Podcast Episodes

After the shutdown, SNAP will still be in trouble

This week’s SNAP crisis is just a preview. Tucked inside the giant tax-cut and spending bill signed by President Donald Trump this summer are enormous cuts to SNAP: Who qualifies, how much they get, …

Published on 11 hours ago

The remittance mystery

For decades, the U.S. has been the single biggest source of remittances worldwide. A remittance is a transfer of money, typically from an immigrant to their family in their country of origin. But we …

Published on 2 days, 11 hours ago

Should the fine have to fit the crime?

The U.S. Constitution famously outlaws “cruel and unusual punishments.” But there's another, far more obscure part of the Constitution called the Excessive Fines Clause, which basically says that the…

Published on 1 week ago

TikTok’s Trojan Horse Strategy

When TikTok videos started to go viral on Instagram and Reddit, TikTok turned to professional sound designers to protect their content.

More and more companies are paying to develop a “sonic identity”…

Published on 1 week, 2 days ago

How Russia’s shadow fleet is sailing around oil sanctions

Bjarne Caesar Skinnerup works as a maritime pilot in the straits of Denmark. That means he’s used to seeing oil tankers. But after the start of the war in Ukraine, the tankers started getting weird. …

Published on 2 weeks ago

The year NYC went broke

In 1975, New York City ran out of money. For a decade it had managed to pay for its hundreds of thousands of city employees and robust social services by taking on billions of dollars in debt. But ev…

Published on 2 weeks, 2 days ago

How the government got hedge funded

The U.S. government spends a ton of money, on everything from Medicare to roads to defense. In fact, it spends way more than it takes in. So…it borrows money, in the bond market. By selling U.S. Trea…

Published on 3 weeks ago

Two ways AI is changing the business of crime (Two Indicators)

Pre-order the Planet Money book here for your free gift. 

Our sister show, The Indicator, is chronicling the evolving business of crime for its Vice Week series. Today, we bring to you two cases of cr…

Published on 3 weeks, 3 days ago

BOARD GAMES 2: Making our prototype

It’s here! It’s free to download and playtest! It’s the Planet Money game! (Download here.)
Download and playtest the game go here Sign up for the 11/1 virtual AMA event and get updates about the game…

Published on 4 weeks ago

BOARD GAMES 1: We're making a game

We want to make a board game. It must, of course, teach the world about economics. It must be fun. It’d be nice if it sold lots of copies! How hard could that be!? (Monopoly and Catan are hugely popu…

Published on 1 month ago