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Episode 685: Larry vs. The IRS

April 4, 2018 • What exactly would happen if you didn't pay your taxes? Today on the show, we follow one man who did just that.

Episode 671: An Insider Trader Tells All

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Episode 671: An Insider Trader Tells All

March 23, 2018 • A man who got caught insider trading explains everything — what he did, how he did it, and why.

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Episode 677: The Experiment Experiment

March 7, 2018 • There's something wrong with the way we're doing science. Today on the show, we find out how to fix it.

Episode 337: The Secret Document that Transformed China

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Episode 337: The Secret Document that Transformed China

February 7, 2018 • In 1978, a group of farmers in a Chinese village wrote a contract and hid it in the roof of a hut. They were afraid the document might get them executed. Instead, it transformed the Chinese economy.

Episode 489: The Invisible Plumbing Of Our Economy

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Episode 489: The Invisible Plumbing Of Our Economy

January 10, 2018 • Why does it take days to send money electronically?

Episode 273: When The U.S. Paid Off The Entire National Debt

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Episode 273: When The U.S. Paid Off The Entire National Debt

January 3, 2018 • What does a country with no debt look like? To find out, we went back to the United States in 1835.

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Arts & Life

Library for Kids Goes Online

December 4, 2017 • The Internet Archive and the University of Maryland launch such a library, and it's free to anyone with an Internet connection. Kids helped design the library, and they had final say on the books.

Library for Kids Goes Online

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Episode 581: Free Money

October 18, 2017 • Bob Peterson claims to have found the thing people have sought for thousands of years — an investment guaranteed to double in value. He keeps it in a storage locker in Utah.

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Episode 524: Mr Jones' Act

September 27, 2017 • The government suspended the Jones Act last week, to allow non-US ships to move fuel to victims of hurricanes in Houston and Florida. Which once again made us wonder why the act even exists.

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Why The Government Sells Flood Insurance Despite Losing Money

September 13, 2017 • The National Flood Insurance Program was operates like an insurance company in many ways except one: it just about always loses money. This piece originally aired on Morning Edition in January 2013.

Why The Government Sells Flood Insurance Despite Losing Money

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Episode 652: The Hydrox Resurrection

August 23, 2017 • Hidden in the trash heap of commerce there is buried treasure. Abandoned brands--including trusted, beloved brands--are waiting to be claimed and reborn. Today on the show: A cookie comeback.

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Episode 399: Can You Patent a Steak?

August 9, 2017 • We visit the workshop of the meat inventor who came up with Steak-Umm and KFC's popcorn chicken. And we try to figure out what meat inventors tell us about patents and innovation.

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Episode 594: Board Games

July 19, 2017 • On today's show: The story of two guys who tried to cut the pay of a CEO at a small pneumatic tool company.

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Episode 599: The Invisible Wall

May 31, 2017 • A man goes looking for the invisible wall that traps poor people in poverty. Finding it almost gets him killed.

Episode 599: The Invisible Wall

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Episode 606: Spreadsheets!

May 17, 2017 • The creation of the electronic spreadsheet transformed industries. But its effects ran deeper than that.

Episode 606: Spreadsheets!

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