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28 November 2023

DIXIE LEE HENNING, BYLINE: FOR NPR.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE HENNINGS’  "K(NO)W NORMAL PEOPLE")

DIXIE LEE HENNING, HOST:

This is the cover letter application of Stephen Henning, for THE INDICATOR FROM PLANET MONEY. I’m Dixie Lee Henning.

STEPHEN HENNING, HOST: 

 And I’m Stephen Henning. 

D. HENNING: Today on the show, we look at two Indicators of Stephen Henning. Why Stephen’s time podcasting is ready to take a professional leap forward and the time savings won by a previous INDICATOR guest who was able to harness a negative economic experience for their benefit. 

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

(RESUME REFERENCE MESSAGE FROM BRITTANY HODGE)

D. HENNING: Alright, Stephen, hit me with indicator number one.

S. HENNING: My first indicator is 3.5%. This is the ratio, expressed in hours, of podcast audio I’ve personally had a hand in producing against the amount of podcast audio content I’ve personally consumed. I’ve been a voracious podcast addict ever since I found the medium, both as a listener and creator – lots of milage on my AirPods. 

D. HENNING: Lots? [chuckles] um, you’ve gone through two different AirPods!

S. HENNING: Yeah, I can break down this data if you’d like?

D. HENNING: You can break down another pair of AirPods, too.

S.HENNING: Since July 3, 2017, when I began collecting the data, I have personally consumed enough audio content, that if you were to queue up every single episode I’ve listened to and let it play, 24/7, at 1x speed, it would take 437 days and 11 hours for you to finally have a moment of silence.

D. HENNING: Yeah, but you don’t listen at 1x speed, so…

S. HENNING: Often 2x, sometimes 2.5.

D. HENNING: Sometimes more than that! Um, so, how about on the creation side?

S.HENNING: Yeah, since 2019, when you and I, Dixie, started our first podcast together, called K(no)w Normal People, I take great pride in being responsible for 375 hours of content on the internet. Among K(no)w Normal People, my other long-term project called Ravel, working part-time as Editor and Assistant Producer at The Bible For Normal People and Faith For Normal People podcasts, audiobook narrating, and guesting on a handful of other shows myself, I’ve been able to learn the ins and outs of audio production while working a full-time job and maintaining a home life with you and our dogs – and my AirPods.

D. HENNING: And our cat.

S. HENNING: And our cat!

D. HENNING: Conveniently forget, 

S. HENNING: Can’t forget the cat.

D. HENNING: Every time. So, what specifically mattered to you about highlighting this 3.5%?

S. HENNING: I wanted to demonstrate to the fine folks that create THE INDICATOR that creating and listening to podcasts has been a long-standing passion of mine, and introduce the kind of curiosity that I hope to bring to the show as Assistant Producer.

D. HENNING: I feel like we could highlight a “normal people” theme that seems to weave throughout your experience.

S. HENNING: Yeah, exactly! What got us to start our own podcast together was a driving curiosity for how “normal people” would respond to sharing their stories and answering podcast interview questions often reserved for celebrities and thought leaders. And what I learned is that everyone has a story worth hearing and passions that matter to them. I mean, of course.

D. HENNING: Yeah, the experience of everyday people is important in any environment.

S. HENNING: So ultimately, stories like these are what I’d be interested in pitching to THE INDICATOR as Assistant Producer. As a resident of the state of Montana, I’d love to bring stories of the rural, small business powerhouses in communities like ours, that have those “normal people” backgrounds and big dreams when they are showing up to sell their work at craft shows, farmers markets, and conventions. I’d love the chance to follow their passions as makers and discover how they fit in the larger economy. Like what matters to them and how they make economic decisions. I’m interested to highlight the impacts that larger economic forces have on small, rural portions of America, where things like war in the Ukraine have real world implications for wheat farmers in Montana, who are already in a conflict of their own, battling with the effects of climate change like drought and increased wildfire.

(RESUME REFERENCE MESSAGE FROM JOSH LIEUALLEN)

S. HENNING: My next indicator is 2. As in, the 2 days a week a previous guest of THE INDICATOR, Alex Falcongrove (ph), is able to work from home by harnessing negative economic pressure into a personal win. You’ll remember Alex from the THE INDICATOR episode that aired on August 17, 2023, entitled, “When mortgage rates are too low to give up.”

ALEX FALCONGROVE [Filtered, archival tape]: I was pretty much peer pressured into buying a house.

S. HENNING: The episode presented what is known as the mortgage lock-in effect. It covered the consumer experience through Alex’s story as well as the impacts of mortgage lock-in on the broader labor market.

D. HENNING: I think it’s important to actually note that Alex Falcongrove is a close family friend.

S. HENNING: Yeah it’s true! Alex and I are childhood best friends actually – grew up down the block from each other in Colorado. And this is how I knew there was a missing piece of the story that I wished we had heard on THE INDICATOR. See, while the episode did touch on the overall labor market impacts, we missed the opportunity in our interview to tie it all together, to celebrate a win for our relatable, “normal person” character and show how the wider labor considerations became personal in Alex’s job hunt.

FALCONGROVE: I was pretty much peer pressured into buying a house, but then I used my house and my mortgage to negotiate a potential job into offering me a hybrid position when that wasn't initially in the offer.

S. HENNING: So here’s Alex, on the job hunt, locked in on his mortgage, casting his nets as wide as he’d be comfortable commuting. But he knew what he wanted and knew the risks involved at the negotiating stage, applying for a job that was listed as full-time and on-site.

FALCONGROVE: They emphasized several times. “Well, this is not a hybrid position but we'll see what we can do.” And my final offer was above the pay scale that they were allowed and two remote days per week.

S. HENNING: So with my experience interviewing normal people about their lives and what matters to them, I’d love the chance to approach the conclusion of the story differently. I know economics can sometimes feel dry and far removed from the lives of the everyday person, and I know we’re definitively not a show billed as human interest, but I’d love to hear THE INDICATOR capitalize on what wins we can find in the lives of our characters. And I’d like to encourage the team to interview with this in mind.

D. HENNING: So, how do you think these stories will serve the audience?

S. HENNING: In two ways, actually. The first is solidifying a sense of empathy. In the field of economics that is often interpreted as cold and boring (though, we listeners of PLANET MONEY and THE INDICATOR certainly know better), whenever we can deliver a story that lets the listener feel “Oh yeah, me too,” we build trust as a podcast worth connecting with and connecting over.

D. HENNING: Yeah, definitely. We actually have some friends that we see pretty regularly and, unprompted, PLANET MONEY comes up,

S. HENNING: Almost every week.

D. HENNING: Heck, we’ve seen a birthday cake decorated in a PLANET MONEY theme!

S.HENNING: Yeah exactly, so PLANET MONEY and THE INDICATOR already do this, so I don’t want to claim that the original episode with Alex failed to humanize mortgage lock-in and build a sense of empathy with the audience. The show already does that. But we had the chance to deliver on my second point, which is a sense of empowerment. Where economic forces can often feel so far above, or beyond, our power to enact change, we love to hear a story like Alex’s end with a win.

D. HENNING: And a win not in spite of economic pressure, but because of it!

S. HENNING: Alex was able to capitalize on empathy through his economic situation and was empowered to do something about it, being as informed as he is.

FALCONGROVE: And they understood, yeah, of course I can't sell my house in this market right now. So then I can negotiate, because I've listened to THE INDICATOR, and I understand the position that my potential employer is probably in.

S. HENNING: The more we at THE INDICATOR are able to deliver a story like this to our listeners, by not necessarily leading the witness in our interviews, but with a goal of uncovering these kinds of win stories from our subjects, we crystalize those moments of opportunities in the everyday lives of our listeners, who will share all the more, 

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

S.HENNING: “Hey, I heard a podcast about a guy named Alex who found a beneficial compromise, because of economics!”

FALCONGROVE: In all the ways, I get to work remote, I make what I wanted to make, and I have a position that, ultimately, my employer and I are very happy with. That's very mutually beneficial.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

(RESUME REFERENCE MESSAGE FROM ALYSE YOUNG)

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

D. HENNING: This episode was produced by Stephen Henning, with engineering by Stephen Henning. It was fact-checked by Stephen Henning and editing by Stephen Henning. The opening byline redesign was by Stephen Henning, and the theme music is composed and performed by Dixie Lee Henning and Stephen Henning, entitled, “K(no)w Normal People.” THE COVER LETTER OF STEPHEN HENNING FOR THE INDICATOR FROM PLANET MONEY is a production for NPR.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)