Kai Ryssdal

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 by Kai (5,656)

Make Me Smart | Episode 991

Smash the patriarchy ... and the pumpkins

Aug 25, 2023

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Marketplace

Remember the $5 footlong? Thank behavioral economics.

Aug 25, 2023

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Make Me Smart | Episode 990

A glitch in the consumer-driven recovery

Aug 24, 2023

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Marketplace

Manufacturing is down in the dumps, but things may be looking up

Aug 24, 2023

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Make Me Smart | Episode 989

The things that keep economists up at night

Aug 23, 2023

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Make Me Smart | Episode 988

Real wages rebound, while low-income earners play catch-up

Aug 22, 2023

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Make Me Smart | Episode 987

The case to raise the inflation target

Aug 21, 2023

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Marketplace

A barometer for the AI economy

Aug 21, 2023

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Latest Stories (5,681)

Tradle brings Wordle-style game to global exports

by Kai Ryssdal and Sarah Leeson

Aug 24, 2023

Can you figure out what country exports, say, both crude oil and leather footwear? Gilberto García-Vazquez of Datawheel explains the game.

A screenshot of Thursday's Tradle. Which country is it?

Tradle/Observatory of Economic Complexity

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To narrow the gender gap in boardrooms, Poker Power asks girls to ante up

by Kai Ryssdal and Sarah Leeson

Aug 23, 2023

"Stereotypically, poker is a boys' club. It's booze, it's betting, it's a smoky basement. It's all the places that women don't feel comfortable. And that's what we're trying to shift," said Erin Lydon, president of Poker Power.

"Half the world is women. So we want half the world playing poker," said Erin Lydon, president of Poker Power.

Photo courtesy of Erin Lydon

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Keeping a diary of plastic use can be "a little horrifying"

by Kai Ryssdal and Livi Burdette

Aug 22, 2023

What a reporter learned by cataloging all the plastic products around her.

Once plastic products are created, they don't ever decompose — and we keep producing more. "More is getting into our environment, but more doesn't necessarily need to be there," said Susanne Rust, an environment reporter for the LA Times.

Yasin Akgul/AFP via Getty Images

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Race and Economy

There's more evidence that subsidized jobs boost racial equity, report finds

by Kai Ryssdal and Richard Cunningham

Aug 17, 2023

"There are just a lot of positive ripple effects for communities," says Kali Grant of Georgetown, who co-wrote the updated report.

At the 1963 March on Washington, Martin Luther King Jr. called for a massive federal jobs program for all Americans.

AFP via Getty Images

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AI lessons from the telephone operators of the 1920s

by Kai Ryssdal and Livi Burdette

Aug 17, 2023

In the early 20th century, thousands of young women worked as telephone switchboard operators. Automation changed that.

If you were a working woman in the early 20th century, there's a good chance you were a telephone operator — until mechanical switching took over the job.

-/AFP via Getty Images

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Beer? Pour me a grey one

by Kai Ryssdal and Sofia Terenzio

Aug 15, 2023

A brewery in drought-plagued California experiments with making beer using purified grey water. The CEO says he’d serve it at a party.

Chris Garrett at Devil's Canyon Brewing hopes his beer can change perceptions about drinking recycled wastewater.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

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Cars: Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em

by Kai Ryssdal and Livi Burdette

Aug 15, 2023

Affordability has broken down, but the costs of not having your own vehicle are even higher for many. Marin Cogan of Vox explains.

The average new car costs a record $48,000 — up 25% between May 2020 and May 2023. During the same time, used car prices soared 50%.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

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By 2050, demographic shifts could mean a very different global economy

by Kai Ryssdal and Sarah Leeson

Aug 10, 2023

Today, nearly a third of Japan's population is over the age of 65. Compared to how much wealthy nations' populations will age in the coming decades though, Japan "is only the tip of the iceberg" says New York Times journalist Lauren Leatherby.

Wealthy economies like those in Europe and East Asia are going to be facing a much smaller working-age population within the next few decades.

Sean Gallup/Getty Images

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China's economy is slowing. Is the political economy to blame?

by Kai Ryssdal and Sean McHenry

Aug 9, 2023

Adam Posen of the Peterson Institute says that implementation of the zero-COVID policies made people feel "very insecure."

According to Adam Posen, it's been difficult for China's leaders to re-establish trust after the implementation of zero-COVID. "We've already seen leaders from the Communist Party around President Xi Jingping say, 'Oh, no, we want a vibrant private sector in China, said Posen. "But it's hard to be credible once you get to that point."

Ken Ishii-Pool/Getty Images

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Debunking the myth of the male hunter

by Kai Ryssdal and Livi Burdette

Aug 8, 2023

An anthropologist found evidence of women hunting in nearly 80% of societies studied.

"Being flexible is your evolved purpose in life. That is what humans do," said anthropologist Cara Wall-Scheffler. Above, cave drawings of a hunting scene in what is now Libya.

Taha Jawashi/AFP via Getty Images

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Kai Ryssdal

Host and senior editor

SHORT BIO

Episodes by Kai (5,656)

Latest Stories (5,681)

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