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Kai Ryssdal

Host and senior editor

SHORT BIO

I speak my native tongue into a microphone.

What was your first job?

Lifeguard. (Well, that and mowing lawns.)

What do you think is the hardest part of your job that no one knows?

Staying calm.

What advice do you wish someone had given you before you started this career?

Don't think — just talk.

In your next life, what would your career be?

Helicopter pilot.

Episodes Hosted by Kai (4,912)

Make Me Smart with Kai and Molly | Episode 525

The cryptocurrency future is not here

Sep 24, 2021
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Marketplace

A rodeo returns with fanfare and few masks

Sep 24, 2021
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Make Me Smart with Kai and Molly | Episode 524

No more debt ceiling?

Sep 23, 2021
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Marketplace

The Fed is cautiously optimistic on recovery

Sep 23, 2021
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Marketplace

Are developed countries pulling their weight in the climate crisis?

Sep 22, 2021
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Marketplace

How one massive Chinese company rattled the U.S. stock market

Sep 21, 2021
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Make Me Smart with Kai and Molly | Episode 522

The social safety net explained

Sep 21, 2021
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Make Me Smart with Kai and Molly | Episode 521

The U.S. isn't the only one that can break the global economy

Sep 20, 2021
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Marketplace

What can the Fed do about climate change?

Sep 17, 2021
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Marketplace

Could the housing market maybe be going back to normal?

Sep 16, 2021
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Latest Stories (5,372)

How Afghanistan's money exchangers "grease the economy"

by Kai Ryssdal and Minju Park
Sep 23, 2021
The informal network of exchangers are making money available in ways banks can't, says Cambridge research fellow Nafay Choudhury.
“Given the instability in the country, money exchangers are going to become very important, again, in playing an important role to meet financial needs,” says Nafay Choudhury, research fellow at the University of Cambridge.
Javed Tanveer/AFP via Getty Images
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COVID-19

The "organizational nightmare" of managing a classroom this year

by Kai Ryssdal and Maria Hollenhorst
Sep 23, 2021
According to high school art teacher Megan Anzalone, the number of students quarantining this year makes her job more challenging.
Teaching this year has been “a bit of an organizational nightmare for everybody from the administration all the way down to the kids,” said high school art teacher Megan Anzalone.
Christof Stache/AFP via Getty Images
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Supply chain, shipping and pricing woes: “This is how we learn to sail”

by Kai Ryssdal and Maria Hollenhorst
Sep 22, 2021
Personal care products company Bite faced a lot of obstacles to launch its aluminum-packaged deodorant during the holiday shipping season.
Lindsay McCormick, the founder and CEO of Bite, a personal care products company, said she’s learned to “expect the unexpected” when launching a new product.
Courtesy Bite
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The “power and the curse” of high-frequency data

by Kai Ryssdal and Maria Hollenhorst
Sep 21, 2021
Employee timecard data can hint at what’s happening in the labor market in real time, but drawing conclusions takes nuance.
A waiter works in a nearly empty restaurant in New York. Among the businesses tracked by Homebase, which makes employee scheduling and timecard software, the number of employees working has declined over the past two months.
Spencer Platt via Getty Images
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Does the Federal Reserve have the power to fight climate change?

by Kai Ryssdal and Andie Corban
Sep 17, 2021
The central bank can "be an assist" on climate risk, says economist Claudia Sahm, but Congress sets the priorities.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The Fed can do research and integrate climate risk into bank stress tests, economist Claudia Sahm says. But mainly it "follows orders; Congress tells it what to do."
Drew Angerer via Getty Images
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The container price surge is weighing on the customs business

by Kai Ryssdal and Sean McHenry
Sep 15, 2021
Tariffs used to be the main concern for customs broker Gretchen Blough's clients. Now, it's all about the shipping containers.
Trucks with shipping containers sit on a dock at the Port of Oakland on Sept. 9. Container prices have soared during the pandemic.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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10 years later, was the Occupy Wall Street movement effective?

by Kai Ryssdal and Richard Cunningham
Sep 14, 2021
Sociologist David Meyer talks about how the movement drew attention to economic inequality and influenced contemporary U.S. politics.
An Occupy Wall Street demonstration disrupted business in New York's financial district in September 2011. Many experts believe the economic justice movement has had lasting influence.
Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images
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The 9/11 Legacy

For the economy, 9/11 was "the first ripple in a series of uncertainty shocks"

by Kai Ryssdal and Daisy Palacios
Sep 10, 2021
In two decades since 9/11, lots of things have changed. The constant? Lasting uncertainty.
The Tribute in Light memorial lights up lower Manhattan near One World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2018, in New York City.
Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
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“It's going to take a while for people to come back”

by Kai Ryssdal and Maria Hollenhorst
Sep 10, 2021
A New Orleans-based journalist and homeowner reflects on Louisiana’s long road to recovery and its "care" infrastructure.
A person kayaks through flood waters in LaPlace, Louisiana, on Aug. 30 in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida. New Orleans-based journalist Ko Bragg says the rest of the country has “a lot to learn” from southeast Louisiana.
Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
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For Black workers, unemployment is 4 percentage points higher than for whites. Can the Federal Reserve fix that?

by Kai Ryssdal and Andie Corban
Sep 9, 2021
Wendy Edelberg, director of the Hamilton Project, says monetary policy has a roleay, but it's "not the whole show."
Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The central bank has been keeping interest rates low, but Wendy Edelberg says in the near future it should let the economy "grow on its own two feet."
Scott Olson/Getty Images
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