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Planet Money

NPR

300 episodes

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 – understand the world. Support public media by joining NPR+ at plus.npr.org. You’ll get perks for over 25 NPR podcasts, including bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Planet Money.

Episodes page 1 of 6

  1. Politicians are afraid to fix taxes. So 100 citizens tried.

    · 31 min

    Connecticut’s property tax system has been broken for decades and the politicians have failed to fix the problem. So now, they’re trying something new: a citizens assembly. (Citizens assemblies are also old. They go…

  2. How surveillance crept up on us

    · 35 min

    For years, police have spent billions of tax dollars on watching us, tracking us, and recording us. In the largest police department in the country, these surveillance systems were paid for and adopted without the kind…

  3. We try to fix election polling (update)

    · 30 min

    Polling is facing an existential crisis. People aren't picking up the phone. Nobody wants to talk to pollsters. Trust is on the line. We pluck a solution from the economics canon and convince a polling firm to let us…

  4. Anatomy of a movie market

    · 32 min

    Before an independent movie makes it to a streaming platform or a theater near you, it first needs to survive an artistic and economic gauntlet. And even for those movies that make it into elite film festivals like…

  5. Wanna slow down AI? These biologists can help.

    · 29 min

    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…

  6. Should we all be getting tariff refunds right now?

    · 30 min

    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…

  7. Charles Ponzi's scheme (plus a new scam)

    · 26 min

    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,…

  8. Where all those weird new drinks are coming from

    · 30 min

    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…

  9. Who’s gonna pay for your Social Security?

    · 29 min

    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…

  10. Middlegarchs are the new Oligarchs

    · 31 min

    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…

  11. Is our national debt finally too much? (update)

    · 30 min

    (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…

  12. The Domino’s Pizza Tracker Theory of Everything

    · 32 min

    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…

  13. How investing is getting riskier (Two Indicators)

    · 18 min

    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.…

  14. The loan at the heart of a new foreclosure crisis

    · 29 min

    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…

  15. Cost-cutting, quiet guilt and the inflation generation

    · 24 min

    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…

  16. Trump drinks Venezuela’s milkshake

    · 25 min

    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…

  17. Love in the time of Palantir

    · 26 min

    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…

  18. Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” the true story behind the anthem (bonus)

    · 23 min

    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…

  19. Branded fruit: How produce got “Honeycrisp-ified"

    · 34 min

    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.…

  20. The continent nobody owns & everyone benefits from (Summer School)

    · 41 min

    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.…

  21. Who decides what big box sells? Our GAME got us answers

    · 38 min

    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…

  22. Getting entrepreneurial in Korea (Summer School)

    · 40 min

    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…

  23. You bet your life insurance

    · 39 min

    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…

  24. Currency Chaos in Argentina (Summer School)

    · 39 min

    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…

  25. Older workers aren’t retiring. Should they be forced to?

    · 34 min

    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…

  26. Sand heists and property rights in the Caribbean (Summer School)

    · 40 min

    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…

  27. What makes a toy go viral

    · 26 min

    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…

  28. How to beat the resource curse in Norway (Summer School)

    · 39 min

    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,…

  29. Piles of cash and a town of solutions in Kenya, Nigeria (Summer School)

    · 39 min

    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…

  30. Big Lettuce meets Small Intestine

    · 26 min

    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…

  31. New NPR Series: "We Keep Us Safe" from the Embedded podcast

    · 3:22 · Trailer

    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…

  32. Can World Cup mania grow MLS in the U.S.?

    · 26 min

    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…

  33. Building things and breaking things in China (Summer School World Tour)

    · 39 min

    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…

  34. Seven allegedly fake Chanel bags vs The RealReal

    · 26 min

    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…

  35. Our mission: Find the world’s best economic ideas (Summer School World Tour)

    · 37 min

    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,…

  36. How to win a penalty shootout (with game theory)

    · 18 min

    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…

  37. Can the Trump administration make college cheaper?

    · 29 min

    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…

  38. We almost had a smartphone in the 90s. Why did it fail?

    · 27 min

    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…

  39. Before Kalshi and Polymarket there was the Iowa Electronic Markets

    · 23 min

    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…

  40. The real horror of ‘Alien’ and how it explains why we’re not paid enough

    · 33 min

    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…

  41. Can computer hackers get inside your mind?

    · 30 min

    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…

  42. It’s my tree. Why can’t I cut it down?

    · 25 min

    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…

  43. Two indicators for lowering the rent

    · 18 min

    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…

  44. Why is there a supplement craze if they don’t even work?

    · 35 min

    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,…

  45. There's no business like dough business

    · 27 min

    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…

  46. The sneaky way companies get new chemicals into our food

    · 36 min

    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…

  47. The leaked tapes that show how the rich avoid taxes

    · 26 min

    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…

  48. The giant factory town that might be a giant mistake

    · 27 min

    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…

  49. Vacation and why Americans take so little

    · 25 min

    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…

  50. Jerome Powell and the Future of Fed Independence

    · 29 min

    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…

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