Let's Evolve Together | NPR | Activity

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Fri, 09 Oct 2026 21:07:00 -0700

Should we all be getting tariff refunds right now?Companies are getting billions of dollars back. How about us? It seems simple, right? We paid higher prices for […]

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Wed, 07 Oct 2026 07:00:00 -0700

Charles Ponzi’s scheme (plus a new scam)Charles Ponzi was down on his luck. In 1919, the Italian immigrant had spent a decade and a half in the U.S. He was looking […]

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Fri, 02 Oct 2026 23:14:21 -0700

Where all those weird new drinks are coming fromIt’s getting pretty wild in the beverage aisle these days — from the rainbow wall of seltzers, to the inc […]

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Wed, 30 Sep 2026 14:55:43 -0700

Who’s gonna pay for your Social Security?Very soon, Social Security may not have enough money to make full payments to retirees. Very soon. Like by 2032, just six […]

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Fri, 25 Sep 2026 21:46:44 -0700

Middlegarchs are the new OligarchsWanna know who is really in the top 1%? And how they use their influence? It may not be who you think. Look beyond Silicon […]

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Wed, 23 Sep 2026 07:00:00 -0700

Is our national debt finally too much? (update)(Note: A version of this episode originally ran in 2024.) $40,000,000,000,000. Four commas. Thirteen zeroes. It’s an e […]

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Fri, 18 Sep 2026 20:00:00 -0700

The Domino’s Pizza Tracker Theory of EverythingDid a pizza restaurant’s humble status page change how we wait forever? When you order a Lyft or Uber, you get te […]

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Wed, 16 Sep 2026 07:00:00 -0700

How investing is getting riskier (Two Indicators)Margin borrowing and sports gambling “investments” are both on the rise! Today on the show, two stories from Pla […]

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Fri, 11 Sep 2026 21:00:00 -0700

The loan at the heart of a new foreclosure crisisThere is a new type of loan that is sweeping through the country right now. It’s advertised as a super quick a […]

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Wed, 26 Aug 2026 07:30:00 -0700

The continent nobody owns & everyone benefits from (Summer School)This episode is packed with your best economic ideas from around the world and a penguin interview. […]

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Fri, 21 Aug 2026 21:17:27 -0700

Who decides what big box sells? Our GAME got us answersThere’s a room where the fates of retail products are decided. Will they make it onto the shelves of the b […]

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Wed, 19 Aug 2026 07:30:00 -0700

Getting entrepreneurial in Korea (Summer School)This week’s stop on our world tour – Korea. A country divided into two very different power structures since the end […]

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Fri, 14 Aug 2026 20:56:00 -0700

You bet your life insuranceSome of the biggest firms on Wall Street are, at this very moment, waiting for thousands of strangers to die to reap their returns. […]

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Wed, 12 Aug 2026 07:30:00 -0700

Currency Chaos in Argentina (Summer School)Just about everyone in Argentina is an expert in inflation and whether they like it or not, economic flexibility. Can we […]

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Fri, 07 Aug 2026 20:55:00 -0700

Older workers aren’t retiring. Should they be forced to?When workers past retirement age can’t afford to retire — that’s one thing. When they can, and just don’t […]

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Wed, 05 Aug 2026 07:30:00 -0700

Sand heists and property rights in the Caribbean (Summer School)Imagine a nation where, for the residents, land is for the claiming. You walk down the street, pick […]

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Fri, 31 Jul 2026 21:00:00 -0700

What makes a toy go viralSquishy, slimy, fidgety toys are having a moment. But it’s more than just an anxiety-soothing, social-media fueled trend – these toys are […]

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Wed, 29 Jul 2026 07:30:00 -0700

How to beat the resource curse in Norway (Summer School)Let’s call it the luxury of restraint. This is what enabled Norway to avoid the fate of so many other c […]

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Fri, 24 Jul 2026 20:00:00 -0700

Piles of cash and a town of solutions in Kenya, Nigeria (Summer School)Let’s head to a small town in Kenya that’s become globally famous for helping economists ans […]

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Wed, 22 Jul 2026 23:16:26 -0700

Big Lettuce meets Small IntestineThe cyclospora outbreak that’s sickening thousands of Americans got us interested in the rise of Big Lettuce, and the c […]

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Tue, 21 Jul 2026 21:00:01 -0700

New NPR Series: “We Keep Us Safe” from the Embedded podcastIn the summer of 2020, sixteen-year-old Antonio Mays Jr. traveled a thousand miles to join the racial […]

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Fri, 17 Jul 2026 22:43:18 -0700

Can World Cup mania grow MLS in the U.S.?As the World Cup comes to a close, so does a massive real-time experiment happening just around the edges. Major League […]

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Wed, 15 Jul 2026 07:30:00 -0700

Building things and breaking things in China (Summer School World Tour)China’s turbocharged growth may have made it rich, but now it has to deal with rich country p […]

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Fri, 10 Jul 2026 21:00:00 -0700

Seven allegedly fake Chanel bags vs The RealRealOnce upon a time, if you wanted to buy a luxury brand item secondhand (say, a Chanel handbag) you had to have an […]

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Wed, 08 Jul 2026 07:30:00 -0700

Our mission: Find the world’s best economic ideas (Summer School World Tour)Come along as we travel the world in search of the best economic ideas to bring home! From […]

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Fri, 03 Jul 2026 21:00:00 -0700

How to win a penalty shootout (with game theory)Lionel Messi is arguably the greatest soccer scorer of all time. But when it comes to penalty kicks, Messi is merely […]

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Wed, 01 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0700

Can the Trump administration make college cheaper?Will limiting how much students can borrow force schools to lower their prices? The Department of Education […]

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Fri, 26 Jun 2026 21:30:00 -0700

We almost had a smartphone in the 90s. Why did it fail?In the early 90’s, a company called General Magic began working on a portable device that would allow p […]

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Wed, 24 Jun 2026 00:31:31 -0700

Before Kalshi and Polymarket there was the Iowa Electronic MarketsPrediction markets aren’t new. Election betting was common until the 1940s, then mysteriously f […]

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Fri, 19 Jun 2026 21:30:00 -0700

The real horror of ‘Alien’ and how it explains why we’re not paid enoughMaybe the real monster in the Alien franchise isn’t actually the killer alien. Because b […]

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Wed, 17 Jun 2026 07:00:00 -0700

Can computer hackers get inside your mind?The cyber weapon that might have prevented nuclear war. The U.S. and Israel have long been in conflict with Iran over […]

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Fri, 12 Jun 2026 22:00:00 -0700

It’s my tree. Why can’t I cut it down?Can the government stop you from cutting down your own tree? In many towns and cities these days, removing a tree now requires a […]

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Wed, 10 Jun 2026 07:15:00 -0700

Two indicators for lowering the rentOne specific type of affordable housing used to be popular in American cities, kept rents low, then nearly vanished. Is it […]

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Fri, 05 Jun 2026 21:00:00 -0700

Why is there a supplement craze if they don’t even work?One reason the $70 billion supplement industry is set to double in the next seven years? Lax regulation. On […]

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Wed, 03 Jun 2026 07:00:00 -0700

There’s no business like dough businessHave you ever walked around a street, mall, or airport and noticed two or three of the same franchise restaurant within […]

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Fri, 29 May 2026 19:59:00 -0700

The sneaky way companies get new chemicals into our food99% of chemicals in our food right now were added without FDA approval. Many were added in secret, through […]

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Wed, 27 May 2026 07:00:00 -0700

The leaked tapes that show how the rich avoid taxesTax avoidance — that is, legally reducing your tax bill — is as American as apple pie. But the line between tax […]

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Fri, 22 May 2026 22:25:00 -0700

The giant factory town that might be a giant mistakeHow does a poor country become a rich country? There’s a simple blueprint — or at least, that’s what many […]

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Wed, 20 May 2026 07:00:00 -0700

Vacation and why Americans take so littleDo you work more for more money? Or work less for more time? For some, this is the ultimate economic choice. Every […]

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Fri, 15 May 2026 19:59:43 -0700

Jerome Powell and the Future of Fed IndependenceIf you have a credit card, hope to buy a house, or just want stable grocery prices – let’s talk about the fut […]

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Wed, 13 May 2026 22:03:21 -0700

The secret meeting that launched OPECRecently, a listener wrote in with a question about OPEC and oil prices. She was prepping for a camping trip… thinking a […]

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Sat, 09 May 2026 02:26:37 -0700

Diary of a WNBA negotiatorToday the WNBA season tips off, but Dallas Wings veteran forward Alysha Clark has already won a high-stakes competition. She – and a N […]

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Wed, 06 May 2026 07:00:00 -0700

How we got free agents in baseballCurt Flood was the best center fielder in baseball and one of the game’s highest paid players. He took the St. Louis Cardinals t […]

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Sat, 02 May 2026 00:24:38 -0700

How to make a BOOK into a bestsellerIn the world of commercial publishing, there are few crowning achievements more coveted than a place on the New York Times […]

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Wed, 29 Apr 2026 19:13:51 -0700

Spirit Airlines and the future of cheap flightsIt’s way more than fuel costs that pushed Spirit Airlines to the brink of liquidation and led President Trump to m […]

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Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:00:00 -0700

Battlefield rare earths: How the U.S. lost to ChinaAt one point in history, one U.S. company monopolized the rare earths industry. Then China took over the […]

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Wed, 22 Apr 2026 07:00:00 -0700

Live: Anthropic co-founder on AI and jobsWe talk with Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark and Chief Economist at Redfin Daryl Fairweather about two of the biggest […]

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Sat, 18 Apr 2026 02:00:00 -0700

Do prediction market bettors make anything better?Have you noticed a lot of young people getting into antenna-maxxing as alpha? Or, maybe searching for any bit of […]

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Tue, 14 Apr 2026 23:06:36 -0700

How to get through the Strait of HormuzThe United States has been at war with Iran since February 28th. And for a month and a half, Iran’s main leverage over t […]

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Fri, 10 Apr 2026 23:30:43 -0700

BOOKstore EconomicsHow do bookstores choose the books they stock, and how does that affect what customers read? It may not seem like it, but every shelf in a […]