This great piece really encourages listeners to consider the price we pay when we exercise our American right to shop. Might it not be a right at all, but an addiction? The personal stories of these Chicago shoppers transcend the individual and raise all sorts of larger, more troubling questions. Melby and Richard's careful balance of the personal and the professional (they also provide insights from a host of academic experts) keeps this piece from becoming a simplistic bash at consumerism or the latest big box retailer to capture the nation's imagination. I would love to hear "Consuming Desire" play prior to holiday shopping season, or in conjunction with a series on the different manifestations of depression. This is an intelligent, interesting piece of radio journalism that also manages to entertain.

This piece examines the motivations and some alternatives to American consumer culture. People often believe that buying stuff and working to get the money to buy stuff are natural and benign evolutions of the human condition. Mr. Melby's piece goes a long way towards inciting the listener to both understand and questions the foundations, accoutrements and implications of the American consumer culture that is rapidly pervading the world.