The Art of the Doll
Can tariffs change our consumer habits?
May 8, 2025
31 min
127
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Episode 127 · May 8, 2025
The Art of the Doll
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The Atlantic Episodes Around May 8, 2025
Episode 297 of 364 — walk the feed in the order it was published.
31:34This episodeThe Art of the Doll
Summary
Recently, Donald Trump mused that “maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, you know?” We talk with a doll manufacturer and a policy analyst about tariffs and Americans’ relationship with choice.
Elenor Mak, founder of Jilly Bing, talks about her dream of giving Asian American kids the choice of having a doll that looks like them, and how the new tariffs might kill it. And Martha Gimbel, executive director of the Budget Lab at Yale, discusses the problem with this particular variety of two-doll nostalgia.
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