The history of light (classic)
05 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For thousands of years, getting light was a huge hassle. You had to make candles from scratch. This ...
How the FBI's fake cell phone company put criminals into real jail cells
31 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There is a constant arms race between law enforcement and criminals, especially when it comes to tec...
So you've been scammed, now what?
29 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We are living in a kind of golden age for online fraudsters. As the number of apps and services for ...
The junkyard economist
24 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On today's episode, we ride through the streets of San Francisco with a long-time junkman, Jon Rolst...
Anatomy of a layoff
22 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
By one estimate, 40 percent of American workers get laid off at least once in their careers. And whe...
The hack that almost broke the internet
17 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last month, the world narrowly avoided a cyberattack of stunning ambition. The targets were some of ...
Why Gold? (Classic)
15 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the past few months, the price of gold has gone way up – even hitting a new high last month at ...
Zombie mortgages are coming back to life
10 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Karen McDonough of Quincy, Mass., was enjoying her tea one morning in the dining room when she saw s...
Inside video game economics (Two Indicators)
08 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Why do video game workers offer labor at a discount? How can you design a video game for blind and s...
The birth of the modern consumer movement
03 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today on the show, the story of the modern consumer movement in the U.S. and the person who inspired...
Hire Power (Update)
01 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
(Note: This episode originally ran in 2021.)Millions of American workers in all sorts of industries ...
The case of the stolen masks
26 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
About thirty years ago, Yagya Kumar Pradhan woke up to the news that the temple he and his clan used...
How unions are stopped before they start (Update)
24 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
(Note: This episode originally ran in 2023.)Union membership in the U.S. has been declining for deca...
FTX and the Serengeti of bankruptcy
19 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For the last year and a half, the story of FTX has focused largely on the crimes and punishment of S...
Grocery prices, credit card debt, and your 401K (Two Indicators)
17 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What's going on with consumers? This is one of the trickiest puzzles of this weird economic moment w...
TikTok made me deduct it
12 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
TikTok, and other apps like it, are filled with financial advice. Some of it is reliable, some... le...
How much does this cow weigh? (Classic)
10 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This episode originally ran in 2015.About one hundred years ago, a scientist and statistician named ...
Japan's Lost Decades
05 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last month, Japan's central bank raised interest rates for the first time in 17 years. That is a rea...
The real estate industry on trial
03 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2019, Mike Ketchmark got a call. Mike is a lawyer in Kansas City, Missouri, and his friend, Brand...
How much of your tax dollars are going to Israel and Ukraine
29 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There's been a lot of disagreement in Congress and in the country about whether the U.S. should cont...
The trouble with Table 101 (Update)
27 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
(Note: This episode originally ran in 2020.)In the restaurant game, you need to make the most of eve...
What is Temu?
22 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It is rare that a new e-commerce company has such a meteoric rise as Temu. The company, which launch...
How Big Steel in the U.S. fell
20 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Steel manufacturing was at one point the most important industry in the United States. It was one of...
The billion dollar war behind U.S. rum
15 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When you buy a bottle of rum in the United States, by law nearly all the federal taxes on that rum m...
Wind boom, wind bust (Two Windicators)
13 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The wind power business is a bit contradictory right now. It's showing signs of boom and bust seemin...
On the Oscars campaign trail
08 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When you sit down to watch the Oscars, what you are really watching is the final battle in a months-...
Is dynamic pricing coming to a supermarket near you?
06 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dynamic pricing is an increasingly common phenomenon: You can see it when Uber prices surge during r...
Shopping for parental benefits around the world
01 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It is so expensive to have a kid in the United States. The U.S. is one of just a handful of countrie...
The secret world behind school fundraisers
29 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Fundraising is a staple of the school experience in the U.S. There's an assembly showing off all the...
A controversial idea at the heart of Bidenomics
23 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Réka Juhász is a professor of economics at the University of British Columbia, and she studies wha...
Two Indicators: Economics of the defense industry
21 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Department of Defense's proposed budget for 2024 is $842 billion. That is about 3.5% of the U.S....
How the Navy came to protect cargo ships
16 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Genco Picardy is not an American ship. It doesn't pay U.S. taxes, none of its crew are U.S. nati...
It's giving ... Valentines
15 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
L, is for the way you Listen to Planet MoneyO, is for the Only podcast I hearV, is Very, very, fiduc...
A lawsuit for your broken heart
09 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Keith King was upset when his marriage ended. His wife had cheated, and his family broke apart. And ...
Morally questionable, economically efficient
07 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There are tons of markets that don't exist because people just don't want to allow a market – for ...
Groundhog Day 2024: Trademark, bankruptcy, and the dollar that failed
02 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's Groundhog Day, and the eyes of the nation have turned to a small town in western Pennsylvania. ...
The Chicken Tax (Classic)
31 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Note: This episode originally ran in 2015.German families in the 60s loved tasty, cheap American-rai...
Bonus: Janet Yellen on Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!
29 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Our friends at NPR's news quiz Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! recently had a very Planet Money guest on ...
Rescues at sea, and how to make a fortune
27 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
At around 1 a.m. on the morning of November 15, 1994, Captain Prentice "Skip" Strong III woke to a d...
Hear us out: We ban left turns and other big ideas
24 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On today's episode, we have three big economic ideas for your consideration – ideas that could pot...
Econ Battle Zone: Disinflation Confrontation
20 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After very high inflation, the United States is finally feeling some relief in the form of "disinfla...
Mid-East conflict escalation, two indicators
17 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On today's show, we look at two indicators of the economic disruptions of the war in Gaza and try to...
The Maine Potato War of 1976
13 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When you think of a potato, one state probably comes to mind: Idaho. But for much of American histor...
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...