Meta has limited how many hyperlinks Facebook Pages can post through a subscription Tony Avelar/AP Photo hide caption
October 23, 2026 • Social media sites aren't the biggest fans of people leaving via hyperlinks. In fact, Meta has made it subscription-worthy for a Facebook Page to post more than two hyperlinks per month. What's the rationale for companies want to keep you on their site?
by Wailin Wong , Adrian Ma , Ricky Mulvey , Julia Ritchey , Kate Concannon
October 23, 2026 • This week’s notable indicators: A distressing credit warning for CoreWeave, a Pokémon heist, and depleted maple syrup reserves in Canada.
by Maria Aspan , Adrian Ma , Corey Bridges , Kate Concannon
October 22, 2026 • Elections are more expensive than ever, but are campaign donations going to the races where they’ll make the most impact? Today, we talk to the startup co-founder of Oath who believes there’s a smarter way to allocate individual donations.
Ten Lives: How What We Have Shapes Who We Are by Mona Chalabi Random House hide caption
by Adrian Ma , Ricky Mulvey , Julia Ritchey , Kate Concannon
October 21, 2026 • Should money and class figure more prominently in how we identify ourselves? Pulitzer Prize-winning data journalist Mona Chalabi thinks yes. Today on the show, a conversation with Mona, author of the forthcoming book Ten Lives: How What We Have Shapes Who We Are.
by Jeff Guo , Nick Fountain , Jess Jiang , Emma Peaslee
October 21, 2026 • Polling is facing an existential crisis. People aren't picking up the phone. Nobody wants to talk to pollsters. Trust is on the line. We pluck a solution from the economics canon and convince a polling firm to let us test it.
October 20, 2026 • Research on past recessions suggests downturns can accelerate automation. That raises the specter of a double whammy for workers.
by Corey Bridges , Paddy Hirsch , Wailin Wong , Kate Concannon
October 20, 2026 • The United States national debt is running at more than $40 trillion dollars. It’s a potential crisis in the making, but President Donald Trump suggested it can all be solved just by inflating the debt away. Today, we dig into the nitty gritty on how and when inflating the national debt could work.
by Ricky Mulvey , Adrian Ma , Julia Ritchey , Corey Bridges , Kate Concannon
October 19, 2026 • Oracle, the multinational tech giant has taken on a lot of loans to build up its AI capacity. But Oracle’s investors are not happy with this piling debt load. We explain why Oracle is such a pivotal player — and potentially weak link — in the AI-fueled economy.
by Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi , Jess Jiang , Emma Peaslee
October 16, 2026 • Before an independent movie makes it to a streaming platform or a theater near you, it first needs to survive an artistic and economic gauntlet. And even for those movies that make it into elite film festivals like Sundance – it can take everything from performance stunts to corporate spycraft to seal the deal. Today on the show, we follow the ‘King of Sundance’ as he and his team try to sell their slate of movies to distributors like Netflix and Sony and Apple. We hear the behind the scenes stories about how films like Little Miss Sunshine , Napoleon Dynamite and Precious got sold. And we learn the strategies that might make the difference in whether or not a film makes it onto screens around the world.
Some of the "Characters" available to users Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption
October 16, 2026 • Character.AI collected millions of users, making it a very appealing acquisition. Google took a unique route to "acquiring" it, hiring away its founders and licensing its technology. Now Character.AI is filing for bankruptcy. Here's what to know.
by Wailin Wong , Adrian Ma , Ricky Mulvey , Angel Carreras , Kate Concannon
October 16, 2026 • This week’s indicators: Why is inflation so super (derogatory)? How did Bumble go from dating app doldrums to a stock market sweetheart?; And oh, bother! Could Winnie the Pooh be moving home to England from New York City?
by Maria Aspan , Wailin Wong , Corey Bridges , Kate Concannon
October 15, 2026 • The 2026 midterm elections are fast approaching, and it’s gearing up to be the most expensive election in American history. So how did we get here, where every election feels more expensive than the last?
A crowd of scientists watches a presentation at the Asilomar conference in 1975. Andrew Stern/National Academy of Sciences hide caption
by Nick Fountain , Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi , Marianne McCune , Vito Emanuel
October 14, 2026 • Fifty years ago, scientists pioneering a terrifying gene-splicing technology figured out a way to collectively hit pause. Can we do it again with AI?
by Adrian Ma , Angel Carreras , Kate Concannon
October 14, 2026 • A labyrinthine rebate process. Shrinking cereal boxes. Mystery rental car charges. Cockroaches?! We share listener tales of Consumer Rage and unpack the economic forces driving that ANGER.
October 13, 2026 • Prices can get sticky. That helps explain why recessions hurt so much — and what policymakers can do about them.
by Greg Rosalsky , Ricky Mulvey , Angel Carreras , Kate Concannon
October 13, 2026 • This year's Nobel Prize for Economics went to American economists Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford! Their research focused on macroeconomic models and economic shocks.
October 12, 2026 • Nearly 30 million bison once roamed North America, from modern Canada to Mexico. In the late 1800s, white settlers and the U.S. military annihilated the population of bison, bringing these creatures to the brink of extinction. The consequences for the people who relied on the bison were dire — and still being felt today. In an episode that first aired in August 2023, we spoke to one economist who reveals the shocking numbers about the destruction of the bison, and one member of the Blackfeet Nation who is trying to bring them back.
by Kenny Malone , Alex Goldmark , Sam Yellowhorse Kesler
October 9, 2026 • Companies are getting billions of dollars back. How about us?
A Ukrainian air defense soldier gets ready to repel Russia's drone attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday evening, Sept. 19, 2026. Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky/AP hide caption
October 9, 2026 • As European defense spending takes off, just about half of the funding in Europe's defense tech industry is coming from American investors this year. One reason why: European investment firms have restrictions on how they can invest.
by Wailin Wong , Adrian Ma , Ricky Mulvey , Corey Bridges , Kate Concannon
October 9, 2026 • This week our top indicators include changes to the funding model for SNAP, private equity’s influence on youth baseball and Meta’s attempt to find flaws in its brand new AI assistant.
by Wailin Wong , Adrian Ma , Schuyler Swenson , Kate Concannon
October 8, 2026 • Federal immigration enforcement arrests reached record highs this past summer, and under the second Trump administration, immigration agents can now more easily access so-called sensitive areas, including hospitals. Today on the show: how both patients and healthcare workers are bearing the physical and economic costs of these deportation campaigns.
A woman holds Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov's 2021 Nobel Peace Prize medal in New York in 2022. Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
October 7, 2026 • A thinly traded prediction market offers a starting point. We explore potential winners and the big ideas that could earn them economics' biggest prize.
by Adrian Ma , Ricky Mulvey , Corey Bridges , Kate Concannon
October 7, 2026 • Rising electricity prices are one of the primary reasons why data centers are a public enemy this election cycle. But is it realistic to expect energy prices to stay high forever?
