Planet Money

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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.Got money on your mind? Try Planet Money+ — a new way to support the show you love, get a sponsor-free feed of the podcast, *and* get access to bonus content. A subscription also gets you access to The Indicator and Planet Money Summer School, both without ads. Learn more at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

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LAST EPISODE

Suitcases, secret lists, an...

07.01.2022

On today's show: the Watergate scandal you haven't heard about – that led directly to Citizens United and multi-billion dollar elections. | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

Planet Money episodes:

01.13.2022 No such thing as a free return Lenient policies have shoppers making more returns than ever — around half a trillion dollars worth of products. Today, we find out the fate of some of those returned goods.
01.08.2022 HBO 2.0 What happens when the iconic symbol of your brand no longer makes sense? Today, HBO tries to evolve their sonic brand. This episode was adapted from the podcast Twenty Thousand Hertz. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
01.05.2022 The rest of the story, 2021 On protests, pasta and forgiven payments. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
12.31.2021 The holiday industrial complex (Classic) Where do holidays like National Potato Chip Day and Argyle Day come from? We trace the roots of one made-up holiday until we find out who is running the global holiday machine. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
12.30.2021 The economic indicator of the year Will it be inflation? Striketober? The supply chain? Our hosts make their case, and the choice is up to you.
12.24.2021 Bell wars (Classic) The two biggest handbell companies in the world have been locked in a feud for decades. Why? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
12.23.2021 Planet Money's Supply Chain Holiday Extravaganza Planet Money's Supply Chain Holiday Extravaganza Did the supply chain wreck your holiday shopping? Planet Money comes to the rescue. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
12.18.2021 No shortages of labor stories We asked for your dispatches from the labor market, and boy did we hear back. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
12.15.2021 We buy a lot of Christmas trees (Classic) Nick and Robert head to the world's largest Christmas tree auction with $1,000 and a truck. And get schooled in the tree market. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
12.11.2021 Two music indicators Ticket scalping frustrates fans, but it fascinates economists. It's been a favorite topic of ours in the past. This time, Darian turns to friends and experts to navigate the world of concert tickets like an economist who is also a ...
12.08.2021 Is a Stradivarius just a violin? (Classic) Many music aficionados will tell you that violins and violas made by legendary craftsman Antonio Stradivari represent the pinnacle of the instruments. But what if it's all just an example of really good branding? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter ...
12.04.2021 Consider the lobstermen A tense conflict between Indigenous fishermen and commercial lobstermen flared up in Nova Scotia in the fall of 2020. Today, how it all got started and how the Canadian government added fuel to the fire. \| Subscribe to our weekly ...
12.02.2021 A locked door, a secret meeting and the birth of the Fed (Classic) The story of the back-room dealings that created America's central bank. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
11.26.2021 Day of the Debt We make a loan to the U.S. government, and it does not go the way we thought it would. Plus: the story of that one time the U.S. defaulted. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
11.25.2021 You asked for real raises, free shipping, and a special delivery It's listener question time. We've got answers about "free" shipping, full employment, when a raise isn't a raise, Taylor Swift, crypto seizures and our very own Micro-Face comic. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
11.20.2021 A trunk full of truffles (Update) Truffles are one of the most expensive and sought after ingredients in the world. Today, we look back at our NYC adventure with a truffle smuggler and how the market has changed since we last talked to him. \| Subscribe ...
11.17.2021 Of boats and boxes We take a trip to ports on the east and west coasts to ask what's on everyone's mind: why are they so clogged? And how can we fix it? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
11.12.2021 Auction fever (Classic) Today, we go on a Planet Money roadtrip to learn the secrets of the auction world. We find some amazing bargains, some shady strategies and a giant big digger. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
11.11.2021 Planes, trains and bad bridges The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill has passed Congress, but what exactly is in it? Today, the important, surprising, delightful line items. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
11.05.2021 Moonshot in the arm COVID-19 prompted the quickest vaccine development in history. An inside look at how the government and pharmaceutical companies joined forces to make it happen.
11.03.2021 The Wheat Whisperer Southeast Asia is one of the biggest growth markets for American wheat. Where did this taste for wheat come from and who is responsible?
10.29.2021 Night of the living inflation We look at a hidden form of inflation affecting our economy — we're calling it "skimpflation." The Indicator tells a spooky tale about the inflation demon. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
10.28.2021 Nice work week, if you can get it The 40 hour work week has been the standard for 80 years. What will it take to lower that? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
10.22.2021 Two indicators: Congressional Game Theory and the Debt Ceiling We bring you two stories from The Indicator on the recent battles being fought in Congress. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
10.21.2021 Burnout (Classic) All types of companies are struggling with burnout. Many try to fix it. Most of them fail. One exception: A 26-year-old call center manager, with stress balls and costumes in her arsenal. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
10.18.2021 Bonus: Janet Jackson's 'Control' On the 35th anniversary of Janet Jackson's first No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hit, our friends at It's Been A Minute look back at Control, her career-defining album that changed the trajectory of pop music in the late '80s and ...
10.15.2021 Hire power Noncompete agreements have become an integral part of job contracts. A show about what they are and how we got here. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
10.13.2021 How Do You Feel? (Classic) We tend to think of economists as cold, unfeeling, attempting to be as rational as possible. But once a month, economists pick up the phone to just... check in with us. How are we feeling? Good, bad, worse than a ...
10.09.2021 LIBOR pains For decades, banks used one rate to help set all other rates: LIBOR. After it came out that it'd been rigged, regulators said: no more. Now it's a race — and a road trip — to find an alternative. \| ...
10.06.2021 We set up an offshore company in a tax haven (Classic) The Pandora Papers released this week reveal how many world leaders allegedly hold wealth through the use of shell companies. We listen back to when we set up our very own Planet Money shell companies.
10.02.2021 The Rent Help Is Too Damn Slow Congress created a massive pile of money to help people pay rent during the pandemic. Why have so few people gotten help? We follow the money. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
09.29.2021 When The U.S. Paid Off The Entire National Debt (Classic) There was one time the U.S. federal government stopped borrowing and paid off every penny of national debt. It did not end well. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
09.24.2021 When Luddites Attack (Classic) A couple centuries ago, a group of English clothworkers set out to destroy the machines that had been taking their jobs. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
09.23.2021 Original Sign A request for dozens of stop signs flummoxes a town and angers a resident. A show about infrastructure, decision making and stop signs. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
09.18.2021 Two Indicators: Women And Work Women start a lot of businesses, but when it comes time for them to grow, many hit a wall, or the women founders end up losing control. Why? We bring you two indicators on women and work from our daily ...
09.15.2021 Afghanistan's Money Problem Afghanistan's economy changed — almost overnight — after the Taliban retook control of the country \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
09.10.2021 Flood Money (Classic) Bill Pennington's house floods a lot: Three times over the course of three years. And every time his house floods, the government pays to help him repair the damage. Is something wrong here? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
09.09.2021 Do You Want To Live In A Bounty Economy? The Texas abortion law includes an unusual provision: a financial incentive to report others. On today's show, we look into another time in U.S. history where the government tried bounties.
09.09.2021 A Quest To Support Women-Led Businesses A reporter frustrated by the gender and race gap in company CEOs sets out to buy products only from companies led or owned by women. Today on the show, what it takes to advance women in business.
09.09.2021 This Is Your Brain On Drug Ads Apologies to listeners who received two episodes in their feed today. The U.S. is one of two countries in the world that allows pharmaceutical companies to advertise prescription drugs directly to consumers. Why? And what does that do to us ...
09.03.2021 Two Indicators: Water Pressure It's another extremely dry, hot summer for the American West. Our daily podcast, The Indicator from Planet Money, brings us two stories about the water shortage in the West with economic ideas that may help. \| Subscribe to our weekly ...
09.02.2021 SUMMER SCHOOL 6: Crypto & Commencement In the last class of Planet Money Summer School Season 2, we cover one more important market — cryptocurrency. If you're thinking about investing in crypto, do you know exactly what it is that you're buying? Or how it should ...
08.27.2021 The Lost Archives of Sadie Alexander The work of our first Black economist was lost to history. The story of what happened when Professor Nina Banks set out on a quest to rediscover it — a tale of economic archeology.
08.25.2021 SUMMER SCHOOL 5: Bubbles, Bikes, & Biases Investing during a bubble can leave you bust. But how to tell the difference between a bubble before it bursts and an investing rocket ship taking off? We'll run through a historical example and look inside our own thinking to ...
08.20.2021 Two Indicators: Will Remote Work Kill The Office? It's Stacey vs Greg in a face off on the future of the office. Each takes a side, armed with studies, historical examples, theories on efficiency and happiness and from their closet studios, they bring their indicators for the future ...
08.18.2021 SUMMER SCHOOL 4: Bonds & Becky With The Good Yield A few years back, Cardiff asked for an unusual Christmas present: a junk bond... Parallel to the stock market, the bond market offers different levels of risk and reward. In this class, what is a bond, how do they differ ...
08.14.2021 Big Little Ideas There are a lot of fancy terms for the things we experience — but are they really useful? Yes! We explain four social-science terms that can help us understand our world. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
08.11.2021 SUMMER SCHOOL 3: Smooth Spending & The 401K Even if you don't own stocks, there are a lot of reasons to care about investing. We meet some of the folks left out of the stock market who deploy sophisticated economic thinking, even creating their own alternate financial systems. ...
08.06.2021 Mobile Home Parked We find out what happens when big investors spend billions of dollars buying mobile home parks and make them less affordable for the people who live there. Then we learn how the government helps them do it, with super low-cost ...
08.04.2021 SUMMER SCHOOL 2: Index Funds & The Bet In 2006, Warren Buffett bet a million dollars that the most brainless, boring investment around would do better than the researched, handpicked investments of some of the smartest hedge fund managers in the world. The second class of Summer School ...

Newer episodes

Older episodes

01.13.2022 No such thing as a free return Lenient policies have shoppers making more returns than ever — around half a trillion dollars worth of products. Today, we find out the fate of some of those returned goods.
01.08.2022 HBO 2.0 What happens when the iconic symbol of your brand no longer makes sense? Today, HBO tries to evolve their sonic brand. This episode was adapted from the podcast Twenty Thousand Hertz. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
01.05.2022 The rest of the story, 2021 On protests, pasta and forgiven payments. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
12.31.2021 The holiday industrial complex (Classic) Where do holidays like National Potato Chip Day and Argyle Day come from? We trace the roots of one made-up holiday until we find out who is running the global holiday machine. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
12.30.2021 The economic indicator of the year Will it be inflation? Striketober? The supply chain? Our hosts make their case, and the choice is up to you.
12.24.2021 Bell wars (Classic) The two biggest handbell companies in the world have been locked in a feud for decades. Why? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
12.23.2021 Planet Money's Supply Chain Holiday Extravaganza Planet Money's Supply Chain Holiday Extravaganza Did the supply chain wreck your holiday shopping? Planet Money comes to the rescue. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
12.18.2021 No shortages of labor stories We asked for your dispatches from the labor market, and boy did we hear back. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
12.15.2021 We buy a lot of Christmas trees (Classic) Nick and Robert head to the world's largest Christmas tree auction with $1,000 and a truck. And get schooled in the tree market. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
12.11.2021 Two music indicators Ticket scalping frustrates fans, but it fascinates economists. It's been a favorite topic of ours in the past. This time, Darian turns to friends and experts to navigate the world of concert tickets like an economist who is also a ...
12.08.2021 Is a Stradivarius just a violin? (Classic) Many music aficionados will tell you that violins and violas made by legendary craftsman Antonio Stradivari represent the pinnacle of the instruments. But what if it's all just an example of really good branding? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter ...
12.04.2021 Consider the lobstermen A tense conflict between Indigenous fishermen and commercial lobstermen flared up in Nova Scotia in the fall of 2020. Today, how it all got started and how the Canadian government added fuel to the fire. \| Subscribe to our weekly ...
12.02.2021 A locked door, a secret meeting and the birth of the Fed (Classic) The story of the back-room dealings that created America's central bank. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
11.26.2021 Day of the Debt We make a loan to the U.S. government, and it does not go the way we thought it would. Plus: the story of that one time the U.S. defaulted. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
11.25.2021 You asked for real raises, free shipping, and a special delivery It's listener question time. We've got answers about "free" shipping, full employment, when a raise isn't a raise, Taylor Swift, crypto seizures and our very own Micro-Face comic. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
11.20.2021 A trunk full of truffles (Update) Truffles are one of the most expensive and sought after ingredients in the world. Today, we look back at our NYC adventure with a truffle smuggler and how the market has changed since we last talked to him. \| Subscribe ...
11.17.2021 Of boats and boxes We take a trip to ports on the east and west coasts to ask what's on everyone's mind: why are they so clogged? And how can we fix it? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
11.12.2021 Auction fever (Classic) Today, we go on a Planet Money roadtrip to learn the secrets of the auction world. We find some amazing bargains, some shady strategies and a giant big digger. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
11.11.2021 Planes, trains and bad bridges The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill has passed Congress, but what exactly is in it? Today, the important, surprising, delightful line items. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
11.05.2021 Moonshot in the arm COVID-19 prompted the quickest vaccine development in history. An inside look at how the government and pharmaceutical companies joined forces to make it happen.
11.03.2021 The Wheat Whisperer Southeast Asia is one of the biggest growth markets for American wheat. Where did this taste for wheat come from and who is responsible?
10.29.2021 Night of the living inflation We look at a hidden form of inflation affecting our economy — we're calling it "skimpflation." The Indicator tells a spooky tale about the inflation demon. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
10.28.2021 Nice work week, if you can get it The 40 hour work week has been the standard for 80 years. What will it take to lower that? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
10.22.2021 Two indicators: Congressional Game Theory and the Debt Ceiling We bring you two stories from The Indicator on the recent battles being fought in Congress. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
10.21.2021 Burnout (Classic) All types of companies are struggling with burnout. Many try to fix it. Most of them fail. One exception: A 26-year-old call center manager, with stress balls and costumes in her arsenal. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
10.18.2021 Bonus: Janet Jackson's 'Control' On the 35th anniversary of Janet Jackson's first No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hit, our friends at It's Been A Minute look back at Control, her career-defining album that changed the trajectory of pop music in the late '80s and ...
10.15.2021 Hire power Noncompete agreements have become an integral part of job contracts. A show about what they are and how we got here. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
10.13.2021 How Do You Feel? (Classic) We tend to think of economists as cold, unfeeling, attempting to be as rational as possible. But once a month, economists pick up the phone to just... check in with us. How are we feeling? Good, bad, worse than a ...
10.09.2021 LIBOR pains For decades, banks used one rate to help set all other rates: LIBOR. After it came out that it'd been rigged, regulators said: no more. Now it's a race — and a road trip — to find an alternative. \| ...
10.06.2021 We set up an offshore company in a tax haven (Classic) The Pandora Papers released this week reveal how many world leaders allegedly hold wealth through the use of shell companies. We listen back to when we set up our very own Planet Money shell companies.
10.02.2021 The Rent Help Is Too Damn Slow Congress created a massive pile of money to help people pay rent during the pandemic. Why have so few people gotten help? We follow the money. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
09.29.2021 When The U.S. Paid Off The Entire National Debt (Classic) There was one time the U.S. federal government stopped borrowing and paid off every penny of national debt. It did not end well. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
09.24.2021 When Luddites Attack (Classic) A couple centuries ago, a group of English clothworkers set out to destroy the machines that had been taking their jobs. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
09.23.2021 Original Sign A request for dozens of stop signs flummoxes a town and angers a resident. A show about infrastructure, decision making and stop signs. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
09.18.2021 Two Indicators: Women And Work Women start a lot of businesses, but when it comes time for them to grow, many hit a wall, or the women founders end up losing control. Why? We bring you two indicators on women and work from our daily ...
09.15.2021 Afghanistan's Money Problem Afghanistan's economy changed — almost overnight — after the Taliban retook control of the country \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
09.10.2021 Flood Money (Classic) Bill Pennington's house floods a lot: Three times over the course of three years. And every time his house floods, the government pays to help him repair the damage. Is something wrong here? \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
09.09.2021 Do You Want To Live In A Bounty Economy? The Texas abortion law includes an unusual provision: a financial incentive to report others. On today's show, we look into another time in U.S. history where the government tried bounties.
09.09.2021 A Quest To Support Women-Led Businesses A reporter frustrated by the gender and race gap in company CEOs sets out to buy products only from companies led or owned by women. Today on the show, what it takes to advance women in business.
09.09.2021 This Is Your Brain On Drug Ads Apologies to listeners who received two episodes in their feed today. The U.S. is one of two countries in the world that allows pharmaceutical companies to advertise prescription drugs directly to consumers. Why? And what does that do to us ...
09.03.2021 Two Indicators: Water Pressure It's another extremely dry, hot summer for the American West. Our daily podcast, The Indicator from Planet Money, brings us two stories about the water shortage in the West with economic ideas that may help. \| Subscribe to our weekly ...
09.02.2021 SUMMER SCHOOL 6: Crypto & Commencement In the last class of Planet Money Summer School Season 2, we cover one more important market — cryptocurrency. If you're thinking about investing in crypto, do you know exactly what it is that you're buying? Or how it should ...
08.27.2021 The Lost Archives of Sadie Alexander The work of our first Black economist was lost to history. The story of what happened when Professor Nina Banks set out on a quest to rediscover it — a tale of economic archeology.
08.25.2021 SUMMER SCHOOL 5: Bubbles, Bikes, & Biases Investing during a bubble can leave you bust. But how to tell the difference between a bubble before it bursts and an investing rocket ship taking off? We'll run through a historical example and look inside our own thinking to ...
08.20.2021 Two Indicators: Will Remote Work Kill The Office? It's Stacey vs Greg in a face off on the future of the office. Each takes a side, armed with studies, historical examples, theories on efficiency and happiness and from their closet studios, they bring their indicators for the future ...
08.18.2021 SUMMER SCHOOL 4: Bonds & Becky With The Good Yield A few years back, Cardiff asked for an unusual Christmas present: a junk bond... Parallel to the stock market, the bond market offers different levels of risk and reward. In this class, what is a bond, how do they differ ...
08.14.2021 Big Little Ideas There are a lot of fancy terms for the things we experience — but are they really useful? Yes! We explain four social-science terms that can help us understand our world. \| Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
08.11.2021 SUMMER SCHOOL 3: Smooth Spending & The 401K Even if you don't own stocks, there are a lot of reasons to care about investing. We meet some of the folks left out of the stock market who deploy sophisticated economic thinking, even creating their own alternate financial systems. ...
08.06.2021 Mobile Home Parked We find out what happens when big investors spend billions of dollars buying mobile home parks and make them less affordable for the people who live there. Then we learn how the government helps them do it, with super low-cost ...
08.04.2021 SUMMER SCHOOL 2: Index Funds & The Bet In 2006, Warren Buffett bet a million dollars that the most brainless, boring investment around would do better than the researched, handpicked investments of some of the smartest hedge fund managers in the world. The second class of Summer School ...

Planet Money

What's Planet Money about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Planet Money episodes:

No such thing as a free return

HBO 2.0

The rest of the story, 2021

The holiday industrial complex (Classic)

The economic indicator of the year

Bell wars (Classic)

Planet Money's Supply Chain Holiday Extravaganza

No shortages of labor stories

We buy a lot of Christmas trees (Classic)

Two music indicators

Is a Stradivarius just a violin? (Classic)

Consider the lobstermen

A locked door, a secret meeting and the birth of the Fed (Classic)

Day of the Debt

You asked for real raises, free shipping, and a special delivery

A trunk full of truffles (Update)

Of boats and boxes

Auction fever (Classic)

Planes, trains and bad bridges

Moonshot in the arm

The Wheat Whisperer

Night of the living inflation

Nice work week, if you can get it

Two indicators: Congressional Game Theory and the Debt Ceiling

Burnout (Classic)

Bonus: Janet Jackson's 'Control'

Hire power

How Do You Feel? (Classic)

LIBOR pains

We set up an offshore company in a tax haven (Classic)

The Rent Help Is Too Damn Slow

When The U.S. Paid Off The Entire National Debt (Classic)

When Luddites Attack (Classic)

Original Sign

Two Indicators: Women And Work

Afghanistan's Money Problem

Flood Money (Classic)

Do You Want To Live In A Bounty Economy?

A Quest To Support Women-Led Businesses

This Is Your Brain On Drug Ads

Two Indicators: Water Pressure

SUMMER SCHOOL 6: Crypto & Commencement

The Lost Archives of Sadie Alexander

SUMMER SCHOOL 5: Bubbles, Bikes, & Biases

Two Indicators: Will Remote Work Kill The Office?

SUMMER SCHOOL 4: Bonds & Becky With The Good Yield

Big Little Ideas

SUMMER SCHOOL 3: Smooth Spending & The 401K

Mobile Home Parked

SUMMER SCHOOL 2: Index Funds & The Bet

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