EZ

Eric Zwick

Things Eric Says on Podcasts

Where to Find Them

Eric Zwick writes LSE: Public lectures and events . They have also been a guest on The Pie: An Economics Podcast (3 times) , Masters in Business (2 times) , Marketplace All-in-One (2 times) , Bogumil Baranowski's Substack , Persuasion , Plain English with Derek Thompson , Odd Lots , Yascha Mounk , Big Take , Capitalisn't , Planet Money , AEA Research Highlights and Brian Kilmeade Show .

Recently: “The Everywhere Millionaire: Who's Really Rich in America” on The Pie: An Economics Podcast (October 2026); “Why America’s Real Wealth Isn’t in Silicon Valley” on Persuasion (October 2026); “Why America’s Real Wealth Isn’t in Silicon Valley” on Yascha Mounk (October 2026); “At the Money: The Data Behind America's Wealthy” on Masters in Business (September 2026); “Weekend Listen: There's a Mind-Boggling Number of Rich People in America” on Big Take (September 2026); “Middlegarchs are the new Oligarchs” on Planet Money (September 2026).

What They Said

“There's a ton of dentists. So dentists earn more income than all of the professional sports leagues combined.” — Eric Zwick, Planet Money

Zwick, an economist who studies who actually makes up the top 1%, is walking the hosts down a ranked list of industries — dentists come in at number 21, ahead of most of what people picture when they picture wealth. He adds immediately that the comparison is "a funny statistic" that he thinks comes from a dental lobbying organization. His larger argument is that the road to the 1% runs through Main Street businesses, not Silicon Valley or Wall Street.

Planet Money · 2026-09-25 Permalink → Listen →
Planet Money Around 11:25 into the episode
Greg Rosalsky

Dentists.

Sarah Gonzalez

Multi-millionaire, stealthy, wealthy dentists? Yeah,

Eric Zwick

dentists. There's a ton of dentists. So dentists earn more income than all of the professional sports leagues combined.

Greg Rosalsky

Wow.

Eric Zwick

Which is like a funny statistic from, I think, I mean, from a dental lobbying organization that we like talking about.

Greg Rosalsky

Ironically, I'm smiling at that statistic right now. Your teeth are great, Greg. Oh. So, anyways, the road to the 1%, it turned out to be pretty darn diverse. It wasn't just like Silicon Valley and Wall Street. It's like businesses you see walking down your local main street. And

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode

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