Planet Money

  • How flying got so bad (or did it?)

    We often hear that air travel is worse than it’s ever been. Gone are the days when airplanes touted piano bars and meat carving stations — or even free meals. Instead we’re crammed into tiny…

  • The two companies driving the modern economy

    At the core of most of the electronics we use today are some very tiny, very powerful chips. Semiconductor chips. And they are mighty: they help power our phones, laptops, and cars. They enable advances…

  • Do immigrants really take jobs and lower wages?

    We wade into the heated debate over immigrants’ impact on the labor market. When the number of workers in a city increases, does that take away jobs from the people who already live and work…

  • 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 taxing the rich. He did it by putting a tax on horse-drawn…

  • 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 governed tobacco cigarettes did not explicitly apply to e-cigarettes.…

  • 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-fi character. He runs a space company and wants to colonize mars. He…

  • 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 big should a bag of chips be? What’s the right size for a bottle of shampoo? And yes, also: When should…

  • 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 to graphite. If graphite were to perform a concert, they’d close out the…

  • 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 debt you add now could slow down economic growth in…

  • 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. You had to get a cow, raise the cow, feed…

Let's Evolve Together
Logo