There are tons of markets that don't exist because people just don't want to allow a market – for whatever reason, people feel icky about putting a price on something. For example: Surrogacy is a legal industry in parts of the United States, but not in much of the rest of the world. Assisted end-of-life is a legal medical transaction in some states, but is illegal in others.

When we have those knee-jerk reactions and our gut repels us from considering something apparently icky, economics asks us to look a little more closely.

Today on the show, we have three recommendations of things that may feel kinda wrong but economics suggests may actually be the better way. First: Could the matching process of organ donation be more efficient if people could buy and sell organs? Then: Should women seek revenge more often in the workplace? And finally, what if insider trading is actually useful?

This episode was hosted by Mary Childs and Greg Rosalsky. It was produced by Willa Rubin and edited by Jess Jiang. It was engineered by Cena Loffredo. Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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The Department of Defense's proposed budget for 2024 is $842 billion. That is about 3.5% of the U.S.'s GDP. The military buys everything from pens and paper clips to fighter jets and submarines. But the market for military equipment is very different from the commercial market.

On today's episode, we're bringing you two stories from The Indicator's series on defense spending that explore that market. As the U.S. continues to send weapons to Ukraine and Israel, we first look at why defense costs are getting so high. Then, we dive into whether bare-bones manufacturing styles are leaving the U.S. military in a bind.

The original Indicator episodes were produced by Cooper Katz McKim with engineering from Maggie Luthar and James Willetts. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and Angel Carreras. They were edited by Kate Concannon and Paddy Hirsch. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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Why do video game workers offer labor at a discount? How can you design a video game for blind and sighted players? Does that design have lessons for other industries?

These and other questions about the business of video games answered in todays episode. The Indicator just wrapped a weeklong series decoding the economics of the video game industry, we're excerpting some highlights.

First, we meet some of the workers who are struggling with the heavy demands placed on them in their booming industry, and how they are fighting back.

Then, we check in on how game developers are pulling in new audiences by creatively designing for people who couldn't always play. How has accessibility become an increasingly important priority for game developers? And, how can more players join in the fun?

You can hear the rest of our weeklong series on the gaming industry at this link, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This episode was hosted by Wailin Wong, Darian Woods, and Adrian Ma. Corey Bridges produced this episode with help from James Sneed. It was edited by Kate Concannon, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Robert Rodriguez with help from Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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On today's episode, we ride through the streets of San Francisco with a long-time junkman, Jon Rolston.

Jon has spent the last two decades clearing out houses and offices of their junk. He's found all sorts of items: a life-time supply of toilet paper, gold rings, $20,000 in cash. Over the years, he's developed a keen eye for what has value and what might sell. He's become a kind of trash savant.

As we ride with Jon, he shows us the whole ecosystem of how our reusable trash gets dealt with — from metals (ferrous and non-ferrous) to tires to cardboard. And we see how our junk can sometimes get a second chance at life.

If you can understand the junk market like Jon, you can understand dozens of trends in our economy.

This episode was hosted by Erika Beras and James Sneed, and produced by James Sneed with help from Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Jess Jiang. Engineering by Josh Newell. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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At the core of most of the electronics we use today are some very tiny, very powerful chips. Semiconductor chips. And they are mighty: they help power our phones, laptops, and cars. They enable advances in healthcare, military systems, transportation, and clean energy. And they're also critical for artificial intelligence, providing the hardware needed to train complex machine learning.

On today's episode, we're bringing you two stories from our daily show The Indicator, diving into the two most important semiconductor chip companies, which have transformed the industry over the past 40 years.

First, we trace NVIDIA's journey from making niche graphics cards for gaming to making the most advanced chips in the world — and briefly becoming the world's biggest company. Next, we see how the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's decision to manufacture chips for its competition instead of itself flipped the entire industry on its head, and moved the vast majority of the world's advanced chip production to Taiwan.

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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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Last weekend we were all thrown for a loop when President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Kamala Harris for the nomination. Just like everyone else, we are trying to quickly wrap our heads around what it means now that Harris is almost certainly going to be the Democratic nominee for president.

We expect to see the Harris campaign come out with some official policy proposals in the coming weeks and months. But for now, all we've got are clues, little breadcrumbs that she has dropped throughout her career that might lead us to a rough idea of what economic policies she might support.

Today on the show, we're going to visit three key moments from Harris' political career that might give us an idea of how her economic agenda might look. First, the 2019 presidential primary debates, where she laid out her own economic policies. Next, a vote in her Senate years that shows where she might fall on future trade agreements. And finally, a fight with some of the country's biggest banks from her very first year as Attorney General of California.

This episode was hosted by Keith Romer and Nick Fountain. It was produced by Emma Peaslee, edited by Jess Jiang with help from Meg Cramer, and fact checked by Sierra Juarez and Sofia Shchukina. Engineering by Kwesi Lee. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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Find 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 our economic telling of history, it was the early 1900s and the country's leaders were starting to feel like they had the economic situation all figured out. Flash forward a decade or so, and the financial picture was still looking pretty good as America emerged from the first World War.

But then, everything came crashing down with the stock market collapse of 1929. Businesses closed, banks collapsed, one in four people was unemployed, families couldn't make rent, the economy was broken. And this was happening all over the world. Today we'll look at how leaders around the globe intervened to turn the international economy around, and in the process, how the Great Depression rapidly transformed the relationship between government and business forever.

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.

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

Always free at these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.

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"Wanna see a trick? Give us any topic and we can tie it back to the economy."

That is the bold promise in Planet Money's tagline. And we believe the show does live up to it. Over the last year, we've told stories about breakdancing, rum, pagers, buffets, colors, and heartbreak.

But then one host wondered: what if we really held ourselves to that promise? What if we challenged ourselves to find economic meaning in the most esoteric and far-flung topics imaginable?

That's when we turned to you, our listeners. And boy did you deliver. You sent in ideas so obscure, so banananas, so guaranteed to stump and bamboozle that our host maybe started to regret her life choices...but she was resolved to give it a try.

This episode was hosted by Sally Helm and Keith Romer. It was produced by James Sneed. It was edited by Molly Messick and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Engineering by Kwesi Lee. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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(For our story on this year's Nobel in Economics, check out our daily show, The Indicator!)

Let's face it. Economics is filled with terms that don't always make sense to the average person. Terms that sometimes mean what you think they mean, but sometimes not at all. Not even close.

We surveyed 188 economists. And we asked them: What are the most misunderstood terms in the field of economics?

On today's show, their answers! Hear stories about near recessions, a problem with insurance, econ at your local movie theater, and... an economics term that will make undergrads blush. Strap in, and bring your popcorn!

This episode was hosted by Amanda Aronczyk and Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler with help from Sean Saldana. It was edited by Jess Jiang, engineered by Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

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The Philadelphia band is back with a new self-titled album.

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On The Past is Still Alive, folk songwriter Alynda Segarra reignites visions from a past life and the people they've met along the way.

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The composition was performed at the “Prelude to Juneteenth Day Celebration” event held earlier this year at Royce Hall.

UCLA School of Law’s Cara Horowitz and Ann Carlson discuss regulations, litigation and California’s pivotal role.

U of T’s reigning champs eye Americas-wide record at the 2016 Shell Eco-marathon Americas Challenge Toronto, ON – Imagine driving from Toronto to San Francisco and back on three litres of gasoline. That’s exactly the kind of vehicle a University of Toronto Suoermileage Team, will be unveiling on April 16 along with another battery-electric powered car. It’s […]

The following is a list of University of Toronto experts who can comment on Brexit: economic impact to Canada and the world. Laurence Booth, Professor in Structured Finance at Rotman School of Management Expertise: International Business Tel: (416)978‑6311 Email: booth@rotman.utoronto.ca Peter H. Pauly, Professor of Economics, Research Associate at the Institute for International Business at the […]

TORONTO, ON — An invasive ant species that has become increasingly abundant in eastern North America not only takes over yards and delivers a nasty sting, it’s helping the spread of an invasive plant species.  The ants are very effective dispersers of invasive plant seeds and new research suggests that together they could wreak havoc on […]

Toronto, ON — The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report, tabled yesterday, provides an indelible pathway for our individual and collective need to heal and reconcile our past in order to move forward. Central to moving forward on an improved relationship between Indigenous people and Canadians is helping young Indigenous people and families meet and […]

Toronto, ON – A study by researchers at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto shows that four-year-olds with average and lower vocabulary skills learn more effectively with an adult reading an eBook to them versus relying solely on the eBook’s voiceover. Adult reader versus e‑book voiceover In the study, […]

Toronto, ON — The University of Toronto welcomes the $15M investment by the Ontario government for the new Centre for Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CEIE). As stated in the 2016 Ontario Budget introduced today, this investment will support strengthening the Innovation SuperCorridor in Ontario. This Centre will bring together smart building design and state-of-the-art learning technologies, […]

The future of Toronto’s economy, transportation and environmentIn the third episode of this miniseries, U of T Cities features University of Toronto experts working to build more sustainable cities in the realms of environment, infrastructure and economy. Learn more http://bit.ly/ZMDJK4 Landscape architecture professor Liat Margolis describes her work on green roofs and its implications for emergency management, energy […]

Toronto Community Foundation award recognizes leaders in community-buildingTORONTO, ON — Sarah Pole, director of the groundbreaking Law in Action Within Schools (LAWS) program, received a Vital People Award from the Toronto Community Foundation. These awards, announced today, offer grants in recognition of valued community leaders who are making outstanding contributions at not-for-profit organizations. Grants are […]

TORONTO, ON – The University of Toronto today announced the appointment of Professor Edward Iacobucci as dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto for a five-year term, beginning January 1, 2015, and ending December 31, 2019. “The Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto is a great Canadian institution, and […]

In this hour, we present four stories of getting another shot. Tales of tenacity, unexpected fortune, and redemption in moments both great and small. Hosted by The Moth's Executive Producer, Sarah Austin Jenness. The Moth Radio Hour is produced by The Moth and Jay Allison of Atlantic Public Media.

Hosted by: Sarah Austin Jenness

Storytellers:

Joshua Blau loses his wallet on the FDR drive.

Navrioska Mateo puts her dream job in peril.

Faith Salie has a fashion crisis on a momentous day.

Sherman "OT" Powell attempts to reconnect with his family after 34 years.

In this hour, stories of looking backward to forge ahead. Seeking justice for heinous crimes decades old, memories flooding back during a chance encounter, and reconciling darkness during a joyous time. This hour is hosted by The Moth's former Artistic Director, Catherine Burns. The Moth Radio Hour is produced by The Moth and Jay Allison of Atlantic Public Media.

Storytellers:

Journalist Jerry Mitchell takes on notorious members of the Ku Klux Klan.

Reyna Grande finds kinship with a man seeking asylum in the US.

In her journey to start a family, Sarah Jane Johnson also finds herself facing her past.

In this hour, stories of do-overs, golden years, and new takes. One-more-chance—at work, in love, through art. This episode is hosted by Moth Senior Curatorial Producer, Suzanne Rust. The Moth Radio Hour is produced by The Moth and Jay Allison of Atlantic Public Media.

Storytellers:

Jamal Joseph is tasked with putting on a play in prison. 

After not working for almost 2 decades, Neerja Kapoor takes on an unexpected job.

Craig Mangum and his girlfriend have more in common than anticipated. 

Rhonda Sternberg describes dating "while old."

After losing her father, Blessing Omakwu has a crisis of faith. 

Can a brief history of the modern office help us understand changes happening today?

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.

How can people stay viable and valuable throughout their careers?

As we enter the second half of 2020, the beginning of the year already feels like a distant memory. So much has changed so quickly, and one might assume the priorities and challenges for staffing and recruiting businesses today are worlds apart from what they were just six months ago. While there's no doubt that the landscape has changed dramatically, the industry is still all about people. In that sense, many ...

American shoppers will have to pay between $1.6 billion and $3.2 billion more for connected devices such as gateways, modems, routers, smart speakers, smartwatches and other Bluetooth enabled products.

Through its memberships in America Makes, WMT&R joins other leading member organizations from industry, academia, government, non-government agencies, and workforce and economic development resources that are working together to innovate and accelerate additive manufacturing and 3-D printing.

Manufacturing Institute now accepting nominations for annual STEP Ahead Awards.

Batteries are key to electrification, demanding high-quality control and efficient production. The use of Automated Defect Recognition (ADR) and other technologies is critical as the industry aims to scale up to meet the rising demand from electronics, electric vehicles, and energy storage sectors, while also minimizing environmental impacts.

43 schools receive sustainability awards, 16 schools for first time.

Mathematics has always played a central role in secondary school curriculum in Denmark. The Danish Ministry of Education continues to emphasize its importance as it mandates reforms and new standards that students are expected to meet in order to graduate. The country’s high standards of mathematics have led to the adoption of Maple in 110 of 160 Denmark high schools. Maple is a software tool from Maplesoft that makes it easy to explore, visualize and solve problems in mathematics.

Thomas Yoon, president and CEO, LG North America CEO, addresses barriers to market growth at a recent White House executive roundtable. 

Nick Hughes didn't know what career he wanted to pursue when he left the U.S. Navy three years ago. Now, he will soon graduate from the two-year applied science in air conditioning technology program at the College of Southern Nevada (CSN) as the recipient of the Post 9/11 Veterans Tools Award.

Harper General Contractors employees over 200 employees and does business in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia. Its average project size is between $2 million and $12 million, with capabilities for projects up to $100 million.

For contractors in humid climates, a lot of the comfort they provide is through being able to control humidity levels, which can be aided by adding a secondary dehumidification system.

Greenheck has added three new models to its line of high-performance residential energy recovery ventilators (ERVs).

The proceeds will be split between Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area and the Randy Rawson Scholarship Program, which is run by the American Boil.er Manufacturers Association.

Consulting with an expert can streamline the conversion to electric boilers while reducing total project cost and maximizing system reliability.

Condensing boilers save space and time on installation, as installing a condensing boiler is a pretty seamless process for a few reasons.

How do we motivate HVAC contractors to do more refrigerant recovery? The ACHR NEWS posed the question to three industry experts on the front lines of the refrigerant transition. Here’s what they had to say about what that will take — and what we’re all going to be in for if we don’t.

A new technology has been developed that can decompose refrigerants, using a catalyst made from industrial waste called “red mud.'’ 

There has been debate on the transition from traditional a/c units to the smaller ones, or to find other worthy alternatives.

Markets in 79 of the approximately 360 metro areas nationwide returned to or exceeded their last normal levels of economic and housing activity in the third quarter of 2015, according to the latest National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/First American Leading Markets Index (LMI).

SAN ANTONIO — For years, one of the highlights of the Mechanical Contractors Association of America’s (MCAA’s) Annual Convention has been the economic forecast offered by Brian Beaulieu, CEO of ITR Economics in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Heat recovery systems can be divided into two categories based on the thermal parameters of the system: Systems with high and low thermal parameters.