Betty Boop, Excel Olympics, Penny-isms: Our 2026 Valentines
Episode
31 min
Read time
2 min
Topics
Relationships, Sales & Revenue, Software Development
AI-Generated Summary
Key Takeaways
- ✓Public Domain Liberation: After a 20-year freeze caused by copyright extensions lobbied by Disney, works now enter public domain annually starting 2019. The 1930 Betty Boop cartoon, The Maltese Falcon book, Georgia on My Mind song, and All Quiet on the Western Front film all became free to use January 1, 2024, ending decades where nothing new entered public domain.
- ✓RFID Self-Checkout Economics: Uniqlo's seamless self-checkout uses RFID chips that dropped from 20 cents per tag a decade ago to 4 cents today according to McKinsey. This technology works for clothing retailers where 4 cents per item is negligible, but remains impractical for grocery stores selling low-margin items like peppers where the tag cost significantly impacts profitability.
- ✓Excel Competition Landscape: The Microsoft Excel Collegiate Competition held annually in Las Vegas features semifinals and finals with competitors on stage solving complex puzzles like planning trips for 500 people. Manufacturing is the industry using Excel most extensively, not finance or accounting, because the program's intuitive interface requires no advanced degree to operate effectively at scale.
- ✓Penny Elimination Impact: The US Mint stopped producing new pennies in 2024, saving 56 million dollars annually since each penny costs over 3 cents to manufacture. Existing pennies remain legal tender indefinitely. The decision eliminates centuries of penny-based phrases like penny wise and pound foolish, penny for your thoughts, and a penny saved is a penny earned from active cultural relevance.
- ✓Public Records Journalism: 404 Media demonstrates how reporters can generate investigative scoops by searching the federal procurement website at sam.gov for contracts signed by agencies like ICE. This basic accountability journalism technique reveals how tax dollars are spent, including technology contracts with companies like Palantir, requiring only public database access and systematic searching rather than insider sources or leaked documents.
What It Covers
Planet Money's 2024 Valentine's Day episode celebrates things the team loves: Jennifer Jenkins' annual public domain list, competitive Excel championships, Uniqlo's self-checkout technology, the US penny and its cultural phrases, and 404 Media's investigative reporting on ICE technology. The episode culminates in creating an official Planet Money Valentine featuring newly public domain Betty Boop.
Key Questions Answered
- •Public Domain Liberation: After a 20-year freeze caused by copyright extensions lobbied by Disney, works now enter public domain annually starting 2019. The 1930 Betty Boop cartoon, The Maltese Falcon book, Georgia on My Mind song, and All Quiet on the Western Front film all became free to use January 1, 2024, ending decades where nothing new entered public domain.
- •RFID Self-Checkout Economics: Uniqlo's seamless self-checkout uses RFID chips that dropped from 20 cents per tag a decade ago to 4 cents today according to McKinsey. This technology works for clothing retailers where 4 cents per item is negligible, but remains impractical for grocery stores selling low-margin items like peppers where the tag cost significantly impacts profitability.
- •Excel Competition Landscape: The Microsoft Excel Collegiate Competition held annually in Las Vegas features semifinals and finals with competitors on stage solving complex puzzles like planning trips for 500 people. Manufacturing is the industry using Excel most extensively, not finance or accounting, because the program's intuitive interface requires no advanced degree to operate effectively at scale.
- •Penny Elimination Impact: The US Mint stopped producing new pennies in 2024, saving 56 million dollars annually since each penny costs over 3 cents to manufacture. Existing pennies remain legal tender indefinitely. The decision eliminates centuries of penny-based phrases like penny wise and pound foolish, penny for your thoughts, and a penny saved is a penny earned from active cultural relevance.
- •Public Records Journalism: 404 Media demonstrates how reporters can generate investigative scoops by searching the federal procurement website at sam.gov for contracts signed by agencies like ICE. This basic accountability journalism technique reveals how tax dollars are spent, including technology contracts with companies like Palantir, requiring only public database access and systematic searching rather than insider sources or leaked documents.
Notable Moment
Reporter Joseph Cox from 404 Media conducted a public training showing subscribers how to investigate government agencies by simply searching federal procurement databases. This demonstration revealed that powerful investigative journalism exposing how agencies like ICE operate requires no special access, just systematic use of publicly available contract records that any citizen can search online at sam.gov.
Episode Transcript
This message comes from Mint Mobile. Starting at $15 a month, make the switch at mintmobile.com/switch. $45 upfront payment for three months. Five gigabyte plan equivalent to $15 a month. Taxes and fees extra. First three months only. See terms. This is Planet Money from NPR. So, Jennifer, you got what I sent you. Yes? I did. It's the it's the greatest mystery of the year so far. This is Jennifer Jenkins, lawyer, professor. You may have heard her before. She's become sort of our unofficial trademark and copyright attorney here at Planet Money. And what I sent her is inside a large yellow envelope. You want me to guess? You want me just to open? No. Just go ahead and open. I love surprises, Kitty. So just this is like oh, this is loud. Every year, we at Planet Money send Valentine's to the things we love. This year, to innovative reporting on ice, to the sport of competitive spreadsheeting, to perhaps the only beloved self checkout system, and more. And typically, these are not physical Valentines. They're shout outs in a Valentine's episode such as this, chock full of big ideas and recommendations that we wanna share with you all. But for my first Valentine to Jennifer Jenkins, we had in fact made a bespoke physical Valentine. What? Oh my god. Yay. Do you wanna describe it? I I need a moment. Oh my god. Okay. Fine. I'll describe it. Red and black font that's a little tattoo motorcycle style. It says official Planet Money Valentine. And then a famous cartoon character that, for reasons, we are not going to get sued for using. And that character also happens to be one of Jennifer's favorites, Betty Boop. Happy Valentine's Day. Oh my god. Okay. So Now, I know you love Betty Boop in particular. Oh my god. So much. Explain why you have an affinity for Betty Boop? Because she is one of the first comic book characters who was not defined by her relationship to a male character. So Minnie Mouse is Mickey Mouse's girl. Olive Oil is Popeye's girl. Betty Boop's just her own woman. She's fiercely independent. She's unapologetically sexy. She dances around. She sings boop boop a doop. I have to have poop boop ba doop a doop. Mom. Mom. Betty Boop debuted in this cartoon in 1930, ninety five years ago, which means as of January 1, the copyright has expired. Anyone is allowed to use this version of Betty Boop for anything. This version, by the way, literally a, like, dog person hybrid, which is very weird and would not always be this way, but, like, yes. This version from 1930 is now in the public domain. And the reason I knew this is because every year, Jennifer Jenkins helps put out a list of all the famous books and songs and cartoons entering the public domain. And that that is my first Valentine to Jennifer's annual list of newly liberated intellectual …
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Books, tools, and gear mentioned in this episode
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Books
“The 1930 Betty Boop cartoon, The Maltese Falcon book, Georgia on My Mind song, and All Quiet on the Western Front film all became free to use January 1, 2024, ending decades where nothing new entered public domain.”
“The 1930 Betty Boop cartoon, The Maltese Falcon book, Georgia on My Mind song, and All Quiet on the Western Front film all became free to use January 1, 2024, ending decades where nothing new entered public domain.”
Tools
by Microsoft
“The Microsoft Excel Collegiate Competition held annually in Las Vegas features semifinals and finals with competitors on stage solving complex puzzles like planning trips for 500 people.”
by US Federal Government
“404 Media demonstrates how reporters can generate investigative scoops by searching the federal procurement website at sam.gov for contracts signed by agencies like ICE.”
Gear
by Uniqlo
“Uniqlo's seamless self-checkout uses RFID chips that dropped from 20 cents per tag a decade ago to 4 cents today according to McKinsey.”
Products
“The 1930 Betty Boop cartoon, The Maltese Falcon book, Georgia on My Mind song, and All Quiet on the Western Front film all became free to use January 1, 2024, ending decades where nothing new entered public domain.”
company
“Planet Money's 2024 Valentine's Day episode celebrates things the team loves: Jennifer Jenkins' annual public domain list, competitive Excel championships, Uniqlo's self-checkout technology, the US penny and its cultural phrases, and 404 Media's investigative reporting on ICE technology.”
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