The episode opens with breaking financial news: oil prices have plunged nearly 16 percent following a two-week ceasefire in the U.S.-Iran conflict, with the New York price falling from nearly $118 to just below $95 a barrel. Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at U.K.-based investment platform AJ Bell, cautions that while markets are showing relief, the underlying conflict is not resolved — calling it merely a turning point in the narrative rather than a definitive conclusion. Host David Brancaccio then transitions to his ongoing Economy 66 reporting series, traveling Route 66 on its 100th anniversary to examine how rapid technological change is affecting communities along the historic highway. In Albuquerque, New Mexico — the largest city on Route 66 — Brancaccio finds what economists call a K-shaped economy, with one segment thriving and another struggling. He visits Ancora Bakery and Cafe, a 501c3 nonprofit that serves food while training 70 to 100 people per year in barista and food service skills, consistently placing graduates in permanent employment. Co-founder Dominic Cagliostro describes the program's focus on people in addiction recovery and difficult life transitions, providing not just job skills but resumes, interview coaching, and appropriate clothing. The café recently went on hiatus and was incorrectly listed as permanently closed on Google Maps, but has since reopened. Ancora also redistributes surplus restaurant food to unhoused people along Route 66's neon corridors, funded through donations, philanthropy, and the founders' personal resources. Brancaccio then visits the Museum of Nuclear Science and History, six blocks from Route 66, where a recording of President Truman's 1945 atomic bomb announcement plays on a loop — a reminder that the region's scientific legacy runs deep. Albuquerque is home to three national laboratories: Los Alamos, Air Force Research, and Sandia. A recent Brookings Institution report identified the city as an AI mini-cluster, though not a superstar hub. Despite this concentration of scientific talent, AI scientist and entrepreneur Mark Montgomery says Albuquerque has never produced a major technology company — a gap he calls possibly the largest of its kind in the world relative to research investment. Montgomery leads K-Yield, a company using neurosymbolic AI — distinct from large language models — to help predict and prevent corporate disasters. He explains that New Mexico's government-dominated economy lacks the ecosystem of wealthy angel investors who also serve as early-stage customers, which is typically essential for startup growth. As a result, many entrepreneurs eventually pivot to military contracting or relocate, with Silicon Valley known for acquiring promising New Mexico tech companies and pulling talent westward. On a more positive note, New Mexico has used oil and gas revenues to build a $70 billion sovereign wealth fund aimed at investing in local entrepreneurial companies. The state now ranks first in the nation for growth in median family income, yet simultaneously ranks in the bottom three for its overall poverty rate — a statistical embodiment of the K-shaped economy Brancaccio set out to document. The episode closes with a brief promotional segment for the podcast This Is Uncomfortable, which is exploring the world of family influencers and the commercialization of childhood.
