In this episode, Bridget and Ryan travel through the history of money in front of a live audience of kids and families (for real!) to answer Sofia’s big question: What is the gold standard? Together, they explore this old money rule, how paper money became a thing, and why no countries in the world – not a single one – use gold to back their money anymore.
This episode was performed as part of WBUR’s Podcast Playdate festival for kids in Boston. It was one of the most fun experiences we’ve ever had on the show. We loved seeing so many of you in the audience, hearing your reactions in real time and getting to meet you in person.
Thank you to everyone who came out. We can’t wait to go back next year!
If you couldn’t make it in person, here’s the next best thing:
Whoever made these signs, made our day! ❤️ If these were yours, send us a note here so we can give you a Million Bazillion thank yous.
After listening to the episode, try out these related conversation starters with your kids:
Why do you think people like gold so much?
What makes an American dollar so valuable?
If you had your own business, would you accept Ryan Bucks? Why or why not?
Bonus Not-So-Random question: If you were a pirate, where would you hide your gold?
What to listen to or watch next with your kiddo:
In case you missed the “Million Bazillion” episode that inspired Sophia’s gold standard question, “Why is there so much gold at Ft. Knox?,” listen here.
Want to know why Bridget stopped Ryan from singing during the show? Our episode on copyrights explains it all.
Check out the other kid podcasts that participated in WBUR’s 2026 Podcast Playdate festival.
Grownups, we’d love to hear from you. How has listening to “Million Bazillion” helped your family learn more about money and the economy? Send us a note using this online form. Thank you!
Cold Open:
(SFX: DOOR SLAM)
RYAN: Hi Bridget!
BRIDGET: Oh, hi Ryan.
RYAN: Gosh, you wouldn't believe t he squirrel I saw on the way over here. Giant head. Normal squirrel body, but with, like, a cat-sized head- (NOTICES) Wait… something feels different about this episode. What’s going on? Are we using different microphones or something?
BRIDGET: Oh yeah, you might’ve noticed that we’re in front of an awesome audience of kids who’ve come to see us do a live episode of Million Bazillion, it’s part of the Podcast Playdate Festival, put on by WBUR, here in Boston!!
RYAN: Wow, we’re in Boston, you say? Home of MIT, Yo Yo Ma, and Fenway Franks, the famous hut-dogs?
BRIDGET: Yep, that Boston.
RYAN: And we’re recording live in front of a studio audience? Like The Golden Girls?
BRIDGET: Exactly. Just like The Golden Girls! You guys definitely know who The Golden Girls are, right?
RYAN: Of course they know! Dorothy, Blanche, Rose, Sofia!
(SFX: AUDIENCE CHEERS)
RYAN: See? These kids love Sofia from Golden Girls. Who woulda thought? So are these kids are gonna be here the whole show?
BRIDGET: Yep.
RYAN: So you mean every part of the show is gonna be live in front of real kids? Even Asking Random Kids?
BRIDGET: Yes.
RYAN: But, how do I know these are actual kids in the audience? Like how old are these kids?
BRIDGET: Some are as old as 12, 13. Some are as young as 6,7.
(CUE AUDIENCE TO SHOUT: “67!”)
RYAN: Oh, these are kids alright!
BRIDGET: Ooof, I walked right into that one!
–Theme Music–
BRIDGET: Welcome to Million Bazillion. Live from Boston! I’m Bridget.
RYAN: And I’m Ryan. And we help dollars make more sense!
BRIDGET: Let’s take today’s question, from Sofia!
SOFIA: Hi, my name is Sofia, I live in Chicago IL, and my question is: what is the gold standard and what inspired me is the episode: “How Much Gold Is at Fort Knox?”
BRIDGET: Ah yes, in How Much Gold Is At Fort Knox, season 6, episode 8, we gave a lot of gold facts. But we never really explained the Gold Standard.
RYAN: That’s right, let’s learn a little about it. Cue the funky educational music.
(MUSIC: “DETROIT’S VELVET”)
RYAN: Oh yeah, that’s the stuff. I feel like one of the awkward human characters on Sesame Street visiting a bread factory.
BRIDGET: When it comes to money, the gold standard was a specific rule that said countries could only print as much money as they had gold in their vaults. So if a country had $20 worth of gold, they could print $20 worth of paper money.
RYAN: But a country with only $20 dollars would be a very poor country. Honestly, if you’re an entire country with only $20 dollars, you might have to call it quits.
BRIDGET: This also means, if a regular person had a $20 dollar bill and took it to the bank, the bank could give you BACK $20 dollars worth of g old. So you might say, a country’s money was BACKED by gold. Sounds cool right? But we don’t use this system anymore.
RYAN: We don’t? Why not? Is gold not worth anything now?
BRIDGET: No, gold is still worth a lot, but no country, not a single one, uses the gold standard.
It’s as old fashioned as horse-drawn carriages, rotary dial telephones, or baggy jeans-
RYAN: No, baggy jeans are totally back in. I just saw a picture of Zendaya wearing them on the street!
BRIDGET: But if you really want to know about the rise and fall of the gold standard…we could get into it. That is, if this audience wants to know more?
[PROMPT AUDIENCE]
RYAN: Okay, let’s find out more, right after this.
Part 1:
BRIDGET: Welcome back to Million Bazillion! Today, Ryan and I are live in Boston.
RYAN: What up, Boston!? Red Sox, Baked Beans, How do like them apples, Good Will Hunting? It’s not your fault!
BRIDGET: We’re in front of an audience of kids, answering Sofia’s question, what is the gold standard? In four words or less, it means “Gold For Every Dollar.” We’re gonna say this a few times today, so I’ll say, Gold For and you say Every Dollar. Let’s try it. Gold For!
AUDIENCE: EVERY DOLLAR
(WITH AUDIENCE IN UNISON)
BRIDGET: So why did countries have this system, and why did they stop using it?
RYAN: I think it’s time for a history lesson! And for that, I’m going to use my magic time-traveling umbrella
BRIDGET: Wait, Ryan don’t open that inside! It’s bad luck!
RYAN: Aw, Bridget. That’s only for regular umbrellas! This is no ordinary umbrella! This is a time-traveling umbrella-eh-eh! Every time I twirl it, we travel back in time to a different chapter of the gold standard’s dominance!
BRIDGET: Ok, let’s give it a shot then.
(SFX: UMBRELLA TWIRL)
BRIDGET CONT: We will start at the beginning. Humans have liked gold for thousands of years. As far back as 6,500 years ago, there’s evidence of this!
BRIDGET CONT: (The Varna! In present day Bulgaria!) We would collect it, we would shape it into things!. Why though? What are some reasons we like gold so much? Can I hear from the audience on this one?
PAUSE FOR AUDIENCE TO SHOUT
BRIDGET: Yes, exactly - I heard over here, because gold is really cool. It’s shiny. It looks good when you put some sparkly gems on it. You can use it to make a crown, or a ring for your finger. To fill in a cavity in your teeth.
RYAN: Over here, I heard it even conducts electricity! A catalyst for chemical production, including polyester, very good! Smart audience!
BRIDGET: Impressive! Okay so yes, gold is very useful, it doesn’t have to be anything but itself to be considered valuable. Let’s move a little more forward in time, some time passes. Okay a lot of time passes, but we’re still in ancient times. Just slightly less ancient than where we were at first.
(SFX UMBRELLA TWIRL)
BRIDGET: Now it’s 600 BC. We invent money, and coins. And gold kinda takes a starring role.
RYAN: Hold up, money had to be INVENTED?
BRIDGET: Yes! Money is great because it makes buying and selling way faster and easier. You don’t have to find someone to barter with, for example. If everyone wants money, you just trade for the money. And it helps if the money is made of something super useful, like Gold! And it turns out, gold is a great choice for currency. It’s rare, but not too rare.
RYAN: Like a perfectly-cooked piece of steak- or if you’re a vegetarian, a perfectly-cooked piece of lettuce!
BRIDGET: This is why we don’t use, say, grains of sand as currency, they’re not rare enough. But gold - we can’t make any more of it, it’s kind of difficult to dig out of the ground. All over the world, humans pretty much agreed, gold can be used as a currency. We want it, we trust it.
RYAN: Okay so we used gold coins as money because we all know gold is valuable.
BRIDGET: Yes, exactly! No matter where you go in the world, you have some gold, you can use it to get what you need. Now let’s twirl our way forward to about 200 years ago in Europe.
(SFX: UMBRELLA TWIRL)
RYAN: (BRITISH) Aye! I’m a clearly Brit-ish guy on his way to buy some mutton and other old timey food. These gold coins are breaking my back and pulling down my pants. I wish I could carry around something lighter like- paper money.
RYAN: (BRITISH) That gives me an idea. What if we used paper instead of gold? But who’s going to want to trade very VALUABLE gold for bits of paper? It’s just paper!
BRIDGET: Okay, yeah, this was a big problem. If you’re a country and you want to start printing PAPER money, how do you get people to trust it? It’s just paper! What if we add a rule where anyone can trade in their paper money for its value in gold, at any time. Which also means, if you think about it, right - a country is only printing as many dollars as they have gold in their gold room because you have to be able to swap it for paper at any point. . We’re going to call that rule, the Gold Standard.
RYAN: (BRITISH) So I can turn this paper dollar in for gold? (PROP HOLD UP BILL)
BRIDGET: Yep, at any time. TRUST me. That paper is basically gold because, there’s gold for every dollar. Say it with me, everyone- Gold For -
AUDIENCE: EVERY DOLLAR!
BRIDGET: Hey, so given all of what we just talked about,uh do you think you’d be into using these paper dollars? Get paid in them? And save them up for a big purchase in the future?
RYAN: (BRITISH) Well if you put it that way, yes, yes I think I will!
BRIDGET: [EXCITED] That’s what you need for a currency to take off! People have to want to use it! [BEAT] And just like that, the United Kingdom was first to adopt paper money backed by the gold, followed by other countries around the world, including the United States.
RYAN: (BRITISH) You really must try paper money, old chap. It’s sweeping jolly old England. It’s much lighter in your pockets and doesn’t make your pants fall down. (AMERICAN) Wow, as an American, I’m tired of gold making my pants fall down. I’d like to try that “paper money” sometime.
BRIDGET: Okay so eventually, much of the world is running on the Gold Standard and things are going pretty well. But then, in 1914, came along the biggest war that had ever happened: World War I.
RYAN: VOCALIZES WORLD WAR I SOUNDS. Well, goodbye, my beloved wife. Off I go, fighting for the Allies against Central Powers in World War I.
BRIDGET: World War I? Why are you calling it World War I? Are they planning on there being a World War II?
RYAN: Uhhh, forget I called it World War I. I’d actually be calling it The Great War and I don’t have time to explain what this war is all about even though I totally know. For now, I must dash!
BRIDGET During the Great War, aka World War I, world governments, including the U.S. government, needed to spend a lot more money than they had. So they had an idea…
RYAN AS NEWSIE: (HOLD UP NEWSPAPER) Extra Extra! Gold Standard Suspended So We Can Spend More Money on Munitions. The Government’s Just Gonna Print as Much Money As It Needs for the Time Being.
BRIDGET AS 1917 NEWSPAPER BUYER: Wow, that’s a long headline.
RYAN AS NEWSIE: I don’t write the papers, I just sell ‘em.
BRIDGET: And then, some time passes! It’s 1918…
(SFX: UMBRELLA TWIRL)
RYAN AS NEWSIE: Fresh off the presses! Extra Extra! War ends, soldiers come back home!
RYAN: (AS SOLDIER) Honey, I’m homeeee! That war was caaarazy. Welp, can’t wait to eat apple pie, watch baseball on Saturdays, and get back on the gold standard!
BRIDGET: Countries ignored the gold standard during the war BUT they weren’t totally ready to forget it all together. Because they were really worried about something.
RYAN: That women would get the right to vote?
BRIDGET: No, they were worried about inflation. Can any kid in the audience explain what inflation is while Ryan blows up this balloon? Quick! Someone has to define it before the balloon pops.
BRIDGET: That’s right! Inflation is when the price of a whole bunch of things goes up at once. If everyone has a bunch of money that they can spend, that can cause prices to go up! Let me show you. Pretend we’re in a shop.
RYAN AS SHOPKEEPER: I am a shopkeeper, selling my eggs are a dollar apiece!
BRIDGET: A mere dollar for an egg? I’ve got a ton of cash. It’s omelet time! I’ll take all the eggs you have!
RYAN AS SHOPKEEPER: Hmm, I bet I can raise my prices! Er, make that, ten dollars an egg!
BRIDGET: This price increase brought to you by inflation! The “i-word” terrified people! And you know, a little bit of inflation is normal, but people thought if there was no gold standard rule, there’d be nothing to stop countries from just printing mountains of money whenever they wanted, and HYPER-inflation would be rampant and everything would be terrible!
RYAN: So there’s no inflation with the gold standard?
BRIDGET: Not really. So if you’re tied to the gold standard, one side effect is that the amount of money you have, and therefore, its value, is actually pretty steady, it doesn’t change very often.
Because unless you discover a huge gold deposit underground somewhere, you’re not really going to be adding a whole lot of gold supply into circulation.
RYAN: Ok, so America makes it through the Great War, goes back to using the gold standard and everything was hunky dory for the rest of the century?
(SFX: UMBRELLA TWIRLY SOUND)
BRIDGET: Well - no! Then comes the Great Depression.
RYAN: The Great Depression? Like my mood every January through February?
BRIDGET: No, this Great Depression was a very serious economic downturn that lasted for TEN YEARS! People lost faith in the economy. They stopped spending money, either because they didn’t have any or because they were saving it, like little squirrels hoarding acorns for a long winter. Prices actually went DOWN, that’s DE-FLATION.
(RYAN LETS BALLOON DEFLATE AND IT FLIES AWAY)
BRIDGET:During the Great Depression, things got pretty bad, like people lost jobs and couldn’t find new ones, they lost their homes, people were really struggling. And President Franklin D. Roosevelt was trying to figure out how to fix things.
(RYAN PUTS ON GLASSES, SPEAKS WITH CIGARETTE HOLDER)
RYAN: (AS FDR) You know, I think this gold standard might be making our depression worse or my name isn’t FDR!
BRIDGET (AS ELEANOR ROOSEVELT): Oh Franklin, are you going on about the gold standard again?
RYAN: Yes, Eleanor, my dear wife. You know me too well. I need people to stop hanging onto their gold. They’re afraid to spend it! If I had all that gold, I wouldn’t be afraid. I’d use it for programs that will give people jobs, and get them feeling good about the economy again. But I don’t have enough gold in the Government Vaults to afford all these big new projects I want to do!
BRIDGET: If you’re so worried about it, why don’t you just take everyone’s gold for a while?
RYAN: Take their gold? Would that even be legal?
BRIDGET: Of course! In fact, you could make it illegal to own gold for a while and make everybody sell their gold back to the government.
RYAN: But once we have everybody’s gold, where would we even put it?
BRIDGET: What about that big fort in Kentucky you were telling me about, rhymes with “socks”?
RYAN: Oh, Fort Knox?
BRIDGET: Yeah, that’s the one. And then you can get the Federal Reserve to print more dollars because they now have more gold because, after all, we need- say it with me everyone- Gold for
AUDIENCE: EVERY DOLLAR!
BRIDGET: Then when you have the gold, you can use it to pay for this new dealy thing to help get the country back on its feet.
RYAN: Eleanor, that’s a capital idea! I’m pushing through the Gold Act first thing tomorrow morning.
BRIDGET: Oh, then you better bump your 10 o’clock appointment with Little Orphan Annie and Daddy Warbucks.
RYAN: Oh that’s right. We’re scheduled to sing a song. (SINGS) Too-morrow!...
BRIDGET: (AS BRIDGET) No! Don’t sing anymore!
RYAN: (AS RYAN) But why not?
BRIDGET: Our episode on copyrights and trademarks explains it all. Just don’t sing that song.
RYAN: OK, so FDR also just suspended the gold standard, it means he can spend a whole bunch of money to get the economy moving again but what happened after that?
BRIDGET: America didn’t go back to the Gold Standard till the mid-1940s, and by that point, we were already in another war, this time they called it World War II.
RYAN: (AIRPLANE AND BOMBING SOUNDS) (AS FDR) “A day that will live in infamy…” I’m oversimplifying it, but there’s no way I can do World War II just as noises. It’s too hard.
BRIDGET: Okay so even after two World Wars and a Great Depression, where it was really helpful to be able to print more money than you had gold sitting in your gold vault…people were not totally ready to ditch the gold standard. A whole bunch of countries even came up with this idea that sort of was like, half in, half out gold standard. Why not leave the gold standard behind?? Because they were afraid of…Any guesses?
AUDIENCE SHOUTS
BRIDGET: INFLATION! But, the thing is, when you can print your own money and not worry about the gold, you can do some cool things that can be good for a lot of your citizens. Like, you can build roads and bridges and open colleges and feed people who are hungry and give loans to people who want to start businesses. Anyone here like roads and bridges and schools?
WAIT FOR AUDIENCE APPLAUSE
BRIDGET: Alright, we got a few bridge fans here. Cool. So you see the conundrum here. I’m afraid of inflation, but I REALLY want my country to grow.
RYAN: So what did we end up doing?? Did we stick to the gold standard to protect ourselves from inflation, even if it meant that any war or economic crisis would be increasingly harder to fight?? Or did we throw caution to the wind and kick the gold standard to the curb? You’ll find out! When we come back!
MIDROLL -
Part 2:
RYAN: Welcome back to Million Bazillion. Today we’re live in Boston! The city that brought you Henry David Thoreau, Phillis Wheatly, and Conan O’Brien, microprocessors, and Bobby Orr, number 4! Today we’re answering Sofia’s question about the gold standard! And so far we’ve learned the gold standard helped people trust this new fangled thing called PAPER money. But in the middle of last century, the gold standard had some downsides, and no one could decide if it should stay or it should go now. So Bridget, how long did all this back and forth last?
(SFX: UMBRELLA TWIRL SOUND)
BRIDGET: For a few decades, until the year 1971 when President Richard Nixon was in office.
RYAN: Nixon, you say?
RYAN: (AS NIXON) (GRUMBLES) They say Nixon doesn’t have an economic plan. Well, Nixon will show ‘em, you just wait and see-
BRIDGET: (AS PAT NIXON) Are you wandering the halls of the White House, talking about yourself in the third person again?
RYAN: Oh, Pat, my comparatively stable wife, glad you’re here. You see, they’re all out to get Nixon, nobody likes Nixon-
BRIDGET: I hate to say it, but maybe you’re being paranoid?
RYAN: Paranoid, that’s what someone would say if they didn’t like me! Do you not like me?
BRIDGET: I’m just trying to help.
RYAN: Well, I’m gonna make some economic reforms that’ll finally make everyone love me. I’m gonna give ‘em some of the ol’ “Nixon Shock.” And the most shocking thing I’m gonna do is get rid of the gold standard. America is gonna go on a fiat system!
BRIDGET: Fiat? Like the Italian car?
RYAN: No, fiat like fiat money. Where we don’t have to have our currency backed by gold or silver or any other bright shiny object. With fiat currency, money will be worth something because Nixon says so. Instead of trusting gold, you trust the government. So if you trust the government, you trust the money. And everyone trusts me.
BRIDGET: You mean, paper can be worth something just because people believe it’s worth something?
RYAN: Yes! And when you believe, you can take some printed paper down to the store and exchange it for a loaf of bread! And you know that money will buy bread again in a week or a month too. There’s nothing magical about that paper besides our belief in it. It’s like Tinkerbell, if you could buy bread with Tinkerbell.
BRIDGET: Wonderful! Gee, I wish one of us had been taking notes, how are you gonna remember all this?
RYAN: Oh don’t worry, I recorded our whole conversation.
BRIDGET: Now it turns out there are upsides and downsides to fiat money. The upside to FIAT MONEY is that a government can print as much money as it wants and do cool things with that money for its citizens, as we discussed. You can’t do that under the gold standard!
BRIDGET: But the downside to FIAT MONEY is… if a government does a really bad job at doing what it’s supposed to do, and if people were to lose faith in the government’s ability to run their economy. and the government collapses, fiat currency can can become worthless. , We’d say the money is not worth the paper it’s printed on.
RYAN: Hmmm, yeah, I’ve sorta noticed that when people don't trust a government and its decisions, the money gets a little shaky. I’m not talking about any specific government. Don’t get any ideas.
BRIDGET: And of course, there’s also the worry of HYPER-inflation. There are some very real examples of this in history. The country of Venezuela has experienced many years of hyperinflation. One year, they saw an inflation rate of 80,000%. So if you started the year with $80,000, by the end of the year, you’d have a stack of paper that adds up to 80,000 but can only buy about a dollar’s worth of stuff.
RYAN: Oh, so like a 100 Grand Bar would actually cost a 100 Grand.
BRIDGET: And maybe the most famous example of hyper inflation is in the Weimar Republic of Germany between those two world wars we mentioned earlier. Inflation got so bad, and the “paper mark,” their currency, lost so much value, you needed huge amounts of it to buy everyday items. Look, here’s a picture of some kids living in the Weimar Republic, just playing with stacks of bills. One American dollar could buy some absurd number of marks, like a trillion kazillion marks. Which is almost silly enough to be the name of a podcast. Almost.
RYAN: OK, so those are examples of what can go wrong withfiat money, but when it works, it really works. If the whole thing with fiat money is that it’s based on belief, that gives me an idea. What if I made-
BRIDGET: No. Don’t even think about it.
RYAN: What? You didn’t even hear what I was going to say.
BRIDGET: Lemme guess- You were gonna propose making currency of your own. Some kind of “Ryan Bucks” or something. Even though you’ve already tried to do that several times on this podcast before and almost been arrested for it.
RYAN: Ok, yes, but pretend you didn’t hear that, everybody!
(RYAN TAKES OUT A BRIEFCASE OF “MONEY”)
RYAN: In anticipation of this show, I’ve taken the liberty of printing out several million dollars in NEW Ryan Bucks. And I’m going to distribute it to all of you today. Like the Joker in Batman. Not the Joaquin Phoenix or Heath Ledger Joker, the Jack Nicholson Joker, the fun one that throws money.
(RYAN PASSES OUT RYAN BUCK TO AUDIENCE)
RYAN: Step right up! Get your Ryan bucks. It’s the hottest new currency on the block. It’s worth a lot because I say so. Take it and pass it down to your neighbor.
BRIDGET: Ok, it’s cute you made your own money and I guess it’s like a fun souvenir from the show, but I don’t think your money is gonna be worth anything.
RYAN: But why NOT?
BRIDGET: Okay so it comes down to trust. For people to want to use a currency, they have to trust it. So, are you using like, data and help from really smart economists to make sure you’re not printing too much or too little money?
RYAN: No, it’s just me at my local Copy Cat, printing as much as I want.
BRIDGET: Ok, well, if you pay me in these Ryan bucks today, will you still accept it next week? You’re not going to like, decide you don’t want to print Ryan Bucks anymore, right?
RYAN: I swear Bridget, I will still be issuing and accepting Ryan Bucks next week unless I get distracted by something completely different, which happens to me a lot. Whoa! Look outside it’s a squirrel with an even bigger head than that squirrel I saw earlier. ! What’s going on? Is that a Boston thing?
BRIDGET: (AS BRIDGET) (WHISPERED ASIDE) Okay so maybe I’m not going to spend too much time trying to build up my wealth in Ryan bucks BECAUSE I don’t know if it’ll be worth anything in a month or a year. But hey, this fiat idea for the American dollar, this has worked great!
RYAN: Okay so we use paper bills as money because, we all agree we can trust it?
BRIDGET: Yes, exactly! No matter where you go in the world, you have some paper currency, you might have to exchange it for a different paper currency, and you use it to get what you need.
RYAN: Wow, so this has all been interesting and my Presidential impressions were super good and accurate. We’re going to take a quick break and we’ll be back with more Million Bazillion and to wrap up what we’ve learned today, (PAUSE FOR APPLAUSE) but first something very important- does anyone have an money joke they want to share?
Part 3:
RYAN: Welcome back to the conclusion of Million Bazillion. We’re coming straight attya from Boston, the city that brought you Tom Brady, Mindy Kaling, Whitey Bulgar, Kevin Garnett and his green gem. Cheers! (SINGS THEME)
BRIDGET: We’ve been answering Sophia’s question about the gold standard with the help of this awesome live audience! So, what did we learn today?
RYAN: Ok, this is the part of the show where we normally do a little information recap with some light public radio music underneath, but we forgot to bring our recap music here to Boston, so I’ll be playing the recap music live on this children’s xylophone.
(RYAN PLAYS LITTLE XYLOPHONE TUNE)
BRIDGET: Today, we learned about a time where the gold standard was once used all across the world as a way to convince people to use paper currency. It turns out the gold standard has some limitations. Mostly that it’s greatest super power is kind of its own downfall. Under the gold standard, you can’t make more money than you have gold. But there are plenty of times, especially in the last century and more recently, when a government wants a little more flexibility to print more money.
RYAN: We’ll probably never go back onto the gold standard, even though there are a few politicians who say we should. But most economists say, this is a really bad idea. We’re on the fiat system now, baby, and there’s no going back! Though gold continues to still be valuable because it is gold, after all.
(RYAN STOPS PLAYING XYLOPHONE)
BRIDGET: Alright, Boston! You’ve been great! Thanks for coming out to hear Million Bazillion live.
RYAN: Thank you! That’s our show, give yourselves a round of applause!
–Theme Music–
BRIDGET: That’s all for this episode of Million Bazillion, LIVE in Boston! Thanks for joining us!
RYAN: If you have a money question you want answered or an idea for an episode, send them to us at Marketplace dot org slash million.
BRIDGET: While you’re there, sign up for our weekly newsletter tipsheet! Get great conversation starters to have better conversations about money with your kids and grownups!
RYAN: Special thanks to Professor Gary Hoover, economics professor from Tulane University for his help in understanding what the gold standard is all about.
BRIDGET: And a huge thanks to the team here in Boston who invited us to perform here and made everything run so smoothly.
RYAN:: Million Bazillion is produced by Marketplace from American Public Media. I, Ryan Perez wrote and hosted this episode along with Bridget Bodnar.
BRIDGET: Our senior producer is Marissa Cabrera. Our editor is Jasmine Romero. Our intern is I-Yun Chan. This episode was mixed by Charlton Thorp. Our theme music was created by Wonderly.
RYAN: Bridget Bodnar is the Director of Podcasts at Marketplace. Joanne Griffith is the Chief Content Officer. Neal Scarbrough is the VP and General Manager.
BRIDGET: Million Bazillion is funded in part by the Sy Syms Foundation, partnering with organizations and people working for a better and more just future since 1985. And special thanks to The Ranzetta Family Charitable Fund and Next Gen Personal Finance for providing the start-up funding for this podcast, and continuing to support Marketplace in our work to make younger audiences smarter about the economy.
The Ranzetta Family Charitable Fund and Next Gen Personal Finance, supports Marketplace’s work to make younger audiences smarter about the economy. Next Gen Personal Finance is a non-profit that believes all students benefit from having a financial education before they cross the stage at high school graduation.
The Sy Syms Foundation: Partnering with organizations and people working for a better and more just future since 1985.
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