Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Add Good to your Google News feed.
Google News Button

The GOOD 100: Planet Money

Global Finance The best explanation of the financial crisis can be found on NPR. Like the housing crisis,...

Alex Goldmark
By Alex GoldmarkOct 17, 2009
Alex Goldmark
See Full Bio

Global Finance

The best explanation of the financial crisis can be found on NPR.Like the housing crisis, NPR's popular new business-reporting unit began with a Giant Pool of Money. The so-named 2008 radio special provided the clearest, most logical explanation of the housing crisis around. Plus, somehow the explanation was fun, like eavesdropping on two very smart friends chatting over a beer. It helps that hosts Adam Davidson and Alex Blumberg actually are old friends, interested more in human experience than in portfolio movements.A producer at This American Life, Alex Blumberg's stock-in-trade is personal stories, catching intimate moments of self-discovery on tape. But in 2008, he became obsessed with the idea that America was in a housing bubble about to burst. He ranted about it to his friends, and to his wife, until nobody wanted to hear it anymore-except Adam Davidson.
"His passion for finance bloomed when he realized that there were human-impact stories behind the earnings reports and stock surges."
Davidson is a business reporter for NPR, albeit a reluctant one. Raised in all-artist housing in New York's Greenwich Village, he wasn't exactly wired for the field. "Frankly, I was raised to think that people who cared about this stuff were either frustrated artists or just really boring, greedy people," he says. But his passion for finance bloomed when he realized that there were human-impact stories behind the earnings reports, stock surges or, say, a potential housing crash. So the pair decided to spend six weeks turning Blumberg's bubble obsession into a narrative for This American Life.The program came at a time when America could smell a looming economic catastrophe but even educated businesspeople couldn't grasp how it had come to be, and it was such a hit that NPR wanted more of it. Within four months, Planet Money was born as a podcast and an on-air reporting unit. Davidson remembers the launch: "I think it said [we had] three listeners, and I know I downloaded it twice." They've since grown to more than a million monthly downloads and a staff of seven. As the economy moves from crisis to calm, they plan to keep the casual explanatory style, but focus on a broader range of topics; trips are already planned for Africa and China. Indeed, Planet Money is going global.
mediagood 100planet moneynprfinancial crisis

The Latest

reddit family drama, stepdad rent story, teen owns house, inheritance twist, family entitlement, malicious compliance, viral reddit story, karma, rent reversal, stepfather drama
Past Events

Her stepdad demanded rent. So she made him pay instead.

police, tail light, outdated tactic, body cams, traffic violation
Ideas

Why old school police officers tap your tail light when you’re pulled over but newer cops don’t

sleep, sleep inertia, sleeping, rest, bed, get out of bed
Health

Staying in bed longer is actually bad for you, but here’s how to get out of bed comfortably

Rutgers, tomato, tomatoes, Rutgers tomato, science, agriculture, food
Culture

How a small 1934 college experiment completely changed our relationship with tomatoes

More For You

david lynch, david foster wallace, filmmaking, lynchian, movies

David Foster Wallace was asked to define "Lynchian." His answer involved peanut butter.

Photo credit (David Lynch): Aaron from Seattle, WA, USA (via Wikimedia Commons), Creative Commons Attribution 2.0; modified with peanut butter graphic (Photo credit: Canva)

Asked about David Lynch's surrealism, David Foster Wallace's perfect response involved peanut butter

Few artists create sounds or images so unique, their very names become adjectives. "Hitchcockian" conjures a highly stylized and unsettling flavor of suspense. "Beatles-esque" can point to dozens of different vibes, from psychedelic marching bands to sweetly sung pop-rock vocal harmonies. But the best example of this phenomenon might be "Lynchian": a somewhat abstruse term used to describe the surreal, largely disturbing, and often darkly hilarious films and TV shows—from Eraserhead to Blue Velvet to Twin Peaks to Mulholland Dr.—made by the late, great David Lynch.

It’s a difficult word to define, but the most profound attempt came from acclaimed author David Foster Wallace, a massive Lynch fan who wrote a famous essay about the director for Premiere ahead of the 1997 movie Lost Highway. "An academic definition of 'Lynchian' might be that the term 'refers to a particular kind of irony where the very macabre and the very mundane combine in such a way as to reveal the former's perpetual containment within the latter,'" he wrote. "But like 'postmodern' or 'pornographic,' 'Lynchian' is one of those Porter Stewart-type words that's ultimately definable only ostensively—i.e., we know it when we see it."

Keep ReadingShow less
email mistake, Reddit, perfect response, job interview, email etiquette

A job applicant got the last word in after being CC'd on the wrong email.

Photo credit: Canva

Job applicant accidentally CC'd on email before canceled interview. He responded perfectly.

A couple of viral threads on Reddit are getting people talking about the slogging process of getting a job in the current age and the importance of email etiquette during the search. The original Reddit poster, known as Bart, had applied for an IT position and had an initial interview with three out of the four people he was supposed to meet. The fourth person who couldn’t make it sent Bart a follow-up email to schedule a one-on-one Zoom just to get acquainted. Then Bart saw an email he wasn’t supposed to see.

Without knowing that Bart was CC’d in the email, one of the initial panelists emailed a reply that read, “Bart is out,” chastised his fellow coworkers, and ordered the Zoom interview be canceled and an apology be sent to Bart for good measure. After seeing “the live show of their messy internal drama,” Bart considered himself lucky. “If your team can’t even handle email coordination or basic professionalism in a hiring process—why would I want to work there?” he said on Reddit. But Bart’s question to the Internet was simple: How should he respond to the email he was mistakenly included in?

Keep ReadingShow less
Boomers, Gen Z, Baby Boomers, Zoomers, travel, generational bias, culture, generational divide

Generational differences.

Image via Canva - Photos by charliepix and RgStudio.

Gen Z and Boomers 'completely disagree' on vacation planning. Here are their 4 main differences.

For many, vacation time is here and the world is asking to be explored. Where you go and what you do, of course, has a lot to do with personal taste, but, it turns out, how you vacation is highly influenced by your generation. Who knew?

If there are two generations that differ in habits and procedures, you may look no further than Generation Z (1997-2012) and the Baby Boomers (1946-1964). While they do have their similarities, they also have major differences. "Boomers," of course, are associated with the post-World War II baby boom when soldiers were able to return home to their wives and families. These kids went on to massively influence the cultural shifts of the 60's and 70's. The "Zoomers," on the other hand, have grown up in a digital world shaped by smartphones and social media. Many don't know it, but this generation has a commanding impact via their own social media platforms over where commercial revenue and entertainment dollars are spent. They're projected to make billions just like the Boomers before them.

Keep ReadingShow less
Tina Fey, Mean Girls Musical, Online Trolls, Comedy, SNL, West End Theatre, Viral Comeback, Letters of Note

Tina Fey at a movie premiere

David Shankbone via Wikimedia Commons

Tina Fey once roasted a troll so hard, it still stings years later

The internet can be a double-edged sword—offering both support and criticism. Celebrities often find themselves at the receiving end of unsolicited opinions. Tina Fey, renowned for her work on "Saturday Night Live" and "30 Rock," once faced such criticism but responded with a masterclass in wit and satire.

A user named "jerkstore" once commented, "In my opinion, Tina Fey completely ruined SNL. The only reason she's celebrated is because she's a woman and an outspoken liberal. She has not a single funny bone in her body."

Keep ReadingShow less
cat, knuckles, treadmill, treadmill cat, exercise, feline, fitness, pectus excavatum

Knuckles the cat wasn't going to take his illness lying down.

Photo by Kari Shea on Unsplash

After a challenging diagnosis, a cat saved his own life by taking to the treadmill

When Knuckles the cat’s family adopted him, they knew he had been diagnosed with pectus excavatum, a chest compression or malformation that can cause breathing problems, and would need some extra attention. This was especially true as it pertained to weight gain–if Knuckles gained too much weight, breathing could become extremely difficult. His family knew they’d have to come up with a solution, but what they didn’t expect was that Knuckles would come up with it himself.

After Knuckles was adopted, he saw his dad take to the stationary bike in his basement for workouts. While Dad was on the bike, Knuckles developed a taste for treadmill, and now loves it so much that he even has a preferred speed of 1.4 miles per hour. For Knuckles, staying a trim feline just became that much easier, and according to his mom, he now asks to take the treadmill for a spin "six to seven times a day."

Keep ReadingShow less
family, vacation, summer break, parks, recreational activities, summertime, kids, video games

Family enjoying cupcakes at outdoor summer event.

Image via Canva - Photo by Monkey Business Images

Parents share 7 great, cheap ideas for when their kids are home all summer

The summer is here and the kids are out of school. There's only so much video gaming and phone watching any parent can allow before the internal radar suggests forcing them to do something different. Not everyone has the budget to travel or the means to send them off to a summer camp.

One of the great things about a message board is people can share their needs and the community comes to the rescue. Sure the age old advice of tell your kids to go outside and play is a solid suggestion, but there are so many more activities available for a family on a budget.

Keep ReadingShow less
spanish healthcare, er visit cost, ana ochoa, healthcare abroad, ambulance cost usa, viral tiktok health, american healthcare, madrid hospital, fractured humerus, international healthcare

Woman looks at insurance bill

Canva

She went to the ER in Spain. The bill made her question everything about U.S. healthcare.

When Ana Ochoa’s 83-year-old father fell on a sidewalk in Madrid, her heart sank. He had tripped outside a restaurant, hit the pavement hard, and couldn’t get up. Paramedics arrived quickly and rushed him to Hospital Clínico San Carlos, one of Spain’s top hospitals.

At the ER, doctors immediately began treatment. They performed X-rays and diagnosed him with a fractured humerus, a painful break in the upper arm. He was bandaged, stabilized, given a prescription, and released.

Keep ReadingShow less
stevie nicks, fleetwood mac, lindsey buckingham, silver springs, fleetwood mac live

Fleetwood Mac may have cut "Silver Springs," but Stevie Nicks never gave up on it.

Photo credit: screenshots from Fleetwood Mac YouTube video

Fleetwood Mac cut this haunting ballad from 'Rumours.' Then Stevie Nicks gave it new life.

Fleetwood Mac’s 11th studio album, 1977’s Rumours, is widely considered one of the greatest ever—a multi-platinum, immaculately produced blockbuster that encapsulates the drama, both musical and interpersonal, that made this band so fascinating. But much like The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which set aside the non-LP singles "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever," Rumours is a perfect album that could have been even better—if only they’d used all the classic material in their repertoire.

The leftover in question is "Silver Springs," a shimmering ballad written by Stevie Nicks and earmarked for that timeless record. And this song was especially important to the singer, who’d gifted the publishing rights to her mother, Barbara. But since nothing is easy in Fleetwood Mac world, "Silver Springs" became the launching pad for both turmoil and redemption within their camp—helping to break apart the classic lineup and, ultimately, glue it back together.

Keep ReadingShow less
© Copyright 2025