Separating hope from hype can feel especially daunting when you look at ETF investing through an ESG (environmental, social, and governance) lens. One reason is that, while ESG draws a lot of media attention, the category itself has only drawn about $7 billion despite dozens of products and new launches. Is apathy or subjectivity the bigger culprit here? Or are investors simply befuddled by yet another acronym?

This week, Joel and Eric explore ESG investing, why it matters and how to practically apply it to a portfolio using an ETF. They are joined by ESG advisor and expert Graham Sinclair as well as Matt Bartolini of SPDR, who's helped bring several ESG ETFs to market.

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Now that pretty much everything has been ETF-ized here on Planet Earth, issuers are looking beyond this world into the final frontier: space. While this may sound "out there," analysts expect the industry to grow to over $3 trillion in the next 30 years. But how, exactly, do you invest in space? What do the ETFs hold? And what about aliens? 

On this episode , Bloomberg News reporter Rachel Evans takes a field trip into the world of space exploration for a closer look of the nascent industry and a better understanding of the ETFs offering exposure. She joins Eric and Joel to discuss why capturing profits in space may take a long time.

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On this new show from Bloomberg, hosts Francesca Levy and Rebecca Greenfield navigate the productivity industry by way of their own experiences. In each episode, one of the two becomes a human guinea pig as she tries to solve a specific work-related problem. Using the advice of so-called productivity experts, the duo tackles obstacles like ineffective to-do lists, overflowing inboxes and unruly meetings. Follow along with their attempts, insights and missteps, and maybe find a solution that will work for you.

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Surveys have shown that millennials are adopting ETFs at a higher percentage than any other generation, whereas baby boomers remain the lowest. To conduct their own boomer survey, Eric and Joel interview the two boomer investors they know best on this holiday-edition of Trillions: their dads. The men couldn't be more different in their experiences -- one is the ying to the other's yang -- and yet both provide some profound insights into the minds of self-taught investors. They also discuss their experiences with ETFs (one prefers power tools, the other plain-vanilla products) and share what's informed their investing philosophies over the years.

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Markets no longer look quite so utopic and a new kind of reality seems to be emerging. As investors turn defensive, ETFs that would normally be ignored or rendered useless during the FANG-topia of yesteryears -- short-term debt ETFs, utilities, and low-volatility stocks -- are seeing massive inflows and staging a comeback.

Joel and Eric are joined by Carolina Wilson of Bloomberg News and Tom Psarafagis of Bloomberg Intelligence to discuss these market "regime changes" and which ETFs are seeing the most action. 

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There’s been roughly 10 billion individual ETF trades in the past 25 years with almost no issues. This McDonald’s-esque track record of happy customers is one of the reasons ETFs have become so popular. One of the main reasons behind the stellar track record of trading is the important role played by ETF market makers, who provide liquidity for popular ETFs but also lesser traded ones— stepping in to be a buyer or a seller when there are none. 

On this week’s Trillions, Eric and Joel speak with veteran ETF market maker Chris Hempstead of Deutsche Bank as well as Annie Massa of Bloomberg News, who just wrote about the secretive market maker Susquehanna in the latest issue of Bloomberg Markets. The discussion covers ETF mechanics, liquidity, and poker. Yes, poker. 

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What if there were a rolling paper that let you put the entire marijuana industry into a tightly packed joint? There is, and it's called an exchange-traded fund.

While more and more states legalize medical and recreational marijuana in the U.S., the federal government still classifies it as an illegal controlled substance. But that certainly doesn't make it illegal to invest in the industry, and certain publicly traded companies in the sector have seen their valuations soar of late. Most of these companies also happen to be based in Canada, a country that just legalized recreational marijuana last month. 

Bloomberg News reporter Rachel Evans takes a field trip to Toronto for a closer look of the nascent industry and a better understanding of the ETFs investors are using to gain exposure. She also joins Eric and Joel to discuss why investors should proceed cautiously in such a seductive space.

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What’s the most sure-fire way to get a flight upgrade? How can you find the best, secret local restaurants by asking just one question? What's the first thing you should do when you get into a hotel room? On Bloomberg's new podcast Travel Genius, we'll give you those answers—and plenty more—as hosts Nikki Ekstein and Mark Ellwood quiz the world’s most experienced globetrotters for their tried-and-true travel hacks. Listen weekly, and even your work trips will go from a necessary evil to an expert art form. Plus, you'll be padding out your bucket list with dreams of amazing future vacations. 

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Where does a medical cure come from? 100 years ago, it wasn't uncommon for scientists to test medicines by taking a dose themselves. As medical technologies get cheaper and more accessible, patients and DIY tinkerers are trying something similar—and mainstream medicine is racing to catch up. Prognosis explores the leading edge of medical advances, and asks who gets—or should get—access to them. We look at how innovation happens, when it fails, and what it means to the people with a disease trying to feel better, live longer, or avoid death.

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Acronyms are a popular way to shorthand especially promising emerging markets. Take the BRICs: Brazil, Russia, India and China. Or how about MIST: Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey. And here's a new one from Bloomberg Intelligence: Africa's CUTEs, for the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia. These catchy terms tend to make buzz because investors see such vast economic potential in these countries -- but where there's potential, you'll also find risk.

Ahead of Bloomberg's New Economy Forum in Singapore on Nov. 6-7, Joel and Eric take a tour of these potential growth engines with VanEck emerging market analysts Patricia Gonzalez and Ola El-Shawarby. They share how they approach investing in countries such as Brazil, Peru, South Korea, Nigeria, and Egypt and give their thoughts on why active investing can outperform passive. Eric also highlights ETFs that can give investors single-country exposures.

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