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All Episodes

The Indicator from Planet Money — 363 episodes

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Title
1

Petty! Econ! Grievances!

2

Three beefs: U.S. and Brazil, Taco Bell and liability, Waymo and trial lawyers

3

Can Paramount "gift" its way past the FCC?

4

Can Y’all Street outflank Wall Street?

5

Tale of Two Cities

6

Why doesn't the US have better sunscreen?

7

New NPR Series: "We Keep Us Safe" from the Embedded podcast

8

The Strait of Hormuz no-fee, China cuts down on pollution and IMAX's economic Odyssey

9

Why the Pope wants to disarm AI

10

Why your neighbor might be paying less for their car

11

Can the internet survive AI summaries?

12

Young people aren’t paying their car loans. We can help.

13

SK Hynix to the moon, Gen-Z to their rooms, and Connecticut tax reform looms

14

Why Google fell behind in the AI race

15

Cracking down on egg prices

16

We're in a renter's market (believe it or not)

17

Why the US is losing the drone war

18

Obama's new Presidential Center and his tricky relationship with the South Side

19

Does the new Fed chair care about jobs?

20

Why Trump wants to rip up his own trade deal

21

What Iran teaches us about why wars start

22

What you should know about your student loans

23

GLP-1 and women, the AI office boom, and RTO: CEO ego?

24

AI is pumping out books. Are they any good?

25

How stock options made him an overnight millionaire

26

Why the $250 bill would be good … For criminals!

27

An urban planner, infinite scroll, and … what is a public good?

28

How your phone keeps you scrolling ... even when you want to stop

29

Are we in a new era of permanently higher prices?

30

Is gambling the reason we have pro sports?

31

Your American Dream is pending review

32

Community colleges are kind of underrated

33

Inflation is bad, work from home sad, FIFA World Cup tix NOT deal to be had

34

The SpaceX IPO drama explained

35

Should we tax AI?

36

U OK, UK?

37

The fired labor economist who couldn't get unemployment

38

Who should new grads boo more? AI or remote work?

39

Equinomics, bag fees, and leftover campaign dollars

40

Can the internet be reclaimed from Big Tech?

41

Why boardinghouses could make a comeback

42

How AI is clogging the courtroom

43

Obsession, the most fun job in China, and a new green card policy

44

Saudi’s LIV golf exit is just the start

45

What the movies teach us about recessions, memestocks and gold

46

Who’s behind that shell company? We may never know

47

Game of 'roids, trader Trump, and searching for Shakira's tax residence

48

So ... how long until these oil prices get REALLY bad

49

It's come to this: Human certification in the age of AI slop

50

Why GLP-1s aren't lowering employers' costs

51

Taiwan arms sales, Board of Trade, and Chinamaxxing

52

GameStop rejected, a troubling loan trend, and no to pre-IPO AI shares

53

How Trump's central bank beef could hurt the economy

54

Should NATO be pay-to-protect?

55

Prediction markets are threatening national security. Who's gonna fix it?

56

The new AI model that could steal your life savings

57

Which jobs are future-proofed?

58

Trump crypto, Trump ballroom and Trump drones

59

When will the Iran war hit food prices?

60

How your bank account might predict dementia

61

How taxing the wealthy could work

62

Polymarket bots, lithium found: lots!, marathon shoe thoughts

63

The UAE wants a dollar lifeline

64

The new economic arms race

65

Jan. 6ers already got pardoned. Will they get their money back too?

66

Premium and affordable products are having a moment

67

The Devil Wears Prada Index, SNAP, and flight cancellations

68

How to get your tariff cash back

69

The Iran war puts the petrodollar regime to the test

70

Corporate landlords aren't the real villain

71

Is anyone gonna do anything about these Iran War trades?

72

Fed chair, health care, and AI shoe repair

73

Fixing the oil crisis might not fix the Persian Gulf

74

Think the oil shock is bad in the US? Look here

75

How the workplace helps you win Survivor

76

Can you really do what you love?

77

Class myths, an influx of e-ships, and pricey Olympics tix!

78

Where AI data centers are reducing power bills

79

How are drivers riding out the gas crisis?

80

Why infinite scroll's inventor wants to kill his creation

81

Is the economy red, orange, yellow or green?

82

Jobs that new college grads are and are not landing

83

Greetings from: Our favorite public goods

84

Why Pokémon cards are growing faster than your retirement account

85

Who's afraid of private credit?

86

Do school lunches really need an overhaul?

87

The US loses tech hires, sayonora to Sora, and Afroman's win

88

Tracing the tax that's supposed to fund TSA

89

Your next flight doesn't have to be so expensive. Here's why

90

Why hasn't the Russian economy collapsed?

91

The multimillion dollar Saturday Night Live UK gamble

92

Trump and truckers, Poland prospers, and a booming ant biz

93

How Iran is wasting American resources

94

How much is the Iran war costing us?

95

A trucker, a farmer, and an entrepreneur walk into a global supply shock

96

Can anything save the news biz?

97

A lot of gas trapped, oil reserves tapped, and Live Nation gets a (tiny) cap

98

Should colleges accept money from bad people?

99

The shadowy world of merchant cash advances

100

Will Trump’s shipping insurance plan work?

101

No healthcare premiums? In this economy?! Here's how.

102

Why are fewer Americans working the night shift?

103

Want a 2.5% mortgage? Buy it.

104

The anxiety rattling China’s youth

105

Why Paramount went looney tunes for Warner Bros.

106

Should the families of organ donors be compensated?

107

ICE is bad for business, heat is bad for coffee, and sci-fi is bad for markets

108

How your favorite fish sticks might be funding Russia's war

109

What an Epstein recording reveals about how elites get jobs

110

Do traders who place big bets make big money?

111

Why there are roving rotisserie chicken mobs

112

Can I get my tariff money back now?

113

Retirement luck, Hassett hassles the Fed, and boneless chicken in ... court?

114

Why this rural town wants an ICE facility

115

How well are ICE's 12,000 new officers being trained?

116

How Iran's flagging economy inflamed its protests

117

Jobs numbers, immigrants in healthcare, and ... Jesus Christ?

118

What it costs to be an elite figure skater like the 'Quad God'

119

What is going on with gold and silver?

120

The boxed meal helping Americans stay on budget

121

Are we in an economic 'doom loop'?

122

Just how bad are these job numbers?

123

How college sports juiced Olympic development

124

Warming your house the green way just got more expensive

125

All these data centers are gonna fry my electric bill … right?

126

America's next top Fed Chair

127

A huge EU-India deal, Heated Rivalry, and a hefty $200k to Olympians

128

Hawaii’s worker shortage goes NUTS

129

Why isn’t corporate America standing up to Trump?

130

Can Europe sell America?

131

How Pakistan is revving up a fight against tax dodgers

132

Davos drama, credit card caps and tariff truths

133

How beef climbed to the top of the food pyramid

134

Is Greenland really an untapped land of riches?

135

Are U.S. defense contractors lavishing their investors too much?

136

ICE influencers, a world-record trade surplus, and the moon goes nuclear

137

Why Trump resurrected the Monroe Doctrine

138

Can a good story change economic reality?

139

One Fed battle after another

140

How far can philanthropy go to fill government gaps?

141

How AI is shrinking the job market for teens

142

Venezuela didn't steal U.S. oil. Here's what happened

143

Can you trust you're getting the same grocery prices as someone else?

144

How cocaine smuggling through Latin America really works

145

Why China pulled the plug on Japan

146

Venezuela’s economic descent (Updated)

147

We resolve to watch these 2026 indicators

148

Why Americans don't want to move for jobs anymore (Encore)

149

Gilded Age 2.0? (Encore)

150

The cautionary tale of a recovering day trading addict (Encore)

151

The economic challenges facing men without college degrees

152

The secret to Nintendo's success (Encore)

153

Why every A-lister also has a side hustle (Encore)

154

The worst year of Warren Buffett’s career

155

The spite acquisition that launched Warren Buffett

156

Tariffs. Consumer sentiment. Cape Ratio. Pick The Indicator of The Year!

157

Catching up with a fired federal worker, a shrimper and a fraudster

158

The ghosts of Obamacare past, present and future

159

Will new loan limits lower the cost of grad school?

160

Can American cities grow AND stay affordable?

161

Nvidia chips for China, frozen Russian funds, and a lot of self-checkout stealing

162

How to make $35 trillion ... disappear

163

Bitcoin miners are betting on AI over crypto

164

How a former Fed vice chair would approach rate cuts

165

Take a penny, leave a penny, get rid of the penny

166

Chips up, rent down, and are people really skimping on holiday gifts?

167

A little doomsday feeling is weighing on the economy

168

How Japan’s new prime minister is jolting markets

169

What would it mean to actually refund the tariffs?

170

Why the US chose not to have a passenger train system like Europe

171

Moochers, monopolists and market-based poverty help

172

Who's financing Meta's massive AI data center?

173

Who’s buying all the beef?

174

Pay transparency. The WhatsApp and Instagram decision. Our beef with screwworms.

175

How to avoid scammers after a natural disaster

176

Looking for love in the auto supply chain

177

How to make switching jobs not terrifying

178

Why you overpaid at that online auction

179

50-year mortgages, falling real wages, and doing your rideshare due diligence

180

Where the US got $20B to bail out Argentina

181

Trump's backup options for tariffs

182

Who is the World Cup for anymore?

183

How the French pensions débâcle is a warning to us all

184

Can air traffic controllers keep calm and carry on — without pay?

185

This indicator hasn’t flashed this red since the dot-com bubble

186

Who's propping up Russian oil?

187

How Apple's market power blocked ICEBlock

188

When AI is your job interviewer

189

A school cellphone ban study, white collar jobs wither, and spooky candy prices

190

Are China and India BFFs now?

191

Is Obamacare doomed without extended subsidies?

192

How Marxism went from philosophy to cudgel

193

The new language of AI tech workers

194

Amazon's outage, anxious retirees, and LA brings the Heat, too

195

Are concert tickets UNDER priced?

196

No AI data centers in my backyard!

197

Should we ditch quarterly earnings reports?

198

Why are veterinarian bills getting so ruff on the wallet?

199

Government shutdown fallout, price floors, and AI slop against the machine

200

OpenAI's deals are looking a little frothy

201

Inside the growing industry to defend schools from mass shootings

202

Why do we live in unusually innovative times?

203

Scam compounds, sewing patterns and stolen dimes

204

How AI might mess with financial markets

205

When cartels start to diversify

206

What’s supercharging data breaches?

207

Fighting AI with AI

208

Vice Series: The evolving business of crime

209

Why Americans don't want to move for jobs anymore

210

How close is the US to crony capitalism?

211

Why is everyone buying gold?

212

We're about to lose a lot of foreign STEM workers

213

What media consolidation means for free speech

214

Argentina's bailout, a new way to cool data centers, and a cold holiday hiring season

215

No, your doctor isn't getting rich off of vaccines

216

Why are so many public schools closing?

217

Should 'surveillance pricing' be banned?

218

Can LA host a 'car-free' Olympics?

219

The Fed cuts rates, America's FICO dips, and forever ends for sweepstakes winners

220

Why "free" public education doesn't always include school supplies

221

The crypto market is hot. But is it an illusion?

222

Why an aggressive rate cut could backfire on Trump

223

Why beef prices are so high

224

ICE raids, cooling on capitalism, and a Murdoch settlement

225

We read your mail on AI-proof jobs and how to fix crime labs

226

Can shareholders influence Elon Musk's trillion dollar pay package?

227

The cost of saving a species

228

Teamwork actually does make the dream work

229

Why moms are leaving their paid jobs

230

How much is AI actually affecting the workforce?

231

So long, farewell, super cheap tariff-free shopping

232

Inside the illegal vape boom

233

AI creeps in, KATSEYE milkshakes, and China says “Zaijian!” to US soybeans

234

What olive oil tells us about Trump's tariffs

235

Trump's unprecedented attack on the Fed

236

Three ways companies are getting around tariffs

237

Can you copyright artwork made using AI?

238

Job retraining and the brain, DC dining, and Robinhood's sports bet

239

What happens when railroads get hitched

240

Cobalt-free batteries reign in Chinese EVs. Why not the US?

241

How algorithms are changing the way we speak

242

Three innovations pushing the medical field forward

243

The nepo baby premium, frothing markets, and Apple vs. Apples

244

Why every A-lister also has a side hustle

245

Why Trump's spending bill could close your grocery store

246

The arduous system for getting aid into Gaza

247

What we're reading on the beach this summer

248

More for Palantir, less for mRNA, and a disaster database redemption arc

249

The legal case for — and against — Trump's tariffs

250

What you need to know about the jobs report revisions

251

Can we still trust the monthly jobs report? (Update)

252

What really goes on at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (Update)

253

How you're using AI at work

254

Why the Fed could lose $1.5 trillion

255

The risk of private equity in your 401(k)

256

The hottest multilateral club doesn't include the US

257

A baby bonds bonanza

258

Nigeria notches new highs, Magic gathers millions, and crypto climbs

259

How to beach on a budget

260

When Uncle Sam owned banks and factories

261

Lunch with the man who coined TACO

262

Your tinned fish obsession is helping resurrect a lost industry

263

Bonus episode: The Indicator plays... movie business trivia!

264

Congress has voted to eliminate government funding for public media

265

Are you not entertained ... by our movie-related indicators?

266

When is cosplay a crime?

267

The story of China and Hollywood's big-screen romance

268

Why aren't filmmakers shooting in LA?

269

Before La La Land, there was Fort Lee, New Jersey

270

Red tape indicators: sports betting, R&D and click-to-cancel

271

Could Meta do more to protect us from cyber scams?

272

Can you afford to evacuate ahead of a disaster?

273

Will the tax cuts pay for themselves?

274

Why can't we insure trees?

275

One of the cheapest ways to save a life is going away (EXTENDED VERSION)

276

How ICE crackdowns are affecting the workforce

277

Tech layoffs, recession pop and more listener questions answered

278

We're nearing 'peak population.' These economists are worried.

279

Can Starlink stay ahead in satellite internet?

280

Babies v climate change; AI v IP; bonds v world

281

We're gonna need a bigger boat-building industry

282

One of the cheapest ways to save a life is going away

283

Will Iran block the Strait of Hormuz?

284

You told us how tariffs are affecting you

285

SALT-n-pessimism

286

Why the 30-year bond matters

287

Mixing family business with US trade policy in Vietnam

288

The secret to Nintendo's success

289

Trump's parade, FEMA phase out, and Warner Bros. Discovery divorces ... itself?

290

The hidden costs of healthcare churn

291

The secret tariff-free zone

292

What's a revenge tax?

293

How doctors helped tank universal health care

294

Why U.S. workers keep getting more productive

295

Gilded Age 2.0?

296

An indicator lost: big disaster costs

297

Who should get mom's ring?

298

Why Gen Z is feeling 'money dysmorphia'

299

Let's 'TACO' 'bout General Motors gassing up V-8s and golden shares

300

Are Trump's trade deals the real deal?

301

Why are college coaches paid so much?

302

How to build abundantly

303

The dawn of search engines

304

Target, Klarna and Sesame Street's new addy

305

How Trump is making coin from $TRUMP coin

306

The old trade war that brought foreign carmakers to the U.S.

307

The rise of the credit card airport lounge

308

The Art of the deal ft. Beyoncé

309

Brain-controlled iPhones, a Japanese asset buy-a-thon, and Trump tax cut debt

310

Bond market nightmares

311

What we misunderstand about gun violence

312

A brief history of NPR funding

313

It's actually really hard to make a robot, guys

314

Prepping for a rainy day and higher used car prices

315

It's hard out there for a Fed chair

316

Why do shrimpers like tariffs?

317

What do farmers do in a trade war?

318

Trump's cuts come for food banks

319

American science brain drain

320

How much international students matter to the economy

321

How stable is Stablecoin?

322

Is the US pushing countries towards China?

323

When do boycotts work?

324

Student loans are back, US travel is whack, and, AI, please, step back

325

Who's advising Trump on trade?

326

Dealmaker Don v. Tariff Man Trump

327

China's trade war perspective

328

A trap-loving DJ takes on economics

329

Economic lessons learned from Investopedia (and Ferris Bueller)

330

Did Trump enable insider trading?

331

The spat over VAT

332

How much is a weather forecast worth? (Update)

333

IRS information sharing, bonds bust, and a chorebot future

334

What keeps a Fed president up at night

335

What happens when an economist becomes prime minister?

336

What's so bad about a trade deficit?

337

Tariffied! We check in on businesses

338

How states are scooping up federal workers

339

Why the great vinyl shortage is over

340

What $10 billion in data centers actually gets you

341

Should we vote for all judges?

342

Overly Friendly Emails and other marketing pet peeves

343

Missing taxes, spiking copper and Napster's re-re-rebirth

344

How nonprofits get cash from your clunker

345

Can Europe stand without the US?

346

How's ... everybody doing?

347

How specialization can lead to burn-out

348

A new-ish gold rush and other indicators

349

What's this about a crypto reserve?

350

Why there's no referee for the trade war

351

What might save China's economy

352

Why is the federal government still killing coyotes?

353

Southwest surprises, tariff guac shock, and fraud flourishes

354

How many times can you say uncertainty in one economic report?

355

The stock market is down, but you don't need to be

356

Can you take government spending out of GDP?

357

What Bad Bunny teaches us about Puerto Rican tax law

358

Can ... we still trust the monthly jobs report?

359

What to make of the Ukraine minerals deal

360

Is the Panama Canal a rip-off?

361

Can the Federal Reserve stay independent?

362

How tourist destinations recover after terrorism

363

Slender Starbucks, Medicaid at risk, and the gold card visa