How ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ Really Works
This week on Gadget Lab, we chart the rise of services that let you pay for purchases in interest-free installments, and…
Lauren Goode: Which is tech.
Michael Calore: Which is technology. We were going to talk about technology on her show as well, but we just ended up talking about sleeping.
Lauren Goode: Can you give us a sneak preview of some of the things that you recommended? Some of the tracks?
Michael Calore: Sure. There’s a Brian Eno generative piece in there. I talk about the Max Richter piece, Sleep, which is like an eight-and-a-half-hour-long album, classical album that’s intended for you to listen to while you are asleep. It’s good times.
Lauren Goode: I really need to try that. My current sleep music is “Hey Google, play ocean sounds,” for hours on end.
Michael Calore: You just triggered everybody’s Nests.
Lauren Goode: Sorry. But enjoy the ocean sounds.
Michael Calore: Yep. There’s no white noise in my selections, but there are some fake rain sounds in my selections. You have to listen to the show. Select Five is the name of the podcast, and I’m on episode 19. You’ll see my photo.
Lauren Goode: What happens if you travel and you don’t have access to a speaker in the room that you’re staying in?
Michael Calore: I usually just use my phone. I’ll just play something on my phone and put it down next to me. And true story, one time I logged on to the hotel Wi-Fi, and then I turned the music on and went to sleep, and I woke up to an alert saying that I just used 2 gigabytes of data.
Lauren Goode: Was it a good night’s sleep? Was it worth it?
Michael Calore: Nope.
Lauren Goode: That is the worst. I mean, music streams aren’t usually that heavy.
Michael Calore: Well, I have everything cranked up too extreme, because I can’t stand crappy audio quality.
Lauren Goode: Just the highest quality.
Michael Calore: Only the best.
Lauren Goode: The best.
Michael Calore: Only the best for me for my little precious ears, the princess and the highly compressed pea.
Lauren Goode: That’s a great recommendation. Thank you. I really need to use this—as you know, I’m not a good sleeper.
Michael Calore: I’ll set up some playlists for you.
Lauren Goode: Thank you, Mike. I say this every time I’m coming to the office. “How are you doing?” “Well, I didn’t sleep well last night,” per usual.
Michael Calore: Try listening to music. All right. Well, that’s our show for this week. Thank you all for listening. Lauren, thank you for being on the show.
Lauren Goode: Thanks for having me on my show. This is really fun. I love it when it’s just the two of us.
Michael Calore: Right. We could talk about anything for an hour, and at least two people would be interested inside this room.
Lauren Goode: Exactly.
Michael Calore: If you have any feedback about the show, you can find all of us on Twitter. For now, just check the show notes. Our producer is the very handsome Boone Ashworth. Goodbye, and we will be back next week.
[Gadget Lab outro theme music plays]
[Outtake]
Hi, everyone. Welcome to Gadget Lab. I am Michael Calore. I’m a senior editor at WIRED.
Lauren Goode: And I’m Lauren J—
[Lauren and Michael laugh]
Lauren Goode: I can’t even pronounce my own name. What’s wrong with me?
Michael Calore: All right, let’s back up.
Lauren Goode: OK.