Category: Series

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The Indicator from Planet Money - The debate at the heart of new electricity transmission

The U.S. wants to become a net-zero emissions economy by 2050. That will mean a lot of new generation from renewable energy. It also means more transmission networks are needed to bring it onto the grid.

But there's a debate over how that new transmission should be built — between a competitive or monopoly approach. Today, we look at why competition is so divisive and why each side thinks they should build the next generation of transmission infrastructure.

Related Listening:
Texas' new power grid problem (Apple / Spotify)
Green energy gridlock (Apple / Spotify)

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The Indicator from Planet Money - Markets have a bad case of the Mondays

It's been a turbulent couple of days for financial markets around the world. Japan's biggest stock market saw its worst day in decades. Corporate earnings disappointed investors. And last week's jobs report here in the US showed disappointing numbers. Is this a sign of a recession or just some temporary turbulence? Today, we speak with two economic analysts to make sense of what's really going on.

Related:
Matt Klein's newsletter "The Overshoot"
Why are we so bummed about the economy? (Apple / Spotify)
The Sahm Rule With The Eponymous Economist

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More or Less: Behind the Stats - Does a language die every two weeks?

Researchers have catalogued 7,164 languages spoken around the world - some are used daily by billions. Half are spoken by less than 8000 people. The death of a language, when it?s no longer spoken as a first language by anyone living is a deeply significant moment in the cultural life of communities.

Multiple sources including the UN and National Geographic magazine have claimed this happens every two weeks. But we have reasons to be suspicious about that statistic. Gary Simons, executive editor of the Ethnologue language catalogue, explains where this idea came from.

Presenter: Kate Lamble Producer: Natasha Fernandes Series producer: Tom Colls Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown Sound mix: Nigel Appleton Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

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The Indicator from Planet Money - Getting more men into so-called pink-collar jobs

Jobs numbers came out today and they weren't great: Unemployment hit 4.3% and only 114,000 jobs were added to the economy in July. The U.S. economy's downshifting gears ... but there are bright spots.

Care jobs grew. Like social assistance: 9,000 new jobs in July.

Social work organizations have been calling out for more men in particular ... and with unemployment rising for men, a lot of them want jobs. So why aren't they meeting?

Today on the show: Getting more men into so-called pink-collar jobs. We learn about an experiment that showed a surprising way to encourage men into industries traditionally represented by women.

Related Episodes:
Wanted: Social workers
Ghost jobs

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The Indicator from Planet Money - Why the Olympics cost so much

The modern Olympic Games are notorious for saddling host cities with burdensome cost overruns into the billions. Organizers for the Paris 2024 Olympics were aware of this and planned to put on one of the most cost-effective Olympics in recent memory. They still went over budget.

Today on the show, why the Olympics almost always costs host cities much more than they anticipate and what we can learn from the Olympic Games' original economic sin.

Related episodes:
Peacock, potassium and other Paris Olympics Indicators (Apple / Spotify)
Why California's high speed rail was always going to blow out (Apple / Spotify)

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

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