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Sam Yellowhorse Kesler Sam Yellowhorse Kesler is an Assistant Producer for Planet Money.
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Sam Yellowhorse Kesler

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Sam Yellowhorse Kesler headshot
Courtesy of Sam Yellowhorse Kesler

Sam Yellowhorse Kesler

Assistant Producer, Planet Money

Sam Yellowhorse Kesler is an Assistant Producer for Planet Money. Previously, he's held positions at NPR's Ask Me Another & All Things Considered, and was the inaugural Code Switch Fellow. Before NPR, he interned with World Cafe from WXPN. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, and continues to reside in Philadelphia. If you want to reach him, try looking in your phone contacts to see if he's there! You'd be surprised how many people are in there that you forgot about.

Story Archive

Friday

Blood, oil, and the Osage Nation: The battle over headrights

Richard Lonsinger at his home in Lawrence, Kansas, holding a photo of himself as a child shortly after he was adopted. Sam Yellowhorse Kesler/NPR hide caption

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Sam Yellowhorse Kesler/NPR

Planet Money

Blood, oil, and the Osage Nation: The battle over headrights

Richard J. Lonsinger is a member of the Ponca tribe of Oklahoma, who was adopted at a young age into a white family of three. He eventually reconnected with his birth family, but when his birth mother passed away in 2010, he wasn't included in the distribution of her estate. Feeling both hurt and excluded, he asked a judge to re-open her estate, to give him a part of one particular asset: an Osage headright.

Blood, oil, and the Osage Nation: The battle over headrights

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Friday

Exploring Seinfeld through the lens of economics
David Turnley/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

Planet Money

Exploring Seinfeld through the lens of economics

The 90s sit-com Seinfeld is often called "a show about nothing." Lauded for its observational humor, this quick-witted show focussed on four hapless New Yorkers navigating work, relationships...yada yada yada.

Exploring Seinfeld through the lens of economics

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Friday

The debt ceiling, extraordinary measures, and the X Date. Why it all matters.
Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Peter G. Peters

Planet Money

The debt ceiling, extraordinary measures, and the X Date. Why it all matters.

Every year, the U.S. government spends more money than it takes in. In order to fund all that spending, the country takes on debt. Congress has the power to limit how much debt the U.S. takes on. Right now, the debt limit is $31.4 trillion dollars. Once we reach that limit, Congress has a few options so that the government keeps paying its bills: Raise the debt limit, suspend it, or eliminate it entirely.

The debt ceiling, extraordinary measures, and the X Date. Why it all matters.

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Friday

Baby's first market failure

Wesley Wade and his wife Giovonni couldn't find day care for their two kids, Helena and Ella. Wesley, a mental health counselor working on his PhD, ended up quitting his job to take care of the girls. All over the U.S. there is a shortage of child care. Wesley Wade hide caption

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Wesley Wade

Planet Money

Baby's first market failure

Anyone who has tried shopping for day care knows that it is tough out there.

Baby's first market failure

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Friday

Wednesday

Two Indicators: The fight over ESG investing
Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Planet Money

Two Indicators: The fight over ESG investing

"ESG" investing – Environmental, Social, Governance – has attracted a lot of attention from investors, and from Republican politicians who call it "woke investing." On today's show, what the fight over ESG reveals about the potential and limitations of sustainable investing.

Two Indicators: The fight over ESG investing

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Thursday

Strange News

Avoggedon strikes Philadelphia: One nonprofit gives away thousands of avocados

A food distribution company in Philadelphia, Pa., had a few too many avocados on hand. Its solution? Giving them away for free.

Avoggedon strikes Philadelphia: One nonprofit gives away thousands of avocados

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Tuesday

Thursday

'Prey' is set in the past, but takes the 'Predator' franchise forward

Amber Midthunder as Naru in Prey. David Bukach/20th Century Studios hide caption

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David Bukach/20th Century Studios

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'Prey' is set in the past, but takes the 'Predator' franchise forward

The new film Prey isn't just another installment of the Predator franchise. For one thing, it's a prequel to the original 1987 movie — set more than 300 years ago. More important is who's telling the story this time: Amber Midthunder plays Naru, a tough, smart, young Comanche woman determined to prove herself, as well as to protect her people — and her dog — from a seemingly undefeatable enemy.

'Prey' is set in the past, but takes the 'Predator' franchise forward

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Friday

'Thor: Love And Thunder' puts the pedal to the (heavy) metal, again

Natalie Portman and Chris Hemsworth star in Thor: Love And Thunder. Jasin Boland/Marvel Studios hide caption

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Jasin Boland/Marvel Studios

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'Thor: Love And Thunder' puts the pedal to the (heavy) metal, again

Marvel's Thor: Love And Thunder follows in the footsteps of the much-loved Thor: Ragnarok. Both are directed by Taika Waititi, and both offer a lighthearted take on the godlike superhero, played again by Chris Hemsworth. The new film introduces Christian Bale as a villain named Gorr, The God Butcher, and brings back Natalie Portman as Jane Foster — who now wields Thor's hammer.

'Thor: Love And Thunder' puts the pedal to the (heavy) metal, again

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Tuesday

Oscar Isaac confronts a pyramid scheme in 'Moon Knight'

Oscar Isaac plays Steven Grant in Moon Knight. Marvel Studios hide caption

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Marvel Studios

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Oscar Isaac confronts a pyramid scheme in 'Moon Knight'

In Marvel's Moon Knight, Oscar Isaac plays Steven, a mild-mannered Londoner who works in a museum gift shop. He also plays Marc, a mercenary who can turn into the mysterious Moon Knight. The series has psychodrama, tomb raiding, and a bad guy (Ethan Hawke) with very familiar motivations. Several episodes were directed by Mohamed Diab, the first Arab director in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the show also features strong performances from May Calamawy and F. Murray Abraham. Moon Knight is streaming on Disney+.

Oscar Isaac confronts a pyramid scheme in 'Moon Knight'

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Wednesday

A New Movement on Standing Rock
Christina Cala/NPR

Code Switch

A New Movement on Standing Rock

What do you do when all your options for school kind of suck? That was the question some folks on the Standing Rock Reservation found themselves asking a couple of years ago. Young people were being harassed in public schools, and adults were worried that their kids weren't learning important tenets of Lakota culture. So finally, a group of educators and parents decided to start a brand new school, unlike any others in the region.

A New Movement on Standing Rock

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Wednesday

Race

The race-shifting of 'Pretendians'

The number of people who identify as Native American on the U.S. Census has soared in recent years, which raises a lot of concerns in Native communities about people falsely claiming Native identity.

The race-shifting of 'Pretendians'

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Wednesday

Playing Pretendian
Alex Bowman for NPR

Code Switch

Playing Pretendian

People lie about being Native American all the time – on college applications, on job applications, in casual conversation. But how do "Pretendians" hurt real Indigenous people and communities? And what does all that mean for people who aren't quite sure if they're claiming or reclaiming?

Playing Pretendian

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Wednesday

What We Watched in 2021

Clockwise from top left: We Are Lady Parts, City of Ghosts, Bachelorette (Season 18), The Wonder Years, and Reservation Dogs. NPR hide caption

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NPR

Review

Code Switch

What We Watched in 2021

Y'all, 2021 brought us a lot of TV. Some of it was even good! So this week, we're talking about the shows that had something interesting to say about race, from We Are Lady Parts to Reservation Dogs to City of Ghosts.

What We Watched in 2021

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Saturday

Tuesday

Wednesday

'The Characters Are The Light'

The covers of Fire Keeper's Daughter, Hunting by Stars, The Barren Grounds, and The Sentence. LA Johnson hide caption

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LA Johnson

Code Switch

'The Characters Are The Light'

You already know we love books here on Code Switch — and given that we're smack dab in the middle of Native American Heritage month, we thought we'd introduce you to some of our favorite recent books by Indigenous authors.

'The Characters Are The Light'

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Friday

Wednesday

Tuesday

Sunday

Comedian Joe Pera wants you to get comfortable — preferably in the right chair
Adult Swim

Television

Comedian Joe Pera wants you to get comfortable — preferably in the right chair

Most television shows feel like they're made by an energy drink, Joe Pera says. He wanted his to feel like it was made by apple cider.

Comedian Joe Pera wants you to get comfortable — preferably in the right chair

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Friday

Has immigration changed much under Biden?

A father carries his son across the water at the US-Mexico border on the Rio Grande as seen from Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila state, Mexico on September 20, 2021. PAUL RATJE/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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PAUL RATJE/AFP via Getty Images

It's Been a Minute

Has immigration changed much under Biden?

How much has really changed in U.S. immigration policy since President Biden came into office? After seeing graphic images of Haitian migrants being chased by law enforcement on horseback and a recent rejection of an immigration reform bill in Congress, The Atlantic staff writer Caitlin Dickerson breaks down the long history uniting Democratic and Republican administrations when it comes to enforcing immigration policy. She also plays Who Said That? with her friend and senior producer of NPR's Life Kit, Meghan Keane.

Has immigration changed much under Biden?

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