Podcast Episodes

Why can’t we just turn the empty offices into apartments? (classic)

A re-air from August 2023:

Our quest for the answer to this one sends us over a hundred years into the past. We learn about the invisible rules and fi…

11 months, 3 weeks ago

What are teenagers actually seeing on their phones?

A group of teenagers agrees to allow a filmmaker to record the things they do on their phones for a year-long experiment. To see the world they see t…

1 year ago

The Russian Cake Switcheroo

A beloved American rock band’s Spotify page appears to have been taken over by Russian rappers. Is this a scam? A mistake? A strange third act from s…

1 year ago

Planet Money: The Memecoin Casino

Reporter Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi has the story of an unusual website you’ve likely never heard of. A website that has been responsible for rapidly makin…

1 year ago

Viruses in the Air

In the 1930s, two scientists made a very important discovery, but their breakthrough idea failed to spread. In large part because the two were consid…

1 year ago

The Puzzle of the All-American BBQ Scrubber

Why it’s so difficult to manufacture something entirely in America, and what happens if you try anyway.

The Smarter Scrubber Grill Brush

Destin Sandlin…

1 year ago

DOGE and the Mystery of the State Department Teslas

There’s a new president of America, and he’s doing a lot of things. How do you decide what to pay attention to? A story about reporters focusing on o…

1 year, 1 month ago

Does anyone actually like their job? (classic)

... Or, am I being lied to by a Brooklyn-based musician? At twenty-five, I had a question for The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn. This week, I finally got …

1 year, 1 month ago

Can you cure picky eating?

An adult picky eater, ostracized by his friends, castigated by society, asks the most human question of all: can I change? Our friends Manny, Noah, a…

1 year, 1 month ago

What should we do about teens using AI to do their homework?

A teenager explains why he shouldn’t have to write homework essays anymore. Is there some way for adults to force teens to still do homework? Or to c…

1 year, 1 month ago