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Wanna see a trick? Give us any topic and we can tie it back to the economy. At Planet Money, we explore the forces that shape our lives and bring you along for the ride. Don't just understand the economy – understand the world.

Wanna go deeper? Subscribe to Planet Money+ and get sponsor-free episodes of Planet Money, The Indicator, and Planet Money Summer School. Plus access to bonus content. It's a new way to support the show you love. Learn more at plus.npr.org/planetmoney

Most Recent Episodes

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How useful, really, are the steps you can take after a data breach?

The dreaded data breach notification... It tells you your personal data's been compromised and suggests steps you can take to minimize the potential harm. On today's episode, Kenny Malone pulls out a data breach letter he received and goes over what it recommends with Amanda Aronczyk. Amanda recently did a show about the legal and illegal markets for data and tells us how useful these steps actually are. It's news you can use to protect yourself, whether or not you've been part of a data breach!

How useful, really, are the steps you can take after a data breach?

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Ferns are growing where there used to be cattle pastures at the El Globo habitat bank and nature reserve in Antioquia, Colombia. In the background are hills that neighbors cleared for cattle pasture. Stan Alcorn/NPR hide caption

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Stan Alcorn/NPR

The habitat banker

Our planet is in serious trouble. There are a million species of plants and animals in danger of extinction, and the biggest cause is companies destroying their habitats to farm food, mine minerals, and otherwise get the raw materials to turn into the products we all consume.

The habitat banker

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How sports gambling blew up

Sports gambling isn't exactly a financial market, but it rhymes with financial markets. What happens on Wall Street somehow eventually also happens in sports gambling. So in the 1980s, when computers and deep statistical analysis entered the markets, it also entered the sportsbooks and changed the world of sports gambling in ways we see every day now.

How sports gambling blew up

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Economic sciences laureates James Robinson, Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson. Clément Morin/Nobel Prize Outreach hide caption

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Clément Morin/Nobel Prize Outreach

A Nobel prize for explaining why there's global inequality

Why do some nations fail and others succeed?

A Nobel prize for explaining why there's global inequality

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Willis C. Hawley (left) and Reed Smoot meeting shortly after the signing of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. Library of Congress hide caption

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Library of Congress

Worst. Tariffs. Ever. (update)

The Smoot Hawley Tariffs were a debacle that helped plunge America into the Great Depression. What can we learn from them?

Worst. Tariffs. Ever. (update)

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Windell Curole stands atop his eponymous levee in South Lafourche, Louisiana. The earthen ridge was built over the course of decades to protect the community against flooding from hurricanes. Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi/NPR hide caption

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Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi/NPR

There Will Be Flood

Windell Curole spent decades working to protect his community in southern Louisiana from the destructive flooding caused by hurricanes. His local office in South Lafourche partnered with the federal government's Army Corps of Engineers to build a massive ring of earthen mounds – also known as levees – to keep the floodwaters at bay.

There Will Be Flood

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How George Soros forced the UK to devalue the pound

As people learn more about Donald Trump's pick for Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, one story comes up over and over: a legendary trade that he played a small part in while he worked at George Soros' hedge fund in the 1990s.

How George Soros forced the UK to devalue the pound

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Amanda Aronczyk/NPR

Why you bought your couch

You probably own a chair or a table or a sofa. And you probably think you know why you bought it. Because it was comfy. Or blue. Or the right price. But what if the style, the color, the cost, maybe even whether you would like it, were choices made for you years before you even thought about buying that piece of furniture.

Why you bought your couch

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Title insurance, title pirates, and a house built on someone else's land.

A couple years ago, Gina Leto, a real estate developer, bought a property with her business partner. The process went like it usually did: Lots of paperwork; a virtual closing. Pretty cut-and-dry. Gina and her partner started building a house on the property.

Title insurance, title pirates, and a house built on someone else's land.

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