2024-10-24
17 分钟On today's show, we have two stories from The Indicator, Planet Money's daily podcast. They just launched Love Week, a weeklong series exploring the business and economic side of romance. First, hosts Wailin Wong and Adrian Ma fire up the gas logs and pour a mug of cocoa to discuss the made-for-TV rom-com machine, and how television executives learned to mass produce seasonal romance. Then, Wailin and host Darian Woods discuss another romance medium: the romance novel. Once relegated to supermarket aisles, these books are now mainstream. And authors, an often-maligned group within publishing, have found greater commercial success than many writers in other genres. We find out how romance novelists rode the e-book wave and networked with each other to achieve their happily-for-now status in the industry. This episode is hosted by Erika Beras, Wailin Wong, Adrian Ma, and Darian Woods. These episodes of The Indicator were originally produced by Julia Ritchey and engineered by Kwesi Lee. They were fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Kate Concannon is The Indicator's Editor. You can listen to the rest of the series at The Indicator's feed, or at npr.org/love Help support Planet Money and hear our 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
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So there's this running joke that you can basically generate a holiday rom com from a list of options.
Yeah.
So start with your main character.
Maybe she is a hairy corporate lawyer from the big city or a beat down interior designer.
Ooh.
Or a baker.
And she returns to her bucolic small town at Christmastime.
Of course, you know, she wants to, like, enter like, some kind of, like, folksy contest or something.
Or maybe she has to save the family Christmas tree farm from ruin.
But then, then she falls for an old flame.
Or maybe the other baker in town, I don't know.
Ooh.
As long as he's wearing plaid.
Or maybe he has a dog.
He always has a dog.