Why none of your stuff lasts anymore

In today’s Big Story podcast, maybe it’s the top you bought on Instagram or the flashy new appliance with a touchscreen. Maybe it’s an Apple product that you can’t repair yourself or a replacement for a product you’ve been buying forever that simply … doesn’t last as long as it once did. You’ve probably experienced at least one of these and likely more.

You’re not imagining things or just getting old and grumpy. There are a number of reasons — some purposeful, others a result of circumstances — that are lowering the lifespans of products that used to last years, even decades. So why is this happening and what can we do about it?

Izzie Ramirez, deputy editor of Vox’s Future Perfect, joins The Big Story.

“What happens when there’s more technology introduced into these utilitarian objects is you’re kind of introducing more ways that it can go wrong. And especially since a lot of companies don’t really have the support systems to help you when you come across a problem.”

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