It's ... Indicators of the Week! Our weekly look at some of the most fascinating economic numbers from the news.
On today's episode: the Senate passes the GENIUS Act, the SALT cap might be DOA in the OBBB, and a gender split on the state of the economy.
Related episodes:
How stable is Stablecoin? (Apple / Spotify)
Feeling inflation in the grocery store
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 Tyler Jones. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Short Wave - What Makes South Korea’s ‘Super Divers’ Special?
For generations, the all-female Haenyeo divers have routinely dove into frigid waters off the coast of South Korea, holding their breath for minutes at a time, as they collect seafood to eat and sell. These women start diving as girls and continue well into old age. And recent research suggests that it's not just years of training that makes this feat possible – it's also a set of special genetic adaptations. Science reporter Ari Daniel brings us the story.
Read more of Ari's reporting here.
Have another story about biology and genetics for us to consider? Email us 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
Read more of Ari's reporting here.
Have another story about biology and genetics for us to consider? Email us 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
Consider This from NPR - Afghans in the US have lost protected status. What happens now?
Many Afghans who helped the US military or who were persecuted by the Taliban for other reasons found refuge in the United States. They were granted Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, by the US government.
Now the Trump administration has revoked TPS for Afghans. So what happens now?
NPR's Monika Evstatieva reports that for thousands of Afghans in the United States, and many stuck in limbo abroad, the available options are dwindling.
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
Now the Trump administration has revoked TPS for Afghans. So what happens now?
NPR's Monika Evstatieva reports that for thousands of Afghans in the United States, and many stuck in limbo abroad, the available options are dwindling.
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 - Who Gets To Decide What School Means For Students?
What's your most vivid school memory? Do you remember it as a time of exploration? Was it a place where you could figure out who you were and what you wanted to become?
Or did it feel like it wasn't made for you? Did it feel constricting, or like a place with lots of rules about how you had to act and what you couldn't do?
Your experience of schools likely depended on the administrators, who your teachers were, how your city or state set up the curriculum, and the resources your school received. Writer Eve L. Ewing argues that experience could also be shaped by who you are.
What has school meant for students, and who influenced how schools function the way they do? And what are alternatives for how school could work for students?
We sit down with Ewing to talk about her new book, "Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism."
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
Or did it feel like it wasn't made for you? Did it feel constricting, or like a place with lots of rules about how you had to act and what you couldn't do?
Your experience of schools likely depended on the administrators, who your teachers were, how your city or state set up the curriculum, and the resources your school received. Writer Eve L. Ewing argues that experience could also be shaped by who you are.
What has school meant for students, and who influenced how schools function the way they do? And what are alternatives for how school could work for students?
We sit down with Ewing to talk about her new book, "Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism."
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
NPR's Book of the Day - Evan Osnos’ ‘The Haves and Have-Yachts’ is a book of essays about the new Gilded Age
Following Donald Trump's election in 2016, New Yorker reporter Evan Osnos wanted to understand what the president's wealth and status represented in the minds of his supporters – and in American culture at large. Osnos began reporting on the lives of the ultrawealthy, including the small but growing billionaire class. Now, Osnos has published a collection of essays The Haves and Have-Yachts, which explores the American relationship to immense wealth through anecdotes about superyachts, private concerts with pop stars, and doomsday preppers. In today's episode, Osnos speaks with NPR's Frank Langfitt about widening inequality, status anxieties among oligarchs, and what it feels like to live in a new Gilded Age.
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
Up First from NPR - Iran-Israel Conflict Latest, Trump On Iran, Social Security Funds
The latest developments in the Israel-Iran conflict, and the evolution of President Trump's thinking on whether to involve the US. Plus, the Social Security trust fund is expected to run out of cash in eight years, unless Congress acts before then.
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 Roberta Rampton, Alex Leff, Jane Greenhalgh, Janaya Williams and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Claire Murashima and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. 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 Roberta Rampton, Alex Leff, Jane Greenhalgh, Janaya Williams and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Claire Murashima and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Planet Money - Jay & Shai’s debt ceiling adventure (Update)
Note: A version of this episode first ran in 2023.
Every year, the U.S. government spends more money than it takes in. In order to fund all that spending, the country takes on debt. Congress has the power to limit how much debt the U.S. takes on. Once we reach that limit, Congress has a few options so that the government keeps paying its bills: Raise the debt limit, suspend it, or eliminate it entirely.
Which is daunting, because if lawmakers don't figure something out in time, the ramifications for the global economy could be huge.
Shai Akabas, of the Bipartisan Policy Center, has become something of the go-to expert in calculating the exact date America would hit the wall and not be able to pay all its debts. This day is so terrifying it has a special name, the X-Date.
Today's episode is about how Akabas and Jay Powell — long before he became chair of the Federal Reserve — worked to create a system to determine the X-Date with the hope of helping us all never reach it.
We also have an update on this year's looming X-Date, which could arrive as soon as this summer.
Find more Planet Money: Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.
Listen free at these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.
Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Every year, the U.S. government spends more money than it takes in. In order to fund all that spending, the country takes on debt. Congress has the power to limit how much debt the U.S. takes on. Once we reach that limit, Congress has a few options so that the government keeps paying its bills: Raise the debt limit, suspend it, or eliminate it entirely.
Which is daunting, because if lawmakers don't figure something out in time, the ramifications for the global economy could be huge.
Shai Akabas, of the Bipartisan Policy Center, has become something of the go-to expert in calculating the exact date America would hit the wall and not be able to pay all its debts. This day is so terrifying it has a special name, the X-Date.
Today's episode is about how Akabas and Jay Powell — long before he became chair of the Federal Reserve — worked to create a system to determine the X-Date with the hope of helping us all never reach it.
We also have an update on this year's looming X-Date, which could arrive as soon as this summer.
Find more Planet Money: Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.
Listen free at these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.
Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
1A - Behind The Dramatic Drop In Overdose Deaths
Drug overdose deaths have been increasing steadily for over two decades in large part due to opioids. That's until recently. Now, new data from the Centers for Disease Control found that 2024 saw the largest one year decline ever recorded. And that 24% decline was felt across the country. Every state except two saw a drop in overdose deaths.
The drop comes after an aggressive public health response from both the Biden Administration and local efforts, including making the overdose reversing drug Naloxone available over the counter and in communities. But the crisis is far from over. Drug overdoses are still the leading cause of death for people aged 18 to 44.
We discuss what we can we learn from looking at the recent decline in drug deaths and what federal cuts could mean for that progress.
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
The drop comes after an aggressive public health response from both the Biden Administration and local efforts, including making the overdose reversing drug Naloxone available over the counter and in communities. But the crisis is far from over. Drug overdoses are still the leading cause of death for people aged 18 to 44.
We discuss what we can we learn from looking at the recent decline in drug deaths and what federal cuts could mean for that progress.
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
Consider This from NPR - Lessons from Iraq, as Trump teases attacks on Iran
In 2003, the U.S. launched a war in Iraq based on what turned out to be bad intelligence about weapons programs, then spent years mired in a conflict with no clear end.
Today, President Trump is threatening to bring the U.S. military into another Middle East conflict. As with Iraq, the justification for a potential attack on Iran is the alleged threat of a nuclear weapon.
We talk to journalist Steve Coll, author of The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the CIA, and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq about how this moment echoes the run-up to the war in Iraq and how it differs.
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
Today, President Trump is threatening to bring the U.S. military into another Middle East conflict. As with Iraq, the justification for a potential attack on Iran is the alleged threat of a nuclear weapon.
We talk to journalist Steve Coll, author of The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the CIA, and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq about how this moment echoes the run-up to the war in Iraq and how it differs.
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
Up First from NPR - Trump And Iran, Iran’s Nuclear Program, ICE Farm Raids Continue
President Trump has escalated his rhetoric against Iran. Israel and the U.S. intelligence community disagree about whether Iran has suspended its nuclear weapons program or not, and immigration enforcement continues to target work sites in agriculture, construction and hospitality.
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 Dana Farrington, Andrew Sussman, Anna Yukhananov, Janaya Williams and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Claire Murashima and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. 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 Dana Farrington, Andrew Sussman, Anna Yukhananov, Janaya Williams and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Claire Murashima and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy