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The Economy Explained
Halloween candy is displayed at a Target store.
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The Indicator

Corporate tax cheats, recession deal eats and costly Halloween treats!

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On a very spooktacular Indicators of the EEK!: How America’s top corporations are ghosting their taxes; why more meal deals are an ominous sign; and terrifying Halloween candy prices!

Corporate tax cheats, recession deal eats and costly Halloween treats!

Listen · 9:23
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A voter casting a ballot.
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The Indicator

Can Montana end Citizens United?

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The landmark supreme source case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission opened the floodgates for massive corporate spending in elections. Today, can a Montana ballot initiative pave the way for getting corporate money out of American elections?  

Can Montana end Citizen's United?

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Politicians are afraid to fix taxes. So 100 citizens tried.
Kaitlyn Higgins, Connecticut Conference of Municipalities

Planet Money

Politicians are afraid to fix taxes. So 100 citizens tried.

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Connecticut’s property tax system has been broken for decades and the politicians have failed to fix the problem. So now, they’re trying something new: a citizens assembly. (Citizens assemblies are also old. They go back to Ancient Greece, when lawmakers were chosen not through elections, but through random lotteries.) 

Politicians are afraid to fix taxes. So 100 citizens tried.

Listen · 30:31
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Street pole banners promoting Wharton School MBA program for executives.
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The Indicator

Is it time to abolish the MBA?

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Does business school fix the world? Or does it just churn out consultants, bankers and tech workers? A professor and a dean debate the value of the modern-day MBA.

Is it time to abolish the MBA?

Listen · 9:19
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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
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The Indicator

Why Meta is giving you Muse for free

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Meta’s new AI agent Muse is one of the fastest-growing apps ever. It’s a big bet from a company spending billions to win the AI race. But what is the real cost of using this powerful, free AI product? 

Why Meta is giving you Muse for free

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Ad campaign from World ID featuring life-sized captchas that surprised pedestrians on the streets of Berlin, Singapore and Buenos Aires in March 2025. The captchas highlight the increasingly important role proving humanity plays on an internet filled with bots.

Ad campaign from World ID featuring life-sized captchas that surprised pedestrians on the streets of Berlin, Singapore and Buenos Aires in March 2025. Marcos Brindicci/Getty Images hide caption

Marcos Brindicci/Getty Images

The Indicator

How bots are overtaking humans on the internet

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There are now more bots than humans online. What does that mean for how we experience the internet? Can bots and humans peacefully coexist online?  

How bots are overtaking humans on the internet

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How surveillance crept up on us

Pedestrians walk beneath security cameras in Brooklyn. Mario Tama/Getty Images hide caption

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Planet Money

How surveillance crept up on us

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For years, police have spent billions of tax dollars on watching us, tracking us, and recording us. In the largest police department in the country, these surveillance systems were paid for and adopted without the kind of public oversight cities usually require. 

How surveillance crept up on us

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Meta has limited how many hyperlinks Facebook Pages can post through a subscription

Meta has limited how many hyperlinks Facebook Pages can post through a subscription Tony Avelar/AP Photo hide caption

Tony Avelar/AP Photo

The Indicator Newsletter

Why Meta is charging to post more hyperlinks

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Social media sites aren't the biggest fans of people leaving via hyperlinks. In fact, Meta has made it subscription-worthy for a Facebook Page to post more than two hyperlinks per month. What's the rationale for companies want to keep you on their site?

A woman pours fresh maple syrup into a finishing tank.
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The Indicator

CoreWeave woes, Pokémon foes, and maple syrup lows

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This week’s notable indicators: A distressing credit warning for CoreWeave, a Pokémon heist, and depleted maple syrup reserves in Canada.  

CoreWeave woes, Pokémon foes, and maple syrup lows

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U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images

The Indicator

Can a "moneyball" system work for campaign funding?

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Elections are more expensive than ever, but are campaign donations going to the races where they’ll make the most impact? Today, we talk to the startup co-founder of Oath who believes there’s a smarter way to allocate individual donations.

Can a "moneyball" system work for campaign funding?

Listen · 8:28
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Ten Lives: How What We Have Shapes Who We Are by Mona Chalabi

Ten Lives: How What We Have Shapes Who We Are by Mona Chalabi Random House hide caption

Random House

The Indicator

The case for sharing your salary

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Should money and class figure more prominently in how we identify ourselves? Pulitzer Prize-winning data journalist Mona Chalabi thinks yes. Today on the show, a conversation with Mona, author of the forthcoming book Ten Lives: How What We Have Shapes Who We Are.

The case for sharing your salary

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We try to fix election polling (update)
Erik S. Lesser / AFP/Getty Images

Planet Money

We try to fix election polling (update)

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Polling is facing an existential crisis. People aren't picking up the phone. Nobody wants to talk to pollsters. Trust is on the line. We pluck a solution from the economics canon and convince a polling firm to let us test it. 

We try to fix election polling (update)

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National debt tracker.
Jemal Countess/Getty Images

The Indicator

The gamble of trying to inflate away debt

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The United States national debt is running at more than $40 trillion dollars. It’s a potential crisis in the making, but President Donald Trump suggested it can all be solved just by inflating the debt away. Today, we dig into the nitty gritty on how and when inflating the national debt could work.

The gamble of trying to inflate away debt

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Oracle co-founder, Larry Ellison.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The Indicator

Why Oracle's debt load could be your problem

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Oracle, the multinational tech giant has taken on a lot of loans to build up its AI capacity. But Oracle’s investors are not happy with this piling debt load. We explain why Oracle is such a pivotal player — and potentially weak link — in the AI-fueled economy.

Why Oracle's debt load could be your problem

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Anatomy of a movie market
VALERIE MACON/AFP/Getty Images

Planet Money

Anatomy of a movie market

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Before an independent movie makes it to a streaming platform or a theater near you, it first needs to survive an artistic and economic gauntlet. And even for those movies that make it into elite film festivals like Sundance – it can take everything from performance stunts to corporate spycraft to seal the deal. Today on the show, we follow the ‘King of Sundance’ as he and his team try to sell their slate of movies to distributors like Netflix and Sony and Apple. We hear the behind the scenes stories about how films like Little Miss Sunshine, Napoleon Dynamite and Precious got sold. And we learn the strategies that might make the difference in whether or not a film makes it onto screens around the world. 

Anatomy of a movie market

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Some of the “Characters” available to users

Some of the "Characters" available to users Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption

Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Indicator Newsletter

What this bankruptcy says about AI startups

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Character.AI collected millions of users, making it a very appealing acquisition. Google took a unique route to "acquiring" it, hiring away its founders and licensing its technology. Now Character.AI is filing for bankruptcy. Here's what to know.

The original dolls that inspired Winnie the Pooh stories, presented at New York Public Library.
N100a via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0

The Indicator

Supercore inflation, Bumble valuation and Pooh's repatriation

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This week’s indicators: Why is inflation so super (derogatory)? How did Bumble go from dating app doldrums to a stock market sweetheart?; And oh, bother! Could Winnie the Pooh be moving home to England from New York City?

Supercore inflation, Bumble valuation and Pooh's repatriation

Listen · 9:13
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"I Voted" stickers.
Scott Olson/Getty Images

The Indicator

How did political campaigns get so expensive?

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The 2026 midterm elections are fast approaching, and it’s gearing up to be the most expensive election in American history. So how did we get here, where every election feels more expensive than the last? 

How did political campaigns get so expensive?

Listen · 8:12
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Wanna slow down AI? These biologists can help.

A crowd of scientists watches a presentation at the Asilomar conference in 1975. Andrew Stern/National Academy of Sciences hide caption

Andrew Stern/National Academy of Sciences

Planet Money

Wanna slow down AI? These biologists can help.

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Fifty years ago, scientists pioneering a terrifying gene-splicing technology figured out a way to collectively hit pause. Can we do it again with AI? 

Wanna slow down AI? These biologists can help.

Listen · 29:10
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