When it comes to big questions about the economy, we’re still kind of in the dark ages. Why do some economies grow so much faster than others? How long is the next recession going to last? How do we stop inflation without wrecking the rest of the economy? These questions are the domain of macroeconomics. But even some macroeconomists themselves admit: While we have many theories about how the economy works, we have very few satisfying answers.

Emi Nakamura wants to change all that. She’s a superstar economist who is a pioneer in the field of “empirical macroeconomics.” She finds clever ways of using data to untangle some of the oldest mysteries in macroeconomics, about the invisible hand, the consequences of government spending, and the inner workings of inflation.

Recently we called her up to ask her why the economy is so difficult to understand in first place, and how she’s trying to find answers anyway. She gets into all of that, and how Jeff Goldblum shaped her career as an economist, in this episode.

This show was hosted by Jeff Guo and Nick Fountain. It was produced by Dave Blanchard with help from Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was engineered by Josephine Nyounai and fact checked by Sierra Juarez. Keith Romer edited the show. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

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Hear from rocket scientists who discuss a new revolutionary rocket engine design tested at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center last year. HWHAP Episode 296.

Original broadcast date: April 30, 2021. Migration is a part of everyone’s history. This hour, TED speakers explore ideas about places we call home — and how these experiences continue to reshape our culture, countries and species. Guests include bioarchaeologist Carolyn Freiwald, journalist Isabel Wilkerson, comedian Maeve Higgins and ecologist Sonia Altizer.

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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Two stories today.

First, as we start to understand post-affirmative action America, we look to a natural experiment 25 years ago, when California ended the practice in public universities. It reshaped the makeup of the universities almost instantly. We find out what happened in the decades that followed.

Then, we ask, why does it cost so much for America to build big things, like subways. Compared to other wealthy nations, the costs of infrastructure projects in the U.S. are astronomical. We take a trip to one of the most expensive subway stations in the world to get to the bottom of why American transit is so expensive to build.

This episode was hosted by Adrian Ma and Darian Woods. It was produced by Corey Bridges, and engineered by Robert Rodriguez and Katherine Silva. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Viet Le is the Indicator’s senior producer. And Kate Concannon edits the show. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

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Back in the 90s, Ivan Lozano Ortega was in charge of Bogota’s wildlife rescue center. And he kept getting calls from the airport to come deal with… frogs. Hundreds of brightly colored, poisonous frogs.

Ivan had stumbled upon the poisonous frog black market. Tens of thousands of frogs were being poached out of the Colombian rainforest and sold to collectors all around the world by smugglers. And it put these endangered frogs at risk of going extinct.

Today on the show, how Ivan tried to put an end to the poison frog black market, by breeding and selling frogs legally. And he learns that it’s not so easy to get a frog out of hot water.

This episode was hosted by Stan Alcorn and Sarah Gonzalez, and co-reported and written with Charlotte de Beauvoir. It was produced by Willa Rubin with help from Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Jess Jiang. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. It was engineered by Josh Newell. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

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Hear from the deputy project manager for NASA’s CHAPEA project as well as the volunteer crew of four who joined us a few days before entering the Mars simulated habitat for one year. HWHAP Episode 295.

Big problems need audacious solutions. This hour, TED speakers use data and common sense to make laws more effective, reform the foster care system and hold environmental offenders accountable. Guests include criminal justice reform activist Sheena Meade, child welfare advocates Sixto Cancel and Marquan Teetz, and ocean monitoring expert Tony Long.

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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The shocks of the pandemic economy gave us a bunch of enormous natural experiments, which helped to prove or disprove conventional economic thinking.

Take, for example, the bullwhip effect, the idea that the further away from the customer you are in the supply chain, the more volatile your orders are likely to be. This theory played out at an enormous scale, in the pandemic. Consumers and companies overreacted to the risk of shortages by ordering more products and hoarding them, causing massive shifts in the supply chain – just like the theory says.

And the pandemic gave us a lot of natural experiments like this. So, on this special live edition of Planet Money, we looked for other big economic lessons from the past three years, and we took this information and turned it into… a gameshow! It’s Two Truths and a Lie: Econ Edition. We get into questions about the workforce and labor market during the pandemic, and how it affected how economists view the world.

This episode was hosted by Mary Childs. It was produced by Dave Blanchard, and edited by Jess Jiang. It was engineered by Josh Newell with help from Robert Rodriguez. Original music by Jesse Perlstein.

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In 1978, a young man named Mike Shanks started a moving business in the north end of Seattle. It was just him and a truck — a pretty small operation. Things were going great. Then one afternoon, he was pulled over and cited for moving without a permit.

The investigators who cited him were part of a special unit tasked with enforcing utilities and transportation regulations. Mike calls them the furniture police. To legally be a mover, Mike needed a license. Otherwise, he’d face fines — and even potentially jail time. But soon he’d learn that getting that license was nearly impossible.

Mike is the kind of guy who just can’t back down from a fight. This run-in with the law would set him on a decade-long crusade against Washington’s furniture moving industry, the furniture police, and the regulations themselves. It would turn him into a notorious semi-celebrity, bring him to courtrooms across the state, lead him to change his legal name to ‘Mike The Mover,’ and send him into the furthest depths of Washington’s industrial regulations.

The fight was personal. But it drew Mike into a much larger battle, too: An economic battle about regulation, and who it’s supposed to protect.

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