Back in March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was just beginning and the shelter-in-place orders brought the economy to a screeching halt, a quirky-but-clever idea to save the economy made its way up to some of the highest levels of government. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib proposed an ambitious relief bill to keep the country’s metaphorical lights on: recurr ... Show More
Apr 3
Life in a Barrel
This week, in an episode we first aired in 2022, we flip the Disney story of life on its head thanks to a barrel of seawater, a 1970s era computer, and underwater geysers. It’s the chaos of life. Latif, Lulu, and our Senior Producer Matt Kielty were all sitting on their own littl ... Show More
54m 42s
Jun 2023
Why This Economist Wants to Give Every Poor Child $50,000
<p>“Wealth is the paramount indicator of economic prosperity and well-being,” says the economist Darrick Hamilton. He’s right. Policy analysis tends to focus on income, but it is wealth that often determines whether we can send our kids to college, pay for an illness, quit a job, ... Show More
52m 54s
Jun 2024
The Economic Theory That Explains Why Americans Are So Mad
<p>There’s something weird happening with the economy. On a personal level, most Americans say they’re doing pretty well right now. And according to the data, that’s true. Wages have gone up faster than inflation. Unemployment is low, the stock market is generally up so far this ... Show More
1h 31m
Apr 2021
Killing the Gold Standard
April 18, 1933. It’s almost midnight in Washington, DC. Newly-elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt has gathered his economic advisors for a late-night meeting. He called this meeting to announce his plan to effectively take the US off the gold standard, the system by which ... Show More
28m 5s
Jul 2022
#287 — Why Wealth Matters
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sam Harris speaks with Morgan Housel about the psychology of money and investing. They discuss how personal history shapes one's view of economic risk, the implications of not understanding the future, being rich vs being wealthy, how we measure ... Show More
50m 15s