Big money questions, goofy scenes, straight answers.
Million Bazillion turns kids' money questions into comic scenes, using a merry-go-round to explain inflation and a karaoke night to explain copyright. The jokes come quickly, but the answers stay concrete, right down to how few $2 bills circulate compared with the $1.
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Million Bazillion, hosted by Ryan Perez and Bridget Bodnar, is a Marketplace podcast that takes the money questions kids ask and answers them inside small comic productions. Its titles read like a list of things a curious kid wants to know: 'What is inflation?', 'What is the national debt?', 'Why do we have $2 bills if nobody uses them?'. The answers are not lectures. They are scenes. For inflation, a gentle merry-go-round stands for the healthy kind of price rise, where paychecks grow along with prices, until the ride speeds up and becomes a 'scary go-round'. A time-travel gag drops the characters back in 2022, where everyone is staring at their phones and looking stressed. Copyright, trademark and royalties get a karaoke night and a joke about Disney's lawyers. Under that joke is a clear account of fair use, covering comment, criticism, reporting, teaching and research, with a judge deciding the close calls. The same episode explains why Beethoven's music is no longer under copyright. The national debt starts with a mock warning that the episode is extremely scary, and the real worry turns out to be less about missed payments than about bond buyers losing trust. Stocks bring a visit to Ms. Gilson, whose traders get cranky after their nap, and a reminder that anyone investing first has to decide how much to risk. Bridget wants something safe-ish. The other voice in the scene would rather shoot for the moon. A follow-up, 'How do stocks make money? (Part 2)', turns to a real family. A listener named Joshua, from California, describes investing with his parents' guidance, and his dad, Michael, turns out to be the 'bank of dad', a pretend bank that offered a guaranteed amount of interest at the end of the year. The story treats risk and reward as a choice a kid actually got to make, and the show is firm that investing always needs a trusted adult. The $2 bill episode keeps the numbers concrete, setting more than 14 billion $1 bills against a little under two billion $2 bills and noting that bills above $500 are no longer printed but would still be honored. A lot of the comedy comes from small household chaos: a squabble over used-up crafting supplies, suspenders that will not stay clipped, a character sulking about a party invitation that never came. Listeners are greeted as million bazillionaires, and closing notes speak to the grown-ups, hoping the kids in their lives are having good conversations about money. What comes through is a real answer to a real question, with enough silliness to keep it light.
Made for: Suits a curious kid who keeps asking why prices go up or how stocks make money, and a grown-up who wants a funny, low-pressure way to start money conversations with them.
What sets it apart: Answers come wrapped in scripted comic scenes with characters and gags, yet the specifics underneath are real: fair-use rules, why bond buyers' trust matters, and how many $2 bills are in circulation. A real family's 'bank of dad' experiment sits alongside the sketches.
Million Bazillion is a podcast from Marketplace that inspires families to talk about money. Described as “a godsend for anyone who knows a little kid with big questions about money,” by The New York Times, the podcast tackles questions from: "What is cryptocurrency?" to “How do I save money?” and “How does inflation work?” Hosts Ryan Perez and Bridget Bodnar take listeners on an awesome adventure to answer the awkward, complex, and sometimes surprising money questions from real kids. Million Bazillion is funded in part by the Sy Syms Foundation, partnering with organizations and people working for a better and more just future since 1985. And special thanks to The Ranzetta Family Charitable…
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · August 2026
A Marketplace production that turns kids' real finance questions, like stock trading and national debt, into comic scenes with jokes built in.
Million Bazillion works the money-literacy corner of Kids and Family: a Marketplace production that turns real kids' financial questions into scripted, joke-heavy scenes instead of a straight explainer or a bedtime read.
You want money explained with juice boxes, karaoke law offices, and a Federal Reserve-themed cat birthday party.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A spinning ride helps young listeners understand why rising prices can feel scary when paychecks lag behind.
Million Bazillion turns inflation into something kids can feel: a calm merry-go-round that starts spinning too fast. As the ride gets harder to stay on, the episode ties that uneasy motion to grocery prices rising faster than paychecks, then slows down long enough to explain why…
A karaoke mishap turns copyright, fair use, and trademark into a clear family lesson.
Million Bazillion takes a knotty subject - royalties, copyright, fair use, public domain, and trademark - and gives it a bright karaoke-night frame.
A goofy birthday-party setup makes the rarely used $2 bill feel like a funny, kid-friendly money mystery.
A crafting-supply mishap rolls into a Federal Reserve-themed birthday party, giving a simple money question a bright comic frame: why does the $2 bill still exist if people rarely spend it?
A Halloween bond sale makes government debt feel funny, clear, and tied to trust.
A Halloween bond sale opens a funny path into government borrowing, debt, and the trust behind it. The episode tracks the worry that the U.S. could borrow so much that future bond buyers start to hesitate, less from fear of missed repayment than from concern about the economy or…
A puppy-filled stock-market lesson makes risk and investing feel like a lively family conversation.
Bridget and Ryan turn stocks into a kid-sized question of risk, reward, and just how much uncertainty a person can stomach. The episode moves from Marketplace Headquarters toward New York City and a Manhattan sublet, with a brokerage firm in view and a playful split between…
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Alder from Helena, Montana asks why a dollar today will be worth less in the future, and Bridget Bodnar and Ryan Perez answer with a 1972 time machine, candy-store prices, and a broken merry-go-round metaphor.
Ryan and Bridget open at karaoke night, where Cher and Elton John fail to play because the songs are copyrighted.
A listener from Indianapolis, Indiana asks why the U.S.
Million Bazillion turns a Halloween town hall into a lesson on the U.S.
A listener shares his experience with stock market investing and the 'bank of dad' concept.
Aditya, a nine-year-old from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, asks how the stock market works, and Million Bazillion routes the answer through Marketplace host Kai Risdahl, The Numbers, and the New York Stock Exchange.
The hosts of Million Bazillion introduce a musical greatest hits episode featuring songs about money and finance for kids and families.
A kids' podcast episode explaining the connection between money and climate change, starting with a playful winter scene.
A humorous skit about losing a tooth and meeting an aspiring tooth fairy, unrelated to paying for college.
Bridget and Ryan from Million Bazillionaires interview Yanely Espinel about her podcast Financially Inclined, which teaches teens and preteens practical money skills like opening bank accounts, using credit cards, investing, and getting jobs.
A podcast episode exploring where the money goes when you play a claw machine, featuring a listener question and a fun game of spot the difference.