Hosted by Heather Shell · 🇺🇸 US · EN · 32 episodes
Established thought leaders with verified media credentials.
Bear Markets & Bad Decisions is a smart, story-driven economics podcast about bubbles, incentives, and the moments in history where humans absolutely should have known better — but didn’t. Hosted by Heather Shell, each episode breaks down real economic events with wit, context, and zero MBA required.
Heather Shell hosts Bear Markets & Bad Decisions, a business show with 32 episodes published.
In 1889, a dam broke and killed over 2,200 people. The men who owned the dam were some of the wealthiest in American history. They had been warned. They had been asked to fix it. They chose not to — because fixing it wou
In the 1920s, young women were hired to paint glow-in-the-dark watch dials with radium. They were told it was safe. They were told to lick their brushes to a fine point. They were told radium would put roses in their che
Prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi are exploding in popularity—but how do they actually work, and can they really predict the future? In this episode of Bear Markets & Bad Decisions , we break down how predict
Jack the Ripper is one of the most infamous serial killers in history—but this story isn’t about who he was. It’s about why he was able to operate in the first place. In 1888, the streets of Whitechapel were filled with
AI layoffs are dominating headlines—but this isn’t the first time companies have blamed technology for job losses. In the late 1990s, during the dot-com boom, businesses made the same argument about the internet. In this
What happens when a system rewards bad behavior? Enron didn’t collapse overnight. It built itself into failure—one deal at a time. In the 1990s, Enron transformed from a traditional energy company into a financial powerh
What happens when a leader stops hearing the truth? In the early 1900s, Tsar Nicholas II ruled Russia with absolute authority. But as war, food shortages, and economic strain spread across the country, something else was
What happens when half the population disappears? The Black Death wasn’t just a tragedy—it was a turning point. Between 1347 and 1353, Europe lost up to 50% of its people. And when that happened, something unexpected fol
What really happened on the Titanic—and why did so many poor passengers never make it off the ship?This episode of Bear Markets & Bad Decisions goes beyond the iceberg to uncover the economic system that shaped who lived
Why did college tuition skyrocket—and how did student loans create today’s student debt crisis? This video breaks down the economics behind rising tuition, federal student loan policy, and why college has become so expen
Why are corporations buying homes—and why won’t a housing crash or lower interest rates fix affordability? This video explains the economics behind rising home prices, institutional investors, and why housing remains una
This episode breaks down why housing is so expensive in today’s economy and how zoning laws impact the housing market, rent prices, and housing supply in the United States. If you’ve ever wondered why rent keeps going up
Why is health insurance tied to your job in the United States? In this episode of Bear Markets & Bad Decisions , we break down the surprising history of employer-sponsored health insurance—and how a World War II wage fre
In 1979, cars lined up around city blocks across America waiting for gasoline. The strange part? The crisis didn’t start in the United States. It started nearly 6,000 miles away in Iran. When the Iranian Revolution disru
What if witch hunts weren’t really about witches? For centuries, villages across Europe and colonial America accused thousands of people of practicing dark magic. Neighbors turned on neighbors. Courts accepted invisible
Step inside the real Gilded Age — not the shiny textbook version, but the one ordinary Americans actually lived through. Tenements packed to the walls, factories running on exhaustion, political machines greased with cor
The 1980s Savings & Loan Crisis wasn’t just a banking meltdown — it reshaped the entire U.S. housing market, rewired mortgage lending, and helped pave the road to the 2008 financial crisis. In this episode, we break down
In the late 1970s, inflation was out of control. Prices rose faster than paychecks, trust in the economy collapsed, and the Federal Reserve had lost its credibility. Then Paul Volcker walked in—6'7", gravel-voiced, and r
In 1930, Congress tried to “save” the economy with the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act — and instead helped collapse global trade, wreck American farms, crush manufacturing, and deepen the Great Depression. This episode breaks d
How did one hotel in New Hampshire quietly reshape the entire global economy? In 1944, 44 countries met at Bretton Woods to rebuild a world shattered by war and financial chaos. What they created — a dollar-anchored syst
Sponsor detection runs nightly. Check back soon.
No public pitch examples yet for this show.
Generate your own personalised pitchBased on semantic analysis of episode topics and host coverage, this show is a strong guest fit for executives in:
Industry fit is computed by PitchCentric using vector embeddings of the show's episode catalog.
Shows with the most semantically similar episode content. Pitch one, pitch all; producers cluster.
To pitch Bear Markets & Bad Decisions, visit https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/heather-shell for contact information, then craft a tight one-paragraph hook that ties your expertise to a gap in their recent business coverage.
Bear Markets & Bad Decisions is hosted by Heather Shell. The show is categorised under business and has published 32 episodes.
Bear Markets & Bad Decisions has published 32 episodes.
Bear Markets & Bad Decisions regularly covers business. It sits in the business category.
Bear Markets & Bad Decisions is accessible for guests with genuine business expertise. A personalised, episode-aware pitch will still outperform a generic one every time.
Bear Markets & Bad Decisions hasn't explicitly signalled guest openness in recent episodes. That doesn't rule out pitching. your hook just needs to be especially compelling and relevant to their recent content.
Episodes of Bear Markets & Bad Decisions average 16 minutes. a focused format where a clear narrative arc and tight preparation matter most.
Our data rates Bear Markets & Bad Decisions's guest bar at 80/100 (Premium tier). Established thought leaders with verified media credentials. Sign in to PitchCentric to see how your own Pod Score compares against this show.
Methodology. Booking Probability™ blends Listen Score, 30-day Virality, open-to-guests detection, and Apple ratings. Data refreshed every 60 minutes. Listen Score and Booking Probability are calculated by PitchCentric. Last enriched yesterday.