NPR: Planet Money

We ask three economists: Is there some falling anvil that's about to crush the economy?

The price tag is a fairly recent invention. And it's already on its way out.

How the American auto industry is built on a trade dispute over frozen chicken parts.

Robots are really bad at many simple human tasks. One possible workaround: Combine the person with the machine.

Stories about a $50,000 loophole, what neighborhoods mean for kids, and what the Six Million Dollar Man would cost today.

The story of a 24-year-old kid and the idea he thought would reduce congestion, cut greenhouse gasses and make urban life easier for everyone. Instead, it brought him nothing but trouble.

Sam Cohen has made a big business out of buying stuff at big retail stores, then turning around and selling it on Amazon. In an era when stores are profit-maximizing machines, how is that possible?

In the early 1960s, Tom Burrell became the first black man in Chicago advertising. Today on the show, the story of how he changed the way people think about ads and how advertising thinks about us.

Today on the show, how we got from mealy, nasty apples to apples that taste delicious. The story starts with a breeder who discovered a miracle apple. But discovering that apple wasn't enough.

Robots don't always replace workers. Sometimes, workers use robots as tools.

Machines have been taking jobs forever. In the past, when jobs disappeared, new ones were created. But is this time different?

Will your job be around in the future? We take a peek at the research.

What if robots did all the work? In today's show, we imagine a world without jobs.

The computer doesn't pay attention to what you say. What matters is how you say it.

Machines are taking on jobs that once seemed robot-proof. But can a machine replace radio reporters? We pit a human against a machine to find out.

If you aren't already worried about being replaced by a robot, maybe you should be. Today on the show, three races pit humans against machines.

Today on the show, the true story of the Luddites.

Poor kids who moved to neighborhoods with less poverty did much better than those who didn't move.

While most technology is getting smaller and cheaper, batteries still suck. Today on the show, we learn exactly why, and meet some of the people trying to make batteries better.

You're not allowed to buy and sell organs. So doctors created a different system. Today on the show: how do you decide who gets lungs?

Casinos are worried that young people aren't interested in playing slots or other games of luck. They're turning to games that require skill, like basketball.

We visit the workshop of a meat inventor, who came up with Steak-Umm and KFC's popcorn chicken. And we try to figure out what meat inventors tell us about patents and innovation.

In the early 1900s, the president of the largest shoe company in the world tried to create a Utopia for his workers. He called his big experiment in welfare capitalism: The Square Deal.

When Magic: The Gathering became a hit, its creators faced a surprising problem.

Today on the show: how a bunch of rational economists try to deal with our feelings. And the story of a man who came up with five simple questions that he hoped would predict the future.

Just a few years ago, solar power was an expensive luxury for the environmentally conscious. Now it's a good deal for lots of people. How did solar power get so cheap, so fast?

How do you make money manufacturing a dry, bland cracker that a tiny percentage of the population eats just one week a year?

In a lot of video games, the default character is a man. If you want to play as a woman, you often have to pay.

A 12-year-old girl discovers it can cost a lot more to play video games as a girl. Today on the show: video game economics and a sixth-grade smackdown.

We go on stage at a comedy show and read a bunch of weird economics jokes. We bombed.

We find out what happened to that teddy bear from our show on trash. Did it end up in a landfill or was it sent out of the country to be recycled?

There's an economic line that separates recyclables from trash. And that line has been moving a lot lately.

Last week Apple was officially added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. But just because Apple's in the club now, doesn't mean the Dow is a great measure of the economy.

Look at the numbers today, and things seem promising for the economy. Jobs and home prices are up. But look under the hood, and you see that in a lot of ways the crisis is still with us.

What do families in the middle of the income distribution actually make in cities around the United States?

Only one in three students finish community college—even if money is not the problem.

Today on the show, a businessman goes to prison, and decides he is going to disrupt the biggest captive market in America.

Faced with an asset bubble, the creators of Magic: The Gathering came up with a plan—a plan to once and for all conquer the science of bubbles, and make a collectible toy that could live forever.

We look at the ten most shorted stocks out there, to see what this list tells us about human nature and the economy. Plus, we end our shorting experiment.

We look at the ten most shorted stocks out there, to see what this list tells us about human nature and the economy. Plus, we end our shorting experiment.

This is a story about a man trying to plan for the unimaginable: What would he do if his girlfriend were kidnapped?

This is a story about a man trying to plan for the unimaginable: What would he do if his girlfriend were kidnapped?

Spirit Airlines is one of America's fastest-growing airlines. It's also among the least popular airlines in America. How can one airline be both things at once?

Spirit Airlines is one of America's fastest-growing airlines. It's also among the least popular airlines in America. How can one airline be both things at once?

Kidnapping is big business in Nigeria. One man analyzed the industry, to find its weak points and better protect the people he loved.

Kidnapping is big business in Nigeria. One man analyzed the industry, to find its weak points and better protect the people he loved.

The electronic spreadsheet transformed entire industries. But its effects ran deeper than that.

The electronic spreadsheet transformed entire industries. But its effects ran deeper than that.

Union membership has been on a steady decline nationally since the middle of the last century. Watch as membership declines in states across the country.