• Downside Up

  • By: CNN
  • Podcast

  • Summary

  • What if the parts of our lives we've accepted as normal were totally different? What if dogs had never been domesticated? Or humans had no sense of flavor...what would've happened to the spice trade? And how would that have shaped the future of the world? Join CNN's Chris Cillizza as he speaks with journalists, experts and forward-thinking futurists to help us envision what might have been — and how even a small shift in the status quo could change our world completely.
    2023 CNN
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Episodes
  • What if we lived in a world without credit?
    Dec 5 2022
    The American economy revolves around credit. We use credit cards for everyday purchases like gas and groceries, but we also take out major loans to pay for school, homes and automobiles. But what if we lived in a world without credit? How would this affect our financial system and our daily lives? Would it reshape human history? On the last episode of this season of Downside Up, Chris Cillizza considers these questions with sociologists Sarah Quinn and Monica Prasad, and New York Times business reporter Emily Flitter. To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    41 mins
  • What if we only worked four days a week?
    Nov 28 2022
    Eighty years ago, Congress formalized a 40 hour work week in the United States. That policy hasn’t changed since then, even though today’s workforce looks very different than it did in the 1940s. With so many people working from home these days or dropping out of the workforce altogether, is it time we rethink our employment laws? What if we worked four days a week instead of five? Would it completely upend our work culture? This week on Downside Up, Chris Cillizza is joined by Anne Helen Petersen, author of “Out of Office;” Angela Garbes, author of “Essential Labor;” and Charlotte Lockhart, founder of the nonprofit 4 Day Week - Global, to explore what the world would look if everyone works fewer hours. To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    37 mins
  • What if we lived in a world without sneakers?
    Nov 21 2022
    Sneaker culture is a multibillion dollar business. It’s long shaped the way we think about sports, music and fashion. And today the sneakers we choose to wear define who we are as people. Somewhere in the last hundred years, a shoe that was designed exclusively for exercise was transformed into a status symbol and a work of art. How did this come to be? And what would our world look like if sneaker culture didn’t exist as it does today? This week on Downside Up, Chris Cillizza considers these questions with fashion historian Elizabeth Semmelhack and Sneakerheads Jacques Slade and Nick Engvall. To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    40 mins

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