2024 was a wild year for the U.S. economy: The economy did well in terms of inflation and unemployment, but vibes ruled the roost. (Mostly didn't feel great!) Additionally, Bitcoin went to the moon and some wacky stuff was happening with unemployment and job opening rates, showing that we might have achieved an economic soft landing.
So ... which of these economic stories defined the year?
Our hosts from Planet Money and The Indicator duke it out in ... Family Feud!
Tell us who you think won today's episode by submitting your vote to Planet Money's Instagram or email us with "Family Feud" in the subject line.
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.
Related Episodes:
Is the financial media making us miserable about the economy?
What's behind Bitcoin's bullrun?
What the Beveridge curve tells us about jobs
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Short Wave - The First Woman To Get A New Kind Of Kidney Transplant
Towana Looney became the first living person in the world to get a kidney from a new kind of genetically modified pig last month. Health correspondent Rob Stein got exclusive access to be in the operating room.
Towana is a 53-year-old grandmother from Gadsden, Ala. She's been on dialysis for four hours a day, three days a week since 2016. Her immune system would reject a human kidney. So the Food and Drug Administration made an exception to its usual clinical study requirements to allow Looney this new kind of pig kidney. But the procedure is controversial.
Interested in more environmental stories? Email us at shortwave@npr.org. We'd love to hear from you!
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
Towana is a 53-year-old grandmother from Gadsden, Ala. She's been on dialysis for four hours a day, three days a week since 2016. Her immune system would reject a human kidney. So the Food and Drug Administration made an exception to its usual clinical study requirements to allow Looney this new kind of pig kidney. But the procedure is controversial.
Interested in more environmental stories? Email us at shortwave@npr.org. We'd love to hear from you!
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
State of the World from NPR - Examining The Biden Administration’s International Legacy
The outgoing U.S. national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, has been a top advisor and envoy to President Biden on issues of foreign policy. He talks to NPR about his view of recent events in the Middle East, the U.S. relationship with China and the future of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Consider This from NPR - How Netanyahu survived another tumultuous year
At the start of this year Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was facing a crisis. Just a few months before, Hamas had breached Israel's border with Gaza, killing some 1200 people in Israel on October 7th.
As the year ends, Netanyahu is spending some of it in a courtroom to fight corruption charges that have dogged him since 2019. The Israeli Prime Minister has called the charges absurd.
You might think that would be detrimental to his political career, but instead Netanyahu looks stronger than he has since the war began.
This — despite that trial, an international arrest warrant and a grinding war.
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.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
As the year ends, Netanyahu is spending some of it in a courtroom to fight corruption charges that have dogged him since 2019. The Israeli Prime Minister has called the charges absurd.
You might think that would be detrimental to his political career, but instead Netanyahu looks stronger than he has since the war began.
This — despite that trial, an international arrest warrant and a grinding war.
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.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Consider This from NPR - How Netanyahu survived another tumultuous year
At the start of this year Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was facing a crisis. Just a few months before, Hamas had breached Israel's border with Gaza, killing some 1200 people in Israel on October 7th.
As the year ends, Netanyahu is spending some of it in a courtroom to fight corruption charges that have dogged him since 2019. The Israeli Prime Minister has called the charges absurd.
You might think that would be detrimental to his political career, but instead Netanyahu looks stronger than he has since the war began.
This — despite that trial, an international arrest warrant and a grinding war.
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.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
As the year ends, Netanyahu is spending some of it in a courtroom to fight corruption charges that have dogged him since 2019. The Israeli Prime Minister has called the charges absurd.
You might think that would be detrimental to his political career, but instead Netanyahu looks stronger than he has since the war began.
This — despite that trial, an international arrest warrant and a grinding war.
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.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
1A - The Trials, Tribulations, And Triumphs Of Holiday Travel
It's the holiday season.
And that means time spent with friends, with family, and... in the car. Or a plane. Or a train. Or maybe even by boat.
But one thing's for sure. America will be on the move here soon if it's not already.
Where are we going, what's waiting for us when we get there, and why is it so difficult sometimes to get where we need to go at the end of another year?
Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions? Connect with us. 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
And that means time spent with friends, with family, and... in the car. Or a plane. Or a train. Or maybe even by boat.
But one thing's for sure. America will be on the move here soon if it's not already.
Where are we going, what's waiting for us when we get there, and why is it so difficult sometimes to get where we need to go at the end of another year?
Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions? Connect with us. 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
Up First from NPR - Supreme Court Hears TikTok Case, Syrians Return Home, French Rape Trial Verdicts
TikTok's U.S. future is up to the Supreme Court. The Chinese-owned company wants the high court to stop a ban of the app from taking effect next month. Many Syrian refugees say they want to go home, now that the Assad regime is gone — but what will wait there for them? In France, judges delivered verdicts in a rape case that has shocked the nation and the world.
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 Kara Plantoni, Arezou Rezvani, Ryland Barton, HJ Mai and Mohamad ElBardicy. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Kaity Kline. We get engineering support from Nisha Heinis, and our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
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 Kara Plantoni, Arezou Rezvani, Ryland Barton, HJ Mai and Mohamad ElBardicy. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Kaity Kline. We get engineering support from Nisha Heinis, and our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
NPR's Book of the Day - ‘When Southern Women Cook’ is a diverse portrait of the American South’s food culture
A new cookbook from America's Test Kitchen pays homage to the diverse communities of women who have defined food in the American South. When Southern Women Cook includes recipes and accompanying culinary histories from women with a variety of backgrounds. Each of the book's 14 chapters opens with an essay from a historian, author or chef that goes deep on a recipe's backstory or cultural context. In today's episode, co-authors Toni Tipton-Martin and Morgan Bolling join Here & Now's Robin Young to talk about the project. They discuss the physical and cultural boundaries of the South, restoration of recipes like Aunt Jule's Pie, and permanent slaw.
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 - Can empty-nesters boost housing affordability?
The "silver tsunami" of aging Americans is often seen as a potential way to alleviate the country's housing affordability woes. However, the data suggests that an influx of empty-nester homes coming on the market won't have much of an impact on the problem—because of a geographical mismatch.
Today on the show, we speak to an economist who's looked into the silver tsunami's impact on the housing market and thinks this theory might be more of a red herring.
This episode was fact checked by Sierra Juarez
Related episodes:
The graying of America
What would it take to fix retirement?
How big is the US housing shortage?
The highs and lows of US rents
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Today on the show, we speak to an economist who's looked into the silver tsunami's impact on the housing market and thinks this theory might be more of a red herring.
This episode was fact checked by Sierra Juarez
Related episodes:
The graying of America
What would it take to fix retirement?
How big is the US housing shortage?
The highs and lows of US rents
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
State of the World from NPR - Why Syria’s Military Imploded So Quickly
Former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad depended on his military to keep him in power for years. Then in just a matter of days, that same feared military disintegrated as rebel groups took control of the country. Our reporter in Damascus talks to former military members to understand why the military collapsed so fast.
Support our non-profit journalism by joining NPR+ at Plus.NPR.org
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Support our non-profit journalism by joining NPR+ at Plus.NPR.org
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy