Planet Money

The produce aisle is changing. You’ve noticed this, I’m sure. It is now full of superstar fruits and vegetables: The Honeycrisp apple, The Cotton Candy grape, The Cuties mandarin orange. They stand out. They cost more. They have branding and sometimes trademarks and patent-ish kinds of protections.

And now – it’s happening in the tomato bin too! Where once there were just plain old cherry or grape tomatoes, now there are Sugar Bombs, and Flavor Bombs, and Lolli Bombs and Sprinkles.

Today, we are partnering up with Dan Pashman – host of The Sporkful food podcast – and heading to New Jersey where we hope to taste an up-and-coming competitor: Rutgers University's Scarlet Sunrise grape tomato. We talk to the inventors to understand why this explosion in branded fruits and veggies has happened and how you go about making a new piece of produce.

Plus, we talk to Cornell agricultural economist Miguel Gomez about whether or not the fruits and veggies spread in our produce aisle are, perhaps, reaching the point of market saturation.

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This episode was hosted by Kenny Malone and Dan Pashman. It was produced by James Sneed and edited by Keith Romer. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Cena Loffredo & Jimmy Keely. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.

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This episode is packed with your best economic ideas from around the world and a penguin interview. It all comes together in this final session of Summer School 2026.

Pack your parka, we’re headed to Antarctica.

First, we’ll travel back in time to the late 1970s when NPR was a scrappy young network, with a synth soundtrack, and tons of heart. Science reporter Ira Flatow took a trip to the South Pole that put NPR on the news industry map. We’ll hear an excerpt where he brings us along through what life is like on the ice, including a memorable interview with the wildlife.

Then we look inside McMurdo Station, the largest human settlement and research base on Antarctica to hear from a listener who managed the store at the base back in the 1980s. Normal retail rules do not apply. We’ll also speak with an economist who has estimated the continent’s monetary value, while asking questions like “why put a price tag on this uninhabitable land”? She makes the case we should consider the environmental benefit as a service.

But, we can’t let the episode and the series wrap without marking our achievements! You did it! As part of our graduation celebration, we hear from your fellow members of the summer school class of 2026. Listeners like you who have written in from around the globe with provocative economic ideas that could make life better for all of us if we just have the will to do it. Man did you all deliver on sending in ideas. We’ve curated our favorites. Way better than speeches.

And don’t forget your totally real, but not legal, diploma by taking our short online test. Don’t worry if you need a refresher, catch up on past seasons of Planet Money Summer School here.

Featured Episodes:

The unexpected sounds of Antarctica (1979)
A visit to McMurdo Station in Antarctica (1979)

Featured Terms:

Ecosystem as a service 
Consórcios (a type of ROSCA, a Rotating Savings and Credit Association)
Social housing
Natural capital

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And please click “follow” in your podcast app so you don’t miss an episode. NPR+
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This episode of Planet Money Summer School is hosted by Robert Smith. It was produced by Schuyler Swenson and Sophia Paliza-Carre and edited by Planet Money Executive Producer Alex Goldmark. It was fact-checked by Charlotte Isidore and engineered by Annlie Huang.

Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. Planet Money's perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

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There’s a room where the fates of retail products are decided. Will they make it onto the shelves of the big box stores? Usually the rest of us can’t get inside the room where decisions are made – until now! Today on the show, we pitch the Planet Money game, Sell Me a Sasquatch, to big box retailers. We go behind the scenes to learn about how products end up on big box store shelves, what’s going on inside the minds of the deciders, and find out our board game’s fate. 

Learn more about the story of Pantone: The company that owns colors 

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Read: 
Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life 
Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletter
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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 Robert Rodriguez and Jimmy Keeley. Planet Money’s executive producer is Alex Goldmark. 

Music: NPR Source Audio - "Silly Sevens," "Adventure Time," and "Virtual Machine"

Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

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This week’s stop on our world tour - Korea. A country divided into two very different power structures since the end of WWII. Today South Korea is the maker of some of the world’s favorite exports – from Samsung TV’s to BTS. But 75 years ago it was a much different story. How the textile industry and a partnership with Bangladesh lifted the country out of poverty and paved the way for rapid economic growth.

Then later in this episode – how entrepreneurial endeavors look different on the other side of the 38th parallel. We’ll follow a woman who started her own small business selling goods in North Korea. How are the Donju, members of the affluent entrepreneurial class, faring and can capitalism exist in a highly restrictive socialist society?

Featured Episodes:

Richard Nixon, Kimchi and the first clothing factory in Bangladesh (2013)
North Korea's Capitalists (2017)

Featured Terms: 

Volatility
Inflation expectations
Capital controls
Austerity

Support:

NPR+ (sponsor-free listening & bonus episodes) 
And please click “follow” in your podcast app so you don’t miss an episode.

Read: 

Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life (Audiobook here) 
Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletter
Our weekly Indicator link round-up newsletter

Follow: 

Instagram
TikTok
YouTube
Facebook

This episode of Planet Money Summer School is hosted by Robert Smith. It was produced by Schuyler Swenson and Sophia Paliza-Carre and edited by Planet Money Executive Producer Alex Goldmark. It was fact-checked by Charlotte Isidore and engineered by Annlie Huang.

Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. Planet Money's perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

See 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

Some of the biggest firms on Wall Street are, at this very moment, waiting for thousands of strangers to die to reap their returns. Because there’s a market for life insurance policies. And it’s legal.

You don’t have to actually die to get some of your life insurance money. Thanks to a secondary market for life insurance policies, you might be able to claw back money from beyond the grave. You just sell your policy to an investor. So when you die, the payout goes to them, instead of your family or beneficiary. 

On today’s show, how the wheels of finance transformed a desperate deal made during the AIDS crisis into a multi-billion dollar industry. 

Support:
Planet Money+
Read: 
Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life
Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletter
Our weekly Indicator round-up newsletter
Follow: 
Instagram
TikTok
YouTube
Facebook
This episode was produced by Willa Rubin with help from Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Marianne McCune and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. It was engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

See 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