2025 was a wild year for the U.S. economy. Tariffs transformed the global economy, consumer sentiment hit near-historic lows, and the stock market hit scary, spooky, blood-curdling new heights! So … which of these economic stories defined the year?
Our hosts from Planet Money and The Indicator duke it out during our annual … Family Feud!
Tell us who you think has THE indicator of the year by emailing us at indicator@npr.org. Put “Family Feud” in the subject line.
Related episodes:
The Indicators of this year and next
This indicator hasn’t flashed this red since the dot-com bubble
What would it mean to actually refund the tariffs?
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 Corey Bridges. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Short Wave - GLP-1 Pills Are On The Way. Here’s What To Know
You may have heard of Ozempic, and other GLP-1 drugs. They’re everywhere. And they typically involve weekly injections — which can have a sticker price of over a thousand dollars a month. And insurance coverage has been tricky to navigate for a lot of people. That’s why there’s a lot of excitement around a new pill form of the drug. NPR Pharmaceuticals Correspondent Sydney Lupkin chats about these experimental pills with host Emily Kwong.
Check out more of NPR’s coverage about GLP-1s.
Interested in more health stories? 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.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Check out more of NPR’s coverage about GLP-1s.
Interested in more health stories? 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.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
1A - Navigating Modern Adolescence
The modern world is a noisy, chaotic place. News about what’s happening in the world is constantly available on a device in your pocket. The internet offers more content than any person could consume in their lifetime, or in 10 lifetimes.
Politics can feel unstable, with elected officials changing the norms and rules of our political system. AI is upending our ideas about what work will look like in the next few decades. And social media, designed by technology companies to monetize attention, offers up millions of rabbit holes in which to lose yourself — self improvement hacks, niche interests, impossible beauty standards.
Taking all of that in can feel like an insurmountable task most days. So try doing it with a brain and a body that are changing dramatically at the same time.
How do young people — adolescents going through puberty — experience the world today? How is the adolescent experience changing? And how can adults make their journey easier?
Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Politics can feel unstable, with elected officials changing the norms and rules of our political system. AI is upending our ideas about what work will look like in the next few decades. And social media, designed by technology companies to monetize attention, offers up millions of rabbit holes in which to lose yourself — self improvement hacks, niche interests, impossible beauty standards.
Taking all of that in can feel like an insurmountable task most days. So try doing it with a brain and a body that are changing dramatically at the same time.
How do young people — adolescents going through puberty — experience the world today? How is the adolescent experience changing? And how can adults make their journey easier?
Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Consider This from NPR - Rob Reiner loved America. He thought it could be better
Rob Reiner spent his life trying to fix what he saw as America’s shortcomings. In an interview shortly before his death he explained why he was optimistic America could be better.
The actor and director was found dead on Sunday along with his wife Michelle Singer Reiner.
Their son has been charged with their murders.
And those tributes – they’ve centered on Reiner's acting, the movies he’s directed, but also on his political activism.
It’s something he talked to the journalist Todd Purdum about shortly before he died.
Purdum wrote about that interview in the New York Times this week, and joins Scott Detrow to discuss what he learned about Reiner's work and view of America's future. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
This episode was produced by Elena Burnett.
It was edited by Courtney Dorning.
Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
State of the World from NPR - Venezuelans React to the Threat of a U.S. Blockade
President Trump has ordered a ban on all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, escalating pressure on the country's president. Venezuelans tell us that in a country long battered by shortages, it’s just another crisis to endure.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Up First from NPR - Trump Addresses Nation, Congress ACA Vote, Venezuela Oil Tankers
In a nationwide address, President Trump says the U.S. is poised for an economic boom and that high prices are falling rapidly. Four Republicans joined Democrats to force a vote on a three year extension of the enhanced healthcare subsidies. And, President Trump has ordered a ban on all sanctioned oil tankers going to and from Venezuela.
Want more 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 Rebekah Metzler, Kelsey Snell, Andrew Sussman, Lisa Thomson and Alice Woelfle.
It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.And our deputy Executive Producer is Kelley Dickens.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Short Wave - The Indicator: Take A Penny, Leave A Penny, Get Rid Of The Penny
In November, the U.S. stopped production of the humble penny after 232 years in circulation. On today’s show, Darian Woods and Wailin Wong from NPR's daily economics podcast The Indicator unpack the fiscal math that doomed the penny, and an artist pay tribute to this American icon.
Follow the Indicator on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
View more of Robert Wechsler’s artwork here.
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.
Listen to Short Wave on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
NPR's Book of the Day - In this novel, the residents of a Brussels apartment building brace for Nazi invasion
33 Place Brugmann opens with a list of the residents of a Brussels apartment building. The year is 1939 and Germany’s invasion of Belgium is on the horizon. Alice Austen’s debut novel winds together the fates of these residents under Nazi occupation. In today’s episode, Austen joins NPR’s Scott Simon for a conversation that touches on the backstory of the building’s address, how she balanced the novel’s many narrative voices, and the questions that consumed her as she wrote the book.
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
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
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
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
The Indicator from Planet Money - Catching up with a fired federal worker, a shrimper and a fraudster
After a firehose of economic news in 2025, we wanted to check back on some of the people we’ve heard from on our show. Today, we check in with a former federal employee caught in the Trump administration's wood chipper, a Louisiana shrimper on Trump’s tariffs and an update on a financial aid scam.
Related episodes:
Why do shrimpers like tariffs?
What’s the long-term cost of federal layoffs?
A big bank’s mistake, explained
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 Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
1A - Evolutionary Biologist Scott Taylor And Birds
It’s a stressful day at the office. You want to get away from work. The sounds of notifications, meeting alerts, and Zoom calls ring through your ears. You step outside for your lunch break. No matter where you are in the world, you’re likely to hear the same thing: the sounds of birds.
They’re everywhere, after all.Despite their constant presence in our lives and our world, there’s still a lot left to understand about our clawed compatriots. What if we could learn more about them with a bit of intentional observation? And in watching birds, maybe learn something about ourselves?
We sit down with University of Colorado Boulder professor Scott Taylor to talk about his new podcast, “Okay, But… Birds.”
Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
They’re everywhere, after all.Despite their constant presence in our lives and our world, there’s still a lot left to understand about our clawed compatriots. What if we could learn more about them with a bit of intentional observation? And in watching birds, maybe learn something about ourselves?
We sit down with University of Colorado Boulder professor Scott Taylor to talk about his new podcast, “Okay, But… Birds.”
Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy