The economy, explained through real-world stories.
Planet Money explains the economy by starting with concrete scenes: a bookstore buyer, a stranded oil tanker, a Reese's fan, a blackout in Cuba. The result is business reporting that feels practical, curious, and unusually good at making abstract systems visible.
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Planet Money is economic reporting built around a simple move: start with something specific, then reveal the system underneath it. A Reese's fan in West Palm Beach notices that a candy does not taste right, and the story opens into product formulation, branding expectations, and skimpflation. A bookstore buyer scanning publisher catalogs has only seconds to judge a title, and suddenly the listener is inside the market logic behind what appears on a local shelf. A ship owner trying to move oil through the Strait of Hormuz becomes a way to understand power, risk, cargo screening, and the strange economics of getting through a chokepoint. The show is brisk. It does not linger in jargon when a concrete example will do the work better. Recent episodes also spend time in Cuba, where blackouts, fuel shortages, spotty cell service, and fragile private businesses make economic crisis feel immediate rather than theoretical. Other stories move through private equity, employee ownership, tax complications, and the awkward problem of giving workers a stake in a company without making the promise feel like a trick. The show can be playful, especially when it follows the making of its own book through auctions, deadlines, factories, sales seasons, and bookstore orders. But the playfulness usually has a job. It keeps big machinery from becoming fog. Planet Money is especially good at finding the person who makes a system legible: a bookstore buyer, a hotel manager, a farmer, a publisher, a former Squamish Nation leader, or a candy loyalist with a very specific complaint. Those people are not decoration. They are the doorway. The show suits listeners who want to understand economics without sitting through a lecture or pretending that markets are separate from ordinary life. It is useful for people interested in business, policy, housing, publishing, trade, labor, and consumer behavior. It also works for listeners who like reporting that moves from odd detail to serious stakes. One episode can feel like a workplace story. Another can feel like a geopolitical explainer. Another can begin in a bookstore and end in the global supply chain. Across those shifts, the promise stays consistent: the economy is not somewhere else. It is in the candy bag, the apartment tower, the manuscript deadline, the oil tanker, and the shopkeeper deciding what deserves one copy on the shelf.
Made for: For curious listeners who want business, markets, policy, and global trade explained through scenes, people, and practical stakes. It fits anyone who likes sharp reporting without academic fog.
What sets it apart: Planet Money turns abstract economic mechanisms into vivid, reported stories with clear cause and effect. Its edge is the mix of narrative craft, plain language, and subjects that range from candy ingredients to oil shipping lanes.
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.Wanna go deeper? Subscribe to Planet Money+ and get sponsor-free episodes of Planet Money, The Indicator, and Planet Money Summer School. Plus access to bonus content. It's a new way to support the show you love. Learn more at plus.npr.org/planetmoney
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Planet Money makes economic machinery legible by following the people, prices, incentives, and operational decisions that keep it moving.
Planet Money turns economic systems into reported stories built around tangible decisions, workplaces, and transactions. A bookstore buyer's rapid ordering judgments reveal publishing economics; a nighttime repossession leads into subprime auto lending; employee ownership…
A repo truck becomes the front-row seat where an ugly loan stops looking abstract.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A toll booth for oil tankers turns geopolitics into plain economics.
Planet Money makes the Strait of Hormuz feel less like a headline and more like a set of rules. Ship name, flag, destination, cargo, and crew all matter, and the toll can reach one dollar per barrel.
A sharp look at how bookstore shelves get built, one decision at a time.
BOOKstore Economics turns a quiet bookstore routine into a clear look at how books end up on shelves. It follows the fast decision that can send a new title into an order or leave it behind, and Fisher Nash works well as a guide because she thinks like a bookseller.
A worker-ownership story that makes the paperwork matter.
This episode sits between neat labels and lingers on the harder part: a firm tries to build employee ownership into a multinational deal and runs straight into trust, tax rules, and administration. That is where the story gets its shape.
A sharp look at how a book becomes an operational puzzle.
Planet Money takes a familiar object, a book, and shows how much work hides behind something that usually feels effortless. The episode follows the show's own book through the factory, the writing and revision process, and the question of when to publish it, so the economics…
A robot chef becomes a clear, readable lesson in who automation helps and who it hurts.
Planet Money uses a robot cook in Philadelphia's Chinatown to make its point about automation and work. The setup is unusual, but the episode does not stay with the gimmick for long. It moves into a plainspoken look at displacement and reinstatement, and it does that well.
A repo-night finance story that makes bad credit feel immediate and human.
Planet Money takes a repo job and turns it into a quiet-night search, then opens out into a plain look at how subprime auto lending works. It starts with Larry Baker creeping through the Ohio suburbs after a black Chevy Cruze, then uses Stephanie's loan story to show how a car…
Demetri Kofinas interviews specialists on geopolitics, energy markets, AI, and finance at length.
BBC's daily business show, from toy-industry founders to Anthropic's Pentagon standoff.
Planet Money opens on Tuesday, April 14th, around 2 p.m.
For the host, bookstore shelves used to feel like they just appeared.
Planet Money follows KKR partner Pete Stavros as he tests worker ownership inside private equity, beginning with Cindy Gordis at Capital Safety and later moving to Mike Pavelko at GSI.
A retired Reese's fan in Florida discovers that a new Hershey product, Reese's peanut butter mini hearts, lacks milk chocolate and real peanut butter, leading him to question what he's actually eating.
This episode explores the severe economic and humanitarian crisis in Cuba, focusing on the impact of U.S.
This episode explores how the Squamish Nation's ancestral land in Vancouver was forcibly taken by colonial authorities in 1913, destroying their village to make way for urban development, despite modern zoning and NIMBY resistance.
Planet Money follows the making of its own book from idea to industrial reality.
A Planet Money episode exploring the business and economics behind the making of their own book.
Planet Money investigates the multi-billion dollar global business of wild-caught tropical fish from the Amazon.
Planet Money stages a chef versus robot taste test at two Philadelphia Chinatown restaurants to explore what automation means for the food industry.
The hosts discuss a past episode about perverse incentives and introduce a new Planet Money book with a poster of office laws.
This episode explores the NBA's tanking problem, where teams intentionally lose games to improve their draft picks, examining the rational incentives behind it and its impact on fans.
The episode analyzes the business success and cultural impact of the TV show Heated Rivalry, including its sold-out merchandise and production costs.
Planet Money visits a Replication Games event where teams attempt to reproduce results from published social science papers.
Planet Money examines the unprecedented ICE hiring boom, its impact on training and enforcement, and the political backlash.
Planet Money covers the Supreme Court ruling that Trump's tariffs are illegal and what it means for businesses seeking refunds.
This episode explores the importance of rare earth minerals found in Greenland, their critical role in technology and military applications, and features an interview with mining economist Gracelyn Baskerin.
Planet Money sends physical valentines to things they love, including a trademark-related surprise for their trademark attorney.
Planet Money explores economic concepts through storytelling, starting with a segment about an inventor and the patent system.
Planet Money reports on Iran's economic crisis and the resulting protests, including currency collapse and social changes.
Larry Baker is out on a repo run in an Ohio suburb.
A story about James Lawrence, a National Guard member who got priced out of his apartment after returning from training, illustrating the housing affordability crisis.
This episode explores the federal HOPE VI program that demolished public housing towers in the 1990s, using a personal story from Philadelphia.
A reporter visits the Zyde Door Church in Oakland, a unique religious institution with ATMs and armed security, to explore its leader and beliefs.
Planet Money explores the story behind the game Yahtzee and introduces their project to design a board game based on a Nobel Prize-winning economics paper about asymmetric information.
This episode examines Chevron's long-standing presence in Venezuela and its sudden spotlight after the U.S.
This episode examines how Donald Trump's business dealings have expanded in his second term, with family members openly profiting from foreign deals.
Economist David Autor discusses the real-world costs of free trade, challenging the mainstream economic view that it is an unqualified win.
Planet Money examines how USAID funding cuts affect a medical aid group in Cameroon, highlighting the human impact of foreign aid policy changes.
A visit to a massive refrigerated warehouse reveals the science behind keeping food fresh after harvest.
This episode explores the secretive trading firm Jane Street, its massive profits, and a lawsuit revealing insider details.