerds episode, we dig into research that challenges China’s reported economic data. Why do Chinese households appear to consume far less than their income suggests? Are the numbers wrong—or are we missing something?

Client: HubSpot - The Hustle

Why did Pepsi Max become a zero‑sugar phenomenon across Europe, but flop in the U.S.?

In this video, we break down how a single ingredient, a decade‑long FDA delay, and a series of branding missteps turned Pepsi’s most promising product into America’s most confusing soda. From Pepsi Max to Pepsi One to Diet Pepsi Max to today’s Pepsi Zero Sugar, you’ll see how policy, leadership mandates, and muddled positioning created a “multiverse” of colas where the same idea dominated in Norway and Sweden… and barely registered in the U.S.

Client: Econ Nerds

Everyone “knows” inequality is getting worse. Everyone “knows” it’s one of the biggest problems of our time. And almost everyone is wrong—at least about why. In this Econ Nerds episode, we walk through three inequality myths that refuse to die, even as the data keeps contradicting them.

Client: HubSpot - The Hustle

For most of the 20th century, America’s manufacturing dominance fueled its global dominance, but after the 1970s offshoring wave, that advantage shifted overseas and innovation inevitably followed. Now, as the US aims to rebuild its industrial base, The Hustle is hitting the production floor at SendCutSend to find out: Can a startup like this actually bring production — and innovation — back to the US?

Client: Econ Nerds

Why does the U.S. housing market feel broken? Interest rates are high, transaction volume is low, and everyone is worried about affordability.

The vibes aren’t wrong: home sales have collapsed while prices stay stubbornly high. How can a market be terrible for both buyers and sellers at the same time? In this episode of Econ Nerds, we walk through the real economic forces behind the “locked-in” housing market—using Matt’s own (possibly demon-possessed) house as a case study.

Client: Econ Nerds

What really caused the worst economic catastrophe of the 20th century? One country’s monetary policy deserves a large share of the blame. In this episode of Econ Nerds, we break down how the return to the gold standard after World War I helped set the stage for the Great Depression—and how one nation’s monetary policy decisions pushed the entire world into deflation, economic collapse, and social turmoil.

Client: Econ Nerds

Populist parties are reshaping European politics, and some elites chalk that up to voters being misinformed or bigoted. But a simple model based on Econ 101—the median voter theorem—might explain far more.

In this episode, we revisit Hotelling’s Law (why ice cream vendors cluster in the middle of the beach) and see how it applies to political competition. Economist Laurenz Guenther’s research shows Europe’s politicians are out of step with the public, especially on immigration—and that gap is reshaping democracy.

Client: Econ Nerds

In this episode of Econ Nerds, economist Jadrian Wooten dives into the drama of coupling up, recoupling, and bombshells to reveal how it all connects to a famous puzzle in economics: the stable marriage problem.

Client: Econ Nerds

In this episode of Econ Nerds, we’re ranking the greatest product placements of all time and estimating just how much money they were actually worth. We also discuss:

• How product placement shifts the demand curve

• Why some placements fail while others make history

• What brands and marketers can (and can’t) learn from the best examples

Client: Econ Nerds

In this episode of Econ Nerds, we build a presidential bracket based only on economics. From Andrew Jackson’s war on the Second Bank of the United States to Hoover’s disastrous Depression-era policies to Nixon’s price controls, we put history’s most questionable economic decisions head-to-head.