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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

Most Recent Episodes

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If AI is so good, why are there still so many jobs for translators?

If you believe the hype, translators will all soon be out of work. Luis von Ahn, CEO and co-founder of the language learning app Duolingo, doesn't think AI is quite there... yet. In this interview, Greg Rosalsky talks with Luis about AI and how it's reshaping translation jobs and the language learning industry. We also ask him about headlines earlier this year suggesting Duolingo laid off some of its workers and replaced them with AI.

If AI is so good, why are there still so many jobs for translators?

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How useful, really, are the steps you can take after a data breach?

The dreaded data breach notification... It tells you your personal data's been compromised and suggests steps you can take to minimize the potential harm. On today's episode, Kenny Malone pulls out a data breach letter he received and goes over what it recommends with Amanda Aronczyk. Amanda recently did a show about the legal and illegal markets for data and tells us how useful these steps actually are. It's news you can use to protect yourself, whether or not you've been part of a data breach!

How useful, really, are the steps you can take after a data breach?

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Jeff Guo/NPR

The potato-shaped loophole in free trade

Ever since free trade opened up between the US and Mexico in the 1990s, trillions of dollars of goods have been going back and forth between the two countries, from cars to strawberries to MRI machines to underwear. But one major exception has been fresh American potatoes.

The potato-shaped loophole in free trade

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NPR

The Rest of the Story, 2024

After the gift exchange comes another great holiday tradition: returns season. Once again, we are joining the fun in our own Planet Money way. We are returning to stories from years past to see what's changed since we last reported them. It's an episode we call The Rest of the Story.

The Rest of the Story, 2024

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Kenny Malone, Jeff Guo, and Adrian Ma/NPR

The Indicators of this year and next

This year, there was some economic good news to go around. Inflation generally ticked down. Unemployment more or less held around 4-percent. Heck, the Fed even cut interest rates three times. But for a lot of people, the overall economic vibes were more important. And the vibes... were still off.

The Indicators of this year and next

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Ferns are growing where there used to be cattle pastures at the El Globo habitat bank and nature reserve in Antioquia, Colombia. In the background are hills that neighbors cleared for cattle pasture. Stan Alcorn/NPR hide caption

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Stan Alcorn/NPR

The habitat banker

Our planet is in serious trouble. There are a million species of plants and animals in danger of extinction, and the biggest cause is companies destroying their habitats to farm food, mine minerals, and otherwise get the raw materials to turn into the products we all consume.

The habitat banker

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How sports gambling blew up

Sports gambling isn't exactly a financial market, but it rhymes with financial markets. What happens on Wall Street somehow eventually also happens in sports gambling. So in the 1980s, when computers and deep statistical analysis entered the markets, it also entered the sportsbooks and changed the world of sports gambling in ways we see every day now.

How sports gambling blew up

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Economic sciences laureates James Robinson, Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson. Clément Morin/Nobel Prize Outreach hide caption

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Clément Morin/Nobel Prize Outreach

A Nobel prize for explaining why there's global inequality

Why do some nations fail and others succeed?

A Nobel prize for explaining why there's global inequality

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Willis C. Hawley (left) and Reed Smoot meeting shortly after the signing of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. Library of Congress hide caption

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Library of Congress

Worst. Tariffs. Ever. (update)

The Smoot Hawley Tariffs were a debacle that helped plunge America into the Great Depression. What can we learn from them?

Worst. Tariffs. Ever. (update)

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