Kimberly Adams

And Marketplace's vice president and general manager is Neil Scarborough.

There's a lot going on right now.

Mounting economic inequality, threats to democracy, environmental disaster, the sour stench of chaos in the air.

I'm Brooke Gladstone, host of WNYC's On the Media.

Want to understand the reasons and the meanings of the narratives that led us here and maybe how to head them off at the pass?

That's On the Media's specialty.

Take a listen wherever you get your podcasts.

navigating the pipelines of the global oil economy.

Plus, let's squeeze in some winter sports before the season is done.

From American Public Media, this is Marketplace.

From Minnesota Public Radio in St.

Paul, I'm Kimberly Adams in for Kai Risdahl.

It's Thursday, March 12th.

Good to have you along.

We're going to start today's program by looking at oil and the global economy right now.

The president's war in the Middle East is restricting the supply of crude to the rest of the world.

And Iran said today that it will keep the Strait of Hormuz closed, so oil prices jumped.

And Brent crude, which is the specific kind of oil that's no longer flowing out of the Mideast, topped $100 a barrel.

Even with more than 170 million barrels of oil being released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, some of the refineries that convert crude oil into the energy we consume just don't have access to the raw material they need.

And as Marketplace's Justin Ho reports, the war could end up causing many refineries to shut down production.