613. Dying Is Easy. Retail Is Hard.

It may just be being human. Stephen Dubner interviews A.I. performer Tilly Norwood to find out if we are as replaceable as we fear. (Part two of a two-part series.) SOURCES:Sean Astin, actor, president of SAG-AFTRA.Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wired.Ethan Mollick, associate profess ...  Show more

Writers, designers, actors, coders, musicians, thinkers — they’re all worried about being replaced by machines. But what if the A.I.s are actually here to help? (Part one of a two-part series.) SOURCES:Sean Astin, actor, president of SAG-AFTRA.Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wired.Eth ...  Show more

Younger generations want more experiences and less stuff. That’s a problem for retailers. Deidre Woollard caught up with Kevin Ervin Kelley, architect, experience designer, and the author of “Irreplaceable: How to Create Extraordinary Places that Bring People Together.” They di ...  Show more

After a series of failed enterprises in California and Massachusetts, Rowland Macy launches his latest retail store in New York – in the fast-growing metropolis he finds not only success at last, but also a new family to take his legacy forward.Want to listen to the remaining epi ...  Show more

What do we lose if we lose the mall? 70 years into their existence, these hulking temples to commerce are surprisingly resilient and filled with contradictions. In this episode, Alexandra Lange, the author of the new book Meet Me at the Fountain: an Inside History of the Mall wal ...  Show more