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You know the Georgia peach logo at the end of shows like “WandaVision” or “The Walking Dead?” The peach means a production was filmed in Georgia, where major tax credits are helping the state grow its film industry. Today, we head to Atlanta to hear about the pipeline for show business gigs there. Plus, Americans are paying down their credit card balances thanks to a strong labor market.

From the BBC World Service: France’s President Emmanuel Macron has called snap parliamentary elections in the wake of a big victory for rival Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in the European Parliament vote. We’ll unpack. Then, Malaysia is ending its blanket subsidy for diesel, which means prices will go up by 50%. And Honda is the latest Japanese carmaker to be inspected for safety certification issues.

The network of online communities known as Reddit has millions of weekly active users. They post on “subreddit” forums like r/WhatShouldICook — a place where people just talk about their dinner plans — and r/ShowerThoughts, where participants share what they’re thinking during routine tasks. The co-founder and CEO of Reddit, Steve Huffman, is a fan of r/Daddit, being a father himself. Marketplace’s Lily Jamali spoke with Huffman at Reddit headquarters in San Francisco, where they talked about the company selling stock and its recent licensing agreements with the likes of Google and Open AI, which use Reddit content to train their large language models.

It’s Friday, folks! Today we’re talking about some news coming from former President Donald Trump, who has vowed to take away key spending powers from Congress if reelected. We’ll get into what that would mean in practice. Plus, we’ll talk through the latest from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which just announced it’ll be decreasing the number of households surveyed for important reports like the monthly jobs report. It’s a move that will make decoding what’s going on in our economy more a little more challenging. Plus, we’ll get into Bazooka gum, the rise of Uncrustables and Forever Stamps getting more expensive during a round of Half Full/Half Empty.

Here’s everything we talked about today:


“US Jobs Household Survey Size to Be Cut Due to Budget Constraints” from Bloomberg
“Trump plans to claim sweeping powers to cancel federal spending” from The Washington Post 
“Does Texas need its own stock exchange?” from Marketplace
“From school cafeterias to professional athletes, Uncrustables sandwiches are everywhere” from Marketplace
“Bazooka Candy’s CEO on the brand’s sweet athlete investment deal” from Marketplace
“Some New Yorkers are pushing for open streets to be permanent” from Marketplace
“Forever stamps are about to get more expensive — again” from Marketplace

We love to hear from you. Send your questions and comments to makemesmart@marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

May brought a surge of 272,000 new jobs, exceeding forecasts. Of those, 42,000 were in leisure and hospitality, benefitting from the summer travel season and increased wages. Also in this episode: a thousand options and nothing to watch. Netflix is getting a makeover for the first time in a decade, all with the goal of keeping subscribers hooked for longer.

Markets edge down; May jobs report shows strong growth; Emissions standards less ambitious; GameStop plunges despite meme stock attention.