On this episode of The Cost of Everything, we take a closer look at a drink that is beloved by early risers: coffee. Long gone are the days when the norm was to brew a cup of java at home. Nowadays, specialty and high-quality coffees are sought and consumers spend their hard-earned money in fancy coffee shops. Host Christy Ai spoke with coffee expert Jonathan Echeverry about the challenges in producing and distributing coffee beans, what countries consume vast amounts of coffee, and where else in the world coffee production has expanded.

In this episode of The Cost of Everything, we analyze the good, the bad, and the ugly of Electric Vehicle technology and if the pros outweigh the cons with host Christy Ai and guest co-host Malik Abdul. Later, auto expert Lauren Fix joins the show to explain in detail the costs of owning an electric vehicle, from changing tires every 10,000 miles to challenges at the electric pumps and if, in the end, the total cost of owning a petrol car might be less than an EV.

On this episode of the Cost of Everything we take a closer look at the cost of waste management. Host Christy Ai explains which countries are the biggest trash producers and which are the nations with a seemingly unlimited supply of foreign trash flowing into their dumps. Professor Lily Pollans joins the show to discuss how we can manage and dispose of the tons and tons of municipal solid waste and what kind of trash is really feeding the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and filling the landfills of Asian countries.

With today’s technology, you can achieve the Instagram face or body you have always wished for; but at what price? On this episode of The Cost of Everything, we take a look at how much bang for their buck patients are getting by traveling across the globe for cosmetic surgery. Host Christy Ai speaks with facial plastic surgeon Dr. William Lindsey about the pros and cons of medical tourism. Do patients want to come to the US and Western nations and pay more for higher quality surgeries? Or are people from the West going to traditionally poorer countries to receive services? And which nations are up and coming in terms of the quality and safety of the procedures they offer?

On this episode of The Cost of Everything, we take a closer look at the technology used by government officials to manipulate the weather for their own economic advantages. Host Christy Ai speaks with author Jim Fleming to discuss how much it costs to fabricate rain, how it is a costly technology that only a few countries can afford to implement, and how it is a hot political topic between countries like China and India. They also discuss how unpredictable it can be when it comes to cloud seeding and other weather manipulation techniques, as Mother Nature has a mind of her own.