Planet Money Summer School
by NPR
Latest episode
World Tour 8: The continent nobody owns & everyone benefits from
World Tour 8: The continent nobody owns & everyone benefits from
About this podcast
Economics is a game you should know how to play. And once you get the fundamental concepts, you start to see it everywhere: the news, the supermarket and even your dating life. So it's time to learn the rules. Planet Money Summer School is a crash course in economics for your ears. See the world through the lens of an economist and you'll start to feel a little less overwhelmed when making financial decisions. And if you're in front of the classroom? Teachers, this is made for you, too. Let us be your breezy and fun companion to assigned readings. We'll even assign the homework (and spare you the groans). Go beyond summer school and stay up-to-date on the economy with the latest episodes of the Planet Money podcast.
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Episodes
The newest 50 of 57 episodes
- World Tour 8: The continent nobody owns & everyone benefits from · 41 minThis episode is packed with your best economic ideas from around the world and a penguin interview. It all comes together in this final session of Summer School 2026. Pack your…
- World Tour 7: Getting entrepreneurial in Korea · 40 minThis week’s stop on our world tour - Korea. A country divided into two very different power structures since the end of WWII. Today South Korea is the maker of some of the…
- World Tour 6: Currency Chaos in Argentina · 39 minJust about everyone in Argentina is an expert in inflation and whether they like it or not, economic flexibility. Can we learn from them? Over the years, we at Planet Money have…
- World Tour 5: Sand heists and property rights in the Caribbean · 40 minImagine a nation where, for the residents, land is for the claiming. You walk down the street, pick out a nice looking plot of land, and just plop down a marker. No rent, no…
- World Tour 4: How to beat the resource curse in Norway · 39 minLet’s call it the luxury of restraint. This is what enabled Norway to avoid the fate of so many other countries when they discovered oil and it changed the mix of their economy…
- World Tour 3: Piles of cash and a town of solutions in Kenya, Nigeria · 39 minLet’s head to a small town in Kenya that’s become globally famous for helping economists answer some of the biggest questions facing humanity. In Kenya and Nigeria, economics…
- World Tour 2: Building things and breaking things in China · 39 minChina’s turbocharged growth may have made it rich, but now it has to deal with rich country problems. High-speed trains that connect every town. Gleaming new bridges and…
- World Tour 1: Finding the world’s best economic ideas · 37 minCome along as we travel the world in search of the best economic ideas to bring home! From the beaches of Barbuda to the fjords of Norway, there's money (and money problems)…
- Govt 8: Graduation LIVE! · 31 minGet 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…
- Govt 7: Trade blocks and blockages (Trade Policy) · 39 minFind all episodes of Planet Money Summer School here. Tariffs are the favorite tool of our current president, but there are lots of other ways that governments insert themselves…
- Govt 6: When the markets need fixing (Market Design) · 36 min · Season 6 Episode 6In economics, a market is a place (even virtual) where buyers and sellers interact to exchange goods or services. Economists love markets. It's like all of our supply and demand…
- Govt 5: The many ways governments influence industry (Industrial Policy) · 37 minLIVE SHOW: August 18th in Brooklyn. Tickets here. Traditional economics says the market is guided by the forces of supply and demand. Customers decide what they want to buy, and…
- Govt 4: Our National Rulemaker (Regulations) · 36 min · Episode 4LIVE SHOW: August 18th in Brooklyn. Tickets here. (Planet Money+ supporters get a 10 percent discount off their tickets. Listen to the July 8th bonus episode to get the discount…
- Govt 3: You are what you pay for (Budgets) · 37 minAlthough it seems like the government can spend an endless amount of money, it cannot actually do all the things it wants to do. So the big question in this week's lesson is: How…
- Congress has voted to eliminate government funding for public media · 2 minAct now to ensure public media remains free and accessible to all. Your donation will help this essential American service survive and thrive. Visit donate.npr.org now. See…
- Govt 2: How taxes change behavior and the economy (Taxes) · 37 minWe all know the government uses taxes to pay for things. But what about using taxes to control behavior? This week on Summer School, Professor Darrick Hamilton of The New School…
- Govt 1: Why Are Some Countries Rich and Some Countries Poor? (Institutions) · 36 minGovernment. The Big G. We like to imagine the free market and the invisible hand as being independent from political influence. But Nobel laureate, Simon Johnson, says that…
- History 8: Big ideas and life lessons from Marx, Keynes and Smith and more · 33 min · Season 5 Episode 39Take the 2024 Planet Money Summer School Quiz here to earn your personalized diploma! Find all the episodes from this season of Summer School here. And past seasons here. And…
- History 7: The Great Depression, the New Deal and how it changed our economy · 35 min · Season 5 Episode 38Find all the episodes from this season here. And past seasons here. And follow along on TikTok here for video Summer School. When we last left the United States of America in…
- History 6: China, Taiwan and how nations grow rich · 36 min · Season 5 Episode 37Episodes each Wednesday through labor day. Find all the episodes from this season here. And past seasons here. And follow along on TikTok here for video Summer School. In the…
- History 5: 250 years of trade history in three chapters · 37 min · Season 5 Episode 36Episodes each Wednesday through labor day. Find all the episodes from this season here. And past seasons here. And follow along on TikTok here for video Summer School. Trade has…
- History 4: Banker vs president and the birth of the dollar · 37 min · Season 5 Episode 35Episodes each Wednesday through labor day. Find all the episodes from this season here. And past seasons here. And follow along on TikTok here for video Summer School. Planet…
- History 3: The first stock and perpetual life · 34 min · Season 5 Episode 34Episodes each Wednesday through labor day. Find all the episodes from this season here. And past seasons here. And follow along on TikTok here for video Summer School. Once upon…
- History 2: The golden ages of labor and looms · 33 min · Season 5 Episode 33Who has the power? Workers or bosses? It changes through the ages, though it's usually the bosses. Today, we look at two key moments when the power of labor shifted, for better…
- History 1: Money and the stone coin at the bottom of the sea · 34 min · Season 5 Episode 32Planet Money Summer School is back for eight weeks. Join as we travel back in time to find the origins of our economic way of life. Today we ask surprisingly hard question: What…
- MBA 8: Graduation and the Guppy Tank · 32 min · Episode 31Congratulations to the Planet Money Summer School Class of 2023! Today, you become masters of business administration... spelled with lower-case letters for legal purposes. Your…
- MBA 7: Negotiating and the empathetic nibble · 34 min · Episode 30How do you get the best deal? How do you know you're getting the best deal? Whether you're talking down the price of a car or talking up your salary, you don't have to be a jerk…
- MBA 6: Operations and 25,000 roses · 33 min · Episode 29"It's difficult to control everything," says our guest professor for this week, Santiago Gallino. "What is not difficult is to plan for everything." Today we venture into the…
- MBA 5: Tech and the innovator's dilemma · 35 min · Episode 28For anyone running a business, technology is both threat and opportunity. Today, we run through techniques entrepreneurs can use to take advantage of new tech or defend against…
- MBA 4: Marketing and the Ultimate Hose Nozzle · 33 min · Episode 27In this session of Planet Money Summer School, we are getting the word out about your brand. How do you convince consumers to buy your product, even if they are only just hearing…
- MBA 3: Accounting and the Last Supper · 32 min · Episode 26Usually, the first class that an MBA student takes is accounting. That involves, yes, equations and counting widgets...but it's more than that. Inside the simple act of…
- MBA 2: Competition and the cheaper sneaker · 32 min · Episode 25For episode 2 of Planet Money Summer School, we are talking strategy. You have your million dollar business idea, and maybe some money in your pocket to get it up and running…
- MBA 1: Planet Money goes to business school · 33 min · Episode 24Find all episodes of Planet Money Summer School here. Planet Money Summer School is back! It's the free economics class you can take from anywhere... for everyone! For Season 4…
- Macroeconomics 8: Productivity & Getting Lit · 30 min · Episode 23Productivity is our economic measure for how far our work goes, as individuals and as a society over all. It plays an important role in determining our quality of life, the…
- Macroeconomics 7: The Fed & Volcker's Socks · 32 min · Episode 22The Federal Reserve plays a very important role in the economy. When things start to look uncertain, the central bank is tasked with stepping in to restore people's confidence in…
- Macroeconomics 6: Trade & The Better Life · 33 min · Episode 21International trade is the web of cross-border relationships that binds economies together. Because of trade we have access to cheaper, higher-quality goods, and we get to…
- Macroeconomics 5: Car Parts, Celery & The Labor Market · 33 min · Episode 20You can learn a lot about a person from their job. The same can be said of an economy. The market for jobs can us a lot about how the economy is doing, but more importantly, it…
- Macroeconomics 4: Inflation & Drinking Buddies · 30 min · Episode 19Inflation can be one of the scariest forces in the economy. As prices rise and your dollar doesn't go as far, you feel poorer, and it's all out of your control. To better…
- Macroeconomics 3: Booms, Busts & Us · 32 min · Episode 18Life has its ups and downs. Same for the economy. Today we ask, can the business cycle be tamed? Two stories of recession and techniques for moderating the ferocity of booms and…
- Macroeconomics 2: GDP & What Counts · 25 min · Episode 17What even is "the economy"? And how do you measure it? Our path out of the economic darkness and into the light has been guided in large part by one single statistic: GDP. This…
- Macroeconomics 1: Recessions & Rap Battles · 31 min · Episode 16Season 3 of summer school is here asking the biggest economic questions about what makes an entire economy grow or contract. Episode 1 begins with the rise of macroeconomics as a…
- Investing 6: Crypto & Commencement · 34 min · Episode 15In the last class of Planet Money Summer School Season 2, we cover one more important market — cryptocurrency. If you're thinking about investing in crypto, do you know exactly…
- Investing 5: Bubbles, Bikes, & Biases · 28 min · Episode 14Investing during a bubble can leave you bust. But how to tell the difference between a bubble before it bursts and an investing rocket ship taking off? We'll run through a…
- Investing 4: Bonds & Becky With the Good Yield · 32 min · Episode 13A few years back, Cardiff asked for an unusual Christmas present: a junk bond... Parallel to the stock market, the bond market offers different levels of risk and reward. In this…
- Investing 3: Smooth Spending & The 401K · 32 min · Episode 12Even if you don't own stocks, there are a lot of reasons to care about investing. We meet some of the folks left out of the stock market who deploy sophisticated economic…
- Investing 2: Index Funds & The Bet · 32 min · Episode 11In 2006, Warren Buffett bet a million dollars that the most brainless, boring investment around would do better than the researched, handpicked investments of some of the…
- Investing 1: The Stock Market & Penelope The Cow · 36 min · Episode 10The first class of Planet Money Summer School starts off with a field trip. With the help of a cow, two economists, and three cute animals, we learn what a stock is and how…
- Intro Econ: Graduation! · 19 min · Episode 9Summer School graduates take the stage to show us how we can all see our everyday world through the beautiful lens of economics. | Take the final exam and get your diploma here…
- Intro Econ 8: Risk & Disaster · 26 min · Episode 8Inside one insurance policy is a world of incentives and bad behaviors. Take the final exam and get your diploma here. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection…
- Intro Econ 7: Advertising & Race · 28 min · Episode 7A Black ad executive figures out how to reach diverse audiences. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage…
