A podcast on America’s coming demographic crisis

How public policy shapes demographic trends

This IMF podcast explores the population booms and busts throughout human history. According to Harvard economist and demographer David Bloom, it took more than 50,000 years for the world population to reach 1 billion. But since 1960, we have added...

Both parties largely agree that America's immigration system is broken

This three‑part podcast series traces America's immigration system origins, revealing how historically celebrated Ellis Island-era policies evolved into today's fractured, fact‑starved debate—shedding light on economic, cultural, and political forces shaping the current dysfunction.

The future of higher education in the US

In this episode of Wired’s Have a Nice Future podcast, education journalist Paul Tough joins hosts Gideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode to tackle a big question: Is attending college in the United States still worth it? As tuition climbs and the payoff feels murkier, they dig into what’s broken in higher education, and whether it can be fixed.

The 'Strong Towns' podcast explores how American cities can become financially resilient

This weekly podcast examines why the way America has built its cities since World War II has left some communities financially fragile—and what local governments can do differently moving forward.

Why can't we just turn the empty offices into apartments?

As both rent prices and mortgage rates rise across the US, many companies have simultaneously continued operating hybrid or remote workforces post-pandemic. A podcast episode dives into why city dwellers aren't all living in their prepandemic break rooms just yet.

Listen to an interview with a gig economy expert

In this podcast episode, the hosts sit down with NerdWallet Senior News Editor Rick VanderKnyff, a gig economy expert who explains why the sector grew during the COVID-19 pandemic, what defines a gig worker, how gig workers handle their finances, and more.

Only half of American workers have retirement accounts at their current jobs

Most American retirement accounts are not nearly funded enough to support people living longer, healthier lives. Get the details on five individuals at different stages of life and hear how they’ve saved—or not—while expert Theresa Ghilarducci explains the current weaknesses of the retirement regime in America.

When your 9-to-5 becomes optional

You've seen the headlines. But what would actually happen if everyone's 9-to-5 became optional? We dug into the data. Traced automation philosophy back thousands of years. Examined what happened when elevator operators disappeared. Looked at Alaska's 40-year experiment paying every citizen. And investigated the Philippines, where 89% of call center jobs are now at risk. What we found was more positive than bleak. This video explores three questions: What does the data actually show? What does history tell us about this kind of disruption? And what happens when work becomes optional?

Some people are against Black Friday, saying it promotes consumerism

This comprehensive podcast video episode from NYU Professor Scott Galloway offers a deep dive into the economics of Black Friday, Galloway believes Black Friday allows corporations to exploit the worst parts of Americans’ consumerist impulses, and warns Americans should not believe purchasing things leads to greater happiness.

Visual Capitalist projects the fastest-shrinking jobs in America by 2034

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, there will be fewer jobs for cashiers, bank tellers, data entry clerks, and more over the next decade.

The lack of diversity in clinical trials is undermining the future of precision medicine

Medicine works better when the treatments are tailored to fit each individual person’s biology and history. Homogeneous patient selection in clinical trials means treatments and care are being refined based on only a small range of variables, some of which may not apply to you. This 40-minute podcast episode discusses the historical and current reasons for the lack of clinical trial diversity and what this means for the future of personalized medicine.

'Planet Money' debates the financial indicators that defined 2025

In this end-of-year episode, "Planet Money" stages a playful debate over which economic indicators best captured the chaos of 2025—from tariffs to AI bubbles—and which signals may matter most as the US economy heads into 2026.

Explore an interactive tool that reveals why Americans are unemployed

Among unemployed Americans ages 25 to 54, almost 30% cited being laid off as the reason for their unemployment.

Tech, finance, and consulting industries hire roughly 70% of students from top MBA programs

However, hiring in these sectors has slowed in recent years due to overhiring and other factors, making the job search more difficult for recent MBA grads. This Wall Street Journal podcast episode has more details.

Paperwork errors cost families millions in life-insurance payouts

This podcast episode reveals how human missteps by employers and insurance providers caused hundreds of families who paid life-insurance premiums to be denied millions of dollars in death benefits. A Wall Street Journal reporter breaks down how flaws in the system made this happen.

People are experiencing AI 'brain fry' at work

Workers, particularly in marketing, are experiencing mental fatigue in the workplace due to expectations—often unspoken—that they should use AI to multitask beyond their comfort levels. Many feel they are underperforming if they don't embrace this technology. This situation differs from typical burnout. This podcast discussion suggests that this "brain fry" tends to intensify when employees are required to use more than three AI tools.

Silicon Valley’s reign over tech, money, and politics

Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, and others are getting into politics. From Musk’s role in President Trump’s second term to Hoffman’s spending on former Vice President Harris’ presidential campaign, more tech CEOs are expanding into politics. This podcast episode by WBUR and American Public Media discusses what the impact could be with so many tech figures engaging in American politics. Listen here.

Disney’s IP problem, according to industry experts

Disney seems to be an unstoppable force in the entertainment industry, but after an unprecedented high point in 2019, the company began losing money. In this podcast, two industry veterans discuss what they see as Disney's existential problems: an overreliance on preexisting material and an inability to innovate as it once did.

Spellcaster: the rise and fall of Sam Bankman-Fried

The rapid collapse of FTX, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, in late 2022 shocked the world. At the center of the fiasco was Sam Bankman-Fried, a 29-year-old wunderkind who had entranced politicians, journalists, financiers, and others with his melding of altruism and digital currency. The sordid details revealed as the empire fell captured public attention—venture into the death spiral with this in-depth podcast from Bloomberg.

An excellent look at how Democrats lose working class voters.

Democrats fear they are losing white swing voters over racial politics. Three studies suggest that the party’s elite culture may be the real problem.

Trump's H-1B fee hike could reshape US industries and global talent flows

Analysts warn the new H-1B fee could trigger labor shortages in tech, medicine, and universities; push firms to offshore more work; and drive skilled Indian workers and students toward other countries—weakening America's innovation edge.

A summary of the 2020 census

This summary of the 2020 census shows an aging America and wide racial gaps between generations. The information provides the national and geographic composition of the nation’s age and racial-ethnic makeup. New statistics for 2020 show that the...

A podcast uncovering drug killings in the Philippines

This podcast investigates how many people have been killed in the Philippines since its War on Drugs began. In 2016, Rodrigo Duterte became the President of the Philippines, framing drugs as an existential threat and the root of all crime, saying...

What employers can do about parental stress

The US Surgeon General recently released a formal warning deeming parental stress a public health issue. The advisory also included recommendations for how employers can mitigate the issue. Employers can help their employees access child care, for instance, or provide flexible working hours. To find out more about what the Surgeon General prescribes, read more here.

The drama of the car dealership quota

Car salespersons are often under a ton of pressure to meet quotas at their dealership, at least partly explaining why they are known to stoop to such lows to sell cars. In this now legendary podcast episode, "This American Life" host Ira Glass and...

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

Use this tool to calculate the dollar value of your parental mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care, then see resources that help generate solutions.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

11 people died from firework injuries in the US in 2024.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

The 2026 Ebola outbreak is hampered by a lack of vaccine against the species of the virus, heightening the need for rapid tests to aid in disease control.

Fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef have increased after installing waterproof speakers on the ocean floor that played recordings of sounds from healthy coral reefs.

Some researchers have labeled nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, as 'the phobia of the 21st century.'

Learn how to read a prospectus, the juicy document that any company must file with the SEC before going public.

Quincy Jones' 'Big Band Bossa Nova' helped introduce bossa nova—a jazz-influenced Brazilian genre—to the US

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island