Keith King was upset when his marriage ended. His wife had cheated, and his family broke apart. And that’s when he learned about a very old type of lawsuit, called a heart balm tort. A…

There are tons of markets that don’t exist because people just don’t want to allow a market – for whatever reason, people feel icky about putting a price on something. For example: Surrogacy is a…

It’s Groundhog Day, and the eyes of the nation have turned to a small town in western Pennsylvania. And, just like last year, all anyone can talk about is Punxsutawney Phil! It is impossible to…

Note: This episode originally ran in 2015. German families in the 60s loved tasty, cheap American-raised chicken that was suddenly coming in after the war. And Americans were loving fun, cheap Volkswagen Beetles. This arrangement…

Our friends at NPR’s news quiz Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! recently had a very Planet Money guest on their show: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. They asked her about smoking pot, her extremely high scores in…

At around 1 a.m. on the morning of November 15, 1994, Captain Prentice “Skip” Strong III woke to a distress call. Skip was the new captain of an oil tanker called the Cherry Valley. He…

On today’s episode, we have three big economic ideas for your consideration – ideas that could potentially improve the economy and make us more efficient. First, what if we ban left turns on roads? Then,…

After very high inflation, the United States is finally feeling some relief in the form of “disinflation.” But, why exactly has inflation slowed down? Three Planet Money hosts try to answer that question while competing…

On today’s show, we look at two indicators of the economic disruptions of the war in Gaza and try to trace how far they will reach. We start in the Red Sea, a crucial link…

When you think of a potato, one state probably comes to mind: Idaho. But for much of American history, Maine was home to the nation’s largest potato crop. That status had changed by the 1970s,…