There’s one question we seem to be hearing everywhere: “Is my job safe from AI?”
Dozens of you, our listeners, have written to us about this. Saying things like, “Maybe my yoga teacher side gig is actually my safest bet now,” and “My parents were in real estate, and I never thought I’d say it … but maybe that’s what I should do?”
If only there were a list that could tell you which jobs are safe from AI. We go looking for that list … and find that the AI future is going to be even weirder than we’d imagined.
Today on the show: We talk to two researchers who have come up with some first drafts of the future. We learned more about the machines that might be coming for our jobs, and also, more about what it actually means to be human.
Further Reading:
– GPTs are GPTs: Labor market impact potential of LLMs
– The EPOCH of AI: Human-Machine Complementarities at Work
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Today’s episode was produced by Eric Mennel and edited by Marianne McCune. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Robert Rodriguez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money‘s executive producer.
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President Donald Trump has been pressuring the Federal Reserve from a few angles. So we wanted to look at other examples of political pressure on central banks, to see what it might mean for us and for the economy.
Enter the watchers. The people who’ve had their eyes trained on central banks all over the world, for years, notebooks out, scribbling down their observations. They’ve been trying to gauge just how independent of political pressure central banks actually are – and what happens when a central bank loses that independence.
Today on the show, we sidle up next to three of the leading central bank watchers, to watch what they’re watching.
Further reading:
– Carolina Garriga’s: Revisiting Central Bank Independence in the World: An Extended Dataset
– Lev Menand’s: A New Measure of Central Bank Independence
– Carola Binder’s: Political Pressure on Central Banks
Further listening:
– Lisa Cook and the fight for the Fed
– A primer on the Federal Reserve’s independence
– The case for Fed independence in the Nixon tapes
– A Locked Door, A Secret Meeting And The Birth Of The Fed
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This episode was produced by Willa Rubin with help from Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Marianne McCune and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Engineering by Robert Rodriguez and Maggie Luthar. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.
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Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy joins us for our milestone 400th episode to share his journey and vision for advancing NASA into the future. HWHAP 400.
Teens today are navigating academic pressure, social media, gun violence and climate anxiety. But adolescent psychologist Lisa Damour argues that stress isn’t the enemy. It’s part of growing up. What matters is how teens and the adults around them learn to manage it. In part two of this series, Damour offers clear-eyed, compassionate advice plus a reminder: even in a turbulent world, kids are still resilient, resourceful and full of wonder.
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When we stumbled upon Milk.com, we were mystified. It appears to be someone’s personal website. But memorable domain names can be worth a million dollars or more. So, why is someone using this valuable internet real estate to post their resume and favorite recipes?
Back in the internet’s early days, it was easy to get a domain name. They were cheap or even free. The first people to grab them may now be holding onto assets that can sell for millions of dollars. These potential profits have attracted a unique breed of investor who buys and sells domain names, gambling on the value of everyday words.
On our latest show: What is a domain really worth? And we ask the owner of milk.com why he’s not selling — and if there’s a price that might change his mind.
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This episode was hosted by Alex Mayyasi and Jeff Guo. It was produced by Willa Rubin and edited by Jess Jiang. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by James Willetts. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money‘s executive producer.
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The Federal Reserve has been under intense pressure from President Donald Trump as he pushes for more control over the historically independent agency. The Fed is tasked with keeping inflation and unemployment under control, and it’s supposed to be insulated from politics so it can do whatever is necessary for the economy. But Trump has been openly saying he wants interest rates to be lower. A lot lower.
And on Monday, Trump posted a bombshell. He said that he was removing Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, “for cause.” Lisa Cook has told NPR she intends to remain in office, and is now suing Trump.
On today’s show: inside the Fed Board of Governors. How realistic is a plan to control monetary policy through loyalists on the Board? We hear from former Board governors to understand what the job is, and what we might be in for.
Further listening on the Fed and Fed independence:
– A primer on the Federal Reserve’s independence
– Happy Fed Independence Day
– The case for Fed independence in the Nixon tapes
– A Locked Door, A Secret Meeting And The Birth Of The Fed
– Trump’s unprecedented attack on the Fed
– Turkey’s runaway inflation problem
– Should presidents have more of a say in interest rates?
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NASA astronaut Suni Williams reflects on her recent record-breaking
mission on board the International Space Station. HWHAP 399.
Being a kid—or raising one—has never been tougher. From AI in classrooms to social media pressures to economic stress, kids are navigating a minefield. In this two-part series, host Manoush Zomorodi explores what today’s young people are up against and what they need most from adults.
This episode is Part 1 of TED Radio Hour‘s two-part series: “Are the kids alright?” Part 2 will be out on September 5, 2025.
TED Radio Hour+ subscribers now get access to bonus episodes, with more ideas from TED speakers and a behind the scenes look with our producers. A Plus subscription also lets you listen to regular episodes (like this one!) without sponsors. Sign-up at plus.npr.org/ted.
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Get your own personalized summer school diploma here.
Today on our final episode of Summer School 2025, we will test your knowledge. We will salute the unsung heroes of government service. And we will pick our valedictorian from among you of the class of 2025.
Editorial Note:
President Trump attempted to fire Lisa Cook, a Biden appointee to the Federal Reserve Board. Our daily podcast, The Indicator, has coverage on their latest episode. We’ll have an episode in the Planet Money feed soon, in the meantime, here’s some background listening on why this is so important.
Years before she joined the Fed, we profiled the work of Lisa Cook. Listen here.
Also these:
Happy Fed Independence Day
A primer on the Federal Reserve’s independence
The case for Fed independence in the Nixon tapes
Turkey’s runaway inflation problem
Arthur Burns: shorthand for Fed failure?
Should presidents have more of a say in interest rates?
Can the Federal Reserve stay independent?
It’s hard out there for a Fed chair
The series is hosted by Robert Smith and produced by Eric Mennel. Our project manager is Devin Mellor. This episode was edited by Planet Money Executive Producer Alex Goldmark and fact-checked by Emily Crawford.
Always free at these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.
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Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.
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In its first six years from 1998 to 2004, Google built one of the greatest products of all time (and certainly the greatest business of all time) with Search. Then in its next six years from 2005 to 2011, Google built seven (!) more billion+ user products: Gmail, Maps, Drive and Docs, YouTube, Chrome, Android, and Photos — all either started from scratch internally or acquired as startups that were still in their infancy. This six-year period of wild innovation STILL stands unmatched in technology history… no other tech company counts more than four billion+ user products in its portfolio total. And of course, this “Google 2.0” era culminated in the transformation of the very company itself into Alphabet.
So the question we answer today is… how did they do it?? And why? What was the strategy that led a once “pure play” search company into such far flung fields as email, mapping, funny cat videos and operating systems? We unpack the brilliant (and sometimes accidental) strategies behind each product, the simultaneous three-front war Google fought against Microsoft, Apple, and Facebook, and the spectacular failure of Google Plus that nearly destroyed the company’s culture — before ultimately setting the stage for both Alphabet and the AI revolution to come.
Update: when you finish, check out our Google Part III episode, “The AI Company“!
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Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.
