Independence Day means different things to each of us. On this 249th birthday for America, we spend some time looking at different definitions of America by revisiting NPR's 2018 series: American Anthem — which had the simple goal of telling 50 stories about 50 songs that have become galvanizing forces in American culture.
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Planet Money - The simple math of the big bill
If we think about the economic effects of President Donald Trumps big taxing and spending and domestic policy bill, we can roughly sum it up in one line. It goes something like this:
We will make many big tax cuts permanent and pay for those tax cuts by cutting Medicaid and a few other things and also...by borrowing money.
A lot of money.
Even more than we've already been borrowing over the past twenty years. (And that was already a lot, too!)
Today: simple arithmetic with profound ramifications. Tax cuts, spending cuts, and whether they balance out. (Spoiler: no.)
We look under the hood to see how all this is calculated. And we ask: how will a bigger deficit play out for all of us, in our normal, regular lives?
We've covered a bunch more having to do with the big taxing and spending bill and the federal debt recently on Planet Money and our short daily show The Indicator:
- So, how's this No Tax On Tips thing gonna go?
- A thought experiment on how to fix the national debt problem
- The paperwork trap: A sneaky way to cut Medicaid in the 'One Big Beautiful Bill'?
- The debt limit, the origins of the X Date, and why it all matters
- What's a revenge tax?
- Is the federal debt REALLY that bad?
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We will make many big tax cuts permanent and pay for those tax cuts by cutting Medicaid and a few other things and also...by borrowing money.
A lot of money.
Even more than we've already been borrowing over the past twenty years. (And that was already a lot, too!)
Today: simple arithmetic with profound ramifications. Tax cuts, spending cuts, and whether they balance out. (Spoiler: no.)
We look under the hood to see how all this is calculated. And we ask: how will a bigger deficit play out for all of us, in our normal, regular lives?
We've covered a bunch more having to do with the big taxing and spending bill and the federal debt recently on Planet Money and our short daily show The Indicator:
- So, how's this No Tax On Tips thing gonna go?
- A thought experiment on how to fix the national debt problem
- The paperwork trap: A sneaky way to cut Medicaid in the 'One Big Beautiful Bill'?
- The debt limit, the origins of the X Date, and why it all matters
- What's a revenge tax?
- Is the federal debt REALLY that bad?
Support Planet Money, get bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening and now Summer School episodes one week early by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.
Listen free at these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
CrowdScience - Can we harness solar energy from other stars?
Listener Dickson Mukisa from Uganda has been gazing up at the stars. But he’s not making wishes. He wants to know whether we can harness their energy, in the same way we do with our OWN star – the sun. After all, they may seem small and twinkly to us, but each one is a gigantic flaming ball of energy, with a power outputs averaging around 40 quadrillion kilowatt-hours per year – EACH! With somewhere between 100 and 400 BILLION stars in our own galaxy alone, that’s a lot of power! Can we get ‘solar power’ from stars that are such a long way away from earth? And what might we use it for?
Alex Lathbridge heads to the University College London Observatory, to peer through the eyepiece of an enormous telescope and see some stars for himself. Professor Steve Fossey explains just how much of the light energy of the stars reaches us on earth. In other words, how BRIGHT they are.
Once the starlight reaches earth of course, we have to capture it. Could traditional solar panels do the job? Alex meets Professor Henry Snaith from the University of Oxford, to find out about the future of photovoltaic technology, and why it could all be heading out to space.
Once in space, things start getting weird! What if we made an enormous fleet of solar panels, and put them all into orbit around a star, soaking up every last drop of that precious energy? That might sound like science fiction, but the idea has been around for decades. It’s called a Dyson Sphere, or Dyson Swarm. Swedish researcher at the Insitute for Future Studies, Anders Sandberg explains how we might be able to build one around a neighbouring star... in around 10,000 years or so.
But maybe it’s not all about light. Finally, Alex explores the mysterious, invisible energy of the ‘solar wind’, with Pekka Janhunen, Finnish physicist and inventor of the “E-Sail”, which might be able to harness the power of the stellar wind, too.
Presenter: Alex Lathbridge Producer: Emily Knight Series Producer: Ben Motley
(Image: Astronomer looking at the starry skies with a telescope. Credit: m-gucci via Getty Images)
Motley Fool Money - First Half Lookback
For once, the big tech giants are not driving the market’s returns.
(00:21) Motley Fool Senior Analyst, Anthony Schiavone, and Motley Fool Asset Management’s Chief Investment Strategist, Bill Mann, join Ricky Mulvey to discuss:
- American equity markets reaching all-time highs.
- The surprising performance of dollar stores.
- What the passage of The Big Beautiful Bill means for EV makers and the federal deficit.
- Ricky’s goodbye to Motley Fool Money.
Then, (19:11) Motley Fool Canada’s Jim Gillies joins Ricky to discuss speculation in the market and to shine a light on five stocks to keep an eye on.
(35:26) Bill and Anthony discuss two radar stocks, Alphabet and Target.
Companies discussed: MSFT, META, TSLA, DG, MEDP, LULU, SMPL, ATGE, KTB, TGT, GOOG, GOOGL
Host: Ricky Mulvey
Guests: Bill Mann, Anthony Schiavone, Jim Gillies
Engineer: Dan Boyd
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The Daily Signal - VDH: This July 4th, We Remember the Fallen
VDH: This July 4th, We Remember the Fallen
A year and two months after the first shots of the American Revolution were fired at the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the 13 American colonies declared independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776.
Whether ridding the continent of British influence following the revolution, or coming to their aid during both World Wars, over 1 million soldiers have perished fighting to “protect the ideas of the American Revolution and the United States itself.”
“And on this July 4th, we need to give them a due. And remember what they did, who they were, and why they did it,” argues Victor Davis Hanson on this July 4 edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words:”
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👉He’s also the host of “The Victor Davis Hanson Show,” available wherever you prefer to watch or listen. Links to the show and exclusive content are available on his website: https://victorhanson.com
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Audio Poem of the Day - Infanta Marina
by Wallace Stevens
What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Bonus: When the Internet Stopped Being Fun
Is anyone having fun on the internet anymore? Let’s all go touch grass.
Guest: Scaachi Koul, Slate senior writer and author of “It’s Time to Log Off.”
This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock exclusive episodes of What Next —you’ll also access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the What Next show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen.
Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, Ethan Oberman, and Rob Gunther.
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Marketplace All-in-One - From “Million Bazillion”: What are tariffs?
Since President Trump began imposing on-and-off tariffs earlier this year, “tariff” has become a buzzword. And you might have a kid in your life who’s asked what the deal with tariffs is all about. So today, we’re sharing an episode from the latest season of Million Bazillion that breaks down how they work. Hosts Bridget and Ryan help out a local fifth-grader whose slime business is facing competition from a rival school. Could a tariff solve her problem?
Big Technology Podcast - $100 Million AI Engineers, Vending Machine Claude, Legend Of Soham
Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Meta's reported $100 million offers to AI engineers 2) If those reports are false, who planted the rumor? 3) Why talent might be all that matters in AI right now 4) Will Meta's bet work? 5) Anthropic's project vend 6) If AI can't stock a fridge, will it take your job? 7) Claudius' identity crisis 8) ChatGPT's hilarious Wealthfront hallucination 9) The Legend of Soham 10) Happy July 4th!
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Newshour - Russia bombs Kyiv
Ukraine says Russia carried out its biggest drone and missile attack on the capital yet, just two days after the US announced it was suspending the supply of some critical weapons to Kyiv, and hours after Presidents Trump and Putin spoke on the phone. We report from Kyiv.
Also in the programme: President Trump’s huge tax and spending bill squeaks through Congress – but will it be a vote-winner or loser at next year's midterm elections? We hear from a Republican pollster; and a security contractor for the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation tells the BBC they were instructed to shoot first and ask questions later.
(IMAGE: Smoke is seen from outskirts of the city, after a Russian drone and missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine July 4, 2025 / CREDIT: Alina Smutko / Reuters)