Marketplace All-in-One

This week had a bit of it all — tumultuous Brexit negotiations, a swing in oil prices and conversations about shifts in currency — so we break it down in the Weekly Wrap. We also talk about Apple’s new partnership with A24 (of "Moonlight" and "Lady Bird" fame) alongside the news of mortgage lenders like Wells Fargo laying off employees. Then, in our latest segment of How We Changed, we talk to a woman with a master's degree in puppet arts from the University of Connecticut. Lastly, how empty storefronts are helping form the new “retail desert.”

(Markets edition) It's that time of year again — no, not the holidays. Soon, lawmakers will once more contemplate the country's debt ceiling and decide whether or not we have an ever-impending government shutdown. Hemp farmers hope the new farm bill will decriminalize the crop, which is now lumped in with marijuana under federal law. And Japan Airlines will start giving its pilots breathalyzer tests at international airports after one of their own was found to be nine times over the legal limit at Heathrow. Plus, scientists have found a more precise measurement for the kilogram that's not based on a hunk of metal under glass in France, but what does the change mean for everyone else? Today's show is sponsored by the .

As trade tensions continue to brew between the U.S. and China, southeast Asian countries who attended the ASEAN conference in Singapore this week might be forced to pick a side. The FDA has proposed a ban on menthol cigarettes, but what does that mean for the Black community, whom tobacco companies for years targeted with the mint-flavored smokes? And how "peace engineering" is marrying technology and ethics. Today's show is sponsored by the .

(Global Edition) From the BBC World Service... A s big businesses brace for Brexit,  Rolls Royce's chief executive says contingency plans are in place in case no final agreement is reached before the divorce deadline in March. Japan Airlines announced all of its pilots will be subject to breath tests for alcohol in international airports after one of its pilots was found to have nine times the local maximum limit at London's Heathrow airport. Black and white TV still has a market, and it's about more than just nostalgia. And how the way a kilogram is officially measured might soon change.

The data analytics company Palantir is reportedly considering going public. Palantir is the company co-founded by controversial Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, formerly of PayPal. It's named after an all-seeing artifact in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The company promises police departments, governments, even the IRS, that it can take in huge amounts of data and make artificial intelligence-informed guesses to help track down criminals and cheats, among other things. In a secret pilot program in New Orleans, Palantir tech even tried to predict when crime would happen or who might be a victim. But lately its huge $20 billion valuation is in doubt and privacy activists are concerned about its tactics. Molly Wood talks about it with Mark Harris, a reporter who's covered Palantir for Wired magazine. Today's show is sponsored by .