Planet Money Summer School

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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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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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.

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Just about everyone in Argentina is an expert in inflation and whether they like it or not, economic flexibility. Can we learn from them? 

Over the years, we at Planet Money have checked in on Argentina as it tried to recover from economic collapse in 2001 and 2002, and as inflation shot up and the country defaulted on its debts. This week on our Summer School World Tour, we fly to Buenos Aires, mapping the moves of their economy through the eyes of people who live there – from tango classes and shoe shopping to a Coldplay concert that sparked a special exchange rate. 

We’ll consider the different attempts from the government to staunch inflation and why they’ve led to so many unintended consequences. But the heart of this week’s trip is the resilience of everyday economic actors, regular people. When the value of your currency is so in flux, average people become monetary contortionists just to navigate work, shopping, saving and to keep small businesses afloat. This adaptability becomes a special kind of skill and wisdom. So, we’re harvesting that everyday economic insight for tips on how we can all face uncertainty a little better. And, to appreciate the high costs of volatility. 

Featured Episodes:

Messi economics (2022)
A black market, a currency crisis and a tango competition in Argentina (2023)
The high cost of a strong dollar (2022)

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 Sophia Paliza-Carre and Schuyler Swenson and edited by Planet Money Executive Producer Alex Goldmark. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Jimmy Keeley.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

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Imagine a nation where, for the residents, land is for the claiming. You walk down the street, pick out a nice looking plot of land, and just plop down a marker. No rent, no taxes, no deed – just free land. That’s the communal system of property rights that governed a small Caribbean island for over a century.

This week on our Summer School World Tour we make port on the small economies of island nations, a great place to explore how different experiments play out. Every small change – the good and the bad – has big consequences.

First, the fascinating test case on the island of Barbuda, where the people there have found a way to run things without the usual, formal land rights.

Then, we consider the vulnerabilities of small nations as we dig into a mysterious sand heist in Jamaica. A stolen beach – yes, you read that right – and something called “sand forensics” reveal the importance of this seemingly infinite resource and the challenges of protecting public spaces when there’s money to be made.

Along the way we found ourselves asking: Does property have to be private? What happens when it’s not? How can you protect scarce resources when they’re part of the vast, public spaces everyone shares?

Featured Episodes:
The Island No One Owns (2020)
Peak Sand (2018)

Featured Terms:
Tragedy of the commons
Property rights
Path dependence
Ownership in common

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 Sophia Paliza-Carre and edited by Planet Money Executive Producer Alex Goldmark. It was fact-checked by Leyla Doss and engineered by Annlie Huang.

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Let’s call it the luxury of restraint. This is what enabled Norway to avoid the fate of so many other countries when they discovered oil and it changed the mix of their economy overnight.

Norway! It’s expensive, wealthy, and abundant in resources. We’re going to compare two of them in particular today: deep reservoirs of oil and icy waters full of salmon. While one resource was heavily in demand, the country had an oversupply of the other.

In this episode, we learn how Norway built its wealth by carefully avoiding the pitfalls of discovering oil that have plagued countries in the past and how it creatively created demand for its raw fish abroad.

How do you dodge the dreaded resource curse? What clever ways can you benefit from oversupply? And lastly, how do you get rich and stay that way?

Featured Episodes:
Norway Has Advice For Libya (2011)
The Salmon Taboo (2015)

Featured Terms:
Resource curse / Dutch disease / paradox of plenty
Coordination problem
Free-rider problem

Support:
NPR+

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 Sophia Paliza-Carre and edited by Planet Money Executive Producer Alex Goldmark. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Cena Loffredo with help from Annlie Huang and Robert Rodriguez.

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