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UnDisciplined

UnDisciplined: The new Disney reality: Everyone (rich) is a V.I.P.

By Matthew LaPlante
Published September 25, 2025 at 10:10 PM MDT
A person, visible from the neck to the waist, counting a stack of dollar bills in their hand.
Alexander Grey
/
Unsplash

For most of the history of the Disney brand of amusement parks, an “Everyone is a V.I.P.” philosophy made good business sense. With limited exceptions, Walt Disney and his successors resisted tiered services that gave extra privileges to those who could afford them. But if you’ve been to a Disney park lately, you know that’s no longer the case. In his recent op-ed for The News York Times, Daniel Currell examines why that is, and what’s to come.

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Matthew LaPlante
Matthew LaPlante has reported on ritual infanticide in Northern Africa, insurgent warfare in the Middle East, the legacy of genocide in Southeast Asia, and gang violence in Central America. But a few years back, something occurred to him: Maybe the news doesn't have to be so brutally depressing all the time. These days, he balances his continuing work on more heartbreaking subjects with his work on UnDisciplined — Utah Public Radio's weekly program on science and discovery.
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