Planet Money
Wanna see a trick? Give us any topic and we can tie it back to the economy. At Planet Money, we explore the forces that shape our lives and bring you along for the ride. Don't just understand the economy – understand the world.
Wanna go deeper? Subscribe to Planet Money+ and get sponsor-free episodes of Planet Money, The Indicator, and Planet Money Summer School. Plus access to bonus content. It's a new way to support the show you love. Learn more at plus.npr.org/planetmoney
Title Pirates
The long view of economics and immigration (Two Indicators)
The great German land lottery
The strange way the world's fastest microchips are made
What markets bet President Trump will do
Moving to the American dream? (update)
The veteran loan calamity
So your data was stolen in a data breach
Why do hospitals keep running out of generic drugs?
Romance on the screen and on the page: Two Indicators
The Subscription Trap
We asked 188 economists. And the survey says...
So imPORTant: Bananas, frogs, and... Bob's??
Can cap and trade work in the US?
What's up with all the ads for law firms?
How Venezuela imploded (update)
What's THAT got to do with economics?
Veep-onomics
How to save 10,000 fingers
Can money buy happiness?
99 Percent Invisible: The White Castle System of Eating Houses
Rate Expectations
Is AI overrated or underrated?
Summer camp capitalism
Bingo! (Presidential debate edition)
How to fix a housing shortage
Summer School 8: Big ideas and life lessons from Marx, Keynes and Smith and more
The trade fraud detective
Summer School 7: The Great Depression, the New Deal and how it changed our economy
The hidden world behind your new "banking" app
Summer School 6: China, Taiwan and how nations grow rich
Will the Olympics break breakdancing?
Summer School 5: 250 years of trade history in three chapters
What to do when you're in a class action
Summer School 4: Banker vs president and the birth of the dollar
Summer School 3: The first stock and perpetual life
What Kamala Harris' economic agenda might look like
The color monopoly
Summer School 2: The golden ages of labor and looms
Rooftop solar's dark side
Summer School 1: An Economic History of the World
How flying got so bad (or did it?)
The two companies driving the modern economy
Do immigrants really take jobs and lower wages?
The Carriage Tax (Update)
The Vapes of Wrath
Why is everyone talking about Musk's money?
What's with all the tiny soda cans? And other grocery store mysteries, solved.
Bringing a tariff to a graphite fight
How much national debt is too much?
The history of light (classic)
How the FBI's fake cell phone company put criminals into real jail cells
So you've been scammed, now what?
The junkyard economist
Anatomy of a layoff
The hack that almost broke the internet
Why Gold? (Classic)
Zombie mortgages are coming back to life
Inside video game economics (Two Indicators)
The birth of the modern consumer movement
Hire Power (Update)
The case of the stolen masks
How unions are stopped before they start (Update)
FTX and the Serengeti of bankruptcy
Grocery prices, credit card debt, and your 401K (Two Indicators)
TikTok made me deduct it
How much does this cow weigh? (Classic)
Japan's Lost Decades
The real estate industry on trial
How much of your tax dollars are going to Israel and Ukraine
The trouble with Table 101 (Update)
What is Temu?
How Big Steel in the U.S. fell
The billion dollar war behind U.S. rum
Wind boom, wind bust (Two Windicators)
On the Oscars campaign trail
Is dynamic pricing coming to a supermarket near you?
Shopping for parental benefits around the world
The secret world behind school fundraisers
A controversial idea at the heart of Bidenomics
Two Indicators: Economics of the defense industry
How the Navy came to protect cargo ships
It's giving ... Valentines
A lawsuit for your broken heart
Morally questionable, economically efficient
Groundhog Day 2024: Trademark, bankruptcy, and the dollar that failed
The Chicken Tax (Classic)
Bonus: Janet Yellen on Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!
Rescues at sea, and how to make a fortune
Hear us out: We ban left turns and other big ideas
Econ Battle Zone: Disinflation Confrontation
Mid-East conflict escalation, two indicators
The Maine Potato War of 1976
The Universal Basic Income experiment in Kenya
The case of the serial sinking Spanish ships
The Rest of the Story, 2023
The Indicators of this year and next
We buy a lot of Christmas trees (Update)
Dollarizing Argentina
How to be better at hybrid work, according to research
What econ says in the shadows
Why '90s ads are unforgettable
The U.S. economy's biggest superpower, explained
Why do doctors still use pagers?
Two food and drink indicators
Why are we so bummed about the economy?
So you want to sell marijuana across state lines
A very Planet Money Thanksgiving
Economic fact in literary fiction
China's real estate crisis, explained
The alleged theft at the heart of ChatGPT
Never have I ever
FTC Chair Lina Khan on Antitrust in the age of Amazon
Antitrust in America (classic)
All you can eat economics
Cutting school... by 20%
How unions are stopped before they start
Indicator exploder: jobs and inflation
Maria Bamford gets personal (about) finance
Why the price of Coke didn't change for 70 years (classic)
A man, a plan, wind power, Uruguay
The flight attendants of CHAOS
A trucker hat mystery, the curse of September and other listener questions
The natural disaster economist
A black market, a currency crisis, and a tango competition in Argentina
"Based on a true story"
How to launder $600 million on the internet
China's weakening economy in two Indicators
Is economists' favorite tool to crush inflation broken?
The prince of prints and his prints of Prince
How to fight a patent pirate
Summer School 8: Graduation and the Guppy Tank
The secret entrance that sidesteps Hollywood picket lines
Summer School 7: Negotiating and the empathetic nibble
Vacation, and why the U.S. takes so little of it
Summer School 6: Operations and 25,000 roses
The new Biden plan that could still erase your student loans
Summer School 5: Tech and the innovator's dilemma
A tarot card reading for the U.S. economy
Summer School 4: Marketing and the Ultimate Hose Nozzle
Tackle your medical debt with Life Kit
Did two honesty researchers fabricate their data?
Summer School 3: Accounting and The Last Supper
Planet Money Paper Club
Summer School 2: Competition and the cheaper sneaker
Surprise, you just signed a contract! How hidden contracts took over the internet
Summer School 1: Planet Money goes to business school
The quest to save macroeconomics from itself
Two Indicators: After Affirmative Action & why America overpays for subways
Supply, demand, extinction
Planet Money Live: Two Truths and a Lie
Mike The Mover vs. The Furniture Police
Twins (classic)
The 60-day job race
Two Indicators: The economics of innovation
The town that changed economics
The Spider-Man Problem (update)
AI Podcast 3.0: Dial M for Mechanization
AI Podcast 2.0: The host in the machine
AI Podcast 1.0: Rise of the machines
Green energy gridlock
Predictions: Jobs!
How AI could help rebuild the middle class
Inflation and the Profit-Price Spiral
The Day of Two Noons (Classic)
How to fight a squatting goat
Two Indicators: the influencer industry
Financial advising while Black
The zoo economy (classic)
The quest for the factory-built house
Tax Code Switch
The life and possible death of low interest rates
Two innovation market indicators
Your banking questions, answered
The battle for Puerto Rico's beaches
The safety net for banks
A Great Recession bank takeover
The battle over Osage headrights
Inside a bank run
Planet Money Records Vol. 3: Making a hit
How Silicon Valley Bank failed
Dude, where's my streaming TV show?
The value of good teeth
Seinfeld-onomics
CBOhhhh, that's what they do
Meow Money Meow Problems
Hollywood's Black List (Classic)
Jay & Shai's debt ceiling adventure
Two Indicators: Inside the Fed, then and now
Our 2023 valentines
The ice cream conspiracy
Baby's first market failure
Groundhog Day 2023
To all the econ papers I've loved before
The story of "Monopoly" and American capitalism
Charles Ponzi's scheme
Big Rigged (Classic)
Two Indicators: The 2% inflation target
Planet Money Movie Club: It's a Wonderful Life
The economics lessons in kids' books
The Rest of the Story, 2022
Which economic indicator defined 2022?
In defense of gift giving
Two Indicators: The fight over ESG investing
The sports ticket price enigma
Spam call bounty hunter
The case of the missing cheese racks
When women stopped coding (Classic)
My Favorite Tax Loophole
Messi economics
One economist's take on popular advice for saving, borrowing, and spending
How the cookie became a monster
Sam Bankman-Fried and the fall of a crypto empire
The E-Book Wars
Peak Sand (classic)
Planet Money tries election polling
Two Indicators shaking China's economy
Planet Money Records Vol. 2: The Negotiation
Planet Money Records Vol. 1: Earnest Jackson
The high cost of a strong dollar
The money fixers (classic)
You asked for coupons, Delaware, and the truth about goldfish
Two Indicators: back to school
Forging Taiwan's Silicon Shield
Economic anarchy in the UK
Would you like a side of offshoring with that?
The miracle apple (Classic)
Econ's Brush with the Law
The Midnight Connection
Vibecession Vibes Session
The Good, the Bad, and the Uggly
Two Indicators: unlikely economic relationships
The salvage car Silk Road
Breaking down the price of gasoline
SUMMER SCHOOL 8: Productivity & Getting Lit
Wake up and smell the fraud
SUMMER SCHOOL 7: The Fed & Volcker's Socks
Inflation Reduction Actually
SUMMER SCHOOL 6: Trade & The Better Life
Carried interest wormhole
SUMMER SCHOOL 5: Car Parts, Celery & The Labor Market
A new way to pay for college (Update)
SUMMER SCHOOL 4: Inflation & Drinking Buddies
We Buy a Superhero 8: Micro-Face: The Musical
Two recession Indicators
SUMMER SCHOOL 3: Booms, Busts & Us
Little House on the Blockchain
SUMMER SCHOOL 2: GDP & What Counts
Best by, sell by, use by
SUMMER SCHOOL 1: Recessions & Rap Battles
A tale of two cityhoods
Two crypto crash Indicators
Suitcases, secret lists, and Citizens United
When Subaru came out (Classic)
Recession referees
The tale of the Onion King (Update)
The debate over what's causing inflation
Let them eat lunch
The Gecko Effect
On the case: Recession, formula, and greenbacks
Homer Simpson vs. the economy
The bank war (Classic)
We Buy a Superhero 7: Collectibles (Live Show!)
The NRA's Secret Tapes
Investing in mediocrity
How the burrito became a sandwich (Classic)
Buy now, pay dearly?
A 12-year-old girl takes on the video game industry (UPDATE)
The day Russia adopted the free market
Escheat show (Classic)
Planet Money book club
Risky business
We Buy a Superhero 6: The Comic Book
TikTok to the top
The student loan paaaaauuuuuse
Peanuts and Cracker Jack (Classic)
How manatees got into hot water
Turkey's runaway inflation problem
When bricks were rubles
The Bond King
Fashion Fair's makeover
Two inflation Indicators: Corporate greed and mortgage rates
Tech giants and tiny dogs
Escape from Russia
Grocery delivery wars
The dollar at the center of the world (Classic)
Of oligarchs, oil and rubles
'Fortress' Russia put to the test
Putin's big bet: Sanction-proofing Russia
How bad is inflation?
Predictions: Inflation!
SPAM strikes back
Waste land (Bonus)
Our Valentines 2022
A SWIFT getaway
Uncle Sam wants YOU to fight inflation
The M&M anomaly (Classic)
The Spider-Man Problem
Two indicators: supply chain solutions
'Soul Train' and the business of Black joy
Patent racism (classic)
The rapid testing show
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)
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
Three Reasons for the Housing Shortage
SUMMER SCHOOL 1: The Stock Market & Penelope The Cow
Banque Worms
Video Gaming The System