Planet Money

What makes a toy go viral

Squishy, slimy, fidgety toys are having a moment. But it’s more than just an anxiety-soothing, social-media fueled trend – these toys are reshaping how toys get made. Today on the show, we have the story of the once-humble squishy dumpling and what it teaches us about how to make a viral hit and how to manufacture it, without getting left holding the bag. Hear it all firsthand from the creator of this trendy toy.  Read:  Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life [https://lnk.to/i3AukBdD]  Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletter [https://n.pr/3zrFvUB] Our weekly Indicator round-up newsletter [https://www.npr.org/newsletter/indicator] Follow:  Instagram [https://n.pr/3FqLuws] TikTok [https://n.pr/3sGZdrq] YouTube [https://lnk.to/iCVDaW3C] Facebook [https://n.pr/3h92GwS] Support public media by joining NPR+ at plus.npr.org [http://plus.npr.org/]. You’ll get perks for over 25 NPR podcasts, including bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Planet Money. This episode of Planet Money was produced by Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Marianne McCune. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. It was engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.  Music: NPR Source Audio - "Melty Heart," "Summer Escape," and "Twilight Sparkle" See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy [https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy]

How to beat the resource curse in Norway (Summer School)

Let’s call it the luxury of restraint. This is what enabled Norway to avoid the fate of so many other countries when they discovered oil and it changed the mix of their economy overnight. Norway! It’s expensive, wealthy, and abundant in resources. We’re going to compare two of them in particular today: deep reservoirs of oil and icy waters full of salmon. While one resource was heavily in demand, the country had an oversupply of the other. In this episode, we learn how Norway built its wealth by carefully avoiding the pitfalls of discovering oil that have plagued countries in the past and how it creatively created demand for its raw fish abroad. How do you dodge the dreaded resource curse? What clever ways can you benefit from oversupply? And lastly, how do you get rich and stay that way? Featured Episodes: * Norway Has Advice For Libya (2011) [https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/08/26/139972557/the-friday-podcast-norways-got-advice-for-libya] * The Salmon Taboo (2015) [https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/09/16/440951873/episode-651-the-salmon-taboo] Featured Terms: * Resource curse / Dutch disease / paradox of plenty * Coordination problem * Free-rider problem Support: * NPR+ [https://n.pr/3HlREPz] Read:  * Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life [https://lnk.to/i3AukBdD] (Audiobook here [https://open.spotify.com/show/509P7k1QPcwgzOSCqVCDCZ])  * Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletter [https://n.pr/3zrFvUB] * Our weekly Indicator link round-up newsletter [https://www.npr.org/newsletter/indicator] Follow:  * Instagram [https://n.pr/3FqLuws] * TikTok [https://n.pr/3sGZdrq] * YouTube [https://lnk.to/iCVDaW3C] * Facebook [https://n.pr/3h92GwS] * This episode of Planet Money Summer School is hosted by Robert Smith. It was produced by Sophia Paliza-Carre and edited by Planet Money Executive Producer Alex Goldmark. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Cena Loffredo with help from Annlie Huang and Robert Rodriguez. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy [https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy]

Piles of cash and a town of solutions in Kenya, Nigeria (Summer School)

Let’s head to a small town in Kenya that’s become globally famous for helping economists answer some of the biggest questions facing humanity. In Kenya and Nigeria, economics isn’t just theory, it’s real life. We’ll look at some radical experiments that turned out to be enormously successful. What are the building blocks of health, education and prosperity for all? How does a nation grow rich? What is the most effective way to spend a dollar to fight poverty? We find answers in a town that became the laboratory for new concepts in economic research that netted some researchers the most prestigious prize in economics. Featured Episodes: * How randomized trials and the town of Busia, Kenya changed economics (2023) [https://www.npr.org/2023/06/09/1181448838/busia-kenya-nobel-prize-randomized-control-trials] * Nigeria, You Win! (2016) [https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/05/20/478883658/episode-702-nigeria-you-win] Featured Terms: * Randomized controlled trial * Human capital * Missing middle Support: * Planet Money+ [https://n.pr/3HlREPz] Read:  * Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life [https://lnk.to/i3AukBdD] (Audiobook here [https://open.spotify.com/show/509P7k1QPcwgzOSCqVCDCZ])  * Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletter [https://n.pr/3zrFvUB] * Our weekly Indicator link round-up newsletter [https://www.npr.org/newsletter/indicator] Follow:  * Instagram [https://n.pr/3FqLuws] * TikTok [https://n.pr/3sGZdrq] * YouTube [https://lnk.to/iCVDaW3C] * Facebook [https://n.pr/3h92GwS] The series is hosted by Robert Smith and produced by Sophia Paliza-Carre. This episode was edited by Planet Money Executive Producer Alex Goldmark. This episode was fact-checked by Leyla Doss, with engineering by Annlie Huang. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy [https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy]

Big Lettuce meets Small Intestine

The cyclospora outbreak that’s sickening thousands of Americans got us interested in the rise of Big Lettuce, and the challenges of keeping it clean.  So on today’s show, we tell you just how much lettuce Americans eat every year (SO MUCH!), how bagged lettuce came to dominate grocery store shelves, what that means for food safety, and why these outbreaks continue to happen — despite the FDA’s efforts to stop them. Check out other related episodes: Food Scare Squad [https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/08/24/641739640/episode-861-food-scare-squad] How refrigeration took over the world [https://www.npr.org/2025/09/26/nx-s1-5553615/gustavus-swift-m-e-pennington-refrigeration] Support: Planet Money+ [https://n.pr/3HlREPz] Read:  Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life [https://lnk.to/i3AukBdD]  Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletter [https://n.pr/3zrFvUB] Our weekly Indicator round-up newsletter [https://www.npr.org/newsletter/indicator] Follow:  Instagram [https://n.pr/3FqLuws] TikTok [https://n.pr/3sGZdrq] YouTube [https://lnk.to/iCVDaW3C] Facebook [https://n.pr/3h92GwS] This episode was hosted by Jeff Guo and Emma Peaslee. It was produced by Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Marianne McCune and it was fact checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Annlie Huang. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.  Music: NPR Source Audio - "Electric Leak," "West Green Road," and "Melty Heart" See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy [https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy]

New NPR Series: "We Keep Us Safe" from the Embedded podcast

In the summer of 2020, sixteen-year-old Antonio Mays Jr. traveled a thousand miles to join the racial justice movement of his generation in the wake of George Floyd's killing. Antonio arrived in Seattle during the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, known as CHOP. Less than a week later, he was shot and killed there. The case remains unsolved. In this eight-part series, hosts Sydney Brownstone of The Seattle Times and Will James of KUOW team up with NPR's Embedded to investigate Antonio's death. They track down key eyewitnesses and surface crucial evidence that's never been made public. Find "We Keep Us Safe" in the Embedded podcast feed. Listen to Embedded wherever you get your podcasts, including the NPR App [https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510311/embedded], Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1091709555?mt=2&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory], Pocket Casts [https://pca.st/embd], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/4uGM0HtHF1DPR4LHNlfvwm], and via RSS [https://feeds.npr.org/510311/podcast.xml]. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy [https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy]