NPR: Planet Money

Phosphate is a crucial element, for farming, and for life. And there aren't too many places to get it. What if it runs out?

Today on the show: citrus, globalization, and the birth of the mafia.

Douglas Bruce had a bold vision for Colorado.

Long-term-care insurance seemed like the next big thing. Then insurance companies started losing billions of dollars. What went wrong?

Today's Indicator: Your face. It's worth money. It's the next big thing. And, if you're like most of us, you're giving it away.

The government shutdown was a symptom of a bigger problem: Congress seems incapable of passing a proper budget.

A biologist predicts a population bomb that will lead to global catastrophe. An economist sees a limitless future for mankind. The result is one of the most famous bets in economics.

The wild ginseng market has gone crazy. We go to a farm hidden in the Appalachian mountains to find out why.

Will 3-D printing make gun control impossible?

There's a warning sign for the economy with an amazing track record. It's not flashing now, but it's close enough to make us nervous.

Dogecoin, a bitcoin spinoff created as a joke, is now worth $1.4 billion. The coin's creator tells us how the joke became real — and explains why he has mixed feelings about the whole thing.

Why does it take days to send money electronically?

President Trump's Energy Secretary, Rick Perry, had a plan to prop up the coal industry. This week, a federal commission—led by a Trump appointee—rejected it.

The state of the American job market, as revealed by jobs numbers released this morning.

A lot of popular plans for boosting middle-class wages don't work as well as as they used to. Here are a few ideas that might work now.

The bitcoin market has gone crazy. And it's revealing something strange. A lot of people can't find their bitcoins. We go looking for lost billions.

What does a country with no debt look like? To find out, we went back to the United States in 1835.

The U.S. economy is doing great. Here's something to worry about.

Each year, we take a cue from radio legend Paul Harvey and bring you "The Rest of the Story." We check in on some of the episodes that we've done in the past year, and tell you what's changed.

David Kestenbaum noticed that a pack of Milk Chocolate M&M's weighs 1.69 ounces, but a pack of Peanut Butter M&M's weighs 1.63 ounces. He had to know why. But the confectionery world has its secrets.

Congress just passed the largest tax overhaul in decades. We dig in.

Today on the show: A lawsuit over a Santa suit is a window into countless hidden fights that shape the stuff we buy. It's one man's battle against the U.S. government — and, in a way, against himself.

Five reporters go to the New York Produce Show and Conference, each on a mission.

As a businessman, President Trump is known for his towering buildings. Today we tell the story of one of those skyscrapers and what it says about how and with whom Trump does business.

Why is it so hard to figure out when the economy is at full employment? And why does the Fed keep getting it wrong?

We've got a satellite. We got a rocket. We're heading to the launch pad.

The unemployment rate is really low, but wages are barely rising. What's going on?

We found a satellite. We tried to figure out what it would do. Now we need to choose our rocket.

The history of sexual harassment training videos, and the surprising insight it gives us into the current wave of sexual harassment cases.

We hitched a ride on a satellite. Now we have to figure out what we're going to do up there.

No really, we are going into low Earth orbit.

No space mission is complete without a patch. We made our own.