Congress returned to the Capitol on Tuesday after their month-long summer break. They’re already in a time crunch.
Lawmakers have around four weeks – or around just 14 legislative days – to pass a spending measure and avoid a government shutdown before Sept. 30.
Tensions between Republicans and Democrats are high. After the passages of President Donald Trump’s spending and rescission bills, Democrats say they are ready for a fight. But the potential for being blamed for a government shutdown also puts them in a tough spot.
On Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said the ball is in the Democrats’ court, but will Republicans play ball at all?
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Planet Money - The million dollar mystery behind Milk.com
When we stumbled upon Milk.com, we were mystified. It appears to be someone’s personal website. But memorable domain names can be worth a million dollars or more. So, why is someone using this valuable internet real estate to post their resume and favorite recipes?
Back in the internet’s early days, it was easy to get a domain name. They were cheap or even free. The first people to grab them may now be holding onto assets that can sell for millions of dollars. These potential profits have attracted a unique breed of investor who buys and sells domain names, gambling on the value of everyday words.
On our latest show: What is a domain really worth? And we ask the owner of milk.com why he’s not selling — and if there’s a price that might change his mind.
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This episode was hosted by Alex Mayyasi and Jeff Guo. It was produced by Willa Rubin and edited by Jess Jiang. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by James Willetts. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.
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Back in the internet’s early days, it was easy to get a domain name. They were cheap or even free. The first people to grab them may now be holding onto assets that can sell for millions of dollars. These potential profits have attracted a unique breed of investor who buys and sells domain names, gambling on the value of everyday words.
On our latest show: What is a domain really worth? And we ask the owner of milk.com why he’s not selling — and if there’s a price that might change his mind.
Planet Money is writing a book! Sign up for updates about pre-sale special gifts and for book tour events.
Subscribe to Planet Money+
Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.
Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.
This episode was hosted by Alex Mayyasi and Jeff Guo. It was produced by Willa Rubin and edited by Jess Jiang. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by James Willetts. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.
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Up First from NPR - Lawmakers Call For Epstein Files, Trump’s Crypto Token, China’s Military Parade
Members of Congress are trying to force a vote to make the Trump administration release more of the Epstein files. The cryptocurrency World Liberty Financial co-founded by the President and his sons started trading publicly this week. And, China held a military parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.
Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Megan Pratz, Rafael Nam, Ryland Barton, Lisa Thomson and Alice Woefle. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
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The Indicator from Planet Money - So long, farewell, super cheap tariff-free shopping
In late July, President Trump signed an executive order to get rid of de minimis, a kind of a loophole where packages valued less than $800 could come into the US without tariffs.
Last week, post offices from India to Austria to France suspended some types of packages to the US. We speak to an Australian jewelry maker, a logistics expert and an economist to learn how this is changing shopping in America.
Last week, post offices from India to Austria to France suspended some types of packages to the US. We speak to an Australian jewelry maker, a logistics expert and an economist to learn how this is changing shopping in America.
Related episodes:
Three ways companies are getting around tariffs
What olive oil tells us about Trump's tariffs
What is Temu?
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Fact-checking by Cooper Katz McKim. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.
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NPR's Book of the Day - ‘Friends with Words’ is a book about language, from word origins to regional dialects
For Martha Barnette, griping about grammatical pet peeves is one of the least interesting ways to talk about language. Instead, the co-host of the radio show “A Way with Words” says she’d rather think about word origins, regional dialects, slang, or that phrase your grandma used to say. Her new book Friends with Words is full of surprising facts about language. In today’s episode, she talks with Here & Now’s Peter O’Dowd about the “spark word” that launched her language journey, some of her favorite etymologies, and why people hate the word moist.
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To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday
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Short Wave - Have a Stutter? It Could Be Inherited
For a long time, scientists have suspected that stuttering — a common speech condition that affects an estimated 1 in every 100 people — could be heritable. Despite how common it is, it's still a remarkably understudied condition.
Geneticists Piper Below and Dillon Pruett were determined to fix that. With the help of 23andMe data, they recently identified 57 genetic regions linked to stuttering in the human genome. Their findings represent a new breakthrough in how researchers think about speech conditions, genetics and the conditions that are linked to them. They're what some are calling a "quantum leap" in the field.
Interested in more human biology and genetics episodes? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.
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Geneticists Piper Below and Dillon Pruett were determined to fix that. With the help of 23andMe data, they recently identified 57 genetic regions linked to stuttering in the human genome. Their findings represent a new breakthrough in how researchers think about speech conditions, genetics and the conditions that are linked to them. They're what some are calling a "quantum leap" in the field.
Interested in more human biology and genetics episodes? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.
Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.
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1A - The President And The National Guard
Donald Trump says the office of the president gives him the right to deploy the National Guard to U.S. states. But does it? And who decides?
The president signed an executive order last week calling for a restructuring of the National Guard. It also asks the nation’s defense secretary to create a rapid response force to be deployed to states for “quelling civil disturbances and ensuring public safety.”
Meanwhile, Trump says the city of Chicago is in need of National Guard presence due to a rise in crime. But the president has declined to say how the federal government can intervene outside of D.C., a federal enclave.
Violent crime in Chicago is on a decline. In the first half of 2025, gun violence is down 25 percent compared to last year and down 41 percent from the average reported between 2020 and 2024. That data is from the CBS News Chicago Gun Violence Tracker.
What could that deployment look like? And what has the response been from city officials?
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The president signed an executive order last week calling for a restructuring of the National Guard. It also asks the nation’s defense secretary to create a rapid response force to be deployed to states for “quelling civil disturbances and ensuring public safety.”
Meanwhile, Trump says the city of Chicago is in need of National Guard presence due to a rise in crime. But the president has declined to say how the federal government can intervene outside of D.C., a federal enclave.
Violent crime in Chicago is on a decline. In the first half of 2025, gun violence is down 25 percent compared to last year and down 41 percent from the average reported between 2020 and 2024. That data is from the CBS News Chicago Gun Violence Tracker.
What could that deployment look like? And what has the response been from city officials?
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Consider This from NPR - Corporate America ditched DEI. What happened to the employees?
“Chief diversity officer” was once Corporate America’s hottest job.
Now corporate America has retreated from DEI and slashed thousands of jobs. So where does that leave the people who’ve built careers around that work?
Hear the story of one veteran executive who’s been job-hunting for more than a year.
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Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
This episode was produced by Kathryn Fink and Christine Arrasmith.
It was edited by Courtney Dorning and Rafael Nam.
Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
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State of the World from NPR - Israel Begins its Invasion of Gaza City
The Israeli military has begun a push into Gaza City, with an expected ground invasion and forcible evacuation of nearly a million people living there. Many residents are already fleeing. But with the vast majority of Gaza declared off-limits by Israel, where are refugees able to go?
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State of the World from NPR - Israel Begins its Invasion of Gaza City
The Israeli military has begun a push into Gaza City, with an expected ground invasion and forcible evacuation of nearly a million people living there. Many residents are already fleeing. But with the vast majority of Gaza declared off-limits by Israel, where are refugees able to go?
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