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A Planet Money episode, hosted by Kenny Malone, on why companies are now getting billions of dollars back in IEEPA tariff refunds after courts ruled the tariffs illegal, while consumers who paid the higher prices mostly have no way to get their money back.
A Planet Money episode, hosted by Jeff Guo, that visits the Louisville beverage-development lab Flavorman. It gives three reasons the drink aisle keeps growing: advances in flavor science, new functional ingredients, and much lower barriers to manufacturing.
The manufacturing story is the core of the episode. Canning lines used to require a full-truckload minimum of about 12,000 cases. Then the craft-beer boom left thousands of small breweries with spare canning capacity, and falling alcohol consumption has added even more, so upstart brands can now do small test runs. A smaller detail: a stinky-cheese aroma compound turns up in ripe strawberries, and without it a berry flavor tastes flat.
A Planet Money episode on the shift from earlier to later retirement — a law professor argues for mandatory retirement at 70, while an economist argues people should delay retirement even further, as younger workers say older workers staying on is squeezing career advancement.