Slate Money Podcast Summary

Episode Title: Normalize Venison
Date: July 17, 2021
Hosts: Felix Salmon (Axios), Emily Peck (Fundrise), Stacey Marie Ishmael

Overview

In this energetic and food-centric in-person episode of Slate Money, the hosts dive into the latest business and finance news with a focus on inflation, the chip shortage’s effect on car prices, food price dynamics (including a passionate plea to "normalize venison"), and Netflix’s foray into the gaming world. The conversation spans from serious macroeconomic concerns to humorous personal anecdotes and quirky observations about food trends and urban deer. The show ends with their signature "numbers round," delivering surprising statistics and offbeat stories.

Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Inflation Realities and Perceptions

[00:44–14:48]

• Is the inflation spike cause for panic?

  • Emily’s take: “Everybody needs to calm down. It’s one month.” [02:33]
  • Much of the June inflation was driven by used and new car prices—roughly half, due to ongoing supply chain and chip shortages.
  • Felix: “It is the highest it’s been in a while...and it has got a lot of people worried.” [01:45]
  • Emily highlights the pandemic’s impact on supply chains, emphasizing this is not a long-term macroeconomic problem but an adjustment period.

• Why are car prices so high?

  • Used car prices are spiking due to chip shortages, which had causes ranging from a fire in a Japanese chip plant to the Texas ice storm.
  • “Some cars have 1,400 separate computer chips in them!” — Felix [04:10]
  • Automakers are triaging scarce chips to expensive models or shipping cars without certain high-tech features.

• Should the Fed act?

  • Felix points out the logical leap: “The reason why people get very upset whenever anyone mentions inflation is because the logical inference...is, oh, well, in that case the Fed has to hike rates.” [06:17]
  • Stacey observes the rhetoric among economists is shaped by worries of premature intervention: "There's an overcorrection...some dismissal of the reality of inflation." [06:17]

• Psychology and policy:

  • Emily warns, “Not freaking out around inflation is really important because if everyone does start to freak out...there will be inflation.” [06:59]
  • Felix notes two arguments: Inflation expectations can be good (stimulating economic activity), or they can be self-fulfilling and spiral, as feared in “the 1970s argument.” [07:24]
  • “Since the early '80s...this kind of self-fulfilling inflation expectations, vicious circle has never been seen in any rich country anywhere on the planet.” — Felix [08:57]

• Unions, workers, and the 1970s comparison

  • Emily references EPI research showing that worker bargaining power (via unions) enabled wage-price spiral dynamics in the 1970s era, which is not the case today.
  • “Workers really don’t have that power anymore...their backs have been broken by the Reagan’s and the who what’s and the Larry Summers.” — Emily [09:30]

• Food inflation: personal baskets and culture

  • Stacey shares, “One of my favorite examples is like, oxtail...it’s been columbused.” [10:39]
  • She tracks personal food inflation, noting the sharp rise in vending machine snack prices and how trendy foods spike and sometimes normalize at higher price levels.
  • “When the Austin hipsters discover a food, it goes up in price.” — Felix [12:27]
  • Core inflation strips out food and energy prices due to their volatility.

2. The Plea to ‘Normalize Venison’

[14:48–22:01]

• The deer problem:

  • “Too many deer. They are pests. They are rats on legs!...They cause Lyme disease. They’re the deadliest animal in America, even if you don’t include Lyme disease, just from, like, car crashes.” — Felix [15:01]
  • Emily adds a personal story: “This morning, I went for a jog, and I ran into at least five deer, possibly more.” [15:43]
  • There's an overpopulation of deer, damaging local ecosystems, gardens, and songbird habitats.

• Why don’t we eat the deer?

  • The US bans the sale of wild game, so venison in restaurants comes from farmed deer.
  • Felix is baffled: “This is a solved problem. The only unsolved bit of the problem is this bizarre rule...You can’t sell game.” [17:53]
  • Stacey asks about legal workarounds and wonders who lobbies against wild venison sales: “Could that...infringe the spirit of the law?” [18:29]
  • Felix suggests: “Just normalize venison because there is not nearly enough of this really delicious, low fat, nutritious, fantastic meat in this country.” [19:44]
  • The group wonders if listeners will write in with counter-arguments, and Felix notes pushback typically comes from concerns about prion diseases and people blaming cars rather than deer for their deadliness.
  • Humor and mild horror emerge with anecdotes about creepy deer and (jokingly) possible campaigns for eating pigeons: “Do not come back here next week and make the case for eating pigeons.” — Emily [21:32]

3. Netflix’s Gaming Ambitions

[22:02–33:42]

• Netflix’s new strategy:

  • Stacey introduces the topic: “Netflix is getting into video games.”
  • Reed Hastings (Netflix CEO) famously said Netflix’s biggest competitor is “Fortnite”—and even “sleep.” [22:09, 26:54]
  • Netflix aims to expand into gaming to compete for user attention, plugging into broader trends of digital stickiness (gaming as a way to keep subscribers within the ecosystem).

• Big market, tough execution:

  • Other tech giants have struggled with similar moves: Google’s Stadia, Apple Arcade, and Amazon’s less successful efforts.
  • “The big question...Netflix is an app in the Apple App Store, and Apple is famously very strict about video games...You cannot have a mini games app store within the App Store.” — Felix [23:45]
  • Stacey proposes Netflix might offer games as individual apps requiring a Netflix login.
  • The “killer feature” is cross-platform interoperability, as seen in Fortnite. Netflix needs games to run on everything from TVs to phones to PCs.
  • “It makes all the sense in the world that if Netflix goes down this route, then they’re going to want people to be able to play games together across different devices.” — Felix [26:54]

• Is Netflix likely to succeed?

  • Emily: “Unlike a TV show...a game, you can play it for a long time. You can get really into it.” [27:13]
  • Stacey notes the technical, licensing, and platform challenges are formidable: “From licensing, the IP, the development timelines...there’s a whole bunch of devil and a whole bunch of details.” [29:11]
  • Felix is skeptical: “I think they are going to try and I think they’re going to fail.” [29:08]
  • Stacey agrees: “Video games are hard as hell.” [31:04]
  • Emily is more open-ended: “I have high expectations. I think they could do it, sure.” [31:16]

• Gamification and media:

  • The group discusses how even non-game applications (like Duolingo, NYT puzzles, and TikTok) use game mechanics to boost engagement.
  • “Everything is a game right now.” — Felix [28:30]
  • Stacey: “Video games have figured out how to keep your attention on a completely fantastical, zero stakes set of tasks to such an extent that you are willing to pay real world money...” [33:15]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On inflation panic:

  • “Since the early '80s...this kind of self-fulfilling inflation expectations, vicious circle has never been seen in any rich country anywhere on the planet.” — Felix [08:57]

• On food price increases:

  • “One of my favorite examples is like, oxtail… it’s been columbused.” — Stacey [10:39]
  • “When the Austin hipsters discover a food, it goes up in price.” — Felix [12:27]

• On deer overpopulation and venison:

  • “Too many deer. They are pests. They are rats on legs!...They cause Lyme disease. They're the deadliest animal in America.” — Felix [15:01]
  • “Do not come back here next week and make the case for eating pigeons.” — Emily [21:32]

• On Netflix and games:

  • “I think they are going to try and I think they're going to fail.” — Felix [29:08]
  • “Video games are hard as hell.” — Stacey [31:04]

• On gamification:

  • “Everything is a game right now. You know, I mean, Duolingo is a game.” — Felix [28:30]
  • “Video games have figured out how to keep your attention...to such an extent that you are willing to pay real world money to better achieve those tasks for absolutely meaningless awards and streaks and other things like that.” — Stacey [33:15]

Numbers Round

[33:42–39:55]

• Stacey: “926,000” – French people who booked their first dose of the vaccine after being told they'd need one for cafes and shops. “We’re living through a nightmare set of social experiments about nudges...” [33:45]
• Felix: “$11.7 million” – Average price for a single-family home in Palm Beach in Q2 2021; only 25 homes are for sale there. [35:28]
• Emily: “158” – Bowling balls found under a Michigan man’s staircase, relics from a defunct local factory. [38:01]

Key Timestamps

• 00:44–14:48: Inflation deep dive: causes, implications, and why panic isn’t warranted
• 14:48–22:01: Deer overpopulation & the campaign to eat wild venison
• 22:02–33:42: Netflix moves into gaming; tech/gaming industry challenges
• 33:42–39:55: Numbers round – French vaccines, Palm Beach real estate, the bowling ball saga

Tone & Style

The conversation is witty, irreverent, and full of banter, with a sharp blend of economic insight, skepticism, and humor. Food and personal stories add a grounded, accessible layer to the finance-heavy topics. The episode’s running joke—Felix’s campaign to have Americans eat local deer to tame both their numbers and food prices—makes for particularly memorable and amusing radio.

For Further Listening

• Slate Plus segment: French pastry deep dive (almond croissants, pain au chocolat)
• Listener question: “What’s more fun to do badly than well?” — Write to slatemoney@slate.com with your thoughts.