President Donald Trump has said that Canada should be the 51st state... and Canadians? Well, they're furious about it. The nation's former finance minister is calling Trump the biggest threat Canada has faced since World War 2. So today on the show, we dig into what lessons Canada can teach the US, and how the two North American nations are already deeply intertwined.

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Canada's key resource against Trump's potential trade war (Apple / Spotify)

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The personal story of how an energetic lawyer got knocked off from her dream career and what she thinks that might mean for whether the government can attract talented people in the future.

Related Episodes:
A 'Fork in the Road' for federal employees (Apple / Spotify)
Bailing out the FAIR plan, broligarchs beef, and CFPB RIP? (Apple / Spotify)

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Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.

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We are back to answer YOUR listener questions. This time, we answer why bananas can be considered the 'unbothered fruit', what a flat income tax would actually look like, and how extended-hours stock trading works. If you have your own question about the economy, please email us at [email protected].

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So imPORTant: Bananas, frogs, and... Bob's?? (Apple / Spotify)

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Surprisingly stable chicken meat prices, a lawsuit threat against the Gulf of Mexico's name change, and the Trump administration's false claims about Social Security beyond the grave are all under the microscope on this edition of Indicators of the Week.

Related episodes:
What the cluck is happening with egg prices?
What does the next era of Social Security look like?
The fight for a legendary shipwreck's treasure

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Federal funding from the National Institutes of Health has driven the biomedical research industry in cities across America including Birmingham, Alabama. It's helped support research into life-saving treatments for cancers, strokes and Parkinson's. But, the Trump Administration says the NIH is getting ripped off in how those grants are calculated. We take a look.

Related episodes:
The gutting of USAID (Apple / Spotify)
A 'Fork in the Road' for federal employees (Apple / Spotify)

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The ties between U.S. foreign aid and American agriculture run deep — or at least used to. The U.S. International Agency for Development, or USAID, is the largest provider of humanitarian food aid in the world. Much of that aid comes from U.S. farmers, whose corn, wheat and rice is sold in bulk to the government for USAID's programs. What happens now if those programs end?

Link to Jordan Schermerhorn's research of USAID ties by state.

Related episodes:
The gutting of USAID (Apple / Spotify)
A 'Fork in the Road' for federal employees (Apple / Spotify)
Trump threatens the grim trigger (Apple / Spotify)

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We visit a local egg farm and talk to an industry analyst to get to the bottom of why the prices of eggs are soaring so quickly and when they might come back to earth.

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Go ask ALICE about grocery prices

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It's time for The Indicator Quiz! We test you, dear listener, on your knowledge of topics that we've covered on The Indicator.

Today's quiz is an economic smorgasbord, ranging from the WWE to the silver tsunami.

Play along with us and see how you do!

Are you interested in being a contestant on our next Indicator Quiz? Email us your name and phone number at [email protected] and put "Indicator Quiz" in the subject line.

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Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.

CORRECTION: In this episode we referred to WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) and PCE (Personal consumption expenditures) as acronyms, which is incorrect; they are initialisms, a type of abbreviation that uses the first letters of words in a phrase but, unlike acronyms, is spoken with the individual letters.

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What's going on with the FAIR plan in a post-Eaton and Palisades fires California? What's the backstory to the frozen Consumer Financial Protection Bureau? And why are the two tech bros very publicly going at it?

Indicators of the Week explains!

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How a consumer watchdog's power became a liability

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The United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, has funneled humanitarian aid to countries around the globe for over six decades. Today on the show, people familiar with USAID's work describe the fall-out from the Trump administration's sudden dismantling of the agency, and what that means for the country's longstanding use of foreign aid to advance American national security and economic goals.

Related episodes:
A 'Fork in the Road' for federal employees (Apple / Spotify)
Trump threatens the grim trigger (Apple / Spotify)
Why are some nations richer?

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.


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