How we got free agents in baseball

How we got free agents in baseball

Curt Flood was the best center fielder in baseball and one of the game’s highest paid players. He took the St. Louis Cardinals to the World Series three times. Then he got traded to the Phillies. He didn’t want to go. But baseball’s rules said he had no say in the decision. He could either go to Philly or quit the sport. Instead, Flood took Major League Baseball to court. Flood argued that the league should act like any other business and let workers sell their labor to whichever team they liked. But for decades, courts had ruled in favor of the team owners. Curt’s fight would destroy his career and change the sport forever. If you want to learn more about Curt Flood’s story, check out Business History’s original episode [https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/business-history/the-man-who-sued-major-league-baseball-rather-than-go-to-philly].  Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life [https://www.planetmoneybook.com/] is in stores now.  Support: Planet Money+ [https://n.pr/3HlREPz] Listen free: Apple Podcasts [http://n.pr/PM-digital], Spotify [https://n.pr/3gTkQlR], the NPR app [https://n.pr/3Bkb17W] or anywhere you get podcasts. Find us on Socials: Facebook [https://n.pr/3h92GwS] / Instagram [https://n.pr/3FqLuws] / TikTok [https://n.pr/3sGZdrq]  Our weekly Newsletter [https://n.pr/3zrFvUB]. This episode was hosted by Jacob Goldstein, Robert Smith and Keith Romer. It was produced and fact-checked by Emma Peaslee. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer. Thanks to Gabriel Hunter Chang and Ryan Dilley at Business History. 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 make a BOOK into a bestseller

In the world of commercial publishing, there are few crowning achievements more coveted than a place on the New York Times Best Seller List. But how does a book actually end up there? There is, of course, a playbook that publishers and authors use to try to gin up enough sales at the beginning of a new book’s life to launch it onto the list. But there is also a world of more shadowy techniques – a whole history of hacking shenanigans going back nearly a century. Today on the show, the fourth episode in our series [https://www.npr.org/series/g-s1-112661/planet-money-makes-a-book]: Planet Money sets out to make the Planet Money book [https://www.planetmoneybook.com/] a best seller, and along the way, we uncover all the outlandish strategies that people have tried to hack their way onto the New York Times Best Seller List. There will be mass hallucinations, legal exorcisms, shady book launderers, and scarlet daggers. And we learn the hard way how trying to engineer your way onto the list, just might be the thing that keeps you from getting there. Related: - “Night People's Hoax On Day People Makes Hit With Book Folks [https://shepquest.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/wsjournal-ilibertine.jpg]”  - New York Times: “Jacqueline Susann Dead at 53; Novelist Wrote 'Valley of Dolls' [https://www.nytimes.com/1974/09/23/archives/jacqueline-susann-dead-at-53-novelist-wrote-valley-of-dolls-book.html]” - New York Times: “Blatty Sue Times On Best-Seller List [https://www.nytimes.com/1983/08/29/arts/blatty-sue-times-on-best-seller-list.html]” - New York Times: “Court Bars A Suit Over Books List [https://www.nytimes.com/1986/12/30/us/court-bars-a-suit-over-books-list.html]” - Bloomberg Businessweek: “Did Dirty Tricks Create A Best Seller? [https://web.archive.org/web/20120525115045/http://www.businessweek.com/stories/1995-08-06/did-dirty-tricks-create-a-best-seller]”  - Episode 1: Inside a BOOK auction [https://www.npr.org/2026/03/20/nx-s1-5751177/book-deal-proposal-auction-publishing] - Episode 2: Our BOOK vs. the global supply chain [https://www.npr.org/2026/03/25/nx-s1-5751213/planet-money-book-factory-printing-press]  - Episode 3: BOOKstore Economics [https://www.npr.org/2026/04/10/nx-s1-5751214/how-books-get-to-bookstores] - Series: Planet Money makes a book [https://www.npr.org/series/g-s1-112661/planet-money-makes-a-book] - Laura McGrath’s new book: Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction [https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691256160/middlemen?srsltid=AfmBOooMaoJdOKrrKI4TV1VanbrkOTYbiBcY6faaK2DCV0yGPxD0p6pW] Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life [https://www.planetmoneybook.com/] is in stores now.  Support: Planet Money+ [https://n.pr/3HlREPz] Listen free: Apple Podcasts [http://n.pr/PM-digital], Spotify [https://n.pr/3gTkQlR], the NPR app [https://n.pr/3Bkb17W] or anywhere you get podcasts. Find us on Socials: Facebook [https://n.pr/3h92GwS] / Instagram [https://n.pr/3FqLuws] / TikTok [https://n.pr/3sGZdrq]. Our weekly Newsletter [https://n.pr/3zrFvUB]. This episode was produced by Willa Rubin. It was edited by Jess Jiang, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Robert Rodriguez and Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.  Music: NPR Source Audio - "Quirky Episodes," “Dramedy Scheme,” "Unforeseen Consequences,” and “Impractical Jokes.”  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]

Spirit Airlines and the future of cheap flights

It’s way more than fuel costs that pushed Spirit Airlines to the brink of liquidation and led President Trump to muse about “buying” them. Many low cost airlines are struggling due to a canny and calculated set of strategies from bigger airlines that we can think of as ‘revenge of the legacy carriers.’  Today on the show, we go back in time to when Spirit was riding high and pressuring the whole industry to cut costs. We talk with then-CEO Ben Baldanza about his radical vision for cheap air travel and then travel to the present day to hear how legacy airlines beat Spirit and other budget airlines at their own game. Plus, what happens to us passengers if Spirit does go away.  Newsletters: Greg’s weekly deep dive [https://n.pr/3zrFvUB] The brand new Indicator link roundup [https://npr.org/newsletter/indicator?utm_source=planetmoneyrss] Related Episodes:  People Express and how flying got so bad (or did it?) [https://www.npr.org/2024/07/05/1197960905/flying-airlines-deregulation-competition-unbundling] Book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life [https://www.planetmoneybook.com] is in stores now.  Support: Planet Money+ [https://n.pr/3HlREPz] Listen free: Apple Podcasts [http://n.pr/PM-digital], Spotify [https://n.pr/3gTkQlR], the NPR app [https://n.pr/3Bkb17W] or anywhere you get podcasts. Find us on Socials:  Facebook [https://n.pr/3h92GwS] / Instagram [https://n.pr/3FqLuws] / TikTok [https://n.pr/3sGZdrq]  This episode of Planet Money was hosted by Greg Rosalsky, Jacob Goldstein, Zoe Chace and Emma Peaslee. It was produced by Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Alex Goldmark. It was fact-checked by Vito Emanuel and engineered by Jimmy Keeley. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.  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]

Battlefield rare earths: How the U.S. lost to China

At one point in history, one U.S. company monopolized the rare earths industry. Then China took over the industry. Can the U.S. bring it back? Rare earths are critical to making, like, everything. From smart phones to electric vehicles to microwaves. They’ve also become a powerful political weapon for China, which controls the majority of mining and processing of rare earths.  Today, we have the story of the rise and fall of America’s rare earth industry told through that single company. It’s a corporate saga made for prestige television about the elements that literally, once, made prestige televisions.  Live event info and tickets here. [https://tix.to/pm-book-tour]  Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift [https://www.planetmoneybook.com/]. / Subscribe to Planet Money+ [https://n.pr/3HlREPz] Listen free: Apple Podcasts [http://n.pr/PM-digital], Spotify [https://n.pr/3gTkQlR], the NPR app [https://n.pr/3Bkb17W] or anywhere you get podcasts. Facebook [https://n.pr/3h92GwS] / Instagram [https://n.pr/3FqLuws] / TikTok [https://n.pr/3sGZdrq] / Our weekly Newsletter [https://n.pr/3zrFvUB]. This episode was produced by Emma Peaslee and edited by Marianne McCune. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Cena Loffredo and Jimmy Keeley. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer. 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]

Live: Anthropic co-founder on AI and jobs

We talk with Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark and Chief Economist at Redfin Daryl Fairweather about two of the biggest issues of our time: AI and housing.  We have been crisscrossing America doing live shows to help promote the new Planet Money book. In each city, we’ve been doing interviews with special guests. And since we won’t be able to make it to every city in America (or most cities) we wanted to bring the tour to you! Live show tour and book info. [https://www.planetmoneybook.com] / Subscribe to Planet Money+ [https://n.pr/3HlREPz] Listen free: Apple Podcasts [http://n.pr/PM-digital], Spotify [https://n.pr/3gTkQlR], the NPR app [https://n.pr/3Bkb17W] or anywhere you get podcasts. Facebook [https://n.pr/3h92GwS] / Instagram [https://n.pr/3FqLuws] / TikTok [https://n.pr/3sGZdrq] / Our weekly Newsletter [https://n.pr/3zrFvUB]. This episode of Planet Money was edited and produced by Eric Mennel and Emma Peaslee. It was fact checked by Sierra Juarez. It was engineered by Robert Rodriguez and Kwesi Lee. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.  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]