12.9.14: Junkyard Planet, Cell Phones For The 1%, & TV's Best Openers

From Tesla cars to Louis Vuitton luggage to Philippe Patek watches, luxury brands are selling well. How about a $30,000 cell phone? On today’s show, we’ll learn about the new handcrafted cell phone with optional concierge service that’s become a new symbol of conspicuous consumption.

Plus, Junkyard Planet: following the billion-dollar trash trade from American dumpsters to junkyards across the globe.

And, the opening sequence of a television show is an art form unto itself. We'll get a rundown of the best ones.

Listen to the full show and click Read more for individual segments.

Junkyard Planet

• Adam Minter is Shanghai correspondent for Bloomberg View. He’s followed the trail of trash and found that most of it ends up in China and India. He is also author of Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion Dollar Trash Trade. ­We spoke with him when his book was first released; the paperback version is now available for pre-order.

Cell Phone For the 1%

• A cell phone for $10,000? Yes, but is it worth it? Gabriel Roth took one of the newest model in the high end company Vertu's line up, the Aster, for a test drive at one of their upscale boutiques and wrote about the experience and the phone for Fast Company, "The Cadillac Bentley of Cell Phones."
• You can see a slideshow of the Aster and read more about the features that make it so pricey at this link.

Smart Phones for Eye Health

• In you lived in sub-Saharan Africa your chances of getting a prescription for a pair of eyeglasses would be almost impossible. There’s only one optometrist for eight million people. But a smart phone can help. The World Vision Report’s Cynthia Graber went there to check out the story.
• You can listen to this story at PRX.org.

 
TV Opening Sequences

• TV critic Alan Sepinwall and his colleagues at Hit Fix compiled a list of the 25 greatest TV opening sequences of all time. He joined us to discuss the elements of a truly great opening sequence.