The Clark Howard Podcast
The Clark Howard Podcast

09.18.26 Clark Answers His Critics on Clark Stinks / AI Baby Monitors?

September 18, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

“If the agent's dead, you have to pay it through the agent.” That was the absurd wall one Clark listener hit when his travel agent passed away right before final payment on an Alaska cruise. The story is one of several consumer tangles Clark Howard takes on in this episode, which opens with his favorite weekly segment: Clark Stinks, where listeners gently (and sometimes pungently) correct his advice. The second half of the show turns to a different kind of warning—about the new generation of AI-powered baby monitors and health trackers that collect deeply personal data on infants, raising serious privacy questions Clark says most parents haven't considered.

When Good Advice Misses the Mark

The Clark Stinks segment runs on a simple premise: Clark gets things wrong, and listeners tell him how. This week’s corrections cover a wide range. A listener named Justin pointed out that Clark had recommended Japan as a user-friendly destination for a family traveling from Christmas to early January—but that period is actually Japan's busiest domestic travel season, when millions travel to hometowns for New Year's, independent shops close, and shrines are packed. Clark acknowledged he'd never visited Japan during that window and conceded the advice was bad.

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (01:01) **Clark Stinks Segment Opens** - Clark introduces his favorite part of the week, where listeners correct his advice, and teases a later segment on modern baby monitors.
  • 2 (02:05) **Travel Advice Stinks: Japan During New Year's** - Justin from Texas corrects Clark's recommendation to visit Japan during the Christmas-to-January period.
  • 3 (04:17) **529 Scholarship Offset Timing Clarified** - Stephen from Ohio points out a nuance in Clark's advice about pulling money from a 529 plan to offset scholarships.
  • 4 (05:32) **Smart Trick: Nicknaming Credit Cards in Digital Wallets** - Laura from Virginia shares a practical tip for remembering which card to use where.
  • 5 (06:52) **1031 Exchange to Primary Residence Strategy** - Joe from Georgia challenges Clark's claim that 1031 exchanges only defer taxes, presenting a strategy to avoid them entirely.
  • 6 (09:26) **Life Insurance: Return of Premium and Whole Life** - William from New York argues Clark neglects return-of-premium term insurance and paid-up whole life policies.
  • 7 (12:06) **Defending HOAs: A Volunteer Perspective** - An anonymous HOA president pushes back on Clark's negative portrayal of homeowners associations.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

Clark Howard

Show Notes

Friday - Clark Stinks day! Christa shares Clark Stinks posts with Clark. Submit yours at Clark.com/ClarkStinks. 

Also, there are new tools for parents to keep track of their babies' health and sleep. These are much more sophisticated than old fashioned monitors. Is there cause for concern? Smart monitors and AI-powered devices are now tracking everything from sleep patterns and health metrics to developmental milestones and growth rates right from birth. While these analytics are popular with parents used to tracking their own health data, you have to ask: who else is watching? Before you install an AI surveillance system in your nursery, Clark shares a warning to consider.

All this and more on the September 18, 2026, episode of The Clark Howard Show.

  • Clark Stinks: Segments 1 & 2
  • AI Baby Health Surveillance: Segment 3
  • Ask Clark: Segment 4

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Clark.com resources:

Submit your questions: Ask Clark.

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