There's a behind the scenes industry that helps big brands decide questions like: How big should a bag of chips be? What's the right size for a bottle of shampoo? And yes, also: When should a company do a little shrinkflation?

From Cookie Monster to President Biden, everybody is complaining about shrinkflation these days. But when we asked the packaging and pricing experts, they told us that shrinkflation is just one move in a much larger, much weirder 4-D chess game.

The name of that game is "price pack architecture." This is the idea that you shouldn't just sell your product in one or two sizes. You should sell your product in a whole range of different sizes, at a whole range of different price points. Over the past 15 years, price pack architecture has completely changed how products are marketed and sold in the United States.

Today, we are going on a shopping cart ride-along with one of those price pack architects. She's going to pull back the curtain and show us why some products are getting larger while others are getting smaller, and tell us about the adorable little soda can that started it all.

By the end of the episode, you'll never look at a grocery store the same way again.

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Planet 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 is money? And where did it come from? We travel to a remote island in the Pacific Ocean for the answer. Then we'll visit France in the year 1714, where a man on the lam tries to revolutionize the country's entire monetary system, and comes impressively close to the modern economy we have today, before it all falls apart. Check out our Summer School video cheat sheet on the origins of money at the Planet Money TikTok.

The series is hosted by Robert Smith and produced by Audrey Dilling. Our project manager is Devin Mellor. This episode was edited by Planet Money Executive Producer Alex Goldmark and fact-checked by Sofia Shchukina.

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Episodes 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 come up in all of the episodes of Summer School so far. An early use of money was to make trade easier. Trade was responsible for the birth of companies and the stock market. And trade was the lifeblood of the early United States.

Today's episode covers 250 years of trade history in three chapters. We start with one of the founding texts of economics, Wealth of Nations, in which Adam Smith argues a country's true value is not measured in gold and silver, but by its people's ability to buy things that enhance their standard of living. Then we'll watch American politicians completely ignore that argument in favor of protecting domestic industries – until one congressman makes a passionate case for free trade as the means to world peace. And finally we'll follow the trade debate up to the modern day, where the tides of American politics have turned toward regulation.

This series is hosted by Robert Smith and produced by Audrey Dilling. Our project manager is Devin Mellor. This episode was edited by Planet Money Executive Producer Alex Goldmark and fact-checked by Sofia Shchukina.

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On today's show, we have two stories from The Indicator, Planet Money's daily podcast. They just launched Love Week, a weeklong series exploring the business and economic side of romance.

First, hosts Wailin Wong and Adrian Ma fire up the gas logs and pour a mug of cocoa to discuss the made-for-TV rom-com machine, and how television executives learned to mass produce seasonal romance.

Then, Wailin and host Darian Woods discuss another romance medium: the romance novel. Once relegated to supermarket aisles, these books are now mainstream. And authors, an often-maligned group within publishing, have found greater commercial success than many writers in other genres. We find out how romance novelists rode the e-book wave and networked with each other to achieve their happily-for-now status in the industry.

This episode is hosted by Erika Beras, Wailin Wong, Adrian Ma, and Darian Woods. These episodes of The Indicator were originally produced by Julia Ritchey and engineered by Kwesi Lee. They were fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Kate Concannon is The Indicator's Editor.

You can listen to the rest of the series at The Indicator's feed, or at npr.org/love

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In this episode, we go back 20 years to the origins of StoryCorps–the challenges of building a recording booth in Grand Central Terminal– and we catch up with the participants from the first ever radio story we broadcast on NPR.

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As we continue celebrating StoryCorps' 20th anniversary, we bring you two of our favorite stories that made a strong impression on our listeners, and we share updates with the participants from the last two decades.

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In the third episode of our special series celebrating two decades of StoryCorps, we're bringing you inside the Mobile Booth—the recording studio we built in a trailer to circle the country, capturing voices that would otherwise never be recorded. Hear some of our favorite stories from the road, and from the people who haul the trailer on a never-ending road trip.

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As we celebrate StoryCorps' 20th anniversary, we bring you the story of a man who integrated his high school as a teenager in Knoxville, Tennessee, and how a StoryCorps listener comment helped him reckon with his past five decades later.

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For most of StoryCorps' existence, we've recorded people in person at our storybooths. But on this episode of our special series celebrating 20 years of StoryCorps, we're looking back to when we stepped outside the recording booth to capture stories. Sometimes because we wanted to hear new voices... and sometimes because we had to.

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StoryCorps' initiatives have long helped us gather voices that are usually omitted from the historical record, like our LGBTQ+ Outloud initiative. In our continuing celebration of twenty years of StoryCorps, we're sharing some of our favorite recordings from that collection... and how a story close to our founder Dave Isay's heart helped lead to its creation.

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Mary Johnson-Roy first came to StoryCorps in 2011 to speak with Oshea Israel, the man who murdered her son. In the latest episode from our special series celebrating StoryCorps' 20th anniversary, we'll share updates on a conversation none of us imagined would happen back when StoryCorps started.

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As we close out our special series celebrating 20 years of StoryCorps, hear how our One Small Step initiative is helping to facilitate a national conversation by bringing people together from across the political spectrum.

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Nat was absolutely beaming as he proudly showed off his new Saab to his soon-to-be inlaws. Beaming that is right up to the moment that it started to roll downhill without a driver. Could Nat possibly have made a worse first impression? Find out on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.
Get access to hundreds of episodes in the Car Talk archive when you sign up for Car Talk+ at plus.npr.org/cartalk

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Find out which songs the English musician chose to perform for World Cafe's new feature called Backtracking.

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Black History Month is a time to remember and reflect on Black heritage. This hour features powerful conversations from past episodes on how we can confront the past to move toward a better future. Guests include historian and preservationist Brent Leggs, community organizer Colette Pichon Battle, and computer scientist Joy Buolamwini.

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Original broadcast date: May 6, 2022. MLK Jr., Malcolm X and James Baldwin are household names, but what about their mothers? This hour, author Anna Malaika Tubbs explores how these three women shaped American history.

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In the cult comic American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang weaves mythical folklore with a coming-of-age immigrant story. The author reflects on why his story still feels relevant to young readers. Host Manoush Zomorodi also speaks with Ben Wang, star of the new Disney+ adaptation of the award-winning graphic novel.

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!) sponsor-free. Sign-up at plus.npr.org/ted.

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Words are never just words. They carry context and controversy; they can signal identity or sow discord. This week, TED speakers explore the history and politics of our ever-evolving language. Guests include linguists Anne Curzan and John McWhorter, social psychologist Dannagal Young and writer Mark Forsyth.

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 series, which highlights the city’s past through current library collections, kicks off with an episode on Los Angeles labor history.

The program is co-led by the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA, the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and Pasadena City College.

California chapparal fire burns into urban Ventura County, showing need for strategies beyond fighting ‘forest’ fires.

Toronto, ON – An economics professor at the University of Toronto is the recipient of a prestigious grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to study the behavioural welfare economics of how nudges affect financial decision making. Sandro Ambuehl is an assistant professor in the Department of Management at the University of Toronto Scarborough, with […]

Toronto, ON – With the pace of change in healthcare and the life sciences sector accelerating at unprecedented rates, a new Executive MBA program from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management aims to prepare working professionals in the sector to lead their organizations, businesses and health systems. The Global Executive MBA in Healthcare & […]

Toronto, ON – Current faculty members and a former doctoral student from the areas of accounting, organizational behaviour and strategic management have received awards for their research papers from academic associations and publications. A paper published in Administrative Science Quarterly was honoured with two top awards last month. Whitened Résumés: Race and Self-Presentation in the Labor […]

TORONTO, ON — With the upcoming October 27 municipal elections taking place, political change is coming to many of Ontario’s big cities. A new paper by the University of Toronto’s Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance (IMFG) at the Munk School of Global Affairs profiles election campaigns in six of Ontario’s biggest cities — Hamilton, […]

TORONTO, ON — A group of students in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto are getting the opportunity of a lifetime. Using the vast capabilities of IBM’s Watson, the cognitive computing technology widely known for winning the 2011 Jeopardy challenge, the students will be learning to develop innovative artificial intelligence (AI)-based […]

TORONTO, ON — A study led by University of Toronto psychology researchers has found that people who play action video games such as Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed seem to learn a new sensorimotor skill more quickly than non-gamers do. A new sensorimotor skill, such as learning to ride a bike or typing, often […]

TORONTO, ON — University of Toronto undergraduates Moustafa Abdalla and Caroline Leps are heading to Oxford University next year for postgraduate studies as two of Canada’s 11 students named 2015 Rhodes Scholars. The prestigious Rhodes Scholarship program is the oldest, postgraduate award program supporting outstanding, all-round students at Oxford. Rhodes Scholars have gone on to become Pulitzer Prize winners, heads of state […]

Discovery may propel advances in regenerative medicineTORONTO, ON – Consider the relationship between an air traffic controller and a pilot. The pilot gets the passengers to their destination, but the air traffic controller decides when the plane can take off and when it must wait. The same relationship plays out at the cellular level in […]

TORONTO, ON — A landmark study on gender equality among religious minorities in Canada sharply disputes the stereotype Muslim women are more repressed by men than other groups of immigrants. Sharia law, burqas, honour killings and overseas terrorism directed at girls and women grab headlines and shape public opinion, but workforce participation rates among immigrants […]

Toronto, ON – The world’s preeminent trading competition for university students returns for its 14th year at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. The students, along with their faculty advisors, from 52 different universities which include teams from China, Iceland, India, and South Africa, will participate in the competition which takes place from February […]

Toronto, ON – Seven faculty members at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management have received awards for achievements in research and teaching. Four faculty members were awarded with the 2016 Roger Martin Awards for Excellence in Research and Teaching. Established by Prof. Roger Martin, a former Dean of the Rotman School, the awards are […]

Toronto, ON – The Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies at the University of Toronto has announced the recipients of their 2017 awards, which will be presented at a gala ceremony at Hart House in Toronto on April 26. “This year’s Bonham Centre Awards recipients have been chosen to highlight the history and leading […]

Toronto, ON – OPEN IMPACT, an online resource to help investors find financial investment products that make money – and make the world a better place – launched today at www.openimpact.ca. Impact investing is a fast-growing approach to investing that seeks financial returns as well as measurable social and/or environmental impact. According to a JP […]

Toronto, ON – Andres Lombo, Aiden Aird, Carl Pinter and Jack Stanley have been named The University of Toronto’s recipients of the prestigious Schulich Leader Scholarships. Created in 2011 by Canadian business leader and philanthropist Seymour Schulich, this annual scholarship program encourages promising high school graduates to embrace STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) in their future […]

Toronto, ON – This Friday, April 8, University of Toronto Engineering students will present their solutions to 10 of Toronto’s most persistent problems. From helping epileptic children learn to write to designing better tools for collecting street litter, these first-year students are working with local communities, companies and agencies with a single goal: to improve life in […]

Toronto, ON – University of Toronto announced today that it is a Grand Challenges Explorations winner, an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Professor Aaron Wheeler, of the Department of Chemistry and Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering, and his research team will pursue an innovative global health and development research project, […]

Toronto, ON –  When a person suffers cardiac arrest, there is a one in five chance a potentially life-saving Automated External Defibrillator (AED) is nearby. But up to 30 per cent of the time, the device is locked inside a closed building, according to a study led by U of T Engineering researchers, published today […]

Toronto, ON – Since 2005, Y Combinator (YC) has launched 1,200 startups which have a combined valuation of over $65 billion. Without the help of this seed accelerator, companies such as DoorDash, Code Academy and Thalmic Labs would have been lost. On Friday, January 20, 2017, YC will be inaugurating Accelerator Weekend with a panel led […]

Toronto, ON –  First-year students in U of T Engineering are stepping up to take on some of the Greater Toronto Area’s most persistent problems, from diagnosing infant epilepsy to finding lost arrows at a local archery range. This Wednesday, April 12, students at the University of Toronto are hosting a day-long event to showcase […]

National conference will spark discussion on reinventing education to prepare tomorrow’s diverse engineering leaders to address challenges we can’t yet imagineToronto, ON – The toughest problems facing humanity in the 21st century — from water scarcity to urban intensification to personalized medicine — will be tackled by tomorrow’s engineers. Many of the issues they will work to solve […]

Toronto, ON – When one atom first meets another, the precise nature of that interaction can determine much about what kinds of physical properties and behaviours will emerge. In a paper published today in Nature Physics, a team led by U of T physicist Joseph Thywissen reported their discovery of a new set of rules […]

Professor R J Dwayne Miller is the Royal Society of Chemistry Centenary Prize winner for 2016. Dwayne is Director of the Atomically Resolved Dynamics Department of the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) in Hamburg, Germany, with a secondary appointment as Professor of Chemistry and Physics at the University of […]

University of Toronto Engineering, Google and Actua partner on Innovate U, a day-long STEM event for children in grades 3–8, featuring hands-on coding, circuitry and moreToronto, ON – More than 1,400 students from Grades 3–8 will descend on the University of Toronto on Friday, May 13 for Innovate U, a massive day of hands-on activities […]

Toronto, ON – University of Toronto Professor Giovanni Grasselli, of the Department of Civil Engineering, has been named the inaugural holder of the Foundation CMG Industrial Research Chair in Fundamental Petroleum Rock Physics and Rock Mechanics. Professor Grasselli is joining 12 chairs at 12 universities, including Penn State and the University of Texas in Austin, […]

Toronto, ON – Super-computer modelling of Earth’s crust and upper-mantle suggests that ancient geologic events may have left deep ‘scars’ that can come to life to play a role in earthquakes, mountain formation, and other ongoing processes on our planet. This changes the widespread view that only interactions at the boundaries between continent-sized tectonic plates […]

Likely due to high temperatures and uncoordinated treatmentToronto, ON – High ocean temperatures and poor timing of parasite management likely led to an epidemic of sea lice in 2015 throughout salmon farms in British Columbia’s Queen Charlotte Strait, a University of Toronto-led study has found. The sea lice spread to migrating juvenile wild salmon, resulting in […]

Saving the planet from climate change with a grain of sandToronto, ON – Every year, humans advance climate change and global warming – and quite likely our own eventual extinction – by injecting about 30 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the atmosphere. A team of scientists from the University of Toronto (U of T) […]

Universities announce their 2016 Schulich Leader Scholarship winners Toronto, ON – Kevin Han, Jun Ran Xu, Haleema Khan and Sabrina Cruz have been named University of Toronto’s recipients of the prestigious Schulich Leader Scholarships. Created in 2011 by Canadian business leader and philanthropist Seymour Schulich, this annual scholarship program encourages promising high school graduates to embrace […]

Toronto, ON – At the Japan-Canada Summit Meeting in May 2016, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe noted that Japan wished to support Japanese studies at Canadian universities in order to promote mutual understanding between the two countries. Today, based upon this commitment, the Government of Japan is conferring US$5 million on the University of Toronto to […]