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421 episodes transcribedPlanet Money Summer School is back for eight weeks. Join as we travel back in time to find the origins of our economic way of life. Today we ask surpr...
We often hear that air travel is worse than it's ever been. Gone are the days when airplanes touted piano bars and meat carving stations — or even fre...
At the core of most of the electronics we use today are some very tiny, very powerful chips. Semiconductor chips. And they are mighty: they help power...
We wade into the heated debate over immigrants' impact on the labor market. When the number of workers in a city increases, does that take away jobs f...
(Note: A version of this episode originally ran in 2019.)In 1794, George Washington decided to raise money for the federal government by taxing the ri...
When the vape brand Juul first hit the market back in 2015, e-cigarettes were in a kind of regulatory limbo. At the time, the rules that governed toba...
There's a behind the scenes industry that helps big brands decide questions like: How big should a bag of chips be? What's the right size for a bottle...
Graphite is sort of the one-hit wonder of minerals. And that hit? Pencils. Everyone loves to talk about pencils when it comes to graphite. If graphite...
Most economic textbooks will tell you that there can be real dangers in running up a big national debt. A major concern is how the debt you add now co...
For thousands of years, getting light was a huge hassle. You had to make candles from scratch. This is not as romantic as it sounds. You had to get a...
There is a constant arms race between law enforcement and criminals, especially when it comes to technology. For years, law enforcement has been frust...
We are living in a kind of golden age for online fraudsters. As the number of apps and services for storing and sending money has exploded – so too ha...
On today's episode, we ride through the streets of San Francisco with a long-time junkman, Jon Rolston. Jon has spent the last two decades clearing ou...
By one estimate, 40 percent of American workers get laid off at least once in their careers. And when that happens, companies will often say, "It's no...
Last month, the world narrowly avoided a cyberattack of stunning ambition. The targets were some of the most important computers on the planet. Comput...
In the past few months, the price of gold has gone way up – even hitting a new high last month at just over $2,400 per troy ounce. Gold has long had a...
Karen MacDonough of Quincy, Mass., was enjoying her tea one morning in the dining room when she sees something odd outside of her window: A group of p...
Why do video game workers offer labor at a discount? How can you design a video game for blind and sighted players? Does that design have lessons for...
Today on the show, the story of the modern consumer movement in the U.S. and the person who inspired it: Ralph Nader. How Ralph Nader's battle in the...
(Note: This episode originally ran in 2021.)Millions of American workers in all sorts of industries have signed some form of noncompete agreement. The...
