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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 (4,418)

Marketplace

The pandemic has been especially hard on Black-owned businesses

Aug 4, 2020
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Make Me Smart with Kai and Molly | Episode 247

It's a 'Succession' day

Jul 31, 2020
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Marketplace

What it means to plant your flag in a coronavirus vaccine

Jul 31, 2020
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Make Me Smart with Kai and Molly | Episode 246

Happy National Blueberry Month, or something?

Jul 30, 2020
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Marketplace

Let's (sigh) do the numbers

Jul 30, 2020
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Make Me Smart with Kai and Molly | Episode 245

Check your quarantine snack supplies

Jul 29, 2020
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Marketplace

What you need to know from the Big Tech hearing

Jul 29, 2020
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Make Me Smart with Kai and Molly | Episode 244

Let's get antisocial

Jul 28, 2020
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Marketplace

What's holding up more coronavirus relief?

Jul 28, 2020
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Make Me Smart with Kai and Molly | Episode 243

Let's just call this year a wash

Jul 27, 2020
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Latest Stories (5,143)

Ron Howard on his documentary 'Rebuilding Paradise'

by Kai Ryssdal and Bennett Purser
Jul 30, 2020
The director trained his lens on the people of Paradise, California, whose lives were transformed after their town was ravaged by fire.
A home burns as the Camp Fire rages through Paradise, California, in November 2018.
Noah Berger
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United States of Work

Navigating the pandemic when “every decision is an individual decision”

by Kai Ryssdal and Maria Hollenhorst
Jul 27, 2020
With mixed messaging coming from the government, community college dean Derrick Lindstrom says acting appropriately comes down personal choices.
Community college Dean Derrick Lindstrom with his wife, Christina, kids Ella and Charles, and dog Lucie.
Courtesy Derrick Lindstrom
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If the U.S. economy gets sick, other countries could catch 'pneumonia'

by Kai Ryssdal and Sean McHenry
Jul 23, 2020
The U.S. health crisis isn't just depressing the national economy. The global economy could feel it, too.
A "Detour" sign outside the offices of the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. The economic downturn in the United States is likely to hurt the global economy, says economist Susan M. Collins of the University of Michigan.
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
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COVID-19

Where did all the coins go?

by Kai Ryssdal and Bennett Purser
Jul 22, 2020
The Federal Reserve is hoping a task force can solve the shortage of change in the economy.
Due to the shortage of U.S. coins, many cashiers are asking customers to use exact change.
Photo by Brad Lee/AFP via Getty Images
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Race and Economy

How the decline of Black-owned insurance firms widened the wealth gap

by Kai Ryssdal and Alli Fam
Jul 20, 2020
Many of the agencies survived the Great Depression but later died out. Their loss meant less money invested into Black communities.
Moyo Studios
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United States of Work

For some, navigating the pandemic is like “walking on a sheet of ice”

by Kai Ryssdal and Maria Hollenhorst
Jul 16, 2020
Tax accountant Michael Durant is seeing his small business clients through a storm, but facing another at home.
Certified Public Accountant Michael Durant said trying to survive the pandemic is "like walking on a sheet of ice" for some of his small business clients. "You're just trying to get to the other side and hoping that it maintains," he said.
Friso Gentsch/DPA/AFP via Getty Images
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Some of Twitter's biggest accounts got hacked. It could have been much worse.

by Kai Ryssdal and Andie Corban
Jul 16, 2020
Zeynep Tufekci, a technology and society expert at the University of North Carolina, hopes the hacks on Obama, Gates and others act as a wake-up call ahead of the election.
Twitter's logo outside the New York Stock Exchange in 2013. Wednesday's hacks demonstrate the high level of risk associated with the messaging service.
Andrew Burton/Getty Images
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Lime's plan to ride the pandemic to profitability

by Kai Ryssdal and Bennett Purser
Jul 15, 2020
Wayne Ting, the CEO of Lime, tells us how the micro-mobility company is adapting to meet riders in their new normal.
The Lime logo on a scooter. CEO Wayne Ting says users have been taking longer trips in residential neighborhoods.
Courtesy of Lime
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Race and Economy

How clothing can be a 'tool of resistance'

by Kai Ryssdal and Maria Hollenhorst
Jul 14, 2020
From the suffragette movement to the Black Panther Party and "Black Lives Matter” T-shirts worn by protesters today, social movements and clothing go hand in hand.
Protesters with "Black lives matter" T-shirts at the San Francisco Hall of Justice in 2014.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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For a Honduran textile factory, the pandemic means uncertainty

by Kai Ryssdal and Sean McHenry
Jul 14, 2020
Amid the global pandemic, even supply chains get sick. The director of a polyester yarn factory in Honduras describes how COVID-19 is affecting business.
People queue at a crowded market in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The pandemic has caused problems for the Honduran textile industry, which exports goods to the United States.
Orlando Sierra/AFP via Getty Images
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