News about inflation made a lot of noise in the past two years, but the national CPI reports seem to indicate that inflation is starting to normalize within the Federal Reserve's target range. However, the national CPI basket of goods can have trouble representing inflation at a local level.
Today, we're joined by Drew Hawkins of the Gulf States Newsroom as he goes to the supermarket in New Orleans where the national CPI may not be the best measure of inflation for folks living in the South.
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Hugo Contreras, the protagonist of Raul Palma's new novel, is a babaláwo; he can cleanse evil spirits. Except he doesn't really believe in the whole thing. So when he's able to strike up a deal with a debt collector – get rid of the ghosts in his house in exchange for a clean slate – he assumes he can mostly fake it. In today's episode, Palma joins NPR's Scott Simon to discuss A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens, and how the concept of debt – not just financial, but personal, too – stirs up a lot of trauma for Hugo.
The Red Sea is a crucial piece of the global supply chain, accounting for around 15% of the world's shipping. This includes oil tankers and massive container ships transporting everything from microchips to furniture. Recent attacks by Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, have destabilized the region and prompted the U.S. to organize a multinational naval force to protect commercial ships. Today on the show, what's going on with shipping in the Red Sea.
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For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
There are an infinite number of numbers, but some numbers are more important than others.
One number, which might just be the most important number, lies hidden in a wide variety of things in the natural world. It can be found in everything from the mathematics of radioactive decay to population growth and even compound interest.
The number even turns out to have a central role in calculus and mathematics's most elegant equation.
Learn more about e, also known as Euler’s Number, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Phil McDaragh is a great Irish poet; he was also a lousy husband and father, abandoning his family to pursue his writing. In Anne Enright's new novel, The Wren, The Wren, three generations of women in the McDaragh family contend with the absent patriarch's complicated legacy. Enright spoke with NPR's Scott Simon about writing fiction about a great writer, and how the poet's bad behavior in his personal life impacts the McDaragh women's own passions, years down the road.
Thousands of years ago, the first humans accidentally created the first beer and wine. This occurred naturally when yeast in the air converted sugars into alcohol.
However, it wasn’t until thousands of years later that new techniques were developed to process those beverages, but even then, the products they created weren’t designed for consumption.
Eventually, these techniques were perfected to a point where they could be consumed, and they resulted in entirely new categories of beverages.
Learn more about Spirits and Liqueurs, what the difference is, and the various types on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
In the 19th century, a butcher living in Australia claimed to be the long-lost heir of a British fortune. The Tichborne trial, which sparked much controversy and even more attention in Victorian England, is at the center of Zadie Smith's new novel, The Fraud. In today's episode, the author tells NPR's Mary Louise Kelly how she became captivated by the outrageous lies the man told in court, and how the way his believers still dug their heels and supported him echoes the state of politics in the 21st century.
During the 14th century, the world saw one of its most traumatic episodes.
A plague spread through Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa that was unlike anything the world had ever seen.
In some locations, over half of the population died. Those who survived found themselves in a whole new world where the social and economic rules had been totally changed.
Learn more about the Black Death, how it happened, and how it changed the world on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.