Kai Ryssdal

Host and Senior Editor

Kai is the host and senior editor of “Marketplace,” the most widely heard program on business and the economy — radio or television, commercial or public broadcasting — in the country. Kai speaks regularly with CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, startup entrepreneurs, small-business owners and everyday participants in the American and global economies. Before his career in broadcasting, Kai served in the United States Navy and United States Foreign Service. He’s a graduate of Emory University and Georgetown University. Kai lives in Los Angeles with his wife and four children.

Latest from Kai Ryssdal

Sep 25, 2008
Leading a turnaround in troubled times
Six years ago, IHOP restaurants were struggling. Julia Stewart was hired to shake things up, which she did. Now, the CEO of DineEquity Inc. has an additional challenge: the troubled Applebee's chain.
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Sep 24, 2008
Frank talk about bailout plan
After making their case for the $700 billion bailout plan to the Senate banking committee today, Bush administration officials next will go before the House Financial Services Committee and its Chairman Barney Frank. Kai Ryssdal talked with him.
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Sep 23, 2008
Bailout’s rules and processes are key
With the bailout plan, we're being asked to take what the government's doing on faith. That seems a bit risky with $700 billion on the line. So, Kai Ryssdal called Jay Light, the Harvard Business School Dean, to get his thoughts.
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Sep 19, 2008
Trading floors feel the pulse of crisis
Trading floors all over New York — at private companies that trade commodities or bonds or pretty much anything else — have been crazy this week. Kai Ryssdal talks with Tom Digaloma, who runs a government-bond trading desk, about what it's been like.
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Sep 18, 2008
NFL doesn’t like how profits line up
National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell is warning that the league won't be bringing in as much money as originally predicted. Terry Lefton at the Sports Business Journal got his hands on the commissioner's memo. He talks with Kai Ryssdal.
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Sep 18, 2008
How’d we get in this mess? A look back
Kai Ryssdal takes us back to the point at which the financial markets' problems began — five years ago when the Fed made it cheap to borrow money and Wall Street took advantage, devising complicated investment schemes that hid their high risk.
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Sep 17, 2008
Rest of the world feels America’s pain
There's been a theory that the rest of the world's economies would keep growing even if the U.S. didn't. After a year of subprime mortgage mess, that theory doesn't appear valid. Kai Ryssdal gets the views of economics professor Robert Dunn.
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Sep 13, 2008
This week: Big losses and bailouts
In a few days, Lehman Brothers will still be a going concern or it won't. It's a turn of events that didn't seem likely on Monday when the news was all about Fannie and Freddie. Amy Scott's been following developments this week. She talks with Kai Ryssdal.
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Sep 13, 2008
Ike has Texas refineries in its sights
Weather forecasters say Hurricane Ike is going to wallop the south Texas coast and its oil refineries early Saturday morning. To find out what that's going to mean for oil and gas prices, Kai Ryssdal talked with economist Ray Perryman.
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Sep 11, 2008
Economy slows fashion’s creations
New York City's Fashion Week is designers' big chance to show off their stuff and hope it sells — no sure thing in a troubled economy. Kai Ryssdal talks with Kate Betts of Time Style and Design to get her take on the business of fashion this year.
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