Re: #2 -- read more carefully -- I highlighted two separate quotes from different paragraphs in the piece.

And I'll wager the journalist chose that quote about "selling joy" to emphasize how ridiculous it sounds. There's a degree of dramatic irony at work here; you have to understand how to read between the lines.

e.g. here's one of the author's colleagues at NPR retweeting the "Hilarious story from @samsanders" https://twitter.com/pgogoi/status/1120711647323197440

I guarantee you NPR journos do not think everyone should live in "PodShares"