Planet Money
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Episodes
Today, the story of three inventions. The first, the sewing machine, was created by a selfish and ambitious inventor who wanted all the credit and was willing to fight a war for it.
The second, a more modern invention, was made by an Italian inventor who wanted only to connect the world through video, so “evvvvverybody can talk with evvvvverybody else.”
And, a third in...
The recent protests in Iran are about so many things. Human rights, corruption, freedom. But this time – they are also motivated by economic hardship. Hardship caused, in part, by US sanctions.
The US has been sanctioning Iran in one way or another for 47 years. But sanctions, as a tool, only work some of the time, and US sanctions on Iran have not always conformed to w...
A record number of Americans with poor or just okay credit are behind on their car payments. And once last year’s numbers are tallied, an estimated 3 million cars will have been repossessed in 2025. That would be on par with how bad it got during the Great Recession. What’s going on? And why now?
Today on the show, we focus on the micro part of the story to answ...
Housing is too expensive. Everyone knows this. Democrats know that talking about it plays well with voters. And now – in a midterm election year – President Donald Trump seems to be focused on it, too.
His administration has recently started talking more about affordability. And they’re taking action with two new initiatives that aim to make buying a house easier.
T...
Just as every market has its first movers, every religion has its martyrs — the people willing to risk everything for what they believe. Pastor Dave Hodges just might be a little bit of both. He’s the spiritual leader of the Zide Door Church of Entheogenic Plants, in Oakland, California which places psilocybin mushrooms at the center of their religious practice.
Today on the s...
We have a great game mechanic and a set of rules. Now ...
Today on the show, the story of their intertwined histories. Before Saudi Arabia, before Iran… there was Venezuela, the first petrostate. The first country whos...
David has done a full accounting for what the family has been up to, and even using conservative estima...
On our latest: How do economists detect a bubble? And, how much should society be worried about bubbles in the first place?
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For decades, Joan and George Johnson owned and ran Johnson Products Company, a B...
The original version ran in 2016, with an update in 2024.
Back in 2016, things were pretty bad in Venezuela. Grocery stores didn’t have enough food. Hospitals didn’t have basic suppl...
We will square off in a family feud to make our case, debate, and decide it.
Also, as we enter 2026, we are watching the trends and planning out what next years stories are likely to...
As U.S. trade with China exploded in the early 2000's, American manufacturing began to shrivel. Those workers struggled to adapt and find new jobs. It ran counter to how mainstream economics at the time viewed free trade ... that it would be a clear win for the U.S. Greg Rosalsky talks with David Autor about why economists ...
We call this tradition "The Rest of the Story." And we bring you updates on the stories we've reported, and from the people we've met along the way.
Today, we check in on an engineer and patent attorney who made a safer saw; we get an update on the Planet Mone...
The strategy of releasing an entire season at the same time has been key to taking Netflix from a little startup that used to lend us DVDs in the mail … to a company so big and powerful, it is maybe going to buy Warner Brothers and own Bugs Bunny and Tony...
But along with that growth have come a lot of questions. Like where is all the electricity to run these data centers supposed to c...
It could be a movie related to business or m...
The plan: have p...
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