@www.npr.org.podcasts.510289.planet-money@rss-parrot.net
I'm an automated parrot! I relay a website's RSS feed to the Fediverse. Every time a new post appears in the feed, I toot about it. Follow me to get all new posts in your Mastodon timeline! Brought to you by the RSS Parrot.
---
Wanna see a trick? Give us any topic and we can tie it back to the economy. At <em>Planet Money</em>, we explore the forces that shape our lives and bring you along for the ride. Don't just understand the economy – understand the world.<br><br><em> Support public media by joining NPR+ at </em><a href="http://plus.npr.org/"target="_blank" ><em>plus.npr.org</em></a><em>. You’ll get perks for over 25 NPR podcasts, including bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Planet Money.</em>
Site URL: www.npr.org/podcasts/510289/planet-money
Feed URL: feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml
Posts: 356
Followers: 1
Should we all be getting tariff refunds right now?
https://www.npr.org/2026/10/09/nx-s1-5996901/days-of-our-tariffs-refunds-video-games
Published: October 9, 2026 21:07
Companies are getting billions of dollars back. How about us? It seems simple, right? We paid higher prices for imported goods because of tariffs. Then the tariffs were ruled illegal. Courts said the money paid to the U.S. government had to be refunded.…
Charles Ponzi's scheme (plus a new scam)
https://www.npr.org/2026/10/07/nx-s1-5992800/charles-ponzis-scheme-plus-a-new-scam
Published: October 7, 2026 07:00
Charles Ponzi was down on his luck. In 1919, the Italian immigrant had spent a decade and a half in the U.S. He was looking for a way to get rich and tried his hand at everything — including bookkeeping, sign painting, grocery clerk, dishwasher, and…
Where all those weird new drinks are coming from
Published: October 2, 2026 23:14
It's getting pretty wild in the beverage aisle these days — from the rainbow wall of seltzers, to the increasingly strange flavors of Pepsi, to the new "functional" sodas with added fiber or supplements that supposedly offer health benefits. Where are all…
Who’s gonna pay for your Social Security?
https://www.npr.org/2026/09/30/nx-s1-5985851/social-security-payment-solutions-retirees
Published: September 30, 2026 14:55
Very soon, Social Security may not have enough money to make full payments to retirees. Very soon. Like by 2032, just six years from now. So what are we gonna do about it? Today on the show, we look at some of the most talked about possible solutions; and…
Middlegarchs are the new Oligarchs
https://www.npr.org/2026/09/25/nx-s1-5981194/stealthy-wealthy-everywhere-millionaires-pass-through
Published: September 25, 2026 21:46
Wanna know who is really in the top 1%? And how they use their influence? It may not be who you think.Look beyond Silicon Valley. Look beyond Wall Street. Look beyond the “oligarchs”. There's a much larger class of wealthy Americans hiding in plain sight.…
Is our national debt finally too much? (update)
https://www.npr.org/2026/09/23/nx-s1-5978114/national-debt-rogoff-dynan-red-line
Published: September 23, 2026 07:00
(Note: A version of this episode originally ran in 2024.)$40,000,000,000,000. Four commas. Thirteen zeroes. It’s an eye-popping, almost infinite-sounding pile of money. And every time the debt passes a big round number, almost everyone asks the same…
The Domino’s Pizza Tracker Theory of Everything
https://www.npr.org/2026/09/18/nx-s1-5974101/dominos-pizza-tracker-labor-illusion
Published: September 18, 2026 20:00
Did a pizza restaurant’s humble status page change how we wait forever? When you order a Lyft or Uber, you get texts every few minutes about your car approaching and arriving. When you have a package coming, you get a notification when it’s shipped, when…
How investing is getting riskier (Two Indicators)
https://www.npr.org/2026/09/16/nx-s1-5970391/margin-calls-sports-betting-investing
Published: September 16, 2026 07:00
Margin borrowing and sports gambling “investments” are both on the rise! Today on the show, two stories from Planet Money’s daily podcast The Indicator about the ways investing is changing, and getting riskier.According to one study, more than half of Gen…
The loan at the heart of a new foreclosure crisis
https://www.npr.org/2026/09/11/nx-s1-5966574/baltimore-foreclosure-crisis-dscr-loan
Published: September 11, 2026 21:00
There is a new type of loan that is sweeping through the country right now. It’s advertised as a super quick and super easy way to get a mortgage to buy a home. In recent years, Wall Street has been funneling billions of dollars into these loans. But these…
Cost-cutting, quiet guilt and the inflation generation
https://www.npr.org/2026/09/09/nx-s1-5961504/economy-coupon-inflation-retirement-wages
Published: September 9, 2026 07:00
In this economy it is boom times and doom times all at once. The statistics aren’t really capturing it. K-shaped only goes so far as a metaphor. So … we asked you to help. And you delivered! One one hand, the stock market is on a prolonged, upward…
Trump drinks Venezuela’s milkshake
https://www.npr.org/2026/09/04/nx-s1-5958648/us-venezuela-oil-deal-reserves-trump
Published: September 5, 2026 00:00
One week ago, President Trump announced a deal that would give the “U.S. control of more than 65 BILLION BARRELS of proven Oil Reserves in Venezuela, at no cost to the American Taxpayer.”The exact nature of this deal has been … obscure, to say the least.…
Love in the time of Palantir
https://www.npr.org/2026/09/02/nx-s1-5953112/palantir-software-data-surveillance
Published: September 2, 2026 07:00
To a lot of people, Palantir is a mystery — what does the company know, what data do they have, and (if they have it) what do they do with it all? We dig into that mystery and take you to a singles event to see if Big Data is good for Big Dating.That…
Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” the true story behind the anthem (bonus)
Published: August 30, 2026 07:00
The brilliance of "9 to 5" is that it is catchy even though it’s also kinda depressing. You will be dancing along. You're enjoying it. And, then when you really listen to the lyrics, you're like, Wait, this is messed up. This is real. This is a problem we…
Branded fruit: How produce got “Honeycrisp-ified"
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/28/nx-s1-5947931/tomato-varieties-nixon-apples
Published: August 28, 2026 19:19
The produce aisle is changing. You’ve noticed this, I’m sure. It is now full of superstar fruits and vegetables: The Honeycrisp apple, The Cotton Candy grape, The Cuties mandarin orange. They stand out. They cost more. They have branding and sometimes…
The continent nobody owns & everyone benefits from (Summer School)
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/26/nx-s1-5943609/summer-school-antarctica
Published: August 26, 2026 07:30
This episode is packed with your best economic ideas from around the world and a penguin interview. It all comes together in this final session of Summer School 2026.Pack your parka, we’re headed to Antarctica.First, we’ll travel back in time to the late…
Who decides what big box sells? Our GAME got us answers
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/21/nx-s1-5940897/buyer-boardgame-bigbox-target-walmart
Published: August 21, 2026 21:17
There’s a room where the fates of retail products are decided. Will they make it onto the shelves of the big box stores? Usually the rest of us can’t get inside the room where decisions are made – until now! Today on the show, we pitch the Planet Money…
Getting entrepreneurial in Korea (Summer School)
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/19/nx-s1-5936481/korea-summer-school-entrepreneurial
Published: August 19, 2026 07:30
This week’s stop on our world tour - Korea. A country divided into two very different power structures since the end of WWII. Today South Korea is the maker of some of the world’s favorite exports – from Samsung TV’s to BTS. But 75 years ago it was a much…
You bet your life insurance
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/14/nx-s1-5885879/life-insurance-settlements
Published: August 14, 2026 20:56
Some of the biggest firms on Wall Street are, at this very moment, waiting for thousands of strangers to die to reap their returns. Because there’s a market for life insurance policies. And it’s legal.You don’t have to actually die to get some of your life…
Currency Chaos in Argentina (Summer School)
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/12/nx-s1-5914841/summer-school-argentina-inflation-currency-volatility
Published: August 12, 2026 07:30
Just about everyone in Argentina is an expert in inflation and whether they like it or not, economic flexibility. Can we learn from them? Over the years, we at Planet Money have checked in on Argentina as it tried to recover from economic collapse in 2001…
Older workers aren’t retiring. Should they be forced to?
Published: August 7, 2026 20:55
When workers past retirement age can’t afford to retire — that’s one thing. When they can, and just don’t want to — that’s trickier.It used to be legal to force people to retire when they hit a certain age. The trend used to be earlier and earlier…
Sand heists and property rights in the Caribbean (Summer School)
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/05/nx-s1-5913981/summer-school-caribbean-property-rights-sand-heist
Published: August 5, 2026 07:30
Imagine a nation where, for the residents, land is for the claiming. You walk down the street, pick out a nice looking plot of land, and just plop down a marker. No rent, no taxes, no deed – just free land. That’s the communal system of property rights…
What makes a toy go viral
https://www.npr.org/2026/07/31/nx-s1-5913719/squishy-dumpling-toy-slime-viral
Published: July 31, 2026 21:00
Squishy, slimy, fidgety toys are having a moment. But it’s more than just an anxiety-soothing, social-media fueled trend – these toys are reshaping how toys get made.Today on the show, we have the story of the once-humble squishy dumpling and what it…
How to beat the resource curse in Norway (Summer School)
https://www.npr.org/2026/07/29/nx-s1-5909323/summer-school-norway-glut-resource-curse-oil
Published: July 29, 2026 07:30
Let’s call it the luxury of restraint. This is what enabled Norway to avoid the fate of so many other countries when they discovered oil and it changed the mix of their economy overnight.Norway! It’s expensive, wealthy, and abundant in resources. We’re…
Piles of cash and a town of solutions in Kenya, Nigeria (Summer School)
https://www.npr.org/2026/07/24/nx-s1-5894830/summer-school-kenya-nigeria-cash-development-experiment
Published: July 24, 2026 20:00
Let’s head to a small town in Kenya that’s become globally famous for helping economists answer some of the biggest questions facing humanity.In Kenya and Nigeria, economics isn’t just theory, it’s real life. We’ll look at some radical experiments that…
Big Lettuce meets Small Intestine
Published: July 22, 2026 23:16
The cyclospora outbreak that’s sickening thousands of Americans got us interested in the rise of Big Lettuce, and the challenges of keeping it clean. So on today’s show, we tell you just how much lettuce Americans eat every year (SO MUCH!), how bagged…
New NPR Series: "We Keep Us Safe" from the Embedded podcast
Published: July 21, 2026 21:00
In the summer of 2020, sixteen-year-old Antonio Mays Jr. traveled a thousand miles to join the racial justice movement of his generation in the wake of George Floyd's killing. Antonio arrived in Seattle during the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, known as…
Can World Cup mania grow MLS in the U.S.?
https://www.npr.org/2026/07/17/nx-s1-5897877/world-cup-fifa-major-league-soccer-mls-messi-mbappe
Published: July 17, 2026 22:43
As the World Cup comes to a close, so does a massive real-time experiment happening just around the edges. Major League Soccer – the top men’s professional soccer league in the U.S. and Canada – has been scrambling to take advantage of this…
Building things and breaking things in China (Summer School World Tour)
Published: July 15, 2026 07:30
China’s turbocharged growth may have made it rich, but now it has to deal with rich country problems. High-speed trains that connect every town. Gleaming new bridges and skyscrapers. An apartment (or two) for every family. No country on Earth has seen the…
Seven allegedly fake Chanel bags vs The RealReal
https://www.npr.org/2026/07/10/nx-s1-5879253/chanel-realreal-secondhand-luxury-market
Published: July 10, 2026 21:00
Once upon a time, if you wanted to buy a luxury brand item secondhand (say, a Chanel handbag) you had to have an in. There was no easy way to find one. But over the past decade, the market for secondhand luxury goods has exploded. There are now many online…
Our mission: Find the world’s best economic ideas (Summer School World Tour)
Published: July 8, 2026 07:30
Come along as we travel the world in search of the best economic ideas to bring home!From the beaches of Barbuda to the fjords of Norway, there's money (and money problems) everywhere. For this summer travel season, Planet Money Summer School will take you…
How to win a penalty shootout (with game theory)
https://www.npr.org/2026/07/03/nx-s1-5879357/world-cup-penalty-kick-game-theory
Published: July 3, 2026 21:00
Lionel Messi is arguably the greatest soccer scorer of all time. But when it comes to penalty kicks, Messi is merely average. Why? Maybe the answer involves game theory.According to game theory, there’s an optimal strategy for taking penalty kicks. This…
Can the Trump administration make college cheaper?
https://www.npr.org/2026/07/01/nx-s1-5876467/student-loans-debt-bennett-hypothesis-tuition
Published: July 1, 2026 07:00
Will limiting how much students can borrow force schools to lower their prices? The Department of Education thinks so. It has a new plan to bring down tuition costs. Starting today, July 1st, it’s going to cap how much it’s willing to loan to graduate…
We almost had a smartphone in the 90s. Why did it fail?
https://www.npr.org/2026/06/26/nx-s1-5872785/general-magic-sony-magiclink-constraints
Published: June 26, 2026 21:30
In the early 90’s, a company called General Magic began working on a portable device that would allow people to check email, make phone calls, even play games. It was basically a smartphone. But it never caught on.On today’s show, a theory about why this…
Before Kalshi and Polymarket there was the Iowa Electronic Markets
https://www.npr.org/2026/06/24/nx-s1-5868659/history-prediction-market-forecasting-betting-economics
Published: June 24, 2026 07:00
Prediction markets aren’t new. Election betting was common until the 1940s, then mysteriously faded away.There was an entire political era when party bosses were expected to conspicuously gamble on their candidates (even if they secretly hedged).And in the…
The real horror of ‘Alien’ and how it explains why we’re not paid enough
https://www.npr.org/2026/06/19/nx-s1-5863604/alien-monopsony-wages-inequality
Published: June 19, 2026 21:30
Maybe the real monster in the Alien franchise isn’t actually the killer alien. Because behind the acid blood and jump scares is an even more insidious horror: a single employer with unchecked power. That employer is named Weyland-Yutani, a mega-corporation…
Can computer hackers get inside your mind?
https://www.npr.org/2026/06/17/nx-s1-5859441/computer-malware-security-iran-stuxnet-fast16
Published: June 17, 2026 07:00
The cyber weapon that might have prevented nuclear war.The U.S. and Israel have long been in conflict with Iran over their nuclear development program. Some of that conflict has been out in the open, with bombs and blockades, but some of it has been…
It’s my tree. Why can’t I cut it down?
https://www.npr.org/2026/06/12/nx-s1-5856509/property-rights-zoning-laws-trees-portland-oregon
Published: June 12, 2026 22:00
Can the government stop you from cutting down your own tree? In many towns and cities these days, removing a tree now requires a permit. You might have to pay a fee, or promise to plant replacement trees. But sometimes, the city won't let you cut down the…
Two indicators for lowering the rent
Published: June 10, 2026 07:15
One specific type of affordable housing used to be popular in American cities, kept rents low, then nearly vanished. Is it time to reconsider boarding houses and single room occupancy units? If they lowered rents in cities, why did they go away? We have…
Why is there a supplement craze if they don’t even work?
https://www.npr.org/2026/06/05/nx-s1-5847893/why-is-there-a-supplement-craze-if-they-dont-even-work
Published: June 5, 2026 21:00
One reason the $70 billion supplement industry is set to double in the next seven years? Lax regulation.On today's show, we tell the story of a century-long battle between the U.S. government and … you, the people, blinded by your love of a magic…
There's no business like dough business
Published: June 3, 2026 07:00
Have you ever walked around a street, mall, or airport and noticed two or three of the same franchise restaurant within walking distance? Why might one Starbucks or McDonald’s or Wetzel’s Pretzels sometimes be built so close to another? Are they friends or…
The sneaky way companies get new chemicals into our food
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/29/nx-s1-5836552/fda-gras-food-chemicals-additives-rfk
Published: May 29, 2026 19:59
99% of chemicals in our food right now were added without FDA approval. Many were added in secret, through a sneaky loophole built into the 1958 Food Additives Amendment.It was supposed to require FDA approval for new additives. But food companies and…
The leaked tapes that show how the rich avoid taxes
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/27/nx-s1-5835164/malta-tax-evasion-avoidance-loophole
Published: May 27, 2026 07:00
Tax avoidance -- that is, legally reducing your tax bill -- is as American as apple pie. But the line between tax avoidance and tax evasion is often a grey one. On today’s show, a collaboration with Tax Notes, we listen in on the secret tapes that show how…
The giant factory town that might be a giant mistake
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/22/nx-s1-5831786/brazil-manaus-middle-income-blueprint
Published: May 22, 2026 22:25
How does a poor country become a rich country? There's a simple blueprint — or at least, that's what many economists used to believe. But over the years, a lot of rapidly developing economies have stalled out. These countries aren't poor anymore, but…
Vacation and why Americans take so little
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/20/nx-s1-5827074/vacation-holiday-europe-time-off
Published: May 20, 2026 07:00
Do you work more for more money? Or work less for more time? For some, this is the ultimate economic choice. Every single worker in the European Union is guaranteed four weeks of paid vacation. No matter how long they’ve been at a company. No matter how…
Jerome Powell and the Future of Fed Independence
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/15/nx-s1-5823832/jerome-powell-federal-reserve-term-end-future
Published: May 15, 2026 19:59
If you have a credit card, hope to buy a house, or just want stable grocery prices – let’s talk about the future of Fed independence!It’s impossibly important for the Federal Reserve to steer monetary policy without political interference – an ideal pushed…
The secret meeting that launched OPEC
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/13/nx-s1-5819610/opec-oil-explainer-uae-leaving
Published: May 13, 2026 22:03
Recently, a listener wrote in with a question about OPEC and oil prices. She was prepping for a camping trip… thinking about how much it costs to fill up her diesel-guzzling camper van at the pump. “It would be so awesome if you guys could do an episode…
Diary of a WNBA negotiator
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/08/nx-s1-5816448/wnba-new-season-contract-negotiations
Published: May 9, 2026 02:26
Today the WNBA season tips off, but Dallas Wings veteran forward Alysha Clark has already won a high-stakes competition. She – and a Nobel Prize winning economist – were on the team that negotiated a ground-breaking contract for the players. And Alysha…
How we got free agents in baseball
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/06/nx-s1-5812912/baseball-free-agency-curt-flood
Published: May 6, 2026 07:00
Curt Flood was the best center fielder in baseball and one of the game’s highest paid players. He took the St. Louis Cardinals to the World Series three times. Then he got traded to the Phillies. He didn’t want to go. But baseball’s rules said he had no…
How to make a BOOK into a bestseller
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/01/nx-s1-5785166/how-best-seller-lists-get-made
Published: May 2, 2026 00:24
In the world of commercial publishing, there are few crowning achievements more coveted than a place on the New York Times Best Seller List. But how does a book actually end up there? There is, of course, a playbook that publishers and authors use to try…
Spirit Airlines and the future of cheap flights
https://www.npr.org/2026/04/29/nx-s1-5804507/budget-airlines-bailout-spirit
Published: April 29, 2026 19:13
It’s way more than fuel costs that pushed Spirit Airlines to the brink of liquidation and led President Trump to muse about “buying” them. Many low cost airlines are struggling due to a canny and calculated set of strategies from bigger airlines that we…
Battlefield rare earths: How the U.S. lost to China
https://www.npr.org/2026/04/24/nx-s1-5798742/rare-earths-mining-china-usa
Published: April 24, 2026 21:00
At one point in history, one U.S. company monopolized the rare earths industry. Then China took over the industry. Can the U.S. bring it back?Rare earths are critical to making, like, everything. From smart phones to electric vehicles to microwaves.…
Live: Anthropic co-founder on AI and jobs
https://www.npr.org/2026/04/22/nx-s1-5794326/anthropic-artificial-intelligence-mythos-redfin
Published: April 22, 2026 07:00
We talk with Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark and Chief Economist at Redfin Daryl Fairweather about two of the biggest issues of our time: AI and housing. We have been crisscrossing America doing live shows to help promote the new Planet Money book. In each…
Do prediction market bettors make anything better?
https://www.npr.org/2026/04/17/nx-s1-5789382/kalshi-polymarket-prediction-market-ceo-tarek-mansour
Published: April 18, 2026 02:00
Have you noticed a lot of young people getting into antenna-maxxing as alpha? Or, maybe searching for any bit of copium after they fat-fingered and got rinsed? Or maybe they farmed during a yes-fest on Mention Markets resulting in some serious printing? If…
How to get through the Strait of Hormuz
https://www.npr.org/2026/04/14/nx-s1-5785290/strait-hormuz-iran-trump-open-blockade
Published: April 14, 2026 23:06
The United States has been at war with Iran since February 28th. And for a month and a half, Iran’s main leverage over the U.S. has been their control over the Strait of Hormuz — a key global shipping route. Iran has attacked ships that try to pass without…
BOOKstore Economics
https://www.npr.org/2026/04/10/nx-s1-5751214/how-books-get-to-bookstores
Published: April 10, 2026 23:30
How do bookstores choose the books they stock, and how does that affect what customers read? It may not seem like it, but every shelf in a bookstore is a highly valuable and contested piece of commercial real estate. And for every new book that a bookstore…
A pro-worker experiment in private equity
https://www.npr.org/2026/04/08/nx-s1-5776833/private-equity-pete-stavros-employee-ownership
Published: April 8, 2026 07:00
Live event info and tickets here. If your company got bought by a private equity firm, how would you feel? Maybe a little nervous? You might find yourself wondering if there will be layoffs.And you’d be right to worry about that. Research shows that while…
Reese’s heir vs. chocolate skimpflation
Published: April 4, 2026 02:24
Live event info and tickets here. When ingredient costs skyrocket, companies have three basic options: They can raise their prices (a sort of product-specific inflation), shrink the size of the products (often called “shrinkflation”), or, sometimes, find…
Dark times for Cuba’s economic experiment
https://www.npr.org/2026/04/01/nx-s1-5770721/cuba-oil-blockade-trump-power-crisis
Published: April 2, 2026 02:51
Live event info and tickets here. For more than 60 years, Cuba has survived on two seemingly contradictory economic strategies: leaning on friendly communist and socialist countries, and flirting with capitalism. And right now it seems the US is making…
The skyscrapers that NIMBYs and zoning couldn't stop
Published: March 28, 2026 01:59
LIVE SHOW TOUR INFO HERE. New stories, live tapings, special guests, book signings and more. What would you build on a piece of land when all the normal rules go out the window?On today’s show, how the Squamish Nation reclaimed a sliver of prime urban real…
Our BOOK vs. the global supply chain
https://www.npr.org/2026/03/25/nx-s1-5751213/planet-money-book-factory-printing-press
Published: March 26, 2026 00:26
When you come across a book at a yard sale or a bookstore, you might pay more attention to the words between the covers than the physical form of the book itself. But content and the form are both crucial to a book’s success. Each book you pull off the…
Inside a BOOK auction
https://www.npr.org/2026/03/20/nx-s1-5751177/book-deal-proposal-auction-publishing
Published: March 21, 2026 01:42
In the age of TikTok and Polymarket, it can be easy to overlook the humble book. But books are one of the most influential technologies ever invented. From “The Wealth of Nations” to “Das Kapital,” books have the power to shape whole economic systems… and…
The little pet fish that saved a town in the Amazon
https://www.npr.org/2026/03/18/nx-s1-5751251/amazon-brazil-forest-fish-aquarium-trade
Published: March 18, 2026 07:00
The cardinal tetra is one of the most popular pet fish in the world. They look like little red and blue sequins. You've almost certainly seen them at the pet store or the fish tank at your dentist's office. They're everywhere. Not so long ago, most of the…
Chef vs. Robot
https://www.npr.org/2026/03/13/nx-s1-5733110/automation-chef-wok-restaurant-industry
Published: March 13, 2026 14:00
Robby the chef has lots of endearing qualities. He can make over 5000 dishes, he’s a consistent cook, and he’s never late for work. But he’s not a human. It is a 750 lb. stainless steel robot. With a rotating wok at its center. It’s a wok-bot. Automation…
The laws of the office revisited
https://www.npr.org/2026/03/11/nx-s1-5726849/laws-of-the-office-poster
Published: March 11, 2026 07:00
Live event info and tickets here.If something is going wrong in your workplace, there's probably a law that explains why. Meetings always seem long, and never end early? There’s Parkinson’s Law, which says work expands to the time allotted, or, restated:…
Planet Money vs. the NBA’s tanking problem
https://www.npr.org/2026/03/06/nx-s1-5739178/nba-draft-tanking
Published: March 6, 2026 22:15
What do we want from sports? The very best athletes competing as hard as they know how, putting all their effort and training and natural ability to the test against their opponents. But this time of year, that’s not the product the NBA is putting on the…
The Business of Heated Rivalry
https://www.npr.org/2026/03/04/nx-s1-5736077/pivot-kara-swisher-heated-rivalry
Published: March 4, 2026 18:58
Heated Rivalry, the steamy hockey romance show, was made for about $2 million per episode. That is remarkably cheap for an hour-long drama.Today on the show, a conversation with Heated Rivalry creators Jacob Tierney and Brendan Brady about their…
Don't hate the replicator, hate the game
https://www.npr.org/2026/02/27/nx-s1-5720653/replication-crisis-games-abel-brodeur
Published: February 27, 2026 22:05
The world of science has been stuck in an existential crisis over whether we actually know the things we thought we knew. Re-running an old study today doesn't always yield the same result. Same with re-enacting old experiments. Collectively, this is known…
The ICE hiring boom
https://www.npr.org/2026/02/25/nx-s1-5725491/ice-recruiting-hiring-detention-centers
Published: February 25, 2026 08:00
Live event info and tickets here. ICE is scaling up, with rapid new hiring. So we ask, has training new officers changed? At what cost? Also, the Trump administration has plans to pour billions of dollars into warehouses for mass immigrant detention…
The Supreme Court struck down a bunch of Trump's tariffs. Now what?
https://www.npr.org/2026/02/21/nx-s1-5721118/supreme-court-justices-ruling-trump-tariffs-section-122
Published: February 21, 2026 06:09
Live event info and tickets here.The Supreme Court has spoken. Those big, sweeping tariffs that President Trump imposed early last year? They’re illegal. On today’s show: Why were those tariffs struck down? Will anyone get refunds? And …what about this new…
How to get what Greenland has, with permission
https://www.npr.org/2026/02/18/nx-s1-5711616/trump-buy-greenland-rare-earths-arctic
Published: February 18, 2026 20:43
Book tour and ticket info here.Greenland has said it is not for sale. Denmark has said it can’t even legally sell Greenland. And at a security conference in Munich over the weekend, U.S. lawmakers spent a lot of time trying to walk back some of President…
Betty Boop, Excel Olympics, Penny-isms: Our 2026 Valentines
https://www.npr.org/2026/02/13/nx-s1-5713954/2026-planet-money-valentines-day
Published: February 13, 2026 23:23
Book tour event details and ticket info here.An iconic cartoon character liberated from copyright, journalism from the world of competitive spreadsheeting, a controversial piece of US currency. Each year the Planet Money team dedicates an episode to the…
The Invention Invention
https://www.npr.org/2026/02/11/nx-s1-5707856/singer-sewing-machine-patent-pool-antitrust-mpeg
Published: February 11, 2026 08:00
Book tour tickets and details here.Today, the story of three inventions. The first, the sewing machine, was created by a selfish and ambitious inventor who wanted all the credit and was willing to fight a war for it. The second, a more modern invention,…
Iran, protests, and sanctions
https://www.npr.org/2026/02/06/nx-s1-5704815/iran-protests-us-sanctions
Published: February 7, 2026 03:16
Book tour tickets and details here.The recent protests in Iran are about so many things. Human rights, corruption, freedom. But this time – they are also motivated by economic hardship. Hardship caused, in part, by US sanctions. The US has been sanctioning…
Riding with the repo man (update)
https://www.npr.org/2026/02/04/nx-s1-5698499/three-sides-of-a-car-loan-update
Published: February 4, 2026 08:00
Planet Money book tour ticket info and dates here. A record number of Americans with poor or just okay credit are behind on their car payments. And once last year’s numbers are tallied, an estimated 3 million cars will have been repossessed in 2025. That…
Can Trump make buying a home more affordable?
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/30/nx-s1-5690291/affordability-housing-market-own-home-trump-davos
Published: January 31, 2026 01:28
Book tour dates and ticket info here.Housing is too expensive. Everyone knows this. Democrats know that talking about it plays well with voters. And now – in a midterm election year – President Donald Trump seems to be focused on it, too. His…
Can transforming neighborhoods help kids escape poverty?
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/28/nx-s1-5691692/hope-vi-public-housing-opportunity-insights-raj-chetty
Published: January 28, 2026 22:45
In the 1990s, Congress created HOPE VI, a program that demolished old public housing projects and replaced them with more up-to-date ones. But the program went further than just improving public housing buildings. HOPE VI was designed to transform…
A trip to the magic mushroom megachurch
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/23/nx-s1-5686773/psychedelic-mushroom-church
Published: January 24, 2026 00:10
Book tour dates and ticket info here.Just as every market has its first movers, every religion has its martyrs — the people willing to risk everything for what they believe. Pastor Dave Hodges just might be a little bit of both. He’s the spiritual leader…
When designing a GAME, what's in a name?
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/21/nx-s1-5683932/planet-money-board-game-episode-3
Published: January 22, 2026 03:48
Planet Money has teamed up with the company Exploding Kittens to make a board game inspired by the legendary economics paper The Market for Lemons. We’ve decided we want a mass-appeal party game that quietly sneaks in the economics, so that we can report…
Chevron, Venezuela and the Paradox of Plenty
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/16/nx-s1-5680400/chevron-venezuela-oil-industry-petrostate
Published: January 17, 2026 03:58
Venezuela and Chevron have perhaps one of the strangest partnerships … ever? Chevron, one of the world’s most famous and profitable oil corporations, has for decades, been plugging away in Venezuela, one of the world’s most famous and infamous socialist…
How much money President Trump and his family have made
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/14/nx-s1-5677024/trump-profits-merch-hotels-crypto
Published: January 14, 2026 08:30
Before President Donald Trump’s first term, he was in a “tight spot” financially, according to New Yorker writer David Kirkpatrick. At the start of his second term, David says, Trump was in an “even tighter” spot. But after just six months into his second…
So are we in an AI bubble? Here are clues to look for.
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/09/nx-s1-5672643/market-ai-what-is-a-bubble
Published: January 10, 2026 02:03
Are we in an AI bubble? That’s the $35 trillion dollar question right now as the stock market soars higher and higher. The problem is that bubbles are famously hard to spot. But some economists say they may have found some telltale clues.On our latest: How…
How Black hair care grew Black power
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/07/nx-s1-5669460/how-black-hair-care-grew-black-power
Published: January 7, 2026 19:38
The Afro is one of the most iconic hairstyles of the last century. And one of its main ingredients was a hair product – Afro Sheen. But Afro Sheen did so much more than make Black afros shine. It was the money behind the television show Soul Train, it…
Venezuela’s recent economic history (Update)
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/04/nx-s1-5666322/venezuela-hyperinflation-maduro-gonzalez
Published: January 4, 2026 18:07
We’ve been checking in on the economic conditions in Venezuela for about a decade now. In response to the U.S. strike and the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro this weekend, we’re re-surfacing this episode with an update.The original version…
Indicators of the Year, Past and Future
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/31/nx-s1-5662590/indicators-of-the-year-past-and-future
Published: December 31, 2025 17:21
2025 is finally over. It was a wild year for the U.S. economy. Tariffs transformed global trading, consumer sentiment hit near-historic lows, and stocks hit dramatic new heights! So … which of these economic stories defined the year?We will square off in a…
Why economists got free trade with China so wrong
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/29/nx-s1-5660865/why-economists-got-free-trade-with-china-so-wrong
Published: December 30, 2025 00:05
With the year coming to a close, we're sharing our most popular Planet Money bonus episode of 2025! As U.S. trade with China exploded in the early 2000's, American manufacturing began to shrivel. Those workers struggled to adapt and find new jobs. It ran…
The Rest of the Story, 2025
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/26/nx-s1-5657342/subscription-diamond-gaza-games-book-saw-brot
Published: December 26, 2025 08:15
Most stories keep going even after we set down our microphones and the music fades up. That's why, at the end of each year, we look back and we take stock. We call this tradition "The Rest of the Story." And we bring you updates on the stories we've…
The summer I turned binge-y
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/24/nx-s1-5646673/stranger-things-season-netflix-binge-drip-watching-tv
Published: December 24, 2025 08:30
On the eve of Netflix shoveling a fourish-hour chunk of Stranger Things onto Christmas Day, we visit the past, present, and future of binge-dropped television shows. The strategy of releasing an entire season at the same time has been key to taking Netflix…
What AI data centers are doing to your electric bill
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/19/nx-s1-5649814/ai-data-center-electricity-bill
Published: December 20, 2025 00:15
As a country, we are spending more to get data centers up and running than we spent to build the entire interstate highway system. (Yes, that’s inflation-adjusted.) With tech companies spending hundreds of billions of dollars on AI, data centers have kind…
PM does a pop culture draft: 1999 edition
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/17/nx-s1-5645069/pop-culture-draft-1999
Published: December 17, 2025 17:59
Welcome to the inaugural Planet Money Pop Culture Draft! In today's episode (a Planet Money+ episode we’re releasing into the main feed) we're gonna go back to the year 1999. Three hosts, Kenny Malone, Wailin Wong, and Jeff Guo, go head to head and each…
When Chicago pawned its parking meters
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/12/nx-s1-5642708/chicago-parking-meter-privitization
Published: December 12, 2025 23:59
In 2008, Chicago’s budget was in a bad place. The city needed money. One way to raise money was to increase property taxes, but what politician wants to do that? So instead, Mayor Richard M. Daley’s administration looked around at the resources the city…
Strange threadfellows: How the U.S. military shaped what we all wear
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/10/nx-s1-5639211/military-fashion-army-surplus-gear-outdoor-m65
Published: December 10, 2025 08:00
From nuclear fission to GPS to the internet, it’s common knowledge that many of the most resource intensive technologies of the last century got their start as military R&D projects in government-funded labs. But as Avery Trufelman explains in her fashion…
How hurricanes became a hot investment
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/05/nx-s1-5622088/catastrophe-bonds-jamaica-hurricane-melissa
Published: December 5, 2025 23:54
A few years ago, the Jamaican government started making an unusual financial bet. It went to investors around the world asking if they'd like to wager on the chances a major hurricane would hit the island in the next couple of years. In finance terms,…
Is AI slopifying the job market? (Two Indicators)
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/03/nx-s1-5629273/ai-job-search-recruiters-entry-level
Published: December 3, 2025 08:00
Vote for us in NPR’s People’s Choice Awards: npr.org/peopleschoice AI is already reshaping how people find work. Fewer entry-level jobs, robot recruiters, and ever-changing new skill requirements all add up to a new, daunting landscape for humans trying to…
Capitalism (Taylor's Version) (25-minute Podcast Version)
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/28/nx-s1-5622117/capitalism-taylors-version-25-minute-podcast-version
Published: November 28, 2025 22:05
Taylor Swift reaches new heights with her latest album, which is both divisive and record-breaking. And it’s fueled by an elaborate series of business choices that propel profits but also chart numbers. Today’s episode comes from our friends at Today…
Saving lives with fewer dollars
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/26/nx-s1-5622126/usaid-ngo-givewell-effective-altruism
Published: November 27, 2025 01:25
Givewell is a nonprofit organization that gives money to “save or improve the most lives per dollar.” Part of their whole thing is a rigorous research process with copious and specific datapoints. So, in the chaotic wake of USAID’s gutting, they scrambled…
The Consumer Sentiment vs. Consumer Spending Puzzle
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/21/nx-s1-5616629/consumer-sentiment-spending-wealth-gap
Published: November 21, 2025 22:35
Wherever consumer sentiment goes, consumer spending usually goes too. They’re like buddies that do everything together. Consumer sentiment wants a hair cut, its buddy consumer spending does too.But lately, these friends are drifting apart.While consumer…
Days of our Tariffs
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/19/nx-s1-5608384/tariffs-consumers-shipping-shopping-prices
Published: November 19, 2025 08:00
Tariffs. They’ve been announced, unannounced, re-announced, raised and lowered. It’s an on-going saga with billions at stake!On today’s episode, we run full-on at the twisty, turny drama of life with broad-based tariffs and tackle perhaps our most asked…
The obscure pool of money the US used to bail out Argentina
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/14/nx-s1-5609382/argentina-loan-bessent-treasury-bailout
Published: November 15, 2025 00:08
Last month, during the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the United States had offered to functionally loan Argentina $20 billion. Despite the sums involved, this bailout required no authorization…
Buy now, pay dearly? (update)
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/12/nx-s1-5605981/buy-now-pay-dearly-update
Published: November 12, 2025 17:00
(Note: A version of this episode originally ran in 2022.)Every time you shop online and make it to the checkout screen, you see those colorful pastel buttons at the bottom. Affirm. Klarna. Afterpay. Asking: Do you want to split your payment into…
A new experiment in remote work … from the inside
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/07/nx-s1-5601059/maine-prisoners-remote-work-jobs
Published: November 7, 2025 21:00
When people in Maine prisons started getting laptops to use in their cells for online classes and homework, it sparked this new idea. Could they have laptops in their cells to work remotely for real outside world jobs, too??? And get real outside world…
~ 256 additional posts are not shown ~