Hey, it's Michael. Today, as you know, is Black Friday, a day that looms oddly large in my life.

For years, I was this newspaper's retail reporter, and so every Friday after Thanksgiving,

I would wake up at 4 in the morning, print circulars in my hand, and dash from store to store,

reporting on the latest doorbuster deals and the

bleary-eyed shoppers literally climbing over each other in order to buy them. And what I came to

understand and ultimately to appreciate is that Black Friday is this strange, endearing, wild,

and quintessentially American holiday. And today, we are celebrating

it with a special episode from our colleagues over at Wirecutter, who started their own podcast

earlier this year. You probably know Wirecutter, product reviews, gift guides, they're very good

at what they do. And they put together

a comprehensive guide to Black Friday that we're now going to share with you. So, without further

ado, here is today's special Black Friday episode from Wirecutter.

From the New York Times, you're listening to The Wirecutter Show.

I'm Christine Cyr Clissette.

I'm Kyra Blackwell.

And I'm Rosie Garan.

And today is a big day for Wirecutter.

It's Black Friday.

This year, tens of millions of people are expected to go online or on foot to shop for Black Friday deals.

And as is the case every year, people are going to spend money, a lot of it.

This year, the National Retail Federation is projecting over $900 billion will have been spent in November and December alone.

These days Black Friday has come to refer to an almost entire week of deals, today through

...