You don’t need to be big and boisterous to pack a punch. This hour, TED speakers explore the surprising strength of all things minuscule and fleeting. Guests include microbiologist Anne Madden, cognitive scientist Lera Boroditsky, former educator YeYoon Kim and former industrial engineer and Zen Buddhist monk Bart Weetjens.

Original broadcast date: February 24, 2023.

Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Charles Ponzi was down on his luck. In 1919, the Italian immigrant had spent a decade and a half in the U.S. He was looking for a way to get rich and tried his hand at everything — including bookkeeping, sign painting, grocery clerk, dishwasher, and librarian.

He caught a lucky break in August, when he received a letter from Europe. In the envelope was an International Reply Coupon, a clever way to prepay for international postage. Ponzi realized he might be able to use these coupons to make his fortune. All he needed was investors.

What happened next made him a household name. This is the story of the man behind the eponymous Ponzi scheme — a tale of financial fraud that lives up to its linguistic legacy.

(Note: The original version of this episode ran in 2023.)

Read Planet Money: 
• Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life 
• Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletter
• Our weekly Indicator round-up newsletter

Follow Planet Money: 
• Instagram
• TikTok
• YouTube
• Facebook

Listen to more Planet Money: 
• Our short, daily podcast, The Indicator from Planet Money
• Over 1,000 episodes in our archive on the NPR App

Merch: 
• NPR Shop
• The Planet Money game, Sell Me A Sasquatch

Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

This episode was produced by James Sneed. It was fact checked by Sierra Juarez, mastered by Natasha Branch, and edited by Jess Jiang. It’s based on the book Ponzi’s Scheme, by Mitchell Zuckoff.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Sayre Quevedo’s invented a way to do a podcast that feels completely new. He’s been recording nearly all his conversations for years, and the result is something that captures a person’s life in a raw and complicated way that’s rarely heard. His new show Reaching Out also documents his mutually judge-y relationship with his twin brother as they set out to find their long-lost birth father.

Want to watch our live show this Friday? Use free trial code LIVESTREAM when you sign up as a Life Partner.

(00:00:00) Prologue: Ira Glass introduces Reaching Out, a podcast that feels like it invented something completely new — an ambitious way of capturing a life in a way we’d never heard before. (1 minute)

(00:02:39) Part One: Sayre Quevedo and his brother start the search for their birth father, and they discover that this whole time he’s been a few minutes away from where Sayre lives. (20 minutes)

(00:21:49) Part Two: The twins try reaching out in a variety of ways before taking more direct action. Sayre tries to continue life as normal. (12 minutes)

(00:34:50) Part Three: Sayre and Connor go in person to face their dad. (24 minutes)

Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org / This American Life privacy policy. / Learn more about sponsor message choices.

It’s getting pretty wild in the beverage aisle these days — from the rainbow wall of seltzers, to the increasingly strange flavors of Pepsi, to the new “functional” sodas with added fiber or supplements that supposedly offer health benefits. Where are all these new drinks coming from? And why does it seem like the options are multiplying faster than ever?

Today on the show, we go behind the scenes at one of the nation’s top-secret beverage laboratories. The food scientists in this lab have quietly helped companies design many of the new drinks on the shelves these days. We taste things we have never tasted before, including a sports hydration … broth? We learn what a strawberry has in common with a block of cheese. And we discover why the business of beverages will never be the same again. 

Read: 
– Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life 
– Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletter
– Our weekly Indicator round-up newsletter

Follow:
– Instagram
– TikTok
– YouTube
– Facebook

Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

This episode of Planet Money was hosted by Jeff Guo. It was produced by James Sneed and Sam Yellowhorse Kesler, and edited by Jess Jiang. Vito Emanuel is our fact-checker, and Kwesi Lee engineered the show. Alex Goldmark is the executive producer of Planet Money.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Lunar scientists Juliane Gross and Aaron Regberg share never-before-heard recordings from the Artemis II crew as they observed the far side of the Moon. Episode 439

Women have been writing music for centuries. Why do we know so few of them today? This hour, TED speakers explore the role of women in music history and how we can remember their contributions. Guests include opera singer and activist Gabriella Di Laccio and Nadya Tolokonnikova, a Russian artist and founder of Pussy Riot.

Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Very soon, Social Security may not have enough money to make full payments to retirees. Very soon. Like by 2032, just six years from now. So what are we gonna do about it? 

Today on the show, we look at some of the most talked about possible solutions; and exactly whose wallets we’ll have to rifle through to find the money to pay for each. Then we’ll run the options by the Social Security Administration’s former Chief Actuary. The guy Congress used to call to crunch numbers and give them the bottom line. 

Read: 
– Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life 
– Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletter
– Our weekly Indicator round-up newsletter

Follow: 
– Instagram
– TikTok
– YouTube
– Facebook

Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

This episode of Planet Money was hosted by Erika Beras and Jeff Guo, it was produced by James Sneed, and edited by Marianne McCune. Sierra Juarez is our fact-checker, and Annlie Huang & Robert Rodriguez engineered the show. Alex Goldmark is the executive producer of Planet Money.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Wanna know who is really in the top 1%? And how they use their influence? It may not be who you think.

Look beyond Silicon Valley. Look beyond Wall Street. Look beyond the “oligarchs”. There’s a much larger class of wealthy Americans hiding in plain sight. And, often, they got rich in mundane ways. They own car dealerships. They sell hot dogs and frozen mini-quiches. They run waxing salons. They supply fabricated metal and urinal cakes. They are dentists.

Collectively, these “Main Street millionaires” control much more wealth than the billionaire lightning rods who launch rockets into space, appear on manosphere podcasts, and have Hollywood movies made about them. Many of these millionaires have also grown rich enough to afford superyachts, 10,000-square-foot homes, and pet tigers. 

At the center of their story is a quiet revolution in the American economy: the rise of a particular kind of private business. On today’s show, how did the power of the “stealthy wealthy” millionaires come to rival that of the billionaire oligarchs? And, how are they shaping policies that lower their taxes and raise your prices?

Read: 
Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life 
Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletter
Our weekly Indicator round-up newsletter

Follow: 
Instagram
TikTok
YouTube
Facebook

Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

This episode was hosted by Greg Rosalsky and Sarah Gonzalez. It was produced by Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Marianne McCune with fact checking help from Sierra Juarez. It was engineered by Kwesi Lee. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer. 

Music: NPR Source Audio – “Collectible Kicks,” “Blazed and Emboldened,” and “Arturo’s Revenge

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Nikole Hannah-Jones made an argument 10 years ago in The New York Times Magazine that became famous. She wrote about choosing a public school for her daughter, Najya, in one of the most racially and economically segregated school systems in the country: New York City. Nikole chose a regular public school, one that most wealthy and middle-class parents wouldn’t consider, and she challenged other parents to do the same. 

She revisits that argument, and that choice, in a series of conversations with producer Chana Joffe-Walt and with her daughter, Najya, who’s now 16 and has her own very different views. 

Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.

(00:00:00) Prologue: Chana talks with Nikole about what they both remember from being young parents just starting to think about schools for their children. (9 minutes)

(00:10:44) Act One: Nikole talks with Chana about Najya’s elementary school and the problems her family navigated there. (15 minutes)

(00:25:00) Act Two: Chana talks with Najya about her memories of elementary and middle school and how she felt about her mom’s choices. (9 minutes)

(00:31:45) Act Three: Nikole and Najya talk about what changed when Najya pushed back against her mom’s choices for elementary and middle school and got to choose her own high school. (10 minutes)

(00:42:16) Act Four: Nikole and Najya talk with each other about the different choices they made and the questions they still have for each other. (9 minutes)

(00:51:13) Act Five: Nikole fact-checks her memory against her old emails with Najya’s elementary school and has a painful revelation. (7 minutes)

Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org / This American Life privacy policy. / Learn more about sponsor message choices.

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 members discuss their journeys to becoming astronauts and their upcoming mission to the International Space Station. Episode 438