Description
Wanna see a trick? Give us any topic and we can tie it back to the economy. At Planet Money, we explore the forces that shape our lives and bring you along for the ride. Don't just understand the economy â understand the world.
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Support public media by joining NPR+ at plus.npr.org. Youâll get perks for over 25 NPR podcasts, including bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Planet Money.
Episodes
- 2026 / 10 / 14Wanna slow down AI? These biologists can help.Fifty years ago, scientists pioneering a terrifying gene-splicing technology figured out a way to collectively hit pause. Can we do it again with AI? We ask because some top AI industry leaders are saying the...
- 2026 / 10 / 9Should we all be getting tariff refunds right now?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...
- 2026 / 10 / 7Charles Ponzi's scheme (plus a new scam)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 â including bookkeeping, sign...
- 2026 / 10 / 2Where all those weird new drinks are coming fromIt's getting pretty wild in the beverage aisle these days â from the rainbow wall of seltzers, to the increasingly strange flavors of Pepsi, to the new "functional" sodas with added fiber or supplements that...
- 2026 / 9 / 30Whoâs gonna pay for your Social Security?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...
- 2026 / 9 / 25Middlegarchs are the new OligarchsWanna 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 âoligarchsâ. There's a much larger...
- 2026 / 9 / 23Is our national debt finally too much? (update)(Note: A version of this episode originally ran in 2024.)$40,000,000,000,000. Four commas. Thirteen zeroes. Itâs an eye-popping, almost infinite-sounding pile of money. And every time the debt passes a big...
- 2026 / 9 / 18The Dominoâs Pizza Tracker Theory of EverythingDid a pizza restaurantâs 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,...
- 2026 / 9 / 16How investing is getting riskier (Two Indicators)Margin borrowing and sports gambling âinvestmentsâ are both on the rise! Today on the show, two stories from Planet Moneyâs daily podcast The Indicator about the ways investing is changing, and getting...
- 2026 / 9 / 11The loan at the heart of a new foreclosure crisisThere is a new type of loan that is sweeping through the country right now. Itâs 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...
- 2026 / 9 / 9Cost-cutting, quiet guilt and the inflation generationIn this economy it is boom times and doom times all at once. The statistics arenât 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...
- 2026 / 9 / 5Trump drinks Venezuelaâs milkshakeOne week ago, President Trump announced a deal that would give the âU.S. control of more than 65 BILLION BARRELS of proven Oil Reserves in Venezuela, at no cost to the American Taxpayer.âThe exact nature of...
- 2026 / 9 / 2Love in the time of PalantirTo a lot of people, Palantir is a mystery â 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...
- 2026 / 8 / 30Dolly Partonâs â9 to 5,â the true story behind the anthem (bonus)The brilliance of "9 to 5" is that it is catchy even though itâs 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...
- 2026 / 8 / 28Branded fruit: How produce got âHoneycrisp-ified"The produce aisle is changing. Youâve noticed this, Iâm 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...
- 2026 / 8 / 26The continent nobody owns & everyone benefits from (Summer School)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, weâre headed to...
- 2026 / 8 / 21Who decides what big box sells? Our GAME got us answersThereâs 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 canât get inside the room where decisions are made â until now!...
- 2026 / 8 / 19Getting entrepreneurial in Korea (Summer School)This weekâs 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 worldâs favorite exports â from...
- 2026 / 8 / 14You bet your life insuranceSome of the biggest firms on Wall Street are, at this very moment, waiting for thousands of strangers to die to reap their returns. Because thereâs a market for life insurance policies. And itâs legal.You...
- 2026 / 8 / 12Currency Chaos in Argentina (Summer School)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...
- 2026 / 8 / 7Older workers arenât retiring. Should they be forced to?When workers past retirement age canât afford to retire â thatâs one thing. When they can, and just donât want to â thatâs trickier.It used to be legal to force people to retire when they hit a certain...
- 2026 / 8 / 5Sand heists and property rights in the Caribbean (Summer School)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 â just free land....
- 2026 / 7 / 31What makes a toy go viralSquishy, slimy, fidgety toys are having a moment. But itâs more than just an anxiety-soothing, social-media fueled trend â these toys are reshaping how toys get made.Today on the show, we have the story of...
- 2026 / 7 / 29How to beat the resource curse in Norway (Summer School)Letâs 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! Itâs...
- 2026 / 7 / 24Piles of cash and a town of solutions in Kenya, Nigeria (Summer School)Letâs head to a small town in Kenya thatâs become globally famous for helping economists answer some of the biggest questions facing humanity.In Kenya and Nigeria, economics isnât just theory, itâs real life....
- 2026 / 7 / 22Big Lettuce meets Small IntestineThe cyclospora outbreak thatâs sickening thousands of Americans got us interested in the rise of Big Lettuce, and the challenges of keeping it clean. So on todayâs show, we tell you just how much lettuce...
- 2026 / 7 / 21New NPR Series: "We Keep Us Safe" from the Embedded podcastIn 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...
- 2026 / 7 / 17Can World Cup mania grow MLS in the U.S.?As the World Cup comes to a close, so does a massive real-time experiment happening just around the edges. Major League Soccer â the top menâs professional soccer league in the U.S. and Canada â has been...
- 2026 / 7 / 15Building things and breaking things in China (Summer School World Tour)Chinaâs 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...
- 2026 / 7 / 10Seven allegedly fake Chanel bags vs The RealRealOnce 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...
- 2026 / 7 / 8Our mission: Find the worldâs best economic ideas (Summer School World Tour)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...
- 2026 / 7 / 3How to win a penalty shootout (with game theory)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, thereâs an...
- 2026 / 7 / 1Can the Trump administration make college cheaper?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, itâs going to...
- 2026 / 6 / 26We almost had a smartphone in the 90s. Why did it fail?In the early 90âs, 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...
- 2026 / 6 / 24Before Kalshi and Polymarket there was the Iowa Electronic MarketsPrediction markets arenât 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...
- 2026 / 6 / 19The real horror of âAlienâ and how it explains why weâre not paid enoughMaybe the real monster in the Alien franchise isnât 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...
- 2026 / 6 / 17Can computer hackers get inside your mind?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...
- 2026 / 6 / 12Itâs my tree. Why canât I cut it down?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...
- 2026 / 6 / 10Two indicators for lowering the rentOne 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...
- 2026 / 6 / 5Why is there a supplement craze if they donât even work?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...
- 2026 / 6 / 3There's no business like dough businessHave 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 McDonaldâs or Wetzelâs Pretzels sometimes...
- 2026 / 5 / 29The sneaky way companies get new chemicals into our food99% 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...
- 2026 / 5 / 27The leaked tapes that show how the rich avoid taxesTax 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 todayâs show, a collaboration with Tax...
- 2026 / 5 / 22The giant factory town that might be a giant mistakeHow does a poor country become a rich country? There's a simple blueprint â or at least, that's what many economists used to believe. But over the years, a lot of rapidly developing economies have stalled...
- 2026 / 5 / 20Vacation and why Americans take so littleNote: This episode originally ran in 2023.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...
- 2026 / 5 / 15Jerome Powell and the Future of Fed IndependenceIf you have a credit card, hope to buy a house, or just want stable grocery prices â letâs talk about the future of Fed independence!Itâs impossibly important for the Federal Reserve to steer monetary policy...
- 2026 / 5 / 13The secret meeting that launched OPECRecently, 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. âIt would...
- 2026 / 5 / 9Diary of a WNBA negotiatorToday the WNBA season tips off, but Dallas Wings veteran forward Alysha Clark has already won a high-stakes competition. She â and a Nobel Prize winning economist â were on the team that negotiated a...
- 2026 / 5 / 6How we got free agents in baseballCurt Flood was the best center fielder in baseball and one of the gameâs highest paid players. He took the St. Louis Cardinals to the World Series three times. Then he got traded to the Phillies. He didnât...
- 2026 / 5 / 2How to make a BOOK into a bestsellerIn 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...