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Happy Holidays from The Indicator! For the next week, we're running some of our favorite shows from this year. On today's show, we fire up the gas logs and pour a mug of cocoa to discuss the made-for-TV rom-com machine, and how television executives learned to mass produce seasonal romance.

This piece originally aired October 21, 2024.

Related episodes:
Love Week series page
TV holiday rom coms and the alpaca bubble that burst (PM+ only)

Special thanks to Grant-Lee Phillips for our Love Week theme song and Kaitlin Brito for episode artwork.

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Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.

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2024 is over (phew!). We had weird consumer sentiment vibes, Bitcoin went to the moon, and the economy might have achieved a soft landing. And that's just a few 2024 indicators!

As we enter 2025, what indicators should we keep an eye on? Planet Money co-hosts Kenny Malone and Jeff Guo look ahead with Adrian Ma for Indicators of the Year ... Ahead!

Related Episodes:
Econ Battle Zone: Disinflation Confrontation
The Fed cut rates ... now what? (featuring: Sasquatch)
The Indicators of this year and next (2023)

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.

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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

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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