Episode 6: No Country Has a Secretary of the Future — David Brancaccio

David Brancaccio spent decades waking up at 2am to report the day's news for Marketplace. Now, as the show's Future Effects Correspondent, he's asking a different question: what happens to us — not just our jobs — when AI reshapes the economy? Martha and David explore the painful gap between technological disruption and its promised benefits, why the Industrial Revolution is the wrong model for what's coming, and what it means for a society to lose the friction that makes us human. They also dig into who should be at the table when decisions about AI are made — and why it can't just be the engineers who built it. Born May 17, 1960 in New York City, David Brancaccio got his start in broadcasting at age fifteen on local radio. He went on to earn a B.A. from Wesleyan and a Master's in journalism from Stanford. AlchetronPrabook He hosted Marketplace's evening program from 1993 to 2003, then co-anchored PBS's NOW with Bill Moyers before taking over as solo anchor. Most recently, he served as host of Marketplace Morning Report from 2013 to 2026, before transitioning to his current "Future Effects Correspondent" role — the title he carries on your show. His work has earned him a Peabody, Emmy, and Walter Cronkite Award, among others.