Planet Money - ZIP Codes!

The ZIP code is less like a cold, clinical, ordered list of numbers, and more like a weird overgrown number garden. It started as a way to organize mail after WWII, but now it pops up all over our daily lives. You type it into the machine at the gas station to verify your credit card. You might type it into a rental search website if you're looking for a new apartment. Back in 2013, the ZIP Code contributed about 10 billion dollars a year to the US economy.

On today's show, we turn our attention towards the humble ZIP code. Why was it born? How has it changed the mail? How has it changed the broader world? And... has it gone too far?

This episode was hosted by Sally Helm. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler with help from Willa Rubin. It was edited by Meg Cramer, and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. It was engineered by Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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The Indicator from Planet Money - What’s a moneyline bet anyway?

The online financial website Investopedia compiles an annual list of the top ten financial terms that drew the most interest from their audience. The 2024 list covers familiar concepts like inflation and tariffs, as well as more niche terms like moneyline bets and stock splits. Today, we visit the highlights of 2024 in economic terms.

The 2024 Investopedia Terms of the Year

Related episodes:
The Indicator's bet on the Super Bowl
How Trump's tariffs plan might work
The tower of NVIDIA

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NPR's Book of the Day - ‘Small Things Like These’ draws from the true story of Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries

Small Things Like These is a novella by Claire Keegan that centers around Bill Furlong, an Irish coal merchant who discovers exploitation at a local convent. The story is based on the real-life history of the Magdalene Laundries, workhouses where Irish girls and women were forced into unpaid labor. Keegan's book, originally published in 2021, was adapted to film in the fall of 2024. In today's episode, we revisit a conversation between Keegan and Here & Now's Deborah Becker. They discuss the author's interest in the novella form and why she chose to write a women-centered story with a male protagonist.

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Hayek Program Podcast - Mikayla Novak and Giandomenica Becchio on Gender and the “Doctrine of Separate Spheres”

Mikayla Novak chats with Giandomenica Becchio on her latest book, The Doctrine of the Separate Spheres in Political Economy and Economics: Gender Equality and Classical Liberalism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024). Together they discuss Becchio’s background and inspiration, the separated roles of men and women in the public and private spheres, and key thinkers in classical liberalism that studied feminist economics.

Giandomenica Becchio is Professor of History of Economic Thought, Methodology of Economics, and the Theory of Entrepreneurship in the Department of Economic and Social Sciences, Statistics and Mathematics, ISOMAS, at the University of Torino, Italy.

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Slate Books - Outward: Conversion Therapy and Survival with Lucas Wilson

Bryan Lowder talks with writer and scholar Lucas Wilson about his new book, Shame Sex: Survivors’ Stories of Conversion Therapy. They chat about Wilson’s experience navigating same-sex attraction while on an evangelical path, experiencing conversion therapy, and the complicated relationships he experienced along the way. He also shares powerful stories from other survivors and explores the enduring harm of these practices, offering a poignant look at resilience, shame, and healing.

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Blake Lively Vs. Hollywood

After a summer on the receiving end of the internet’s ire, Blake Lively is back in the news, as her relationship with her former director and co-star Justin Baldoni has taken a turn for the litigious. 


Guest: Heather Schwedel, staff writer at Slate.


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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther.

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Amarica's Constitution - Unconventional

With rumblings around a possible Constitutional Convention around, we have noted some similarities with those issues that surrounded the recent ERA discussions.  Now we dive deeper.  Can a convention be limited to one possible amendment or some small group of amendments, or is a “runaway convention” a real possibility?  Can a state (this means you, California) rescind its previous vote calling for a convention?  Suppose there were a convention; would it be like the Philadelphia convention?  Would California be no more powerful than Wyoming in such a meeting?  In fact, there are even more terrifying implications and scenarios - and we will review them for you.  Meanwhile, we have a new Speaker of the House - for now - and the January 6th certification did take place without incident.  But many believe the Speaker’s days may be numbered, and so our review of the history behind Speaker selections in the past remains relevant - and fascinating.  That John Quincy Adams keeps showing up in the strangest places - like the presiding officer’s chair when he arguably had no business there.  What’s up with that? 

It Could Happen Here - CES 2025: Listen to AI Executives Laughing At People Losing Their Jobs

Robert and Garrison are joined by Ed Zitron and Ed Ongweso Jr. to discuss the future of AI entertainment at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

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