The Carriage Tax (Update) (Note: A version of this episode originally ran in 2019.) In 1794, George Washington decided to raise money for the federal government by […]

The Vapes of Wrath 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 […]

Why is everyone talking about Musk’s money? We’ve lived amongst Elon Musk headlines for so long now that it’s easy to forget just how much he sounds like a sci […]

What’s with all the tiny soda cans? And other grocery store mysteries, solved. There’s a behind the scenes industry that helps big brands decide questions like: How b […]

Bringing a tariff to a graphite fight Graphite is sort of the one-hit wonder of minerals. And that hit? Pencils. Everyone loves to talk about pencils when it comes […]

How much national debt is too much? 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 history of light (classic) 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. […]

How the FBI’s fake cell phone company put criminals into real jail cells There is a constant arms race between law enforcement and criminals, especially when it […]

So you’ve been scammed, now what? 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 […]

The junkyard economist 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 d […]

Anatomy of a layoff 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, […]

The hack that almost broke the internet Last month, the world narrowly avoided a cyberattack of stunning ambition. The targets were some of the most important […]

Why Gold? (Classic) 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 l […]

Zombie mortgages are coming back to life Karen McDonough of Quincy, Mass., was enjoying her tea one morning in the dining room when she saw something odd outside […]

Inside video game economics (Two Indicators) Why do video game workers offer labor at a discount? How can you design a video game for blind and sighted players? Does […]

The birth of the modern consumer movement Today on the show, the story of the modern consumer movement in the U.S. and the person who inspired it: Ralph Nader. How […]

Hire Power (Update) (Note: This episode originally ran in 2021.) Millions of American workers in all sorts of industries have signed some form of noncompete […]

The case of the stolen masks About thirty years ago, Yagya Kumar Pradhan woke up to the news that the temple he and his clan used had been broken into. The temple […]

How unions are stopped before they start (Update) (Note: This episode originally ran in 2023.) Union membership in the U.S. has been declining for decades. But, in […]

FTX and the Serengeti of bankruptcy For the last year and a half, the story of FTX has focused largely on the crimes and punishment of Sam Bankman-Fried. But in […]