The Gist: Dan Pashman on pumpkin spice, and Philip Galewitz on Obamacare.

Artificial Scarcity Is to Blame for Pumpkin Spice Liquor, Oatmeal, and Cream Cheese

Artificial Scarcity Is to Blame for Pumpkin Spice Liquor, Oatmeal, and Cream Cheese

Slate
The Gist
A daily news and culture podcast with Mike Pesca.
Nov. 17 2014 7:25 PM

Pumpkin Spice in July? That’s Too Soon.

Mission creep and year-round-peeps: where artificial seasonality and artificial flavors collide.

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The bad news is you can only get the pumpkin spice latte in the fall. The good news is fall begins in August now.

Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by hirotomo t/Flickr.

Listen to Episode 138 of Slate’s The Gist:

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Today on The Gist, Philip Galewitz from Kaiser Health News explains how the health care shopping experience has improved since Obamacare. Plus, Dan Pashman from The Sporkful explains how artificial scarcity is the real selling point behind food fads like the Pumpkin Spice Latte. He’s the author of Eat More Better. For the Spiel, Mike investigates a claim made by Bobby Jindal on Meet The Press.

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Mike Pesca is the host of the Slate daily podcast The Gist. He also contributes reports and commentary to NPR.