Planet Money transcripts.
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Wanna see a trick? Give us any topic and we can tie it back to the economy. At Planet Money, we explore the forces that shape our lives and bring you along for the ride. Don't just understand the economy – understand the world. Support public media by joining NPR+ at plus.npr.org. You’ll get perks for over 25 NPR podcasts, including bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Planet Money.

• 2026-10-02 Where all those weird new drinks are coming from It's getting pretty wild in the beverage aisle these days — from the rainbow wall of seltzers, to the increasingly strange flavors of Pepsi, to the new "functional" sodas with added fiber or supplements that supposedly offer health benefits. Where are all these new drinks coming Transcript →
• 2026-09-30 Who’s gonna pay for your Social Security? Very soon, Social Security may not have enough money to make full payments to retirees. Very soon. Like by 2032, just six years from now. So what are we gonna do about it? Today on the show, we look at some of the most talked about possible solutions; and exactly whose wallets we Transcript →
• 2026-09-28 The economics of podcasting and NPR+ (NPR+) That's not a typo. This episode for NPR+ supporters is about... NPR+ supporters. Inspired by questions from you (shoutout, r/nprplanetmoney) about our plan to wind down Planet Money+, we're pulling back the curtain on NPR+ and our subscriptions business -- unpacking where your mo Transcript →
• 2026-09-25 Middlegarchs are the new Oligarchs Wanna know who is really in the top 1%? And how they use their influence? It may not be who you think. Look beyond Silicon Valley. Look beyond Wall Street. Look beyond the “oligarchs”. There's a much larger class of wealthy Americans hiding in plain sight. And, often, they got ri Transcript →
• 2026-09-23 Is our national debt finally too much? (update) (Note: A version of this episode originally ran in 2024.) $40,000,000,000,000. Four commas. Thirteen zeroes. It’s an eye-popping, almost infinite-sounding pile of money. And every time the debt passes a big round number, almost everyone asks the same question: How much debt is to Transcript →
• 2026-09-18 The Domino’s Pizza Tracker Theory of Everything Did a pizza restaurant’s humble status page change how we wait forever? When you order a Lyft or Uber, you get texts every few minutes about your car approaching and arriving. When you have a package coming, you get a notification when it’s shipped, when it’s en route, and when i Transcript →
• 2026-09-16 How investing is getting riskier (Two Indicators) Margin borrowing and sports gambling “investments” are both on the rise! Today on the show, two stories from Planet Money’s daily podcast The Indicator about the ways investing is changing, and getting riskier. According to one study, more than half of Gen Zers are using investme Transcript →
• 2026-09-11 The loan at the heart of a new foreclosure crisis There is a new type of loan that is sweeping through the country right now. It’s advertised as a super quick and super easy way to get a mortgage to buy a home. In recent years, Wall Street has been funneling billions of dollars into these loans. But these loans are also raising Transcript →
• 2026-09-09 Cost-cutting, quiet guilt and the inflation generation In this economy it is boom times and doom times all at once. The statistics aren’t really capturing it. K-shaped only goes so far as a metaphor. So … we asked you to help. And you delivered! One one hand, the stock market is on a prolonged, upward trajectory. Unemployment is low Transcript →
• 2026-09-05 Trump drinks Venezuela’s milkshake One week ago, President Trump announced a deal that would give the “U.S. control of more than 65 BILLION BARRELS of proven Oil Reserves in Venezuela, at no cost to the American Taxpayer.” The exact nature of this deal has been … obscure, to say the least. But today, we wanted to Transcript →
• 2026-09-02 Love in the time of Palantir To a lot of people, Palantir is a mystery — what does the company know, what data do they have, and (if they have it) what do they do with it all? We dig into that mystery and take you to a singles event to see if Big Data is good for Big Dating. That event, deep in the heart of Transcript →
• 2026-08-31 Which fruit or vegetable could be the next big produce superstar? (NPR+) Could bananas be the next big Honeycrisp of the produce aisle? How about avocados? Or even celery?!? In today's bonus episode, we hear more from our interview with Miguel Gomez, a Cornell University economist and professor of food marketing. He spoke with Kenny Malone and Dan Pas Transcript →
• 2026-08-30 Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” the true story behind the anthem (bonus) The brilliance of "9 to 5" is that it is catchy even though it’s also kinda depressing. You will be dancing along. You're enjoying it. And, then when you really listen to the lyrics, you're like, Wait, this is messed up. This is real. This is a problem we need to fix. Like, why d Transcript →
• 2026-08-28 Branded fruit: How produce got “Honeycrisp-ified" The produce aisle is changing. You’ve noticed this, I’m sure. It is now full of superstar fruits and vegetables: The Honeycrisp apple, The Cotton Candy grape, The Cuties mandarin orange. They stand out. They cost more. They have branding and sometimes trademarks and patent-ish ki Transcript →
• 2026-08-26 The continent nobody owns & everyone benefits from (Summer School) This episode is packed with your best economic ideas from around the world and a penguin interview. It all comes together in this final session of Summer School 2026. Pack your parka, we’re headed to Antarctica. First, we’ll travel back in time to the late 1970s when NPR was a sc Transcript →
• 2026-08-21 Who decides what big box sells? Our GAME got us answers There’s a room where the fates of retail products are decided. Will they make it onto the shelves of the big box stores? Usually the rest of us can’t get inside the room where decisions are made – until now! Today on the show, we pitch the Planet Money game, Sell Me a Sasquatch, Transcript →
• 2026-08-19 Getting entrepreneurial in Korea (Summer School) This week’s stop on our world tour - Korea. A country divided into two very different power structures since the end of WWII. Today South Korea is the maker of some of the world’s favorite exports – from Samsung TV’s to BTS. But 75 years ago it was a much different story. How the Transcript →
• 2026-08-14 You bet your life insurance Some of the biggest firms on Wall Street are, at this very moment, waiting for thousands of strangers to die to reap their returns. Because there’s a market for life insurance policies. And it’s legal. You don’t have to actually die to get some of your life insurance money. Thank Transcript →
• 2026-08-12 Currency Chaos in Argentina (Summer School) Just about everyone in Argentina is an expert in inflation and whether they like it or not, economic flexibility. Can we learn from them? Over the years, we at Planet Money have checked in on Argentina as it tried to recover from economic collapse in Transcript →
• 2026-08-07 Older workers aren’t retiring. Should they be forced to? When workers past retirement age can’t afford to retire — that’s one thing. When they can, and just don’t want to — that’s trickier. It used to be legal to force people to retire when they hit a certain age. The trend used to be earlier and earlier retirement. Now it’s later and Transcript →