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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 …
1 year, 9 months ago
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 r…
1 year, 9 months ago
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 tob…
1 year, 9 months ago
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 com…
1 year, 9 months ago
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 bottl…
1 year, 10 months ago
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 graphit…
1 year, 10 months ago
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 c…
1 year, 10 months ago
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…
1 year, 10 months ago
How the FBI's fake cell phone company put criminals into real jail cells
There is a constant arms race between law enforcement and criminals, especially when it comes to technology. For years, law enforcement has been frus…
1 year, 10 months ago
So you've been scammed, now what?
We are living in a kind of golden age for online fraudsters. As the number of apps and services for storing and sending money has exploded – so too h…
1 year, 10 months ago