Now, What’s Next? artwork

Now, What’s Next?

56 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 92 ratings

We’re hearing a lot about supply chains right now. But how did we get here? Journalist Sonari Glinton meets the people who make and transport our stuff to find out how we’re all connected and why that matters. Now, What’s Next? explores the human stories behind the big, sometimes hidden economic forces that shape how we live, what we value and how we make choices.

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Episodes

Host to Host: A Conversation with Carla Harris

May 11, 2022 22:51 - 21 minutes - 19.6 MB

On this special episode, Sonari Glinton sits down with 33-year Wall Street veteran and fellow Morgan Stanley podcast host Carla Harris to discuss their careers, the roles they play in fostering opportunity and their experiences around equity in the economic landscape.  The guest speakers are neither employees nor affiliated with Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC. (“Morgan Stanley”). The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of Morgan Stanley. The information a...

Trouble Brewing Along the Coffee Supply Chain

February 02, 2022 22:58 - 25 minutes - 23.7 MB

Host Sonari Glinton finds out how changing climates and unpredictable weather will continue to impact coffee crops, create shipping delays, and raise the price of a cup of joe, and what some are doing to help create resilience in the face of these challenges.  We meet Luiz Araripe, a Brazilian coffee exporter who’s been in the business for over 40 years. He describes how recent droughts and frost have devastated many farmers. Climate scientist Anders Levermann explains how changing...

Your Pet's Supply Chain Woes

January 19, 2022 22:27 - 22 minutes - 20.9 MB

Host Sonari Glinton finds out why some pet owners struggled to find canned food, what’s in pet food to begin with, and why competition for key ingredients may be forcing that to change. Along the way we meet David Saltz, who went to great lengths to track down the only food his finicky cat, Tiger, will eat. Dana Brooks, President of the Pet Food Institute, explains the supply chain challenges pet food makers are facing and Rachelle Cantet of Entoma Petfood outlines why insect prote...

Jobs Go Begging on the Open Road

January 06, 2022 00:23 - 25 minutes - 23.3 MB

Host Sonari Glinton finds out why the trucking industry is short tens of thousands of drivers, and how the pandemic exacerbated the problem. We learn about the ways the industry is changing to recruit new drivers - and keep the ones it has - and how innovative thinking and technology could lead to an industry-wide overhaul. In this episode we meet Christopher Johns, a British trucker who’s been driving for 15 years, and knows firsthand why this job is so tough. Kendra Hems, Preside...

The Great Kettlebell Shortage

December 16, 2021 15:28 - 23 minutes - 21.5 MB

Host Sonari Glinton explores the great kettlebell shortage of 2020, as closed gyms led to unprecedented demand for home exercise equipment. We learn how manufacturing overseas made kettlebells difficult to get, and how bringing the manufacturing to the U.S. and supply chain diversification provided ways to meet the demand, but were far from simple solutions. In this episode we meet Jennifer Lau, co-owner of FitSquad who experienced the kettlebell demand firsthand. At the same time,...

Trouble in Toyland

December 01, 2021 22:36 - 26 minutes - 24.1 MB

Host Sonari Glinton explores why we’ve all been warned to start holiday shopping early. We discover how toymakers are navigating shipping delays, what’s causing those delays, and why local, independent shops have an important role to play in alleviating supply chain shortages. On this episode of our supply chain season, we meet Nora O’Leary, President of Manhattan Toy, who’s had to make some tough decisions this year. Lars Jensen, CEO of Vespucci Maritime, is an expert in the shipp...

When Just-in-Time is Too Late

November 17, 2021 22:57 - 26 minutes - 23.9 MB

Host Sonari Glinton delves into the workings of the just-in-time inventory model and how it let down millions of frontline workers at the start of the pandemic. We find out how relationships along the supply chain are deeply critical, and how new technology is provoking a rethink in healthcare manufacturing. In the episode we meet Dr. Andy Artenstein, an infectious disease specialist and Chief Physician at Baystate Health in Massachusetts who went to extremes to get PPE for his sta...

Stuck on the Ever Given

November 03, 2021 23:49 - 23 minutes - 21.7 MB

In March 2021, the Ever Given cargo ship got stuck in the Suez Canal and opened the world's eyes to the vulnerability of a system we rely on each and every day. In this episode we meet Jan Unander, a Swedish importer who had goods aboard the Ever Given and almost lost his business because of the delays. Jake Slinn, the owner of JS Global Cargo and Freight Disposal, takes us to the Port of Felixstowe to illuminate how much cargo went to waste as a result of the Ever Given stoppage, a...

Revaluing the Essential Work of Childcare

July 21, 2021 22:58 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MB

The pandemic pushed parents, particularly working mothers, past a breaking point. As the U.S. begins to recover from the economic and social setbacks stemming from so many women leaving the workforce to care for their kids, we look at the history and future of childcare. Host Sonari Glinton talks with three working mothers who have lived through the ups and downs of childcare. Sonia McDaniel is an essential hospital worker and single parent to four daughters between the ages of thre...

Caring for Our Elders

July 07, 2021 21:21 - 27 minutes - 24.9 MB

Willie Wright is 63 and lives alone in Cleveland, Ohio while his daughter Lauren lives over 500 miles away in North Carolina. We listen as they talk about the future and how they’ll manage as Willie gets older. Then we meet Iris Yafuso Toguchi, who relies on Kupuna Care, a Hawaiian state program for caregivers, to keep her mother, Irene, at home. Registered nurse Rudy Sukna has spent 20 years working at one of the largest nursing homes in New York. Despite staffing issues, dangerous...

Searching for Balance: How and Why We Work

June 24, 2021 01:22 - 30 minutes - 28.3 MB

Host Sonari Glinton talks to Celeste Headlee, journalist and author of Do Nothing, about burnout, and how that led her to reorient her life and approach to work. Next, we meet Jomar Reyes, who worked at Danish digital marketing agency IIH Nordic as they transitioned to a 4-day work week. Finally, Jennifer Scott is a bike courier and labor activist in Toronto and her work schedule makes 9-5 look like a dream. Jennifer explains how gig workers are fighting for more sustainable careers...

The Re-Education of Higher Learning

June 09, 2021 22:54 - 29 minutes - 27.4 MB

Host Sonari Glinton checks in with college student Jacob Sarasohn. When his art school classes went virtual, Jacob decided to put college on hold and become an Emergency Medical Technician. We find out how that experience changed him and if he’ll go back to college. At Georgetown University, we meet Bushra Shaikh and her professor, Elizabeth Grimm, who found ways to make their Zoom class meaningful and effective. Tech CEO LaShana M. Lewis had a difficult time finding her place at co...

Meet Me at the Mall

May 26, 2021 22:08 - 27 minutes - 25.3 MB

Malls were originally designed to be the centerpiece of a community. For a long time, they were. Between the boom in online shopping and over-retailing, many malls were struggling even before the pandemic. Now, experts predict every 1-of-4 malls in the U.S. may close over the next five years. For this episode, we travel around the world to figure out why we go to the mall, how to build them more sustainably and how failing malls are being reimagined. As head of the California Fashi...

Back to the Big Screen

May 12, 2021 18:12 - 32 minutes - 29.4 MB

In this first episode of our new season, we meet Shelli Taylor, who became the CEO of Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas just weeks after the pandemic temporarily closed all their locations. Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director and Co-Head of the Toronto International Film Festival, talks about diversity in Hollywood, and how the past year is shifting the films and filmmakers we celebrate. Then we meet Vicky Ding, who runs a film sales company in Beijing, where theatres are booming as China take...

Coming Soon: A New Season of Now, What's Next?

May 05, 2021 21:20 - 2 minutes - 2.11 MB

After nearly two decades of reporting on culture and the economy, host Sonari Glinton meets people who are looking for solutions to the cracks exposed by the pandemic. From how we care for our children and elderly, to what to do with shopping malls... these are stories of everyday people trying to figure things out, and where they’re finding hope.

Mental Health: The Other Pandemic

February 03, 2021 20:52 - 22 minutes - 20.6 MB

The pandemic has created a huge mental health crisis. We’re all feeling the strain and many of us are admitting, for the first time, that we need help. It’s ok to not be ok. In the last episode of our season, we look at how this pandemic forces us to examine our own mental health, and helps us erase the stigma around asking for help. Host Sonari Glinton hears how COVID-19 exposed how broken our mental healthcare system already was. Dr. Curtis Wittman reflects on the mental health c...

New Lessons for Remote Education

January 20, 2021 15:36 - 22 minutes - 20.9 MB

Education was one of the pandemic’s first casualties. When schools closed overnight, students and teachers switched to virtual classrooms—a massive social experiment that hasn’t been easy on anyone. But it also revealed opportunities to rethink the ways in which we teach, and what is most valuable in education. Host Sonari Glinton speaks with students and teachers to find out how their lives have changed when it comes to school. Eight-year-old Escher Olson moved to a new country wi...

Recipes for Restaurant Resilience

January 06, 2021 14:00 - 24 minutes - 22.1 MB

Before the pandemic, about half of all Americans dined out at least twice a week. The pandemic has pushed hundreds of thousands of restaurants into bankruptcy—and the rest are struggling to stay afloat. In order to keep the lights on, many have shifted their business models, and are embracing innovations and experimentation. Host Sonari Glinton checks in with his friend Steve Lombardo in Chicago, who manages the Gibsons Restaurant Group. They’ve been hit hard by the pandemic. Colle...

The Triumph of Remote Work?

December 16, 2020 21:55 - 22 minutes - 20.8 MB

Thanks to the pandemic, some 40% of Americans no longer head into the office to get work done. For many, the shift to remote work could be permanent, and yet millions of others do not have that luxury. This trend exacerbates the fault line between those who can, and those who can’t. But as much as experts tout “the end of the office”, a few with years of remote work experience argue that there’s a shelf life to this new way of working - and downsides that must be considered.   Hos...

Working Together, Remotely

December 16, 2020 21:55 - 22 minutes - 20.8 MB

Thanks to the pandemic, some 40% of Americans no longer head into the office to get work done. For many, the shift to remote work could be permanent, and yet millions of others do not have that luxury. This trend exacerbates the fault line between those who can, and those who can’t. But as much as experts tout “the end of the office”, a few with years of remote work experience argue that there’s a shelf life to this new way of working - and downsides that must be considered.   Hos...

The End of Travel

December 02, 2020 11:00 - 25 minutes - 23.8 MB

Barren airports, anchored cruise ships, vacant hotels—it’s impossible to run a tourism business when international borders close and most of the world shelters in place. There is no doubt the pandemic has pushed the travel industry into a corner: one estimate suggests the industry will lose a trillion dollars in 2020 alone. How do you come back from that? For the time being, it feels like travelling for pleasure is a thing of the past, but the urge to leave home for a little while a...

Reimagining Travel

December 02, 2020 11:00 - 25 minutes - 23.8 MB

Barren airports, anchored cruise ships, vacant hotels—it’s impossible to run a tourism business when international borders close and most of the world shelters in place. There is no doubt the pandemic has pushed the travel industry into a corner: one estimate suggests the industry will lose a trillion dollars in 2020 alone. How do you come back from that? For the time being, it feels like travelling for pleasure is a thing of the past, but the urge to leave home for a little while a...

The End of Travel?

December 02, 2020 11:00 - 25 minutes - 23.8 MB

Barren airports, anchored cruise ships, vacant hotels—it’s impossible to run a tourism business when international borders close and most of the world shelters in place. There is no doubt the pandemic has pushed the travel industry into a corner: one estimate suggests the industry will lose a trillion dollars in 2020 alone. How do you come back from that? For the time being, it feels like travelling for pleasure is a thing of the past, but the urge to leave home for a little while a...

The Death of the City?

November 18, 2020 11:00 - 25 minutes - 23.6 MB

At the height of the pandemic, headlines around the world proclaimed an exodus of people from urban centers toward smaller, and possibly safer, communities. The sudden mass shift to remote work—for those who could—helped fuel this rush to more pastoral, or at least less congested, environs. Pundits immediately declared that metropolises like New York City were dead. But are city communities truly at risk of collapse? Or could this moment instead usher in a long awaited renewal for t...

The City is Dead, Long Live the City

November 18, 2020 11:00 - 25 minutes - 23.6 MB

At the height of the pandemic, headlines around the world proclaimed an exodus of people from urban centers toward smaller, and possibly safer, communities. The sudden mass shift to remote work—for those who could—helped fuel this rush to more pastoral, or at least less congested, environs. Pundits immediately declared that metropolises like New York City were dead. But are city communities truly at risk of collapse? Or could this moment instead usher in a long awaited renewal for t...

The Death of the City

November 18, 2020 11:00 - 25 minutes - 23.6 MB

At the height of the pandemic, headlines around the world proclaimed an exodus of people from urban centers toward smaller, and possibly safer, communities. The sudden mass shift to remote work—for those who could—helped fuel this rush to more pastoral, or at least less congested, environs. Pundits immediately declared that metropolises like New York City were dead. But are city communities truly at risk of collapse? Or could this moment instead usher in a long awaited renewal for t...

Introducing... Now, What’s Next?

November 13, 2020 11:00 - 3 minutes - 3.06 MB

The world is changing in ways we never expected. And the Morgan Stanley Ideas podcast is changing alongside it. Our new podcast looks at life AFTER the global pandemic. Sonari Glinton makes sense of how the world continues to evolve in the face of a global crisis and the rare chance it’s given us to rethink our assumptions. This may be a once-in-a-lifetime challenge, but it’s also an opportunity to create real and lasting change. Morgan Stanley Ideas is becoming Now, What’s Next? A...

Fishing for Data in a Sea of Stars

July 12, 2019 17:08 - 23 minutes - 21.3 MB

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing. In 1969, Neil Armstrong’s first steps inspired advancements that led to everything from modern kitchen appliances to the Internet. But 50 years later, space exploration isn’t limited to government-funded missions, launches, and astronauts. Now, private companies are leading today’s “space race” and will help us enter a new era of growth—with satellites. In our season finale, we look toward the stars to see how the s...

Shopping for the Future

June 26, 2019 18:26 - 27 minutes - 25.6 MB

The summer bestseller you read on the way to work, a flower delivery for your sister’s birthday, dinner made fresh from your weekly meal kit— today you can have every part of your day ordered online and delivered to you without ever leaving your home. But what about your favorite shop around the corner or even the malls of your childhood? With the growing convenience and efficiency of online shopping come questions about the future of traditional retail. Are brick-and-mortar stores ...

"Thoughts on the Market" Preview - Mike Wilson: 3 Summer Surprises Investors Could Be Missing

June 20, 2019 09:00 - 3 minutes - 3.36 MB

On this preview episode of the new Morgan Stanley podcast "Thoughts on the Market", Chief Investment Officer Mike Wilson says markets are typically savvy on how and when to price news events. But are markets overlooking some potential bad news?

Living Together, Separately

June 05, 2019 20:36 - 23 minutes - 21.9 MB

In the future, we’ll all still need a place to live. But as rents continue to rise and the housing market changes, we might need to adjust our vision of home. Instead of living in a tiny, expensive apartment or funneling our savings into a down payment for a single-family home, we might choose to live together for the sake of space, money, and, above all else, community. This type of housing model, known as co-living, has existed throughout history, but new iterations of co-living a...

Inventing Flavors: A Taste of the Future

May 14, 2019 12:00 - 23 minutes - 21.9 MB

Have you ever tasted a habanada pepper? An upstate abundance potato? A Robin’s Koginut squash? These new vegetable breeds, all created by Row Seven Seed Company, are bursting with new flavors that come straight from the earth. But what about those wasabi seaweed snacks? Or something like beer chips? Or crazy ice cream flavors that seem to come from natural sources but are most-likely made in a lab? The flavor industry is worth billions of dollars, but with new technology, our chan...

Potatoes into Polymers

April 22, 2019 18:13 - 22 minutes - 20.5 MB

As you walk down the street, sit in your office, or even make yourself a cup of coffee, take a look around and consider what everything is made of. ​More often than not, the answer will be: plastic. Our world is made of plastic. It’s one of the most affordable, versatile and indestructible materials we have. But the very properties that make plastic perfect for so much have also made it problematic. Most of that plastic is still here, and it will be for hundreds of years. But in the...

Darting into the Future

April 08, 2019 18:13 - 23 minutes - 21.7 MB

You many have imagined a future of transit where we all blast off to work strapped into personal jetpacks or shuttle our kids to and from school in flying cars. But the future is now, and the innovative transportation systems of today are surprising in their own right. The best among them are reimagining infrastructure design and project funding to get people moving across town and around the globe.  In this second episode of the new season of the Ideas podcast, we head to a place ...

No Cash On Hand

March 18, 2019 18:03 - 20 minutes - 18.9 MB

Rummaging through your pockets in search of change and crumpled bills to pay for your morning coffee may still feel routine, but in some parts of the world, this familiar scene is just a memory. The cashless economy is already starting to take shape, and as we continue to create innovative ways to exchange money without pulling out our wallets, cash might become a thing of the past. And while some countries struggle with questions of fairness and inclusivity as governments and busin...

Coming Soon: Season 4, Where the Future is Now

March 01, 2019 22:15 - 2 minutes - 2.12 MB

Ever wonder what your life might be like 5, 10, 20 years from now? This season, we’re taking you around the globe -- everywhere from Tanzania to Sweden to Japan -- to catch a glimpse of what the future might hold. Because the future ​is ​happening somewhere. It’s just a matter of knowing where to find it. New season starts the first week of March.

Climate Change and ESG Research

September 26, 2018 16:45 - 11 minutes - 10.4 MB

Season four of the Ideas Podcast will be starting soon, but in the meantime, we’re kicking things off with a bonus episode in honor of Climate Week NYC: an annual summit where scientists, government officials, and CEOs come together to showcase innovations, programs, and policies that are leading the fight against climate change. But for many key players in today’s financial world, the future of climate action isn’t relegated to one week. At Morgan Stanley, there is a whole team of ...

You Can Play Video Games for a Living?

July 13, 2018 14:45 - 18 minutes - 16.6 MB

The word “sports” may conjure images of athletes barreling down a football field or burying a three-pointer, but the latest stadium-rousing athletes rarely if ever have to leave their chairs. Welcome to the world of professional video-gaming, or eSports. Around the world, eSports is looking more and more like any big-league sport, complete with sponsorships, merchandising, and arenas full of fans. And now, eSports is on track to become a multibillion-dollar industry. In this episod...

What Does It Mean to Retire Now?

June 29, 2018 17:47 - 16 minutes - 14.8 MB

After long careers and years of saving, many of today’s retirees have decided not to set sail on an exotic cruise or spend their days on the golf course. They’re changing what it means to retire by re-entering the workforce—and creating an entirely new market in the process. In this episode of the Ideas podcast, we look at the tech startups, nonprofits, and even the baby boomers themselves who are shaping the newly retired market. Steve Records, the Vice President of Field Operatio...

When Baseball’s Free Agents Struck Out

June 22, 2018 15:27 - 18 minutes - 17.1 MB

For the past 40 years, Major League Baseball’s off-season has been dominated by a frenzied bidding war to sign available free agents. But this year, everything changed—the free-agent market froze. For months, almost none of the 200 free agents were signed. So what happened? And what does the market shift mean for the future of America’s pastime? This season on the Ideas Podcast, we’ve been exploring unexpected markets. In this episode, we’ll look at what happens when a seemingly he...

What Do Banks, VR, and the Mars Rover Have in Common?

June 15, 2018 10:00 - 15 minutes - 13.7 MB

Virtual reality is popping up in almost every industry, doing things that were once unimaginable. How did it grow from the stuff of Sci-Fi into a real world revolution? As with so many things, it began with a language.  In this episode of the Ideas podcast, we explore the virtual future by looking at one of the earliest VR worlds. Bryan Carter, a professor at the University of Arizona, guides us on a tour of Virtual Harlem, an early VR world that allowed his students to walk the st...

Distraction, Tech’s Frankenstein Moment?

June 08, 2018 17:16 - 15 minutes - 14.5 MB

Tech promised us more productivity and better lives via perpetual connectivity. Now, it seems impossible to stop looking at our screens. Can we disrupt distraction?  In this episode of the Ideas podcast, we’re diving deep into the solutions-to-digital-distraction market. We talk to Suze Yalof-Schwartz, the founder of Unplug, a meditation app that helps people, well, unplug from technology by plugging in. Manoush Zomorodi, a technology journalist, shows us that the way we interact w...

Can You Buy a Bagel With It?

May 31, 2018 21:24 - 19 minutes - 18.2 MB

As our lives become more digital, our money is becoming increasingly digital too. There are more than a thousand cryptocurrencies floating around and new ones seem to launch every day. But is this new form of money, one that only exists online, even a currency? What exactly gives cryptocurrencies value? In this episode of the Ideas podcast, we head to the Berkshires to see what a local currency, the BerkShare, can teach us about the value of alternative currencies. We speak with th...

Coming Soon: Season 3, Unexpected Markets

May 25, 2018 19:03 - 2 minutes - 1.89 MB

Get ready, the new season of the Morgan Stanley Ideas Podcast is almost here! This time around we’re making sense of a slew of surprising markets: cryptocurrency, virtual reality, baseball free agency, and many more. New episodes start in June!

What is the Value of Art? | Michelangelo at The Met

January 29, 2018 22:45 - 13 minutes - 12.8 MB

On this special episode of the podcast we visit an exciting new exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Along the way we talk with Art Historian Diana Gisolfi of the Pratt Institute, and with Morgan Stanley’s Ferdousi Islam, an employee guide for company clients and employees at the exhibition, to look at the value of art in all its aspects, not only the monetary. Eight years in the making, Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer is sponsored by Morgan Stanley and open to...

Will Electric Cars Take Us Back to the Future?

December 01, 2017 22:18 - 14 minutes - 13.5 MB

A rapid shift in the auto industry is coming. Electric vehicles, the long-anticipated cars of the future, are poised to dominate global markets in the next few decades. What impact will they have on how we live our lives? In this episode of the Ideas podcast, we wonder what an electric-car-powered future will look like. Will the internal combustion vehicle go the way of the horse and buggy? Will it mean the revival of the drive-in theater? Or the drive-in home? We speak with urban ...

Are You Ready for Your Digital Afterlife?

November 13, 2017 21:29 - 18 minutes - 16.9 MB

We know to make sure our heirs can access our online bank accounts, but what about the rest of our digital selves? As more and more meaningful parts of our lives enter the virtual world, how do we value the assets we leave behind online? What are they worth and to whom? In this episode of the Ideas podcast, we wonder: What’s a good way to pass on 10,000 photos from all those family vacations? Does a viral social media account have real-world value after you die? Could our endless s...

Are Two Bottom Lines Better Than One?

October 27, 2017 20:36 - 16 minutes - 14.8 MB

Finding the rare unicorn startup that both disrupts an entire industry and changes the world for the better has been the mission for Nancy Pfund of DBL Partners. These double bottom line businesses are changing the way many are thinking about sustainability. In this episode of the podcast we learn what Nancy values in these companies, visit a transformative soap factory in a struggling Chicago community, and hear from Hilary Irby, Morgan Stanley’s co-head of Global Sustainable Finan...

Why Is It Difficult to Give Away $1 Million — and Make It Count?

October 14, 2017 00:09 - 15 minutes - 14.3 MB

When businessman Ron Harrington turned his attention and considerable fortune toward philanthropy he, like many others, confronted the issue of how to make the biggest impact. In this episode we explore the challenges of effective philanthropy, hear stories from Bill and Melinda Gates, talk about the importance of failure, discuss the solution the Harrington project is putting in place and get some tips from Melanie Schnoll-Begun of Morgan Stanley Philanthropy Management. For furth...

Why Is It Hard for a Robot to Make Sneakers?

September 29, 2017 20:29 - 15 minutes - 14.3 MB

Can consumers get the same quick turnaround on new styles from the sneaker industry that they’ve come to expect for sportswear? This episode, we travel from a sneakerhead haven on New York’s Lower East Side to a state of the art robotics workshop outside Atlanta. Along the way we talk with Jay Sole, Morgan Stanley’s Branded Apparel and Footwear Analyst, about the future of the sneaker industry.