LIVE SHOW: August 18th in Brooklyn. Tickets here.
Traditional economics says the market is guided by the forces of supply and demand. Customers decide what they want to buy, and private enterprise responds to that need.
So what makes government think that it's smarter than capitalism? Why offer tax breaks to Hollywood or incentives to build silicon chip factories in Arizona? Why those industries and not others? And when does the free market fail and need government to step in?
Today, we discuss what happens when the government really wants to get its hands dirty and shape the direction of the economy, even decide which companies should prosper and which ones should fail, through industrial policy.
The series is hosted by Robert Smith and produced by Eric Mennel. Our project manager is Devin Mellor. This episode was edited by Planet Money Executive Producer Alex Goldmark and fact-checked by Emily Crawford.
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Short Wave - Climate Change Could Alter Spidey Love
Every September, the small town of La Junta, Colorado puts on a whole festival to celebrate a beloved local animal: the tarantula! Around this time of year, thousands of mature male tarantulas start to migrate en masse – but until recently, scientists didn’t know what triggered them to move out of their cozy burrows. On today’s show, biologist Dallas Haselhuhn explains how they solved the mystery, and how climate change could affect future treks.
Want to hear about more critter mysteries? Email us and let us know at shortwave@npr.org.
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This episode was produced by Berly McCoy and edited by Rebecca Ramirez. Tyler Jones checked the facts. Robert Rodriguez was the audio engineer.
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Want to hear about more critter mysteries? Email us and let us know 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.
Listen to Short Wave on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
This episode was produced by Berly McCoy and edited by Rebecca Ramirez. Tyler Jones checked the facts. Robert Rodriguez was the audio engineer.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
What Could Go Right? - Are We Wasting Our Talent? with Rutger Bregman
Are we measuring success all wrong? Rutger Bregman seems to think so. Zachary and Emma welcome Rutger, a Dutch historian and journalist, and author of Moral Ambition: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference. The founder of the School for Moral Ambition, Rutger challenges society’s flawed definition of success, stresses supportive and ambitious communities, and suggests how we can make a truly global impact. He highlights his own struggles with work-life balance and his pursuit of enthusiasm over exhaustion.
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
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NPR's Book of the Day - In Lisa Smith’s ‘Jamaica Road,’ a young girl searches for belonging in 1980s London
Lisa Smith’s debut novel Jamaica Road is a coming of age story and romance set in 1980s London. The story follows Daphne, a young girl born to a Jamaican family, and her best friend Connie over the course of 12 years as they contend with love, hatred and some historical events in British history. In today’s episode, Smith talks with Here & Now’s Deborah Becker about growing up as “the posh Black girl,” writing patois, and a surprising character’s presence in the novel.
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To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - A Rabbi’s Plea for Peace
More than a thousand rabbis and Jewish leaders have signed a letter calling for Israel to end “the use and threat of starvation as a weapon of war.” This New York rabbi, who has felt a connection to Israel her whole life, explains why she signed.
Guest: Sarah Reines, rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan.
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Podcast production by Ethan Oberman, Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.
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Audio Mises Wire - No Matter Who Is President, Don’t Trust Government Data
Whether President Trump overreacted to the recent BLS is irrelevant to the fact that government data often is inaccurate and politically suspect.
Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/no-matter-who-president-dont-trust-government-data
Engines of Our Ingenuity - The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2824: A Brass Catalogue
Episode: 2824 An 18th-century catalogue of brass objects, an early approach to marketing, and decorative drawer handles. Today, we look at a mysterious catalogue.
This Machine Kills - 417. Whose AI Bubble Is It Anyways? (ft. Paris Marx, Brian Merchant)
In this episode, Ed chats with Paris Marx and Brian Merchant about artificial intelligence and the political coalitions behind its development in the United States and abroad. Are we all living in the same AI bubble? Europe, China, and America all have different visions for what their ideal global value chain looks like when it comes to AI—its raw material inputs, chips, data centers, invisible laborers, regulatory standards, data sets, models, and applications. Whose vision will win out and why?
••• Come to Jathan’s book launch in Melbourne on August 14th at 6:00pm! There will be fun conversation, an open bar, and books for sale! Register for free here: https://events.humanitix.com/sadowkski-the-mechanic-and-the-luddite-launch
Paris’s recent newsletters:
••• https://www.disconnect.blog/p/why-should-the-us-decide-who-can
••• https://www.disconnect.blog/p/why-canada-needs-to-build-a-public
••• https://www.disconnect.blog/p/jd-vance-champions-tech-imperialism
Brian’s recent newsletters:
••• https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/trumps-ai-action-plan-is-a-blueprint
••• https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/dont-forget-what-silicon-valley-tried
••• https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/this-is-the-gentle-singularity
Standing Plugs:
••• Order Jathan’s new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite
••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble
••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills
Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)
The Government Huddle with Brian Chidester - 191: The One with the 2025 Adobe Digital Government Index (DGI)
Amita Prabhu, Amber Lao, and Kaila Cage from Adobe’s Public Sector Digital Strategy Group join the show unpack the inspiration, methodology, and key findings of the report, which benchmarks digital maturity across U.S. state governments. Together we discuss the origins of the DGI and how it evolved from a side project into a strategic benchmarking tool and why the three pillars of digital maturity – customer experience, site performance, and digital self-service – are so vital to digital government maturity. We also discuss why citizen expectations are outpacing government digital improvements—and what states can do about it and the growing influence of AI and ML in service delivery—from chatbots to fraud detection.
array(3) { [0]=> string(69) "https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/fw4acgm25252zhi2/DGI_Podcastbk34n.m4a" [1]=> string(0) "" [2]=> string(8) "33772830" }Amarica's Constitution - Skrmetti Skirmish
We continue our discussion of the deep issues raised in the case of US v. Skrmetti. Last time we observed the Court wrestling with questions of whether the Tennessee law banning gender dysphoria treatments in minors was a form of sex discrimination. Later in the argument the Court addressed the question of whether transgender individuals, or some related group, constituted a so-called “suspect classification” and therefore laws purporting to affect that group would be subject to close examination (“Scrutiny”) by the Court. In this episode we listen, and react to, those arguments as the Court itself did. Professor Vik Amar returns to join Akhil in this task, and rightly so, since the “brothers in law” have written several recent posts on the deep questions raised by this and other recent cases. This has resulted in a new unifying theory which they begin to articulate in this episode. CLE credit is available for lawyers and judges from podcast.njsba.com.