09.11.26 Clark Answers His Critics on Clark Stinks / Data Centers

On September 11, Clark Howard opens his show with his usual Friday "Clark Stinks" segment, where listeners call him out for bad advice, before pivoting to a long, impassioned warning about the hidden costs of the AI-driven data center boom. The throughline is that consumers are being quietly squeezed—by bad financial products, by opaque corporate contracts, and by infrastructure decisions made without their consent—and that the only defense is to stay informed and organized.

The Prenup Reversal and the Reality of Modern Relationships

Several listeners challenged Clark's recent shift on prenuptial agreements. For years, he had argued that negotiating a divorce before marriage was a self-fulfilling prophecy, a sign you weren't committed to "forever." Now he recommends prenups in three specific scenarios: remarrying or marrying later in life, blended families with children from previous relationships, and when one spouse will leave the workforce. "It was painful for me to talk about it," Clark admits. He changed his mind because more than half of marriages end in divorce, and he hears daily from listeners dealing with the messy financial consequences of not having an agreement in place. One listener, the "Ohio Prof," accused Clark of abandoning his role as a "strong voice in stormy times" and succumbing to "popular modernistic views." Clark's defense is pragmatic: he cannot i