This is Planet Money from NPR.

Brian R. Stet.

Hi, Jacob. Brian R. Stet. Welcome to the Planet Money Valentine's Day Show 2020.

They show where we send our love to the books and ideas and things we love.

I am so glad to be here because I am so excited about my Valentine.

To whom is your Valentine? It is to Adam Minter, who covers recycling and trash

and he's been doing it basically for his whole career.

He called him up and told him that he was my special someone.

So, happy Valentine's Day to you from me.

I'm your fan. Thank you.

And I still love it.

Sweet, little awkward but sweet.

It was awkward, but nicely.

And I wanted to call Adam because he does something that I've always found very interesting.

He covers basically only recycling and trash.

And he grew up in this world that he covers.

He is a third generation scrapper basically.

His father ran a scrap yard. He worked out it when he was a kid growing up in Minnesota.

Some of his first pieces were for scrap magazine.

Of course, of course.

He just wrote a book called Second Hand Travels in the New Global Garage Sale.

And a lot of it takes place at Goodwill, the chain of thrift shops.

...