Planet Money

By NPR

Business

What's Planet Money about?

The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, "Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy." Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.

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LAST EPISODE

SUMMER SCHOOL #1: The Stock...

07.28.2021

The first class of Planet Money Summer School starts off with a field trip. With the help of a cow, two economists, and three cute animals, we learn what a stock is and how stocks are priced, and we begin ...

Planet Money episodes:

07.28.2021 SUMMER SCHOOL #1: The Stock Market & Penelope The Cow The first class of Planet Money Summer School starts off with a field trip. With the help of a cow, two economists, and three cute animals, we learn what a stock is and how stocks are priced, and we begin ...
07.24.2021 Banque Worms Last year, one of the biggest banks accidentally paid off a client's loan to its lenders — a $900 million mistake. Some of the recipients wouldn't give the money back. And then a surprising court ruling affirmed their no give-back. ...
07.21.2021 Video Gaming The System Two groups of people who would never meet in real life collide in a world of wizards and dragons. They battle it out in a low-tech video game, and it shakes the lives of a lot of real people living ...
07.17.2021 The Great Inflation (Classic) For much of the 1970s inflation was bad. Prices rose at over 10 percent a year. Nothing could stop it — until one powerful person did something very unpopular. Today's show: How we beat inflation. \| Subscribe to our weekly ...
07.14.2021 100 Years Since Sadie Alexander In 1921, Sadie Alexander became the first Black person in America to receive a PhD in economics. Then, she was functionally shut out of economics jobs, got a law degree, and became an attorney instead. A century later, economics has ...
07.10.2021 Of Memestocks and Milk Bags We answer your questions about memestocks, milk in bags, the size of cereal boxes, and products exclusive to the rich, but not for long? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
07.07.2021 Two Indicators: Clogged Ports And Corporate Vets We bring you two stories from The Indicator on two industries that are undergoing rapid change: vets and container shipping. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
07.02.2021 The Rest Of The Story, Summer 2021 We follow up on takeout cocktails, college athletes at the Supreme Court, bankrupt Hertz, and the new shape of pasta. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
07.01.2021 What's A Bubble? (Classic) Can you tell if the economy is in a bubble? How? And why do bubbles happen? Robert Shiller and Eugene Fama shared the economics Nobel back in 2013 despite fundamentally disagreeing over the meaning of a bubble. \| Subscribe to ...
06.26.2021 Bobby Bonilla Day How the worst deal in baseball explains one of the most important concepts in economics. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
06.23.2021 Corporate Fugitive: Carlos Ghosn Japan once served sushi in the shape of Carlos Ghosn's face. Then Japanese authorities arrested the celebrity CEO who remade Nissan. We bring you first hand accounts of his spectacular rise, sudden fall and dramatic escape. \| This episode is ...
06.18.2021 Predictions! Two forecasters predict the future of the U.S. economy — and promise to come back on the show to see who was right, and who was wrong. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
06.16.2021 How Uncle Jamie Broke Jeopardy (Update) James Holzhauer took a math degree, a gambling career, and a buzzer, and turned it into a fortune on a game show. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
06.11.2021 Used Car Talk How supply and demand stalled out the used car industry. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
06.09.2021 How Stuff Gets Cheaper (Classic) In the world of consumer electronics, it pays to be cheap. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
06.04.2021 Amateur Hour at the Supreme Court College athletes are considered amateur players. And amateurs don't make any money. But can they get more education paid for at least? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
06.02.2021 Black Wall Street 100 years ago, Black Wall Street was destroyed. But how was it built? And what does it take to get restitution? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
05.28.2021 One Hack to Fool Them All How a single hack pried open the networks of giant corporations and the U.S. government itself. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
05.26.2021 Runaway Recommendation Engine Recommendation systems have changed how we choose what we want. But are they choosing what we want? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
05.21.2021 Big Government Cheese (CLASSIC) That time the U.S. government accidentally created a cheese surplus so large it had to be stored in a ginormous cave. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
05.19.2021 Get The Vaccine, Lose The Skinny Jeans Two stories from our Indicator team about the sometimes-unlikely people who shape what we buy and what we do. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
05.14.2021 Blood Money The United States is one of the few countries that lets companies pay people for their blood plasma. Why? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
05.13.2021 Hot Cheetos A janitor walks out of a chip factory with a bag of dustless Cheetos and changes the global snack game forever. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
05.07.2021 Emission Impossible Carbon offsets have become a popular tool to combat climate change. But how effective are they? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
05.05.2021 DIY Reparations Some Vermonters were tired of waiting around for reparations. So they decided to take matters into their own hands. \| This episode was produced with our friends at Invisibilia. Check out their new season here.
05.01.2021 A Superhero Goes To Hollywood In the last and greatest chapter to our superhero saga, Micro-Face tries to make the jump from comic books to movies. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
04.28.2021 The $100 Million Deli Why is a single New Jersey deli worth so much? And what does it tell us about how the stock market works? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
04.23.2021 A Superhero Sells Out Two months ago, Planet Money got its own superhero. Today, we sell him out. \| Find the full Planet Money Superhero series here.
04.21.2021 The Writers Revolt (UPDATE) We have a winner in an epic Hollywood story. A couple years back, 7,000 TV writers across the U.S. fired their agents. All on the same day. It was part of a battle over how creative work gets valued and ...
04.16.2021 India, Farming, and the Free Market For decades, India has shielded its agricultural sector from the free market. Now, the government wants to let it in. Millions and millions of farmers are not happy about it. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
04.14.2021 Workin' 9 To 5 The movie "9 to 5" used humor to highlight the struggles of women in the workplace 40 years ago. Where are we now? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
04.09.2021 About Your Extended Warranty Calls about "extended auto warranties" blow up our phones over and over. But what are these robocalls actually offering? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
04.07.2021 How Jacob Loud's Land Was Lost Today's show: the arcane laws that have cost Black landowners their property, and the lawyer who is trying to fix those laws. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
04.02.2021 Two Indicators: Boomtown & Bye Bye We look at housing prices in Montana, an oil market milestone, and give a fond farewell. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
03.31.2021 The Curse Of The Black Lotus (Update) When the popular card game Magic: The Gathering entered a speculative bubble, its creators found a way to keep it from bursting. We check in to see if their strategy is still working. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
03.26.2021 Socialism 101 Today on the show: The critics of capitalism. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
03.24.2021 You Asked For Shots, Tuna, Metal, and Money Listeners send us questions every day. It's about time we answer a few of them. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
03.19.2021 The New Shape Of Pasta What do you do when you can't find the perfect pasta shape? You invent a new shape. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
03.17.2021 The Even More Minimum Wage The tipped minimum wage hasn't changed for decades. Is now finally the time? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
03.13.2021 The $69 Million JPEG An artist called Beeple just sold a piece at Christie's for millions. But it wasn't a painting... it was a kind of crypto. We speak with him and the others behind the first NFT auction. \| Subscribe to our weekly ...
03.10.2021 Nigeria, You Win! (Update) Nigerians heard a radio ad offering millions of dollars for people with business proposals. They thought it was a scam. It wasn't. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
03.06.2021 The Marriage Pact They say true love is hard to find. Whoever says that isn't an economist. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
03.03.2021 Happy Fed Independence Day (Update) The story of the day the Federal Reserve got its independence and the fight — an actual physical fight — to keep it. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
02.27.2021 We Buy A Superhero 3: Resurrection We have found the perfect superhero. Now we just have to make him our own. \| Find the full Planet Money Superhero series here.
02.24.2021 Bond Voyage The government used to be afraid to borrow too much money. Today, it borrows hand over fist. And it's ... fine? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
02.19.2021 We Buy A Superhero 2: Loophole Marvel was not interested in selling us Doorman. But there is another way to jumpstart our superhero empire. \| Find the full Planet Money Superhero series here.
02.17.2021 Why Printers Are The Worst The real money is in the ink. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
02.13.2021 We Buy A Superhero 1: Origins Marvel has 7,000 characters, many of them forgotten. We want to buy one from their vault and launch our own little Planet Money franchise. \| Find the full Planet Money Superhero series here.
02.10.2021 Can't Let It Go Irrational decisions. Things we can't let go. Friend of the show Sam Sanders comes by to talk obsessions. We turn to economics for advice, clarity and comfort. \| Subscribe to Sam's podcast, It's Been A Minute.
02.05.2021 Fine and Punishment When you get out of prison, you have to start paying off fees. Some are related to committing a crime. Others are not. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

Older episodes

07.28.2021 SUMMER SCHOOL #1: The Stock Market & Penelope The Cow The first class of Planet Money Summer School starts off with a field trip. With the help of a cow, two economists, and three cute animals, we learn what a stock is and how stocks are priced, and we begin ...
07.24.2021 Banque Worms Last year, one of the biggest banks accidentally paid off a client's loan to its lenders — a $900 million mistake. Some of the recipients wouldn't give the money back. And then a surprising court ruling affirmed their no give-back. ...
07.21.2021 Video Gaming The System Two groups of people who would never meet in real life collide in a world of wizards and dragons. They battle it out in a low-tech video game, and it shakes the lives of a lot of real people living ...
07.17.2021 The Great Inflation (Classic) For much of the 1970s inflation was bad. Prices rose at over 10 percent a year. Nothing could stop it — until one powerful person did something very unpopular. Today's show: How we beat inflation. \| Subscribe to our weekly ...
07.14.2021 100 Years Since Sadie Alexander In 1921, Sadie Alexander became the first Black person in America to receive a PhD in economics. Then, she was functionally shut out of economics jobs, got a law degree, and became an attorney instead. A century later, economics has ...
07.10.2021 Of Memestocks and Milk Bags We answer your questions about memestocks, milk in bags, the size of cereal boxes, and products exclusive to the rich, but not for long? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
07.07.2021 Two Indicators: Clogged Ports And Corporate Vets We bring you two stories from The Indicator on two industries that are undergoing rapid change: vets and container shipping. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
07.02.2021 The Rest Of The Story, Summer 2021 We follow up on takeout cocktails, college athletes at the Supreme Court, bankrupt Hertz, and the new shape of pasta. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
07.01.2021 What's A Bubble? (Classic) Can you tell if the economy is in a bubble? How? And why do bubbles happen? Robert Shiller and Eugene Fama shared the economics Nobel back in 2013 despite fundamentally disagreeing over the meaning of a bubble. \| Subscribe to ...
06.26.2021 Bobby Bonilla Day How the worst deal in baseball explains one of the most important concepts in economics. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
06.23.2021 Corporate Fugitive: Carlos Ghosn Japan once served sushi in the shape of Carlos Ghosn's face. Then Japanese authorities arrested the celebrity CEO who remade Nissan. We bring you first hand accounts of his spectacular rise, sudden fall and dramatic escape. \| This episode is ...
06.18.2021 Predictions! Two forecasters predict the future of the U.S. economy — and promise to come back on the show to see who was right, and who was wrong. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
06.16.2021 How Uncle Jamie Broke Jeopardy (Update) James Holzhauer took a math degree, a gambling career, and a buzzer, and turned it into a fortune on a game show. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
06.11.2021 Used Car Talk How supply and demand stalled out the used car industry. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
06.09.2021 How Stuff Gets Cheaper (Classic) In the world of consumer electronics, it pays to be cheap. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
06.04.2021 Amateur Hour at the Supreme Court College athletes are considered amateur players. And amateurs don't make any money. But can they get more education paid for at least? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
06.02.2021 Black Wall Street 100 years ago, Black Wall Street was destroyed. But how was it built? And what does it take to get restitution? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
05.28.2021 One Hack to Fool Them All How a single hack pried open the networks of giant corporations and the U.S. government itself. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
05.26.2021 Runaway Recommendation Engine Recommendation systems have changed how we choose what we want. But are they choosing what we want? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
05.21.2021 Big Government Cheese (CLASSIC) That time the U.S. government accidentally created a cheese surplus so large it had to be stored in a ginormous cave. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
05.19.2021 Get The Vaccine, Lose The Skinny Jeans Two stories from our Indicator team about the sometimes-unlikely people who shape what we buy and what we do. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
05.14.2021 Blood Money The United States is one of the few countries that lets companies pay people for their blood plasma. Why? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
05.13.2021 Hot Cheetos A janitor walks out of a chip factory with a bag of dustless Cheetos and changes the global snack game forever. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
05.07.2021 Emission Impossible Carbon offsets have become a popular tool to combat climate change. But how effective are they? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
05.05.2021 DIY Reparations Some Vermonters were tired of waiting around for reparations. So they decided to take matters into their own hands. \| This episode was produced with our friends at Invisibilia. Check out their new season here.
05.01.2021 A Superhero Goes To Hollywood In the last and greatest chapter to our superhero saga, Micro-Face tries to make the jump from comic books to movies. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
04.28.2021 The $100 Million Deli Why is a single New Jersey deli worth so much? And what does it tell us about how the stock market works? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
04.23.2021 A Superhero Sells Out Two months ago, Planet Money got its own superhero. Today, we sell him out. \| Find the full Planet Money Superhero series here.
04.21.2021 The Writers Revolt (UPDATE) We have a winner in an epic Hollywood story. A couple years back, 7,000 TV writers across the U.S. fired their agents. All on the same day. It was part of a battle over how creative work gets valued and ...
04.16.2021 India, Farming, and the Free Market For decades, India has shielded its agricultural sector from the free market. Now, the government wants to let it in. Millions and millions of farmers are not happy about it. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
04.14.2021 Workin' 9 To 5 The movie "9 to 5" used humor to highlight the struggles of women in the workplace 40 years ago. Where are we now? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
04.09.2021 About Your Extended Warranty Calls about "extended auto warranties" blow up our phones over and over. But what are these robocalls actually offering? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
04.07.2021 How Jacob Loud's Land Was Lost Today's show: the arcane laws that have cost Black landowners their property, and the lawyer who is trying to fix those laws. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
04.02.2021 Two Indicators: Boomtown & Bye Bye We look at housing prices in Montana, an oil market milestone, and give a fond farewell. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
03.31.2021 The Curse Of The Black Lotus (Update) When the popular card game Magic: The Gathering entered a speculative bubble, its creators found a way to keep it from bursting. We check in to see if their strategy is still working. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
03.26.2021 Socialism 101 Today on the show: The critics of capitalism. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
03.24.2021 You Asked For Shots, Tuna, Metal, and Money Listeners send us questions every day. It's about time we answer a few of them. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
03.19.2021 The New Shape Of Pasta What do you do when you can't find the perfect pasta shape? You invent a new shape. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
03.17.2021 The Even More Minimum Wage The tipped minimum wage hasn't changed for decades. Is now finally the time? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
03.13.2021 The $69 Million JPEG An artist called Beeple just sold a piece at Christie's for millions. But it wasn't a painting... it was a kind of crypto. We speak with him and the others behind the first NFT auction. \| Subscribe to our weekly ...
03.10.2021 Nigeria, You Win! (Update) Nigerians heard a radio ad offering millions of dollars for people with business proposals. They thought it was a scam. It wasn't. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
03.06.2021 The Marriage Pact They say true love is hard to find. Whoever says that isn't an economist. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
03.03.2021 Happy Fed Independence Day (Update) The story of the day the Federal Reserve got its independence and the fight — an actual physical fight — to keep it. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
02.27.2021 We Buy A Superhero 3: Resurrection We have found the perfect superhero. Now we just have to make him our own. \| Find the full Planet Money Superhero series here.
02.24.2021 Bond Voyage The government used to be afraid to borrow too much money. Today, it borrows hand over fist. And it's ... fine? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
02.19.2021 We Buy A Superhero 2: Loophole Marvel was not interested in selling us Doorman. But there is another way to jumpstart our superhero empire. \| Find the full Planet Money Superhero series here.
02.17.2021 Why Printers Are The Worst The real money is in the ink. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
02.13.2021 We Buy A Superhero 1: Origins Marvel has 7,000 characters, many of them forgotten. We want to buy one from their vault and launch our own little Planet Money franchise. \| Find the full Planet Money Superhero series here.
02.10.2021 Can't Let It Go Irrational decisions. Things we can't let go. Friend of the show Sam Sanders comes by to talk obsessions. We turn to economics for advice, clarity and comfort. \| Subscribe to Sam's podcast, It's Been A Minute.
02.05.2021 Fine and Punishment When you get out of prison, you have to start paying off fees. Some are related to committing a crime. Others are not. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

Planet Money

What's Planet Money about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Planet Money episodes:

SUMMER SCHOOL #1: The Stock Market & Penelope The Cow

Banque Worms

Video Gaming The System

The Great Inflation (Classic)

100 Years Since Sadie Alexander

Of Memestocks and Milk Bags

Two Indicators: Clogged Ports And Corporate Vets

The Rest Of The Story, Summer 2021

What's A Bubble? (Classic)

Bobby Bonilla Day

Corporate Fugitive: Carlos Ghosn

Predictions!

How Uncle Jamie Broke Jeopardy (Update)

Used Car Talk

How Stuff Gets Cheaper (Classic)

Amateur Hour at the Supreme Court

Black Wall Street

One Hack to Fool Them All

Runaway Recommendation Engine

Big Government Cheese (CLASSIC)

Get The Vaccine, Lose The Skinny Jeans

Blood Money

Hot Cheetos

Emission Impossible

DIY Reparations

A Superhero Goes To Hollywood

The $100 Million Deli

A Superhero Sells Out

The Writers Revolt (UPDATE)

India, Farming, and the Free Market

Workin' 9 To 5

About Your Extended Warranty

How Jacob Loud's Land Was Lost

Two Indicators: Boomtown & Bye Bye

The Curse Of The Black Lotus (Update)

Socialism 101

You Asked For Shots, Tuna, Metal, and Money

The New Shape Of Pasta

The Even More Minimum Wage

The $69 Million JPEG

Nigeria, You Win! (Update)

The Marriage Pact

Happy Fed Independence Day (Update)

We Buy A Superhero 3: Resurrection

Bond Voyage

We Buy A Superhero 2: Loophole

Why Printers Are The Worst

We Buy A Superhero 1: Origins

Can't Let It Go

Fine and Punishment

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