What if working until you die became the new American Dream?
Millions of Americans in their 60s and 70s are toiling away, not by choice, but by necessity.
This isn't a story of poor planning; it’s about a system that changed the rules after the game had already begun.
Discover how the secure "three-legged stool" of retirement — Social Security, company pensions, and personal savings — a comfortable guarantee for generations, was systematically dismantled.
We’ll trace the unexpected rise of the 401(k), initially a small tax provision, which corporate America swiftly adopted to shift immense financial risk from their balance sheets onto individual workers, saving hundreds of billions.
Explore the "fatal flaw" built into the 401(k) system: it assumed ordinary people would become investment experts overnight, mastering skills financial advisors spend years learning.
Witness the devastating consequences: median 401(k) balances a mere fraction of what’s needed for a secure retirement, savings wiped out by market crashes, and seniors forced into gig economy jobs or choosing between prescription medication and rent.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth no one wants to say aloud: This wasn't an accident. It was the greatest wealth transfer in American history.
The money once guaranteed for retirement was redirected to ballooning executive compensation and shareholder returns.
This crisis isn't a bug in the system; it's a feature of an economy designed to keep everyone working and consuming.
Join us to understand how "the trees they planted were chopped down to build someone else's mansion".
This isn't just about financial security; it's about the dignity of retirement after a lifetime of contribution.
Will the next generation learn from this profound sacrifice, or are we doomed to repeat these mistakes?
Tune in to uncover what's really happening behind the headlines.
Now available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/lgoxIP6qXyM
The End of the Tech Fantasy
Imagine earning a high salary as a software engineer but struggling to afford rent, or your stock options becoming "worth less than your gym membership".
This episode dives into a bold, unsettling prediction: the idea that "every tech worker is about to be poor".
We aim to guide you through the "tricky details" of what's unfolding in the tech industry right now, exploring historical parallels, economic forces, and what it all implies for your future in tech.
Key topics we unpack include:
The "core thesis" is that "tech wasn't special after all"; it was simply propelled by "artificially cheap money". Now, tech companies "have to play by the same rules as everyone else," often "discovering they don't know how to do that".
The prediction is blunt: tech salaries are "going to come back down to earth," representing a "massive recalibration of expectations and reality".
This episode aims to help you "cut through the headlines" and distinguish between the "tech dream" of building cool things and the "tech fantasy" of "easy riches detached from actual economic value" that "seems to be over".
The most valuable skill you can develop now is adapting to this "new reality".
Now Available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOsUml8oFlE
The uncomfortable truth about why 64% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck—including people with "good" incomes.
There's a devastating shift happening in American households. Families with nursing degrees, steady jobs, and responsible spending habits are visiting food banks. Working parents are using couponing apps like it's a second career. People making $500 "too much" for assistance programs but not enough to actually survive.
The new economic reality has two types of broke people:
But here's what's really happening: an entire generation discovered that survival became expensive while paychecks stayed small. The promise was simple—get educated, work hard, follow the rules. The outcome? Being worse off than parents despite being more educated and working longer hours.
The systemic betrayal: Companies report record profits while their workers can't afford groceries. Prices jump in dollars while wages inch forward in pennies. What used to be temporary setbacks became permanent living conditions.
This isn't about personal financial literacy. It's about recognizing when the system itself is broken—and why understanding that difference is the first step to fighting back.
Available wherever you get your podcasts.
Now available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDurbbcYEnM
While everyone argues about minimum wage and student loans, the real economic crime scene is gathering dust.
One presidential decree severed the mathematical relationship between work and wealth—and your bank account is still bleeding from it.
Your economy runs on broken code from 1971:
The cognitive dissonance: You're more productive than any generation in history. You work longer hours. You have more education. Yet you can't afford what high school dropouts bought in 1965.
This isn't personal failure. This is systematic wealth extraction disguised as economic policy.
Nixon didn't just end the gold standard—he ended the constraint that prevented money from becoming a political weapon. Every bailout, every "quantitative easing," every "too big to fail" traces back to that Sunday night when America defaulted on its monetary promises.
The wealthy understand this. They don't hold cash—they hold assets that inflate with the money supply. Meanwhile, you're told to "save more" in a system designed to punish savers.
Fair warning: This episode will make you angry. Once you see how the monetary game actually works, you can't unsee the transfer mechanism disguised as economic policy.
Available wherever you get your podcasts.
Now Available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8H52zvA7KOQ
Something unprecedented is happening to an entire generation entering the workforce. College graduates in 2025 are facing economic uncertainty unlike anything previous generations have experienced - and the reasons run much deeper than just a "tough job market."
In this episode, we explore why today's graduates are encountering challenges no previous generation has faced, and what it reveals about the fundamental shifts happening in our economy.
What we cover:
The promise that was sold to students when they started college in 2021 - tech boom hiring, remote work opportunities, and the belief that the right degree guaranteed economic security.
How everything changed between 2021 and 2025 - mass tech layoffs eliminating 400,000+ positions, AI acceleration replacing entry-level work, and economic uncertainty destroying predictable career paths.
The skill mismatch crisis - students graduating with knowledge that became obsolete while they were in school, facing job requirements for technologies that didn't exist when they started college.
The deeper systemic issues - why this isn't just a cyclical downturn, but a fundamental restructuring of the relationship between education, work, and economic security.
Key insights:
This isn't just about one graduating class - it's a window into how rapidly our economic systems are changing, and why traditional institutions haven't adapted to prepare people for what's actually coming.
Whether you're graduating, know someone who is, or want to understand how dramatically the economic landscape has shifted, this episode reveals the forces reshaping how an entire generation enters the workforce.
Listen if you want to understand:
Available wherever you get your podcasts.
Now Available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/fiIkrGVFFk4
You're not crazy. You're not lazy. The system was redesigned.
That nagging feeling that something fundamental is broken in your life – despite working harder than your parents, getting more education, and following all the financial advice – isn't in your head. It's in the math.
In this episode, we decode why nothing feels right anymore by examining the systematic destruction of the economic contract that created middle-class life. From the productivity gains that never reached workers' paychecks to the subscription economy designed to extract money continuously, we reveal the hidden mechanisms that make modern life feel impossible.
What you'll discover:
Key insights:The feeling that nothing works anymore isn't a personal failing. It's an accurate perception of systematic economic dysfunction designed to extract wealth from workers while blaming them for struggling with impossible conditions.
This episode explains the systematic reasons behind the widespread economic anxiety affecting millions of people who "did everything right" but can't afford the lifestyle previous generations took for granted.
Subscribe to Milele Decoded for deep dives into the economic systems shaping your life.
You’re not crazy. You’re not lazy. The system was redesigned.
Milele Decoded is the audio companion to Milele, the YouTube channel uncovering how money, power, and policy have shaped the world we live in.
Each episode breaks down one of the most pressing financial and systemic issues of our time. From retirement insecurity to rising rent, automation to economic collapse. But instead of surface-level takes, this podcast goes deeper. We walk through the underlying structures, hidden incentives, and historical turning points that created today's crises.
These aren't interviews. They're research conversations that walk you through how we analyze these systems — drawn directly from our original explainer scripts.
If you've ever felt like something's off… you're right. And this podcast will help you understand exactly why.
Subscribe and start decoding the system.