The lightbulb conspiracy is both real and everywhere

Summary

Throughline – "The Lightbulb Conspiracy is Both Real and Everywhere"

Original Air Date: July 30, 2026
Host: Rund Abdelfattah
Guest Reporter: Sally Helm

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Throughline investigates the hidden history of "planned obsolescence"—the idea that companies purposely design products to fail or go out of style, so we have to buy new ones. Through captivating storytelling, the episode traces how this concept took root with the infamous "Phoebus Cartel" of the early 20th-century lightbulb industry and evolved into the psychological strategies that shape modern consumerism, from cars to iPhones.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. What Is Planned Obsolescence?

• Sally Helm explains the basic concept:

  "It's like the idea that companies might be deliberately breaking products in order to get us to buy more." (02:00)

• Ramtin Arablouei shares a personal example of a washer-dryer breaking right after the warranty ended, illustrating consumer suspicion.

  "It broke the day after the warranty ended. I'm not kidding." (02:05)

---

2. The Eternal Lightbulb and Phoebus Cartel

a. The Story’s Launch: Gravity’s Rainbow and Book Nerds in Germany

• A circle of German friends, obsessed with Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow, encounter the parable of “Byron the Bulb,” an eternal lightbulb chased by a cartel in the novel.

  "We really delving into the history of that novel and we're absolutely fascinated by the fiction." – Marcus (05:25)

b. The Real-World Eternal Bulb

• Sally visits Livermore, California, home to the real "eternal lightbulb," burning since 1901.

  "It's been burning since 1901 and I went out to Livermore, California to meet it." (08:03)

• The bulb, a technical marvel with a secret carbon filament, stands in contrast to the short-lived bulbs of today.

  "The carbon filament was so hard, they said it would reach the density of a diamond." (08:42) – Tom Brammell

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3. Birth of the Phoebus Cartel: Deliberately Short-Lived Bulbs

a. From Competition to Collusion

• By the 1920s, global lightbulb makers (GE, Osram, Compagnie des Lampes, Tungsram) merge their interests.

  "By the 1920s things have changed. The market has gotten really consolidated and there are a bunch of big light bulb companies that are basically controlling things." (11:13)

• In 1924, they meet in Geneva—a secret, pre-Christmas summit—and form the Phoebus Cartel, named after the Greek god of light, Apollo.

  "For the purpose of a stronger cooperation, especially in order to avoid a conflict because of competition and in order to increase sales, they are forming a cartel, a secret group to control the market..." (13:12)

b. Engineering Obsolescence

• Cartel mandates bulbs must last only 1,000 hours (down from 2,000).

  "They agreed on exactly 1000 hours. We intentionally have to reduce the quality of the lamps in order to increase sales." – Marcus (13:48)

• Companies establish testing rooms, track compliance, and fine those who exceed the limit.

  "They have penalties with 304,000 Swiss francs, which is quite a lot considering the late 1920s." – Marcus (16:01)

• Average lightbulb lifespan graph "goes down and down and down." (16:12)

c. Market and Consumer Impact

• Cartel achieves higher sales and greater standardization (e.g., universal screw thread).

  "Phoebus helped move us towards a more unified system... because they did this big coordination and it ended up coordinating that aspect too." (16:49)

d. Collapse of the Cartel

• General Electric faces U.S. legal action (1953 judgment exposes cartel details).
• WWII makes international cartel cooperation impossible.

  "But I should make clear that for years they did succeed at this whole planned obsolescence thing. They made their product worse in order to make more money." (17:53)

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4. A New Form: Psychological Obsolescence in the Age of Cars and iPhones

(Second Major Story, starts 20:09)

a. From Machine Failure to Mind Games

• In the 1920s, as lightbulb obsolescence unfolds, carmakers shift strategies.
• Henry Ford’s Model T: functional but plain, marketed to men—doesn’t address evolving consumer desires.

b. Alfred P. Sloan & General Motors: Fashion-Driven Obsolescence

• Sloan (yes, that Sloan)—GM’s innovative mastermind—identifies vast profit potential in driving not just need but desire.

• He introduces varied models, lines, and—crucially—yearly style changes, making older cars outmoded.

  "We make the superficial things the key thing to the purchase." – Jacques Peretti (25:17)

• Marketing research in the 1920s reveals women make 85% of purchases, prompting GM to develop colorful, comfortable, varied cars aimed at women.

• DuPont develops durable colored car paint—spawns both vibrant cars and, fun fact, modern nail polish.

c. The Shift to Psychological Obsolescence

• Sloan makes "the consumer" central.

  "Sloan was actually one of the first big businessmen to use the word consumer." (28:55)

• Each new model is designed not just for utility but to invoke pride and shame—pride in upgrading, shame in keeping the old.

  "They shifted the idea of obsolescence from something done to an object to something we ourselves would choose." – Jacques Peretti (29:25)

• After seeing the success, Ford is forced to copy.

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5. Modern Echoes: Apple and the iPhone

a. Hardware Limits, Software Updates

• 2017: iPhone users suspect Apple of slowing phones with software updates, possibly to drive upgrades.

  "If you believe that Apple slowed down older phones in order to make people buy an expensive new phone, then yeah, that would be a perfect example of planned obsolescence." (32:08) – Sally Helm

• Apple claims it's about avoiding sudden device crashes; offers battery replacements.

b. The Psychological Game

• Sally and the hosts argue the true power of Apple (and others) is using fashion, desire, and a sense of “needing” the latest device—Sloan's legacy.

  "The most powerful kind of obsolescence is in our heads. We are choosing this ourselves, and I don't think we could stop it if we wanted to." – Sally Helm (33:39)

• Apple and GM’s market dominance comes from both kinds of obsolescence: engineering and psychological.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "There was this one story within the story of Gravity's Rainbow that they were really intrigued by... a small history of an eternal light bulb." – Marcus (06:28)
• “We intentionally have to reduce the quality of the lamps in order to increase sales.” – Marcus (13:48)
• "So they've figured out how to make the light bulb fail." – Ramtin Arablouei (15:02)
• "Sloan said, we want the consumer to buy a new car every year." – Jacques Peretti (25:38)
• "Psychological obsolescence, fashion depends on disappointment." – Giles Slade (30:12)
• "The most powerful kind of obsolescence is in our heads. We are choosing this ourselves, and I don't think we could stop it if we wanted to." – Sally Helm (33:39)

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Segment Timestamps

| Time | Segment | |-----------|------------------------------------------------------| | 02:00 | What is planned obsolescence? | | 08:03 | The Livermore “eternal” lightbulb | | 13:12 | The birth of the Phoebus Cartel | | 15:36 | Enforcing planned obsolescence and engineering failure | | 20:09 | Psychological obsolescence begins: The car market | | 25:17 | Sloan's model of superficial, year-to-year upgrades | | 30:12 | Fashion, disappointment, and marketing psychology | | 32:08 | iPhone’s planned vs. psychological obsolescence | | 33:39 | The enduring, internal nature of consumer desire |

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Conclusion: The Lasting Legacy of Obsolescence

Through the history of the lightbulb, cars, and smartphones, this episode makes a compelling case: planned obsolescence isn’t just a mechanical trick played by corporations—it’s a psychological process deeply embedded in modern life, often with consumer participation. The episode closes on the sobering note that even as consumers lament these tactics, our desires and choices help sustain them.

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This summary captures the main theme, narrative arc, and most memorable insights of the episode—providing a comprehensive guide for anyone interested in the complex history and enduring impact of planned obsolescence.

Transcript

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[Rund Abdelfattah]

Hey there, it's rund. I wanted to share something real quick before we get to the show. It's a comment that an NPR supporter made recently. Elizabeth in Wisconsin says that she gives because, quote, throughline is a wonderful program that helps us learn the truth. Elizabeth, we appreciate you and listeners like Elizabeth and like you are the public we serve. And it's the public that powers everything we do. Not shareholders, not special interests. You, Congress voted to eliminate all federal funding for public media one year ago. We hope you can support us and help keep us going. If you're already an NPR supporter, thank you. If not, there's still time to join. Head to plus.NPR.org okay, now onto the show. This summer break, we wanted to bring you a collection of hidden histories that will make you rethink how the world works, starting with this episode. If you ever wondered why your tech outdates so fast or just plain fails, keep listening to find out. All right, y', all, let's do this.

[Sally Helm]

Let's do it. Let's just do it. Okay.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Sally.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Hey, Sally.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Hi.

[Sally Helm]

Hey, guys.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Welcome to the studio.

[Sally Helm]

Thank you so much for having me. I took a long walk around the corner, around the corner from the Planet Money section of the office over to the Throughline part. What brings you here? Well, I think I have a story for you. So I've been looking into the history of planned objects. Obsolescence.

[Jacques Peretti]

Okay.

[Sally Helm]

Do you guys know what this is? Planned.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Obscene.

[Sally Helm]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

I know what planned obsolescence is.

[Sally Helm]

It's like the idea that companies might be deliberately breaking products in order to get us to buy more.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Yeah, I had the old washer dryer combo. It broke the day after the warranty ended. I'm not kidding. It just broke. Water went everywhere. And, like, we were left with nothing. Like, we couldn't do anything about it. The worst.

[Sally Helm]

So when that kind of thing happens, that is when people start tossing around this phrase, planned obsolescence. And I wanted to look back and see what the history of this idea is. And I found two stories. One happens in the shadows and the other happens right before our eyes. And these two stories helped me understand a force that I think it is not an exaggeration to say shapes the entire consumer economy. So do you want to hear it?

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Bring it on.

[Sally Helm]

All right, coming up after the break. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Made in Cookware President and co founder Jay Kalik shares why he was inspired by his family's fourth generation kitchen supply business.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Growing up in a commercial kitchen at home really opened my eyes to bringing

[NPR Sponsor Announcer]

what was cool in restaurants into your home.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

And when you think about what we do today, we are asking these chefs for product ideas. We are designing products together with them that we then realize a home cook

[Sally Helm]

can use as well as Learn more about Made in Cookware at M a d e I-ncookware.com this message comes from

[NPR Sponsor Announcer]

Ollie looking for more targeted support from your supplements? New Ollie Precise Probiotics are formulated to go beyond general gut health with options designed to support areas like skin, stress response and metabolism. Get precise with your probiotics and choose support that aligns with your needs. With thoughtfully selected ingredients and specific benefits in mind, Ollie helps make daily wellness feel more straightforward. Find Ollie Precise Probiotics at a Walmart near you. This message comes from NPR sponsor Carvana. Carvana makes car buying easy 100% online prices down to the penny delivered to your door. Why make car buying hard when it could be easy? Visit Carvana.com today. Terms may apply

[Sally Helm]

okay, I'm gonna start this story in the 1990s in Germany with a small group of, I would call them book nerds. And they were nerds about one book in particular. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon.

[Marcus]

Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow, a demanding novel

[Sally Helm]

of comic, terrifying incidents that traces the odyssey of the anti hero, an American lieutenant stationed in London during World War II. Strong language and explicit descriptions of sex. Do you guys know this book?

[Rund Abdelfattah]

I don't.

[Sally Helm]

It's sort of like one of those cult classic books. It's like 700 pages long, very dense, paranoid, has like, you know, technical details about rocket science kind of thing. It's that kind of book.

[Marcus]

Gravity's Rainbow was something like the bible of her circle of friends. So we really delving into the history of that novel and we're absolutely fascinated by the fiction.

[Sally Helm]

That's Marcus. He and two of his friends were obsessed with this one book in particular because they were all sort of technically minded people. One of them studied the machine gun. Marcus had studied the Dewey decimal system. So you know, machines, systems, conspiracy theories, the same sort of thing that Pynchon was writing about. So this book was great fuel for intense discussions.

[Marcus]

Drinking tea together, smoking dope together, trips to the countryside together. The whole weekend talking about light bulbs within beautiful nature.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

They would Spend the whole weekend talking about light bulbs.

[Sally Helm]

Correct? Light bulbs, yes. So there was this one story within the story of Gravity's rainbow that they were really intrigued by.

[Marcus]

A small history of an eternal light bulb. It's called Byron the Bulb.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

An eternal light bulb.

[Marcus]

Yes, an eternal light bulb which would never fade out. It's perfectly built so it cannot just die.

[Sally Helm]

In the book, Byron the bulb is conscious and he knows that he is going to live forever, but he also knows that there is a group of people out there who are trying to get him. It is a group of light bulb manufacturers called Phoebus who know that obviously if light bulbs can live forever, then light bulb manufacturers will be out of business. So Phoebus learns about Byron and tries to destroy him.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Okay, clearly fiction.

[Marcus]

Well, once you're familiar with Pynchon, you know that it's not only fiction, but it's very much based on facts. So the history of the eternal light bulb sounds like pure fantasy. But if you dig a little bit into history, it turns out that Pynchon had sources.

[Sally Helm]

So that is what they talked about all weekend. Which parts of this totally far fetched seeming story might actually be true? And they started to ask themselves this. Could there be a light bulb that could live forever?

[Ramtin Arablouei]

I'm gonna say no.

[Sally Helm]

Really? Because recall that this is a podcast and I am forced to reveal at this moment that in fact there is a light bulb that lives forever. At least, I mean, almost forever. Forever.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Ish.

[Sally Helm]

It's been burning since 1901 and I went out to Livermore, California to meet it. See the bulb? That's it up there.

[Giles Slade]

That's it.

[Sally Helm]

Can you see light?

[Marcus]

Yeah, it's just a light bulb.

[NPR Sponsor Announcer]

Right.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Wait, you flew across the country to look at a light bulb?

[Sally Helm]

I flew across the country to see a light bulb. To interview a light bulb. Actually, I was interviewing a person I talked to, Tom Brammell. He's a retired deputy fire chief. The bulb hangs in the Livermore fire station. This is a hand blown bulb. And when it was manufactured, there was a secret formula that they used on the carbon filament.

[Giles Slade]

Ooh.

[Sally Helm]

A secret formula which is still secret today. Remember, this bulb has been burning continuously, so obviously no one has broken it open to figure out what exactly is going on. We do know that there is carbon involved. The carbon filament was so hard, they said it would reach the density of a diamond.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

What kind of magical light bulb lasts for more than 100 years?

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Yeah, I'm kind of hung up on the fact that this bulb has Lasted for so long and. And I literally have a light bulb in my bathroom that we put in six months ago when we moved in and it died.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

So how do we go from the eternal light bulb to Run's dead light bulb?

[Sally Helm]

I mean, it's kind of a story about the whole light bulb business actually. So, okay, in 1879, Thomas Edison introduces what is the first commercially viable light bulb. And by 1901, when this long lasting bulb first turns on, the light bulb market is booming, Companies are innovating and there are lots of little light bulb manufacturers all trying to make the best light bulb that they can. So that's kind of like the first link in the Pinsion story because there was this period where companies were making very durable light bulbs a la Byron, the everlasting bulb. So that is step one. Now Marcus goes looking for the next link in the story. He wants to find Phoebus the people

[Rund Abdelfattah]

out to get Byron.

[Sally Helm]

Exactly. So he sees the name Phoebus come up in a few places. Like it's in this one book. But then one of Marcus's friends has an idea. Why don't you check out the archives of Osram, which was the biggest light bulb manufacturer in Germany? And there was a huge trove of documents right there in Berlin.

[Marcus]

So Markus goes searching in the German archive system. You can see who was reading the files before you. And you discover that nobody has touched these files for decades. You're the first. You're sifting through those original documents, which is thrilling.

[Sally Helm]

And in document after document, there it is. The Phoebus Cartel.

[Marcus]

A cartel named Phoebus.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

The Phoebus Cartel, yes.

[Sally Helm]

Do you guys remember how there were all those little light bulb companies competing to make long lasting bulbs?

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Sally Helm]

Well, by the 1920s things have changed. The market has gotten really consolidated and there are a bunch of big light bulb companies that are basically controlling things.

[Marcus]

Compagnie des l' Empe was governing the whole market in France. In Hungary was Tungsram. General Electric had a branch for the uk. Osram was in Germany. And that of course is more or less paradise for an industry. If you have no competitors at all, you can do everything with the consumers because they totally depend on you.

[Sally Helm]

Imagine it's the early 1920s. You're looking at a map of the world you could go through and write the name of a light bulb monopolist on the countries that they control. They all have their territory, which is great for them, but things aren't perfect. In fact, 1923 at least in particular for that German company, Osram. It's a pretty bad year for sales. And the head of Osram is this guy named William Meinhardt. He decides that he's going to get the whole crew together, all the monopolists in all the different countries, in order

[Marcus]

to rule the whole world of the production of light bulbs.

[Sally Helm]

It's late December 1924, couple days before Christmas in Geneva, Switzerland. I assume it's snowy. It's Christmas. We can imagine candles flickering in the windows. They meet in secret. It's a short meeting because they've sort of already been chatting about this plan already. And by the time they meet, they're

[Marcus]

decided, I can quote that if I would only be able to find it. For the purpose of a stronger cooperation, especially in order to avoid a conflict because of competition and in order to

[Sally Helm]

increase sales, they are forming a cartel, a secret group to control the market. The Phoebus Cartel.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Why did they call it the Phoebus Cartel?

[Sally Helm]

So the name Phoebus comes from the Greek God of light, also known as Apollo.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Clearly saw themselves very highly.

[Sally Helm]

Exactly. You know, as these gods of light, they divide up the whole electrified world. And the plan really boils down to this one essential restriction that they put in place.

[Marcus]

They agreed on exactly 1000 hours. We intentionally have to reduce the quality of the lamps in order to increase sales.

[Sally Helm]

These light bulb companies, as part of their mission to sell more light bulbs, have conspired to make their products worse, to break the light bulb so that you have to buy more.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Wait, what?

[Ramtin Arablouei]

They all pledge to do this?

[Sally Helm]

Yeah. They decide we are going to reduce the lifespan of the light bulb from where it was hovering, which was around 2000 hours. They decide we're going to get it down to 1000 hours. How do you even do that? Well, they're experimenting with different materials. They're like, changing the size of the filament. I mean, you have to imagine that for a long time, the engineers at the these companies were trying to make light bulbs better. And what Marcus sees in some of these documents is engineers comparing notes, like, going against all their training and now trying to make the product worse. It actually took a few years after the agreement was signed before they were even technologically able to make the light bulb as bad as they wanted it to be.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

So they've figured out how to make the light bulb fail.

[Sally Helm]

Yeah, totally. They break the light bulb also, obviously. Like, it's hard to sort of get everyone around the world to do this. Yeah, because, I mean, if you think about it, so in a cartel, in Any cartel you cheat that might be good for you and bad for everyone else in the cartel. Right? Like if one person makes a better light bulb, they could sort of take over. And the Phoebus cartel knows this. So they set up a system that basically ensures that people are following the rules. And they have light bulb testing rooms,

[Marcus]

like in a library. Bookshelves, but rather books. You have plug ins for light bulbs.

[Sally Helm]

I've seen a picture of this. It's kind of magical looking. There's a guy in like a lab coat looking thing standing in front of these glowing rows and all the light

[Marcus]

bulbs are numbered and they are burning.

[Sally Helm]

And the cartel has fines for the fiscal year 1929.

[Marcus]

They have penalties with 304,000 Swiss francs, which is quite a lot considering the late 1920s.

[Sally Helm]

I actually saw a graph of the lifespan of light bulbs around the world during this period. And the lifespan just goes down and down and down and down. Thebus plan is working.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

So they were able to get down to a thousand hours and reach those goals. Did that translate into more profits, more revenue?

[Sally Helm]

Yeah, sales were going up. They were selling more light bulbs. And the cooperation, like it's kind of impressive.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

You know, that's the thing. I'm very, very surprised, but impressive.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

I'm wondering though, was there any upside for consumers?

[Sally Helm]

Well, I thought this was really interesting. Marcus says Phoebus helped move us towards a more unified system. He told me the reason that there is one kind of incandescent light bulb thread that screws into one kind of socket, that that is partly because of Phoebus, because they did this big coordination and it ended up coordinating that aspect too.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

So like what ended up happening with Phoebus cartel?

[Sally Helm]

A few things happened. So first of all, General Electric, the big American light bulb company, they were involved in the Phoebus cartel in sort of a sideways way through their international subsidiaries. But they get into some legal trouble in the United States for alleged anti competitive practices. And there's a judgment against them in 1953. In that court opinion, a bunch of information about Phoebus actually comes out. There's no way to know for sure, but this might be where Thomas Pynchon got his inspiration. But the real sort of death knell for the cartel was World War II. And it's for sort of obvious reasons. Global cooperation among these powers was impossible because they were at war with each other. But I should make clear that for years they did succeed at this whole planned obsolescence thing. They made their product worse in order to make more money.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

So Are we at the end?

[Sally Helm]

Well, that is the end of this story, but as I mentioned, there are two. I came across another story from this same general time period where obsolescence changes shape and takes on an even more insidious form. After the break, the dark art of a different obsolescence.

[Giles Slade]

Foreign.

[NPR Sponsor Announcer]

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[Sally Helm]

This message comes from Bombas. Comfy footwear is the last thing you want to worry about this summer. Bombus sandals and slides are perfect for beach days, barbecues, and everything in between. Go to bombas.com NPR We've just marked one year since Congress voted to eliminate

[Ramtin Arablouei]

federal funding for public media.

[Sally Helm]

NPR remains committed to informing the public,

[Ramtin Arablouei]

but a free press doesn't just happen.

[Sally Helm]

It's something we need to protect without federal funding. We are relying on your support. Now, please show your support before the

[Marcus]

end of the month.

[Sally Helm]

Visit plus.NPR.org

[Ramtin Arablouei]

okay, Sally, so you have another obsolescence story for us?

[Sally Helm]

Yes, I do. This one takes place right out in the open, and it changed my whole sense of who the villain is behind plant obsolescence. The story starts around the same time that the light bulb story does. At the turn of the 20th century, light bulbs are getting more popular in the US and so are automobiles. One automobile in particular.

[Giles Slade]

If you went to buy a car in the United States, you'd find a lot full of black Model Ts that all look almost exactly the same. Henry Ford said you could have it in any color as long as it's black.

[Sally Helm]

This is Giles Slade. He's the author of Made to Technology and Obsolescence in America.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Okay, so it's not the most glamorous rye, but what do you get when you buy Henry Ford's Model T?

[Sally Helm]

I mean, you can think of it as basically like a replacement for your horse.

[Giles Slade]

So the driving experience is really like driving a tractor through a field. These machines are very popular, but they're sort of like farm machinery. They're not very luxurious.

[Sally Helm]

And like tractors, the way Model Ts were made and marketed, they were geared towards men.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Yeah. Not surprising. Ugh.

[Sally Helm]

The men, they're everywhere.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Here we go. Here we go.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Oh, you're still here.

[Sally Helm]

So Henry Ford is just the start of this story. There's another man that I would like to introduce you to. His name is Alfred P. Sloan.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

This is the Sloan foundation guy, right? The NPR funded.

[Sally Helm]

I mean, yes, so you've heard him because the Alfred P. Sloan foundation, same guy. And full disclosure, that foundation is one of Planet Money's financial supporters. Okay, so Sloan, like Henry Ford. Sloan is an electrical engineer. He graduates from MIT in 1895 and he becomes this serious single minded businessman. One journalist who wrote about him made this list of his character traits, including works every hour, has no hobbies, never reads, never drinks, never tells stories.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Sounds like rund.

[Jacques Peretti]

Not gonna front.

[Sally Helm]

It sounds like runt.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

You wanna take this outside, Ramptine?

[Sally Helm]

No, no, don't take it outside. Sloan is a business genius. So, you know, I don't know, maybe that's like RUN two.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Thank you, Sally.

[Sally Helm]

You're so welcome. So in one of his first jobs, Sloan basically saves a failing company. And by 1918, he has caught the eye of General Motors. GM is maybe not failing, but struggling because the car business is tough in the 1920s. Henry Ford has already sold a car to like many of the people who would want to buy one. So why would they buy a car from General Motors? Sloan had some ideas. First up, he introduced different makes and models.

[Giles Slade]

A luxury line, a kind of premium line, a sort of middle class line, Four door sedans for families. And then an economy line, the very cheap, you know, 19 to 23 Chevy.

[Marcus]

All America is waiting and watching for the new Chevrolet. Have you heard anything about the new Chevrolet?

[Sally Helm]

Wonder what the new Chevrolet is going to be like.

[Marcus]

And I heard the new ones are going to be even more comfortable.

[Sally Helm]

This is a total innovation for cars. This has not been done before. And then Sloan starts looking at the data on who is buying things. Not necessarily cars, just things.

[Giles Slade]

Marketing and advertising firms began the first real demographic research in the teens. And what they discovered around 1920 was that women were actually spending the family money making 85% of all purchases.

[Sally Helm]

But remember, the Model T was plain, simple and made for men. So Sloan realized he could sell more

[Giles Slade]

by doing a lot of things that Henry Ford would never think of doing. Like making it a much more comfortable experience to start and ride in a car. And also making it a much more aesthetics experience by, you know, having different colored cars.

[Sally Helm]

This last thing, colors, was huge because before this, cars were covered in a lacquer that just like did not hold colors all that well. Like it would sometimes like fade to yellow. It was just not really working. So black was the most practical, the most permanent. But in the 1920s, this company, Dupont, which was an investor in GM, they spent a fortune trying to create durable colored paint. And in 1923, they succeeded. In the next few years, as Sloan rolled out new models aimed at women, they were all different colors. Side note, this same paint breakthrough actually also leads to nail polish as we know it.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Nail polish and car paint were the same thing.

[Sally Helm]

I know, I found this so funny. But yes, the same.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

You can back paint right there, right? Exactly.

[Sally Helm]

If you want this color thing. I mean, this is Sloan's big gambit. He is wondering, can I sell the same basic machine just in a radically different package?

[Jacques Peretti]

We make the superficial things the key thing to the purchase. So the fins on the back, a better radio, new upholstery, all the sort of accessories, the kind of what would have been considered frivolous things, they become essential. Sloan said, we want the consumer to buy a new car every year.

[Sally Helm]

That's Jacques Peretti, author of the book the Deals that Made the World Over Time, GM tries out different looks. They lower the car's body. They elongate the hood. It has crazy curves. They don't really change the engine, but eventually you can get the the car in blue or red or green. After the break, yellow or orange. Alfred Sloan gets into our heads or maroon and stays there. Or gray or beige or white or pink or silver or.

[Giles Slade]

Foreign.

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[Sally Helm]

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[Rund Abdelfattah]

Okay, so at this point, Sloan is busy making cars sexy.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

But they weren't like breaking the Car. This wasn't a Phoebus situation, right?

[Sally Helm]

No, no, no, no. The cars work.

[Giles Slade]

It's just that they were obsolescent, psychologically obsolescent in the sense of fashion. So it would seem radically out of date by year three, given all the new models. And so by 1927, Henry Ford was forced to stop production of his Model Ts and revamp his entire manufacturing process and come up with another model that would then compete with the General Motors products. And so he came up with a new Ford called the Model A that only worked for so long. And eventually he was forced to bring out different lines in different colors and basically copy gnomes who'd won the consumer

[Marcus]

war to tell the waiting public of the car we have ready for them. Chevrolet must have a new advertising theme, a theme that is militant, a theme that will impel people to act, a theme that will make owners proud to say, I bought one.

[Sally Helm]

Sloan had won the consumer war by ushering in a whole new style of warfare, this psychological obsolescence, which made the consumer want to buy something new, even if they didn't necessarily need it. Sloan was actually one of the first big businessmen to use the word consumer. And he realized consumers want things, but

[Jacques Peretti]

perhaps they don't want things quickly enough. We could make them want something, the newest new thing, a little faster. They shifted the idea of obsolescence from something done to an object to something we ourselves would choose. We want the newest thing. That was key.

[Sally Helm]

That's Jacques Peretti again. And he says Sloan was like this psychological master. He was figuring out all these new ways to really get inside our heads.

[Jacques Peretti]

And so when you bought the Chevrolet Bel Air, it came with a catalog for the new one that was going to be coming out next Christmas. So at the very moment of purchase, they've built in a chip, you know, inside your head that says, actually, this isn't going to be very good because you're going to want this newer one that's even better. And so there's a kind of built in disappointment with the moment of purchase.

[Giles Slade]

I think psychological obsolescence, fashion depends on disappointment.

[Jacques Peretti]

And that was intentional. And that was what Sloan's genius was about.

[Sally Helm]

Giles Slade says that the last part of the psychology in psychological obsolescence has to do with something that marketers and advertising writers began doing in the 1920s. Selling products based on pride and shame.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

I mean, I get that, like, a new car was something you could be proud of. You'd want to drive down the street in it. And an old beat up one was something that, you know, you might be a little bit ashamed of.

[Sally Helm]

Yeah, that's exactly it. And Sloan takes these new ideas from advertising and builds those psychological triggers into the products themselves. He makes each new car more desirable than the last.

[Jacques Peretti]

And this is what you see with the iPhone today.

[Sally Helm]

The iPhone. We have arrived at the iPhone. So, okay, Rund Ramtin. When I tell someone that I'm doing a story about planned obsolescence, they almost always say, oh, a story about the iPhone. So let's talk about it.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

The battery thing.

[Sally Helm]

The battery thing. So, okay, maybe you heard about this. There's sort of this conspiracy theory, this controversy. In 2017, iPhone users were noticing that after they had updated their software, their phones started to slow down, which is frustrating. Like an update is supposed to make your phone better. And some people felt like it was making the phone worse. So people started yelling at Apple about this. And Apple, Apple said, whoa, whoa, no, we're actually doing this for your own good. We're not breaking the phone. We're not trying to shorten its lifespan. But if we slow down some older phones, they don't crash as much. We're sorry we didn't mention it. And Apple offers a cheap battery replacement to sort of sweeten the apology.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Well, I mean, this kind of sounds like planned obsolescence. Modern day Phoebus.

[Sally Helm]

I mean, look, Apple totally denies that they were doing this to drive upgrades, but if you believe that Apple slowed down older phones in order to make people buy an expensive new phone, then yeah, that would be a perfect example of planned obsolescence. And the thing is, we don't really know if that's true. And, you know, I mean, Apple has a reasonable case to make about why they did what they did. However, I think we can say for 100% sure that Apple is a modern master of a different type of obsolescence. Alfred Sloan style, psychological obsolescence. And it comes with Apple intelligence.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

So we designed a new calling system.

[Sally Helm]

Our fusion camera is a technical novel

[Ramtin Arablouei]

coming to a pocket near you.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

I have to admit, for a long time I was a sucker for this. I feel like when we find ourselves wanting these new phones, like really wanting

[Sally Helm]

them, like feeling like we almost need

[Rund Abdelfattah]

them, it's really tempting to think there's a sinister plot behind this.

[Sally Helm]

Totally. I. Yeah, like, you know, we imagine that there's someone pulling the strings, right? Like some mustache twirling person in a back room or something.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Exactly. And you know, with Phoebus it was true. So it's not that far fetched.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

But with psychological obsolescence, though, it's like what Albert Sloan did. We can't blame that on some shady cartel. We all know that that's happening, right? And there's something inside us that's making us get in the car, drive to the Apple store and stand in a long line. What, to get a new phone with facial recognition?

[Sally Helm]

I mean, right? Like, we are cooperating, right? But, like, this isn't just the iPhone. I mean, this is baked into so many products, so many places in the economy. And look, GM used to be the biggest company in America. Over the past couple years, Apple has often been the biggest company in America. Like, psychological obsolescence is not just some cute, clever marketing scheme, and it's not just some trick that's being pulled on us. Like, I think I came into this story thinking of planned obsolescence as basically what Phoebus did, you know, something that companies do to consumers. But the most powerful kind of obsolescence is in our heads. We are choosing this ourselves, and I don't think we could stop it if we wanted to.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

That's Sally helm, formerly of NPR's Planet Money podcast, on our next installment of Hidden Monopoly.

[Sally Helm]

Depending on how you look at it, Monopoly is either the American dream or

[Rund Abdelfattah]

the American nightmare, a game that celebrates owning it all, even though that wasn't its original mission.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

That's it for this week's show. I'm Ramtin Arablouei.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

I'm Rund Abdelfattah, and you've been listening to Throughline from npr.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

The show was produced by Rund and I.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Our team includes Jamie Yorke, Jordana Hochman,

[Sally Helm]

Lawrence Wu, Noor Wazwaz, Yo Yo Yoats, Michelle Lance, Grace n' Jeri Eaton, Planet

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Money's editor, and is Brian Urstad.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Their senior producer is Alex Goldmark.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

And special thanks to Michael Waldman, Brian

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Merchant, David Farber, and Adi Kamdar.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Thanks also to Anya Grundmann, Chris Turpin and Ayda Porasad.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Our music is composed by Drop Electric. Thanks for listening.

[NPR Sponsor Announcer]

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[Jacques Peretti]

The most compelling global stories straight to

[Marcus]

your ears that's what we do at

[Sally Helm]

State of the World.

[Jacques Peretti]

From npr, developments in Ukraine, Iran with Ebola, but also how British beavers are

[Sally Helm]

fighting the effects of climate change. So we said the beavers can do at probably fraction of the cost, certainly more sustainably.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Listen to State of the World every

[Jacques Peretti]

weekday on the NPR app or wherever

[Sally Helm]

you get your podcasts.