NPR: Planet Money

The most common jobs for men and the most common jobs for women tend to be different — and this separation has big effects for everyone.

Technology is bringing us closer together, but it's also making the world a more unequal place.

The Starbury shoe was affordable and endorsed by NBA All-Star Stephon Marbury. The big challenge was convincing the world that a cheap sneaker wasn't a crappy sneaker.

Most states in the U.S. have a sales tax on menstrual products. Some states have repealed this so-called Tampon Tax, on the grounds that it's unfair to women. But the repeals come at a cost.

Trade negotiators from China and the U.S. seem to be closing in on a deal. But it's not clear what the terms will be.

Oregon just passed a rent control law. Economists have seen this movie before—and they are not eager to see the sequel.

Five things that a lot of people get wrong about the world's second largest economy - and what robots and zombies have to do with it.

How the Federal Reserve won its independence, and then held on during an attack—a physical attack—by the President of the United States.

"Neoliberalism" has become a loaded term.

Tomorrow is the day the U.S. hits its debt limit. What happens if Congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling?

New Orleans has become a battleground for Airbnb. Preservationists want to save the city. Landlords want to open it up. Can either win without destroying the other?

Americans have more consumer debt, and they're also in better financial health. How can that be?

Both video games and television have radically improved in the past two decades. Have they also changed the way Americans spend their time?

Senator Elizabeth Warren proposes a new kind of U.S. tax policy: a wealth tax. But the policy faces serious hurdles, including lessons from a failed experiment in Europe and a constitutional challenge

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced payday regulations would be delayed. We look at the business of payday loans, and what it's like to get into a debt cycle with payday lenders.

We talk to Lina Khan and Scott Hemphill about the rise of companies like Facebook, Amazon and Google, and the state of competition and antitrust law.

Sadie Alexander was the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. in economics. We think her contributions deserve another look.

Personal finance specialist, author and former trader Jill Schlesinger explains market timing--that is, trying to figure out when to buy and sell stock--and why it's a fool's errand.

Tipping is ingrained in America's retail culture. And there's not much we can do to stop that.

How Robert Bork won the fight over antitrust law, changed the meaning of competition in America, and paved the way for some of the biggest companies we've ever seen.

Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman told us last year that Super Bowl weekend is one of the most accurate indicators of the health of the housing market for the year ahead. Well, what happened with housing?

Spoiler Alert: An economist has evidence that we're in a golden age of cinema.

President Trump asked Congress for funds to build an extension of the wall on the border with Mexico. Congress refused, so Trump declared a national emergency. But what does that mean?

At the turn of the 20th century, Ida Tarbell investigated John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil. What she discovered changed the economy of the United States.

Today we answer listener questions about age discrimination; how work hours are counted; and whether the economy is running out of people to take jobs.

To catch drug traffickers, the U.S. government tried something it had never tried before. It set up and ran a fake offshore bank for money laundering. Fake name. Fake employees. Real drug money.

The 1937 agreement between GM and the United Auto Workers union ushered in a period of strength for organized labor. Today, labor is nowhere near as powerful as it used to be. What happened?

An Instagram celebrity and a video game company are battling over who gets to own a dance move once it goes viral.

You won't have to get coffee. But you might have to ride a hoverboard.

In the wake of the Great Recession, the U.S. fertility rate has dipped to a record low. Why hasn't it recovered with the broader economy?

Economist Lisa Cook examined how race riots, lynchings, and segregation at the turn of the 20th century reduced the number of patents filed by African-Americans.

We're back for our annual tradition: Channeling another year's worth of jealousy and self-loathing into a whole episode just for you. Happy Valentine's Day!

Small towns in rural areas across America are seeing a regeneration to advance technology, jobs and economic prospects.

The dedicated officers of the epidemic intelligence service are foot soldiers in a relentless battle against infectious disease.

On today's show, we follow a commercial flight that made an emergency landing in Iran last December. And we discover that landing in Iran would be easy. Getting out – much, much harder.

India's government has proposed a plan to pay some of the country's poorest farmers a guaranteed income. What would this mean for the country's economy?

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell says inflation isn't a problem right now, and that the short term interest rate, at 2.5 percent, is right where it should be.

Parts of America are in the grip of a cold snap. Others are being drenched by rain. How do we measure the cost of extreme weather conditions? We called a scientist to find out.

Five years ago Ben Horowitz and Felix Salmon placed a bet about the future of bitcoin. Today we announce the winner.

Jobs: Is the economy creating enough of them? Are they paying more than they used to? Do people have the jobs they want? All this and more.

How the once fairly-stable business of public utilities is changing.

After a wildfire, teams of investigators start combing the wreckage for clues. Finding the cause means, maybe, finding someone to pay. But where's the line between a natural disaster and a human one?

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the economic impact of the longest shutdown in history.

How the invention of the government bond saved a bunch of mid-level politicians from certain death and became one of the most important pieces of financial technology the world has ever seen.

The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland is supposedly an unabashed celebration of globalization. Not this year.

We go to a harbor in Santa Barbara where the wait for a spot to park your boat used to be as long as 200 years. Today on the show, we're on a mission to figure out how to divide resources fairly.

The shutdown is over... for now. Today on the Indicator, we talk to one of the 800,000 formerly-furloughed federal employees about his experience of the shutdown.

An economics experiment that streamlines the application and financial aid process for low-income students.

John Bogle died last week. His creation — the index fund — changed investing. Today, how his invention set off a million dollar bet between some of the biggest brains on Wall Street.

How the trade war with China is playing out on one peanut farm in Georgia.