The NewsWorthy - Shutdown Backpay Threat, AG Bondi Grilled & Gold’s Record Run – Wednesday, October 8, 2025

The news to know for Wednesday, October 8, 2025!

What to know about a White House memo that could leave federal workers without back pay after the government shutdown.

And the heated Senate showdown with Attorney General Pam Bondi that turned personal.

Plus: why gold prices just hit record highs, which state is turning down the volume on loud streaming commercials, and what new data shows about the “9-9-6” work trend making its way to the U.S.

 

Those stories and even more news to know in about 10 minutes! 

 

Join us every Mon-Fri for more daily news roundups! 

See sources: https://www.theNewsWorthy.com/shownotes

Become an INSIDER to get AD-FREE episodes here: https://www.theNewsWorthy.com/insider

Get The NewsWorthy MERCH here: https://thenewsworthy.dashery.com/

Sponsors:

You can get an additional 15% off their 90-day subscription Starter Kit by going to fatty15.com/NEWSWORTHY and using code NEWSWORTHY at checkout.

Find your fall staples at Quince. Go to Quince.com/newsworthy for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns.

To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to ad-sales@libsyn.com

The Best One Yet - 🥇 “$4K” — Gold’s “debasement” trade. Rowan’s $150M Ear Piercing. Sharpies’ Made in America. +Netflix’s Loud Ad Law.

Gold reached a record $4,000/ounce… but this gold run is different than any in history.

How is Rowan doing $150M in sales of ear piercings for girls?... The Window of Loyalty.

Sharpie Markers figured out the formula for Made in America… Now it’s a Pen Profit Puppy.

Plus, notice those Netflix commercials are too loud?... Well there’s a new law to turn ‘em down.


Vote for The Best Idea Yet to win “Best Business Podcast”: ​​https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2025/shows/genre/business


$GOLD $NFLX $NWL


NEWSLETTER:

https://tboypod.com/newsletter 


OUR 2ND SHOW:

Want more business storytelling from us? Check our weekly deepdive show, The Best Idea Yet: The untold origin story of the products you're obsessed with. Listen for free to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/


NEW LISTENERS

Fill out our 2 minute survey: https://qualtricsxm88y5r986q.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dp1FDYiJgt6lHy6


GET ON THE POD: 

Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts 


SOCIALS:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod 

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypod

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod 

Linkedin (Nick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/

Linkedin (Jack): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/

Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ 


About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, The Best One Yet is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell.



See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Planet Money - Two ways AI is changing the business of crime (Two Indicators)

Pre-order the Planet Money book here for your free gift. 

Our sister show, The Indicator, is chronicling the evolving business of crime for its Vice Week series. Today, we bring to you two cases of crime in the age of AI. 

First, cybercriminals are using our own voices against us. Audio deepfake scams are picking up against individuals but also against businesses. We hear from a bank on how they’re adapting defenses, and find out how the new defenses are a game of AI vs AI. 

Then, we move over to the stock market to witness AI market manipulation. A new breed of trading bots behave differently. They could collude with each other, even without human involvement or instruction, so researchers are asking how to think about blame, and regulation in a world of more sophisticated trading bots. That’s assuming regulators could even keep up with the tech in the first place. 

Indicator Vice Series 
Head to The Indicator from Planet Money podcast feed for the latest on the Indicator Vice Series including an episode on data breaches . If you don’t already subscribe, check it out. Each episode explains one slice of the economy connected to the news recently, always in 10 minutes or less. 

Subscribe to Planet Money+ 

Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.

Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter

This episode is hosted by Darian Woods, Adrian Ma, and Wailin Wong. These episodes of The Indicator were originally produced by Cooper Katz McKim and engineered by Robert Rodriguez. They were fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Kate Concannon is The Indicator’s editor. Alex Goldmark is the Executive Producer. 

Music: NPR Source Audio - “Diamond High” 

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

The Indicator from Planet Money - When cartels start to diversify

The Sinaloa Cartel made the bulk of its money on cocaine. But cartels are diversifying into new operations including things like wildlife trafficking. Think sharks, jaguars, capybaras. The result is something called “narco-degradation.” On today’s show, we look at what’s driving cartels beyond drugs and how this is wreaking havoc on ecosystems in Central America.

Related episodes: 
Can breaking the law be good for business? 
Waste Land 
Will Economic Growth Destroy the Planet? 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

NPR Privacy Policy

What Could Go Right? - Turning Down the Headline Noise

Let’s close out Season 7! Zachary and Emma look back on seven months of thought-provoking positive conversations, from global politics to the depths of sci-fi, exploring how to stay hopeful in a world hooked on negative news. They dive into protecting your mental health by controlling your news intake while also celebrating how social media platforms empower 8 billion voices to be heard!
What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and The Podglomerate.
For transcripts, to join the newsletter, and for more information, visit: theprogressnetwork.org
Watch the podcast on YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/theprogressnetwork⁠⁠⁠
And follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok: @progressntwrk

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Inside the Portland “War Zone”

It’s clear President Trump wants to send troops to Portland, Oregon. But it’s not clear why—especially to people who live there.

Guests:

Isaac Stanley-Becker, staff writer for The Atlantic.

Elizabeth Lopatto, senior reporter at The Verge.  

Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across 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 Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It Could Happen Here - Introducing: SAD OLIGARCH Season 2

Hello, It Could Happen Here Listeners! We want to share a new show you might enjoy, SAD OLIGARCH Season 2!

About the show: Since January 2022, dozens of Russia's wealthiest oligarchs and power brokers have died suddenly. One was poisoned with frog venom. Two killed their whole families. Several fell out of high windows. Most of the deaths are suspicious. Russia says they're coincidental suicides—that the deceased were simply depressed. We don't think so...

Sad Oligarch is an investigative podcast series that looks into the strange deaths of the Russian elite, unravelling a dark tale of Kremlin corruption and Putin's political dictatorship across the world. This is season two—Russian oligarchs are still dying and things have gotten even weirder...

Listen here and subscribe to SAD OLIGARCH Season 2 on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

array(3) { [0]=> string(184) "https://www.omnycontent.com/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/78d30acb-8463-4c40-a5ae-ae2d0145c9ff/c3fb80eb-b014-475c-b602-b36f012c2e3c/image.jpg?t=1759860831&size=Large" [1]=> string(10) "image/jpeg" [2]=> int(0) }

Ologies with Alie Ward - Haunted Hydrology (SPOOKY LAKES) with Geo Rutherford

Mudbank bones. River wrecks. Salty seas. Pink ponds. Poison dust devils. Steamy streams.. It’s Haunted Hydrology with your favorite Spooky Lakes ambassador, the artist and author Geo Rutherford who is widely known as Geodesaurus. Geo covers the dark history of The Great Lakes, a stump that controls the weather, the what and why of a good lagoon, the field excursions she’s been on for research, the lakes she wants to see the most, and how a drought can shiver your spine. It’s a Spooktober spectacular, folks. It’s Haunted Hydrology. 

Visit Geo Rutherford’s website and follow her on TikTok and Instagram

Visit Geo Rutherford’s website and follow her on TikTok and Instagram

Buy Geo’s Spooky Lakes Books including her new coloring book and 2026 calendar

Visit SpookyLakes.com to buy stickers, pins, prints and more designed by Geo 

A donation went to the Alliance for the Great Lakes

More episode sources and links

Other episodes you may enjoy: Spooktober: Topics to Startle and Love, Maritime Archaeology (SHIPWRECKS), Speleology (CAVES), Oceanology (OCEANS), Disasterology (DISASTERS), Indigenous Pedology (SOIL SCIENCE), Environmental Microbiology (TESTING WASTEWATER FOR DISEASES), Ichthyology (FISHES), Salugenology (WHY HUMANS REQUIRE HOBBIES), Ethnoecology (NATIVE PLANTS)

400+ Ologies episodes sorted by topic

Smologies (short, classroom-safe) episodes

Sponsors of Ologies

Transcripts and bleeped episodes

Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month

OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!

Follow Ologies on Instagram and Bluesky

Follow Alie Ward on Instagram and TikTok

Editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jake Chaffee

Managing Director: Susan Hale

Scheduling Producer: Noel Dilworth

Transcripts by Aveline Malek 

Website by Kelly R. Dwyer

Theme song by Nick Thorburn


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Short Wave - Doing Science at the Edge of the Earth

Some scientific discoveries take place in a lab. Others are made deep in the rainforest, along the ocean floor or on the dark side of the moon. And still others are made squelching through mud and ice on the northernmost island on Earth… at least, if you’re NPR climate correspondent Alejandra Borunda. Two summers ago, Alejandra followed an expedition of scientists to Greenland’s Inuit Qeqertaat, or Kaffeeklubben (“Coffee Club”) Island. The researchers with her were aiming to find what plants grew at the farthest north point of the island. Along the way, she had an adventure … and witnessed the good, the bad and the muddy realities of scientific expeditions.

Interested in more exploratory science? Email us your question 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

Opening Arguments - Jake Tapper on his new book, and the controversy surrounding his last one

We welcome CNN anchor Jake Tapper to discuss his latest book Race Against Terror, a nonfiction legal thriller set in the long-ago world of 2011 in which the U.S. Department of Justice is dedicated to vigorously defending national security through strict adherence to due process and the rule of law. Also discussed: the current state of the media, why the world needed a book about Joe Biden’s mental decline which was released within days of Donald Trump being sworn in for his second term, and why Jake is no longer on speaking terms with the surviving members of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Check out Jake’s latest book Race Against Terror, out this week anywhere you buy or listen to books!

You can watch this episode on YouTube, too!

  1. Race Against Terror: Chasing an Al Qaeda Killer at the Dawn of the Forever War, Jake Tapper (2025)

  2. Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, Jake Tapper (2025)

  3. Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Uncivil War, VH1 (2002)(hosted by Jake Tapper)

Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!