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Planet Money

Planet Money

By: NPR
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 Wanna see a trick? Give us any topic and we can tie it back to the economy. At Planet Money, we explore the forces that shape our lives and bring you along for the ride. Don't just understand the economy – understand the world.

Wanna go deeper? Subscribe to Planet Money+ and get sponsor-free episodes of Planet Money, The Indicator, and Planet Money Summer School. Plus access to bonus content. It's a new way to support the show you love. Learn more at plus.npr.org/planetmoney
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Episodes
  • BOARD GAMES 3: What’s in a name?

    BOARD GAMES 3: What’s in a name?
    Jan 22 2026
    Planet Money has teamed up with the company Exploding Kittens to make a board game inspired by the legendary economics paper The Market for Lemons. We’ve decided we want a mass-appeal party game that quietly sneaks in the economics, so that we can report from inside a world that no other Planet Money project has entered: the real shelves at real big box retail stores.

    We have a great game mechanic and a set of rules. Now all we need is a good name and theme.

    Turns out, that is way harder and way higher stakes than any of us could have imagined.

    In the third episode of our series, we learn the importance of a good game name and theme and try to come up with one for our game.

    Find our previous episodes in the board game series, here and here.

    Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift. / Subscribe to Planet Money+

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    This episode of Planet Money was hosted by Kenny Malone and Erika Beras. It was produced by James Sneed and edited by Marianne McCune, fact-checked by Willa Rubin, and engineered by Cena Loffredo and Kwesi Lee. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

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    36 mins
  • Chevron, Venezuela and the Paradox of Plenty

    Chevron, Venezuela and the Paradox of Plenty
    Jan 17 2026
    Venezuela and Chevron have perhaps one of the strangest partnerships … ever? Chevron, one of the world’s most famous and profitable oil corporations, has for decades, been plugging away in Venezuela, one of the world’s most famous and infamous socialist countries.

    Today on the show, the story of their intertwined histories. Before Saudi Arabia, before Iran… there was Venezuela, the first petrostate. The first country whose entire economy became dependent on oil. With the blessing of oil, an entire economic textbook of complications opened up: from the Dutch Disease, to the resource curse, to mono-economic vulnerability.

    And, oddly, along for that ride…Chevron.


    Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift. / Subscribe to Planet Money+

    Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.


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    This episode of Planet Money was hosted by Erika Beras and Kenny Malone. It was produced by Luis Gallo with help from Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Marianne McCune, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.


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    33 mins
  • How much money President Trump and his family have made

    How much money President Trump and his family have made
    Jan 14 2026
    Before President Donald Trump’s first term, he was in a “tight spot” financially, according to New Yorker writer David Kirkpatrick. At the start of his second term, David says, Trump was in an “even tighter” spot. But after just six months into his second term, Trump’s financial situation started looking really good.


    David has done a full accounting for what the family has been up to, and even using conservative estimates, David says Trump and his family have made almost $4 billion dollars “off of the presidency,” in just about a year.


    Today on the show: we look at every new business and business deal and financial transaction that David says likely would not have happened if Trump wasn’t the president of the United States. And we stop at the most innovative ways Trump and his family have made all that.


    Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift. / Subscribe to Planet Money+


    Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts. ??Listen to our playlist on Federal Reserve independence here.


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    Today’s episode of Planet Money was hosted by Sarah Gonzalez and Mary Childs. It was produced by James Sneed, edited by Jess Jiang, and fact checked by Sierra Juarez. Robert Rodriguez engineered it. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

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    31 mins
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