Can money buy happiness? People often say that money can’t buy you happiness. Sometimes, if you ask them to tell you more about it, they’ll mention a famous 201 […]

99 Percent Invisible: The White Castle System of Eating Houses Today we have a guest episode from 99 Percent Invisible. It is about White Castle, the burger chain. […]

Rate Expectations The Federal Reserve raised interest rates to get inflation under control. One side effect is that taking out a mortgage to buy a home has gotten […]

Is AI overrated or underrated? Are the promises made by AI boosters all hype, or are we actually under-appreciating the transformative potential of AI? Can […]

Summer camp capitalism Summer camp is a classic rite of passage in the U.S. It’s a place of self-discovery, where kids come to make new friends and take on new c […]

Bingo! (Presidential debate edition) Campaigns can be a jargony slog. And this year, we are seeing a lot of economic terms being thrown around, many of which… a […]

How to fix a housing shortage When Cody Fischer decided to get into real estate development, he had a vision. He wanted to build affordable, energy efficient […]

Summer School 8: Big ideas and life lessons from Marx, Keynes and Smith and more Take the 2024 Planet Money Summer School Quiz here to earn your personalized […]

The trade fraud detective When David Rashid took over US autoparts maker Plews and Edelmann, the company was losing business to its Chinese rival, Qingdao Sunsong. […]

Summer School 7: The Great Depression, the New Deal and how it changed our economy Find all the episodes from this season here. And past seasons here. And follow […]

The hidden world behind your new “banking” app You might have seen ads for online banking services that seem to offer a lot of great stuff — accounts you can open i […]

Summer School 6: China, Taiwan and how nations grow rich Episodes each Wednesday through labor day. Find all the episodes from this season here. And past seasons […]

Will the Olympics break breakdancing? For some sports, picking the winner is simple: It’s the athlete who crosses the finish line first, or the side that scores t […]

Summer School 5: 250 years of trade history in three chapters Episodes each Wednesday through labor day. Find all the episodes from this season here. And past […]

What to do when you’re in a class action Maybe you got a boring slip of paper in the mail. Maybe you got a spammy-looking email promising you money. Surprise! […]

Summer School 4: Banker vs president and the birth of the dollar Episodes each Wednesday through labor day. Find all the episodes from this season here. And past […]

Summer School 3: The first stock and perpetual life Episodes each Wednesday through labor day. Find all the episodes from this season here. And past seasons here. […]

What Kamala Harris’ economic agenda might look like Last weekend we were all thrown for a loop when President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race and […]

The color monopoly In 2022, artist Stuart Semple opened up his laptop to find that all his designs had turned black overnight. All the colors, across files on […]

Summer School 2: The golden ages of labor and looms Who has the power? Workers or bosses? It changes through the ages, though it’s usually the bosses. Today, we l […]