Planet Money
The world of science has been stuck in an existential crisis over whether we actually know the things we thought we knew. Re-running an old study today doesn’t always yield the same result. Same with re-enacting old experiments. Collectively, this is known as the “replication crisis.”
Economist Abel Brodeur has come up with one way to help fix this crisis: he’s invented an internationally crowdsourced surveillance system, designed to keep social scientists honest. He calls it the “Replication Games.”
Further Listening:
- Fabricated data in research about honesty. You can’t make this stuff up. Or, can you?
- The Experiment Experiment
- How Much Should We Trust Economics?
This episode was hosted by Mary Childs and Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi. It was produced by James Sneed and Emma Peaslee, with help from Willa Rubin. It was edited by Jess Jiang, fact-checked by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler, and engineered by Ko Takasugi-Czernowin. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.
Find more Planet Money: Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.
Listen free at these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.
Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.
To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
-
How Venezuela imploded (update)
(Note: A version of this episode originally ran in 2016.) Back in 2016, things were pretty bad in Venezuela. Grocery stores didn’t have enough food. Hospitals didn’t have basic supplies, like gauze. Child mortality was…
-
What’s THAT got to do with economics?
“Wanna see a trick? Give us any topic and we can tie it back to the economy.” That is the bold promise in Planet Money‘s tagline. And we believe the show does live up to…
-
Veep-onomics
Next week, JD Vance and Tim Walz will face off in the only confirmed vice presidential debate ahead of the election. As voters look ahead to what their economic policies might be, we look back…
-
How to save 10,000 fingers
Table saws are extremely dangerous. The government estimates that injuries from table saws send something like 30,000 people to the emergency room every year. 3,000 of those end in amputations. The costs of those injuries…
-
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 2010 study by Nobel Prize winners Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton.…
-
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. Even if you haven’t visited, you have tasted its influence because, as we will learn in this…
-
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 very expensive. That’s especially a problem for some homeowners…
-
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 artificial intelligence make humans more productive, unlock hidden potential and remake work as we know…
-
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 challenges. But what if it were ALSO a…
-
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… aren’t entirely straightforward. In this episode, we try to make the mess…