The Universal Basic Income experiment in Kenya
10 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There's this fundamental question in economics that has proven really hard to answer: What's a good ...
The case of the serial sinking Spanish ships
05 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Picture the Pacific Ocean of the 16th century. Spanish Galleons sail the wide open seas, carrying pr...
The Rest of the Story, 2023
29 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's that time of year again! Our annual year-end tradition of checking in on the stories we've repo...
The Indicators of this year and next
27 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today on the show, hosts from Planet Money and The Indicator debate the economic indicators of this ...
We buy a lot of Christmas trees (Update)
22 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
*Note: This episode originally ran in 2020*'Tis the season for Americans to head out in droves and b...
Dollarizing Argentina
21 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Argentina has been on a decades-long search for economic stability, but it always seems to be out of...
How to be better at hybrid work, according to research
19 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The research keeps coming in on remote work. New evidence suggests working from home, at least full-...
What econ says in the shadows
16 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Economics Job Market Rumors is a website that's half a job information Wiki, where people post about...
Why '90s ads are unforgettable
14 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Maybe she's born with it, maybe it's __________.The best part of waking up, is _______ in your cup!G...
The U.S. economy's biggest superpower, explained
11 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What if you could borrow money on the cheap and use it to pay for just about anything? The U.S. gove...
Why do doctors still use pagers?
08 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Remember pagers? They were huge in the 80s — these little devices that could receive short message...
Two food and drink indicators
06 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today on the show, we have two episodes from our daily podcast, The Indicator, about things we spend...
Why are we so bummed about the economy?
01 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Would you say that you and your family are better off or worse off, financially, than you were a yea...
So you want to sell marijuana across state lines
29 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the state of Oregon, there is a glut of grass. A wealth of weed. A crisis of chronic. And, jokes ...
A very Planet Money Thanksgiving
22 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Here at Planet Money, Thanksgiving is not just a time to feast on turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes,...
Economic fact in literary fiction
18 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Some of the most influential and beloved novels of the last few years have been about money, finance...
China's real estate crisis, explained
15 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
China's economic growth for the past few decades has been extraordinary. And much of that growth was...
The alleged theft at the heart of ChatGPT
10 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When best-selling thriller writer Douglas Preston began playing around with OpenAI's new chatbot, Ch...
Never have I ever
08 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The world of economics has these two different sides. One one side, there are the economists in thei...
FTC Chair Lina Khan on Antitrust in the age of Amazon
03 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When Lina Khan was in law school back in 2017, she wrote a law review article called 'Amazon's Antit...
Antitrust in America (classic)
01 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Earlier this fall, the Federal Trade Commission filed a high-stakes lawsuit against Amazon.In that s...
All you can eat economics
27 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
You might expect to find economic concepts in the pages of an economics textbook. But you know where...
Cutting school... by 20%
26 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Right now, a lot of school districts across the country are making a pretty giant change to the way ...
How unions are stopped before they start
20 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Union membership in the U.S. has been declining for decades. But, in 2022, support for unions among ...
Indicator exploder: jobs and inflation
18 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When someone says "the economy is doing well"—what does that even mean? Like, for workers, for emp...
Maria Bamford gets personal (about) finance
13 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Note: There is swearing in this episode.In 2017, The University of Minnesota asked comedian Maria Ba...
Why the price of Coke didn't change for 70 years (classic)
11 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Prices go up. Occasionally, prices go down. But for 70 years, the price of a bottle of Coca-Cola did...
A man, a plan, wind power, Uruguay
06 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 2007, Uruguay had a massive problem with no obvious fix. The economy of this country of 3.5 milli...
The flight attendants of CHAOS
04 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When contract negotiations between Alaska Airlines and their flight attendants' union broke down in ...
A trucker hat mystery, the curse of September and other listener questions
29 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ba-dee-yah! Say do you remember? Ba-dee-yah! Questions in September!That's right - it's time for Lis...
The natural disaster economist
27 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There seems to be headlines about floods, wildfires, or hurricanes every week. Scientists say this m...
A black market, a currency crisis, and a tango competition in Argentina
23 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Nobel-prize winning economist Simon Kuznets once analyzed the world's economies this way — he ...
"Based on a true story"
20 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When a group of amateur investors rallied around the stock for GameStop back in 2021, the story blew...
How to launder $600 million on the internet
16 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Erin Plante is a private detective who specializes in chasing down stolen cryptocurrency. In March o...
China's weakening economy in two Indicators
13 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In China, data on the economy is sometimes difficult to come by. The Chinese government has put a pa...
Is economists' favorite tool to crush inflation broken?
08 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When economists and policymakers talk about getting inflation under control, there's an assumption t...
The prince of prints and his prints of Prince
06 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1981, photographer Lynn Goldsmith took a portrait of the musician Prince. It's a pretty standard ...
How to fight a patent pirate
01 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Back in the 1990s, Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar was in his office in New Delhi when he came across a puzz...
Summer School 8: Graduation and the Guppy Tank
30 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Congratulations to the Planet Money Summer School Class of 2023! Today, you become masters of busine...
The secret entrance that sidesteps Hollywood picket lines
26 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Across Hollywood right now, writers and actors are picketing in front of studio lots. They're walkin...
Summer School 7: Negotiating and the empathetic nibble
23 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How do you get the best deal? How do you know you're getting the best deal? Whether you're talking d...
Vacation, and why the U.S. takes so little of it
18 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Do you work more for more money? Or work less for more time? For some, this is the ultimate economic...
Summer School 6: Operations and 25,000 roses
16 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"It's difficult to control everything," says our guest professor for this week, Santiago Gallino. "W...
The new Biden plan that could still erase your student loans
11 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This summer, the Supreme Court struck down Biden's plan to forgive student loan debt for millions of...
Summer School 5: Tech and the innovator's dilemma
09 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For anyone running a business, technology is both threat and opportunity. Today, we run through tech...
A tarot card reading for the U.S. economy
04 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Predicting the future of the economy is always a dicey proposition. That is especially true after mo...
Summer School 4: Marketing and the Ultimate Hose Nozzle
02 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this session of Planet Money Summer School, we are getting the word out about your brand. How do ...
Tackle your medical debt with Life Kit
31 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There's an estimated $195 billion of medical debt in America. But just because a medical bill comes ...
Did two honesty researchers fabricate their data?
28 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dan Ariely and Francesca Gino are two of the biggest stars in behavioral science. Both have conducte...
Summer School 3: Accounting and The Last Supper
26 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Usually, the first class that an MBA student takes is accounting. That involves, yes, equations and ...
Planet Money Paper Club
21 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We here at Planet Money love economics papers. And that is also the case for so many of the economis...
Summer School 2: Competition and the cheaper sneaker
19 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For episode 2 of Planet Money Summer School, we are talking strategy. You have your million dollar b...
Surprise, you just signed a contract! How hidden contracts took over the internet
15 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When you make an account online or install an app, you are probably entering into a legally enforcea...
Summer School 1: Planet Money goes to business school
12 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Find all episodes of Planet Money Summer School here.Planet Money Summer School is back! It's the fr...
The quest to save macroeconomics from itself
07 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to big questions about the economy, we're still kind of in the dark ages. Why do some ...
Two Indicators: After Affirmative Action & why America overpays for subways
05 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Two stories today.First, as we start to understand post-affirmative action America, we look to a nat...
Supply, demand, extinction
30 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Back in the 90s, Ivan Lozano Ortega was in charge of Bogota's wildlife rescue center. And he kept ge...
Planet Money Live: Two Truths and a Lie
28 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The shocks of the pandemic economy gave us a bunch of enormous natural experiments, which helped to ...
Mike The Mover vs. The Furniture Police
23 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1978, a young man named Mike Shanks started a moving business in the north end of Seattle. It was...
Twins (classic)
21 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Twins are used to fielding all sorts of questions, like "Can you read each other's minds?" or "Can y...
The 60-day job race
16 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
People come from all over the world to work in U.S. tech. And during the tech boom years, the indust...
Two Indicators: The economics of innovation
14 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Innovation is crucial for game-changing advancements in society, whether it's treatments for serious...
The town that changed economics
09 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the early 90s, when a young economist named Michael Kremer finished his PhD, there had been a few...
The Spider-Man Problem (update)
07 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
(Note: This episode originally ran back in 2022.)This past weekend, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Ve...
AI Podcast 3.0: Dial M for Mechanization
02 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's the thrilling conclusion to our three-part series on AI — the world premiere of the first epi...
AI Podcast 2.0: The host in the machine
31 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In Part 1 of this series, AI proved that it could use real research and real interviews to write an ...
AI Podcast 1.0: Rise of the machines
26 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We used to think some jobs were safe from automation. Though machines have transformed industries li...
Green energy gridlock
24 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Lyle Jack wants to build a wind farm on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. But to make the ...
Predictions: Jobs!
19 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's time for another installment of ... Planet Money Predictions! *air horn* Last year, we invited ...
How AI could help rebuild the middle class
17 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For the last four decades, technology has been mostly a force for greater inequality and a shrinking...
Inflation and the Profit-Price Spiral
12 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Economists say that inflation is just too much money chasing too few goods.But something else can ma...
The Day of Two Noons (Classic)
10 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
(Note: this episode originally ran in 2019.)In the 1800s, catching your train on time was no easy fe...
How to fight a squatting goat
06 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Back in 2005, Burt Banks inherited a plot of old family land in Delaware. But when it came time to s...
Two Indicators: the influencer industry
03 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up? An astronaut, a doctor or maybe a fa...
Financial advising while Black
28 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After a successful career in advertising, Erika Williams decided it was time for a change. She went ...
The zoo economy (classic)
26 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Note: This episode originally aired in September, 2014.Zoos follow a fundamental principle: You can'...
The quest for the factory-built house
21 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine if we built cars the same way we build houses. First, a typical buyer would meet with the ca...
Tax Code Switch
19 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This past January, researchers uncovered that Black taxpayers are three to five times as likely to b...
The life and possible death of low interest rates
15 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Right now, the economy is running hot. Inflation is high, and central banks are pushing up interest ...
Two innovation market indicators
12 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Right now, the economy is all over the place. And when things get confusing, we look to basic econom...
Your banking questions, answered
08 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's been a month since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank touched off the worst episode of banking...
The battle for Puerto Rico's beaches
05 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Puerto Rico's beaches are an integral part of life on the island, and by law, they're one of the few...
The safety net for banks
01 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the first half of March, three banks - Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and Silvergate - all ...
A Great Recession bank takeover
30 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Earlier this month, we saw the largest bank collapse since the 2008 financial crisis. For many of us...
The battle over Osage headrights
25 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Richard J. Lonsinger is a member of the Ponca tribe of Oklahoma, who was adopted at a young age into...
Inside a bank run
23 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes you hear these stories about an airplane that suddenly nosedives. Everyone onboard thinks ...
Planet Money Records Vol. 3: Making a hit
18 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Since we started Planet Money Records and released the 47-year-old song "Inflation," the song has ta...
How Silicon Valley Bank failed
16 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Silicon Valley Bank was the 16th largest bank in America, the bank of choice for tech startups and b...
Dude, where's my streaming TV show?
11 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past year, dozens of shows have been disappearing from streaming platforms like HBO Max and...
The value of good teeth
09 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As a kid, Ryanne Jones' friend accidentally hit her in the mouth with a hammer, knocking out her two...
Seinfeld-onomics
03 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The 90s sit-com Seinfeld is often called "a show about nothing." Lauded for its observational humor,...
CBOhhhh, that's what they do
01 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
If you are a congressperson or a senator and you have an idea for a new piece of legislation, at som...
Meow Money Meow Problems
25 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
More than 20 years ago, something unusual happened in the small town of Dixfield, Maine. A lady name...
Hollywood's Black List (Classic)
22 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This episode originally ran in 2020.In 2005, Franklin Leonard was a junior executive at Leonardo DiC...
Jay & Shai's debt ceiling adventure
18 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Every year, the U.S. government spends more money than it takes in. In order to fund all that spendi...
Two Indicators: Inside the Fed, then and now
16 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A lot of the time, economic policy can seem pretty impersonal — cold, hard, data-driven. But at th...
Our 2023 valentines
11 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Every Valentine's Day, we at Planet Money consider the things that we love, the things that we can't...
The ice cream conspiracy
08 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Take a look in any supermarket ice cream freezer section and you may see a mystery. There are big co...
Baby's first market failure
03 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Anyone who has tried shopping for day care knows that it is tough out there.For one, it is hard even...
Groundhog Day 2023
01 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's Groundhog Day, and once again, the eyes of the nation have turned to a small town in Western Pe...