Today on the show, the story of the modern consumer movement in the U.S. and the person who inspired it: Ralph Nader. How Ralph Nader's battle in the 1960s set the stage for decades of regulation and sparked a debate in the U.S. about how much regulation is the right amount and how much is too much. This episode was made in collaboration with NPR's Throughline. For more about Ralph Nader and safety regulations, listen to their original episode, "Ralph Nader, Consumer Crusader." This Planet Money episode was produced by Emma Peaslee and edited by Jess Jiang. The Throughline episode was produced by Rund Abdelfatah, Ramtin Arablouei, Lawrence Wu, Julie Caine, Anya Steinberg, Casey Miner, Cristina Kim, Devin Katayama, Peter Balonon-Rosen, Irene Noguchi, and fact-checking by Kevin Volkl. The episode was mixed by Josh Newell. Help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
For a while now, you've probably been hearing about book bans, how they're gaining momentum everywhere in Texas, in Missouri, Florida and Pennsylvania.
On the Code Switch podcast, we're taking a look at why.
Why are so many books suddenly considered so dangerous to kids?
Listen to our new series on the Code Switch podcast from NPR.
This is Planet money from NPrdemen.
You know how it seems like just about every day there's some sort of new product?
Recall Toyota recalling 1 million vehicles worldwide over a potential airbag issue.
FDA is reporting another baby formula.
Recall.
Some of Boeing's 737 Max nine planes are grounded right now, triggering cancellations nationwide.
The idea is if a product is faulty, the government should intervene and keep it from the market.
This is the result of the modern day consumer advocacy movement.
This movement started decades ago with Ralph Nader.
He's well known for his presidential run in the 2000 election, but back in the sixties, he was a young lawyer who was trying to make sense of a pretty significant problem.
I lost a lot of friends in car crashes.
They were killed or they were permanently disabled.
It's far, far worse then than it is today.
Fatal car crashes were nearly five times more common back then, and that didn't make sense to Nader.
I kept thinking of people who could be living productive lives today and who were killed in totally survivable crashes.
You know, I began looking at the cars and how they were crushed in.