Prices go up. Occasionally, prices go down. But for 70 years, the price of a bottle of Coca-Cola didn't change. From 1886 until the late 1950s, a bottle of coke cost just a nickel.

On today's show, we find out why. The answer includes a half a million vending machines, a 7.5 cent coin, and a company president who just wanted to get a couple of lawyers out of his office.

This episode originally ran in 2012.

This episode was hosted by David Kestenbaum. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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Would you say that you and your family are better off or worse off, financially, than you were a year ago? Do you think in 12 months we'll have good times, financially, or bad? Generally speaking, do you think now is a good time or a bad time to buy a house?

These are the kinds of questions baked into the Consumer Sentiment Index. And while the economy has been humming along surprisingly well lately, sentiment has stayed surprisingly low.

Today on the show: We are really bummed about the economy, despite the fact that unemployment and inflation are down. So, what gives? We talk to a former Fed economist trying to get to the heart of this paradox, and travel to Michigan to check in on the place where they check the vibes of the economy.

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Remember pagers? They were huge in the 80s — these little devices that could receive short messages. Sir Mix-A-Lot even had a song about them! But then cell phones came along, and pagers more or less became obsolete.

Except there's one group of people who still carry pagers: medical doctors. At a surprisingly large number of hospitals, the pager remains the backbone of communication. Need to ask a doctor a question? Page them. Need to summon a doctor to an emergency? Page them. And then... wait for them to call you back.

Almost everyone agrees that pagers are a clunky and error-prone way for doctors to communicate. So why do so many hospitals still rely on them?On today's show: A story about two doctors who hatched a plan to finally rid their hospital of pagers. And the surprising lessons they learned about why some obsolete technologies can be so hard to replace.

This episode was hosted by Jeff Guo and Nick Fountain. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Keith Romer and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. It was engineered by Robert Rodriguez with help from Maggie Luthar. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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Maybe she's born with it, maybe it's __________.

The best part of waking up, is _______ in your cup!

Got ____?

If you can identify these brands based on tagline alone, it's possible you... are a 90s kid.

The '90s were arguably the peak moment of advertisers trying to make an impression on us that could last for decades. They got us to sing their jingles and say their slogans. These kinds of ads are called brand or image marketing. And it became a lot harder to pull off in the 21st century.

On today's show, we look back at the history of advertising, and two pretty unassuming products that totally transformed ads.

This show was hosted by Sarah Gonzalez and Kenny Malone. It was produced by James Sneed, and engineered by James Willets. It was fact checked by Sierra Juarez, and edited by Molly Messick. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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In the past few months, the price of gold has gone way up – even hitting a new high last month at just over $2,400 per troy ounce.

Gold has long had a shiny quality to it, literally and in the marketplace. And we wondered, why is that?

Today on the show, we revisit a Planet Money classic episode: Why Gold? Jacob Goldstein and David Kestenbaum will peruse the periodic table of the elements with one goal in mind: to learn which element would really make the best money.

This classic Planet Money episode was part of the Planet Money Buys Gold series, and was hosted by Jacob Goldstein and David Kestenbaum.

This rerun was hosted by Sally Helm, produced by Willa Rubin, edited by Keith Romer, and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

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We've lived amongst Elon Musk headlines for so long now that it's easy to forget just how much he sounds like a sci-fi character. He runs a space company and wants to colonize mars. He also runs a company that just implanted a computer chip into a human brain. And he believes there's a pretty high probability everything is a simulation and we are living inside of it.

But the latest Elon Musk headline-grabbing drama is less something out of sci-fi, and more something pulled from HBO's "Succession."

Elon Musk helped take Tesla from the brink of bankruptcy to one of the biggest companies in the world. And his compensation for that was an unprecedentedly large pay package that turned him into the richest person on Earth. But a judge made a decision about that pay package that set off a chain of events resulting in quite possibly the most expensive, highest stakes vote in publicly traded company history.

The ensuing battle over Musk's compensation is not just another wild Elon tale. It's a lesson in how to motivate the people running the biggest companies that – like it or not – are shaping our world. It's a classic economics problem with a very 2024 twist.

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As StoryCorps' 20th anniversary approaches, we'll be looking back at important moments both in our history and the country's. This week — one more short story from our Military Voices Initiative. Sergeant Ocean Subiono tells his father, Russell Subiono, about what happened when he tried to enlist.

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In the last century, human life expectancy has doubled. This hour, we talk with writer Steven Johnson on the many breakthroughs that made this possible — and where we go from here.

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Original broadcast date: March 22, 2022. In the last century, human life expectancy has doubled. This hour, we talk with writer Steven Johnson on the many breakthroughs that made this possible — and where we go from here.

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In part three: host Manoush Zomorodi explores how our tech habits are causing our eyes to change shape—to elongate—which causes nearsightedness. She investigates why rates of myopia among kids are soaring. She speaks with Maria Liu, an optometrist with a quest to slow down the progression of myopia in children by opening the first ever myopia control clinic in the United States.

Later in the episode, we hear from a team of employees who tried incorporating "movement snacks" into their days for one week.

Click here to find out more about the project: npr.org/bodyelectric

Are you signed up for Columbia's study, or following along with the series? We want to hear your thoughts! Send us a voice memo at bodyelectric@npr.org. Talk to us on Instagram @ManoushZ, and on Facebook @tedradiohour.

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Original broadcast date: Friday, December 3, 2021. Admitting we're wrong is painful — even seen as a sign of weakness. But what if we take a more flexible approach? This hour: how rethinking ideas can be good for our brains and our relationships. Guests include former GOP congressman Bob Inglis, organizational psychologist Adam Grant, and civil rights activist Loretta J. Ross.

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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Mariana Mazzucato, who has been called “one of the three most important thinkers about innovation.” is urging all of us to seize the moment and remake a more fair, just, and equitable world for all.

NFTs are all over the news. We decided to take a closer look and figure out just what this bitcoin-adjacent technology is — and whether it's worth the hype.

Many diversity and inclusion efforts in the workplace fall short of helping employees feel like they belong — and why this matters. (1 of 3)

Tsedal Neeley on Why We Need to Think of the Office as a Tool, with Very Specific Uses

Training is a vital part of any business's long-term growth plan. In fact, a study from the American Society for Training and Development found that organizations that invest the most in employee training have 218 percent higher income per ...

The process through which corporations seek, track, and interview job candidates and train new employees is called talent acquisition. A talent source looks for and finds suitable candidates. They do this by employing a variety of proactive recruiting tactics. Sources seek applicants who are both active and passive. The human resources (HR) department is normally in charge of this.

You've invested time, effort, and money into designing your recruitment strategy — but you're still not getting the results you'd hoped for. What's going wrong with your recruiting strategy? Why isn't it attracting the top talent your business needs? To help you troubleshoot, here are a few of the most common reasons why recruitment strategies fail — and how to fix the problem: 1. Using Outdated Recruiting ...

Most companies today have something to say about their company culture and how it makes them unique with regard to what they do and how they treat their employees. And that's a good thing: Today's employees are not motivated solely by money, and behaving as if they are will rarely lead to good long-term recruiting results. When candidates are considering prospective employers, they have a ...

Having visibility into a team's processes and projects is important to every manager. However, when you're managing a remote team, visibility becomes even more critical. How can you guide your staff on priorities and deadlines when you aren't sure what's actually going on behind the scenes? With remote workforces, simply getting work done isn't enough. Inefficient processes become more problematic as employees are no longer in the same room and communication becomes more difficult or delayed. Managers also need to see ...

Reverse engineering as a term is adopted by many industry subsets. From genetics, computer code, complex PCBs (printed circuit boards), and even military espionage. In this article, we are specifically relating to a metrology-driven process steered by high-precision 3D data acquisition tools. 

As businesses increasingly rely on machine vision to enhance quality, improve productivity, and increase the bottom line, technology providers are relying more on industrial computing solutions that enable faster processing speeds and higher efficiency, or that support new tasks altogether. 

As emerging technologies like AI and robotics capture attention, foundational engineering principles remain crucial. Essential for innovation, these include material science and control theory. ASME’s Y14.5 Standard on geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) is key for advanced manufacturing.

A new generation is discovering that a four-year degree isn’t necessary to be successful.

Colorado researchers found that on average, more than half of the energy consumed by residential air conditioners deals with the humidity on a hot day.

The flow control industry has stubbornly clung to pneumatic actuators, specifically in the American market, for decades.

Today, HVACR distributors rely on enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to handle nearly every level of their operations. Vendor data, turns, dead stock, cycle counts, sales margins, and much more can be accessed directly from a computer or, in some cases, a mobile device.

One Stop Cooling studies technicians’ readings recorded on service calls. If you do the same, you might be surprised with the mistakes you find.

Over time, dirt, dust, pet dander, debris, and more accumulate in air ducts. And since the HVAC system works basically as a whole-home vacuum, all of that is recirculated through homes when the HVAC system runs, unless the ducts are cleaned out.

Selecting a VFD that features remote startup can decrease the number of individuals needed onsite and provide valuable safety benefits.

When changing the refrigerant within your pumping application, it is worth discussing the application with a process specialist.

Due to a lack of training, time constraints, and numerous other reasons, many HVAC contracting companies are not performing combustion testing, potentially compromising customers’ safety.

Alex Budzier of the Oxford Saïd Business School and Jürgen Laartz of McKinsey Berlin join Robert Blumen to talk about the their research on large IT project failures. Why do large projects fail and to what extent are these failures avoidable?

Sage Regenerative Kitchen’s executive chef explains why she added meat to the menu—and why she believes so deeply in regenerative farming.

High-profile, disruptive protests can lead to increased polarization—but often still yield increased public support for the protest’s goals, even if the tactics are criticized.

this is 100% dead-on

On World Afro Day people are encouraged top celebrate coiled, curly afro textured hair and learn more about it.

Does it seem like there are more spiders around the house right now? And do the spiders you spot seem bigger than those you've seen in recent months? Spider expert, Dr Sara Goodacre, is here with some arachnid answers.

Ricky shares his experience of being bullied when he was younger and asks an expert, why does someone become a bully?

It's World Kindness Day on 13 November. It's a day to remind ourselves of the importance of being kind to others. How are you celebrating?

The problem of energy accessibility and production on Mars is one of the three main challenges for the upcoming colonisation of the red planet. The energetic potential on its turn is mainly dependent on the astrophysical characteristics of the planet.... Read more

The post Want to live and use energy on Mars? Why not? appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

Why are power engineers interested in plant power factor, what causes low power factor, and how can it be improved? The objectives of this article are to answer these questions briefly and to include handy application information for power-factor problems.... Read more

The post Why should plant engineers be worried about the power factor? What’s the catch? appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

Safe for use in occupied spaces, hydroxyls neutralize odors, mold, and bacteria without damaging materials, making them essential for restoration professionals.

In conjunction with the 2021 Ladder Award program honoring outstanding young restoration professionals, we asked future industry leaders to share their “why.”

Innovations in how compostable packaging is made, along with new technology for composting, are among the forces working to increase the use of this type of packaging.

AMERIPEN’s Dan Felton lauds both Maryland and Illinois for fostering productive discussions and collaboration among industry, environmental groups, and the government with respect to EPR and any future laws.

While a stubborn clamshell container or vacuum-sealed jar lid might serve as a minor inconvenience to some, it can be a major struggle for others. 

Perforations on shrink sleeves perform a number of functions. On neck bands, perforations make it difficult to open or tamper with a product without it being obvious to the consumer.

Unlike conventional ice packs, which can cause uneven cooling with some areas becoming excessively cold while others remain warmer, Hydopac’s ice pack design ensures even temperature distribution, preserving the freshness and nutritional value of perishable products.