Category: 3-DailySometimeCommentary

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The Indicator from Planet Money - The boxed meal helping Americans stay on budget

Food keeps getting more expensive, so how do shoppers respond? They change what they buy, right? It’s not just that cheaper foods get more popular. Shoppers are more nuanced than that. So, today on the show, we choose one classic meal that is tailor-made for this anxious economic moment. Why Hamburger Helper is poised to win 2026.

Related episodes: 
How niche brands got into your local supermarket
Can you trust you're getting the same grocery prices as someone else?
Hits of the Dips: Songs of recessions past

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.

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What A Day - Why You Can Basically Bet On Anything These Days

Sunday was the Super Bowl, which means betting. A lot of betting. And even if you're not a gambler– and even if you don't particularly care about sports, you've probably noticed that in the last few years, sports betting has gone from obscure to nearly omnipresent. But that's not necessarily for the better. According to a 2025 Pew Research Center survey, "43% of U.S. adults say the fact that sports betting is now legal in much of the country is a bad thing for society." So, we spoke with Hannah Vanbiber, a senior editor at The Athletic, to talk about sports betting ahead of Sunday's big game.

And in headlines, survivors of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein release a Public Service Announcement, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says Democrats are ready to shut down the government partially, and the Japanese prime minister's governing party secures a supermajority in parliamentary elections.

Show Notes:

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The Indicator from Planet Money - Are we in an economic ‘doom loop’?

Trade wars. Financial panics. Inflation. How come it feels like it’s all bad news in the global economy these days? Economist Eswar Prasad’s answer: something he calls the ‘doom loop.’ That’s where massive geopolitical and economic forces feed off each other and send us careening into disorder. Sounds dire. But it’s not hopeless.

On today’s show, are we in a doom loop? And if we are … how do we get out of one?

Eswar Prasad’s new book is called “The Doom Loop: Why the World Economic Order Is Spiraling into Disorder”.

Related episodes: 
Is the financial media making us miserable about the economy?
Why are some nations richer?

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

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Trump Starts the Steal

Trump has called for elections to be “nationalized,” something neither the president, nor the federal government, has the authority to do. But as he’s already sent the FBI to raid Fulton County, Georgia’s election offices with director of intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and with the midterms on their way, it’s time to ask how much damage a vindictive president could do.


Guest:  Ari Berman, voting rights reporter at Mother Jones. 


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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Escape from a Scam Compound

Scamming attempts might seem to just come out of nowhere to suddenly appear in your WhatsApp, but a special economic zone in Laos has emerged as a hotbed of cryptocurrency schemes—where victims of human trafficking are trapped and forced to attempt more crime.


Guest: Andy Greenberg, senior writer for WIRED.


Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen.


Podcast production by Evan Campbell, and Patrick Fort.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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More or Less - Is this Premier League striker a secret maths genius?

Chelsea striker Liam Delap has recently stunned fans on Instagram by apparently doing incredibly complicated calculations in his head, finding what’s known as the cube root of some very large numbers.

But is he really a human calculator? Or is there something else going on? Tim Harford speaks to Rob Eastaway, mathematician and author of ‘Maths on the Back of an Envelope’ to learn about the trick you can use to pull this off - and while he’s here we also ask him about the trend of more goals being scored in the Premier League.

Presenter: Tim Harford Producers: Nathan Gower Series Producer: Tom Colls Editor: Richard Vadon Programme Coordinator: Brenda Brown Sound Engineer: James Beard Credit: Video of Liam Delap from Chelsea’s Instagram account, chelseafc

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Audio Mises Wire - Machiavelli Is Dead: Why Politics Without Property Rights, Rules, and Moral Limits Cannot Work

Modern political economy is based upon a Machiavellian belief in might makes right. Yet, political power cannot accomplish what free markets and private property rights have done in lifting billions of people out of poverty.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/machiavelli-dead-why-politics-without-property-rights-rules-and-moral-limits-cannot-work

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What A Day - Trump Passes The Buck To Bondi

We're just one week into February, and a lot has happened already — from the fallout over the Department of Justice's Epstein file dump, to President Trump's claims the U.S. should "nationalize" elections, to the decision to pull 700 federal immigration agents out of Minnesota on Wednesday. It's been a lot to follow — so we spoke to Tim Miller. He's writer-at-large at The Bulwark and host of The Bulwark Podcast.

And in headlines, lawmakers are nowhere near an agreement to fund the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. and Iran are set to hold nuclear talks in Oman, and the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots face off in Super Bowl LX.

Show Notes: