EP 451: Adam Davidson on the Passion Economy

Adam Davidson, creator of NPR's Planet Money podcast and award-winning New Yorker staff writer, says that the 21st-century economic paradigm offers new ways of making money, fresh paths toward professional fulfillment, and unprecedented opportunities for curious, ambitious individuals to combine the things they love with their careers. He talks about his father and grandfather as examples of two different approaches to work and money, and says we’re entering an economy that combines the best of both. How explains how to tell between a hobby and a passion, how globalization and the internet allow you to monetize that passion like never before, and why it’s important to have what he calls "the Goldilocks of business models" to avoid getting undercut or replaced by bigger companies, foreign competition, or automation. Plus he shares some surprising examples of people who are making the passion economy work for them including one man who only sells to the Amish, a brush company that took the most basic of products and turned it into a high-priced specialty item for NASA, and an accountant who found his passion by helping others pursue their own.

Order Adam's new his book The Passion Economy: The New Rules for Thriving in the Twenty-First Century on Amazon, Audible, or wherever books are sold, and follow Adam at www.adamdavidson.com or on Twitter at @adamdavidson. Today's episode is sponsored Wave and American Home Shield.