Slate Money – “The Minaj Effect”
Date: September 18, 2021
Host: Felix Salmon
Co-hosts: Stacy-Marie Ishmael and Emily Peck
Episode Overview
This episode of Slate Money dives into the interplay between celebrity misinformation (with a focus on Nicki Minaj’s vaccine tweet), the current U.S. testing and vaccine mandate landscape, the precarious lives of New York City delivery drivers, and the concept of “feminist fiscal policy” under Janet Yellen. The conversation is grounded in firsthand experiences, sharp reporting, and a balance of frustration and humor.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. Nicki Minaj and Misinformation: The “Minaj Effect”
- The episode title refers to rapper Nicki Minaj’s viral tweet linking a COVID vaccine to an unlikely side effect, sparking widespread debate and media coverage.
- Felix: “Weirdly, I think that even the crazy coming out of Nicki Minaj, ultimately, at the margin, is going to make people get vaccinated...everyone's like, oh, yeah, there's a crazy pop star who's crazy. And like, I better get vaccinated because this woman has no idea what she's talking about.” (17:26)
- Stacy reacts incredulously: “If there are social scientists out there...studying the effects of misinformation as a positive for vaccination, please [email us].” (18:46)
- Emily: "You just made that theory up. You have no basis for this Nicki Minaj..." (17:59)
- The trio debates whether “bad publicity” can somehow boost vaccine rates through backlash.
2. Vaccine Mandates & Broken US Testing System
- Stacy recounts her recent COVID experience after moving to New York, highlighting robust contact tracing versus failures in Texas.
- Stacy: “It was a transit-based infection...I spent 45 minutes on the phone...they created a portal online and then that information seems to have been automatically uploaded to some sort of centralized database...” (02:00–03:04)
- Differences between US and European testing access:
- Felix: “In the United Kingdom, you can order a pack of seven [rapid tests]...delivered to you free overnight...In the United States...they cost like $25 for a pair.” (05:49–06:40)
- Emily: “In Europe, they fast tracked a lot of that stuff. So I think those are the biggest holdups as far as I can tell.” (06:40)
- Testing bottlenecks threaten the feasibility of weekly testing for those opting out of vaccinations at work.
- Stacy: “Queuing up for hours is not feasible for them.” (09:29)
- Emily: “I think that makes you think the vaccine mandate with the option to test weekly is really just a vaccine mandate. The option to test weekly is, I mean, a joke.” (09:29)
- Barriers to vaccination remain—not just misinformation, but time, scheduling, and insufficient workplace support.
- Emily: “There is a contingent of people that are just like busy and don't want to bother and there should be more time spent making it really easy to be vaccinated along with mandates.” (15:26)
3. Delivery Drivers: Precarity in the Gig Economy
Segment starts: 18:58
- New York Magazine cover story: Delivery workers’ challenges, shift from restaurant-based culture to app-based isolation.
- Emily: “Delivery workers are getting robbed at really high rates, especially right now...because there's fewer people around to stop it...E-bikes make delivery workers deliver much faster, and they also make them much more targets for theft.” (19:25–21:31)
- Immigration, policing, and systemic unfairness:
- Stacy: “I remember being in New York...watching delivery workers on e-bikes just get harassed for this thing that now is like, hey, this is a benefit of being a city commuter.” (21:17–21:34)
- Felix: “It’s a deeply broken system...the only way that they can compete with the other delivery workers who are on $3,000 E Bikes...” (22:10)
- Algorithms, incentives, and unsafe working conditions:
- Emily: “You get dinged by the algorithm if you're not keeping a pace...” (22:55)
- Workers pressured into unsafe speeds and denied breaks or shelter.
- Delivery apps' impact on both worker and customer experience, with ambiguous routes for ethical consumption.
- Stacy: “I'm trying to make a conscious decision to not use the middle apps...” (26:21)
- Felix: “It doesn't help because most restaurants, even if you do call them, ...they don't employ their own delivery...” (26:49)
4. Smart Fiscal Policy and Childcare
Segment starts: 28:25
- Janet Yellen’s Treasury report spotlights the economic case for institutional support of childcare—what Emily half-jokingly brands "feminist fiscal policy."
- Emily: “This week the Treasury Department put out this amazing 29 page report called the Economics of Childcare Supply in the United States. And it basically contains everything I've ever written about for the past five years all in one place.” (28:38)
- Capping childcare costs, supporting universal pre-K, raising the minimum wage.
- Barriers to ambitious policies: Not just “patriarchy,” but American individualism:
- Emily: “...there’s this strand towards individualism in the United States that holds us back from doing a host of different things like public health and vaccine mandates and universal childcare.” (32:16)
- Childcare as a collective good, not just an individual responsibility.
- Emily: “It’s a collective good...Kids who are placed in quality childcare...do better for life. That is good for everyone in the economy...” (34:45)
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
- Stacy (on New York health system): “...every day that I was sick, I would get a text message with a link that I had to answer a bunch of questions in...they told me...did you know you could get food and medication delivered so you don’t have to leave home?...I genuinely did not know actually that these things were available.” (10:02)
- Felix (on the vaccine mandate's enforcement): “There are so few inspectors at OSHA that if they were to inspect every workplace in the country, it would take 150 years to conduct a single inspection...” (12:40)
- Stacy (on gig work precarity): “There are a lot of other folks there who...queuing up for hours is not feasible for them. ...they don’t have the schedules, the time, the energy to be doing this kind of thing.” (09:29)
- Emily (on delivery workers): “Being a delivery worker...is, like, not the funnest, best job that you could have, but it’s so much worse than it used to be...that culture where the delivery guy hangs out in the restaurant, waiting in between deliveries is gone because of these apps.” (19:25)
- Felix (on collective action): “...the equilibrium would work if everyone was just walking around on foot. Right. But then someone was like, I'm gonna do it on a bike...” (22:10)
- Emily (on the hidden costs of individualism): “Anytime we wrote about [childcare], we’d get emails…'children are a choice that you make, and it’s on you to take care of them.’...if everyone chose not to have one, like, where would we be?” (34:45)
Important Timestamps
- 01:47 – Stacy describes her recent COVID breakthrough infection and NY contact tracing.
- 05:49–07:16 – US vs. EU rapid test access and cost.
- 09:29–10:02 – Why the US testing regime struggles with scale and access.
- 12:40–16:35 – Vaccine mandates, enforcement, and worker precarity.
- 17:09–18:46 – The Nicki Minaj vaccine misinformation debate, and its possible counterintuitive effects.
- 18:58–28:25 – In-depth discussion of New York City delivery work, gig algorithm harms, theft, and activism.
- 28:25–36:53 – Janet Yellen, “feminist fiscal policy,” and the economics of childcare.
- 36:53–44:08 – Numbers round: Prince Philip’s will, hidden workers, and the “official” number of men in Trinidad with testicular vaccine side-effects (zero).
Notable Quotes with Attribution & Timestamps
- “Nicki Minaj is ruining my life.” – Stacy (00:23)
- “It was a transit-based infection...very comprehensive contact tracing that New York put me through.” – Stacy (02:00)
- “The testing capacity...it’s not obvious that we have the testing capacity to enforce that kind of a mandate.” – Felix (08:27)
- “Queuing up for hours is not feasible.” – Stacy (09:29)
- “It’s a deeply broken system...” – Felix (22:10)
- “If you're going to expect people to do a thing as a condition of work, but the conditions of work make it impossible to do that thing, that seems less than ideal from an employee perspective.” – Stacy (14:22)
- “This is a benefit of being a city commuter...I remember being in New York and living in Queens and watching delivery workers on e-bikes just get harassed...” – Stacy (21:17)
- "It’s a stick. Thank you. Yes.” – Emily, on the ‘testing alternative’ to the vaccine mandate (09:41)
- “This week the Treasury Department put out this amazing 29 page report called the Economics of Childcare Supply in the United States. And it basically contains everything I've ever written about for the past five years all in one place.” – Emily (28:38)
- “It’s a collective good.” – Emily (34:45)
Tone
The episode is light, conversational, and occasionally irreverent, even when discussing serious systemic issues. The hosts pepper discussion with self-deprecation, direct personal experience, and mutual ribbing—especially around the “Minaj effect.” There is an undercurrent of frustration with American systemic failures, mixed with optimism and practical advice.
For Listeners
If you missed this episode, the big takeaways are the real-world consequences of America’s piecemeal COVID strategy, the intersection of pop culture and public health, and how the economics of daily life—from the gig economy to childcare—remain fraught, but are getting more political attention. There’s also debate and skepticism about the effects of celebrity misinformation, and an urgent call for collective responsibility, not just individual resilience.
Ad sections, show intro, and outro have been omitted from this summary.