com

CTA Seeking New Applications for ADA Advisory Committee

In alignment with its ongoing commitment to bringing equity and inclusion to all aspects of its decision-making, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) announced today it will be seeking new applicants to join the agency’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Advisory Committee.




com

SUMMER SCHOOL 6: Crypto & Commencement

In the last class of Planet Money Summer School Season 2, we cover one more important market — cryptocurrency. If you're thinking about investing in crypto, do you know exactly what it is that you're buying? Or how it should (if at all) fit alongside the rest of your investments? | Watch this Tik Tok to learn more and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here. | Don't forget to take the Summer School Final Quiz.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy




com

We set up an offshore company in a tax haven (Classic)

The Pandora Papers released this week reveal how many world leaders allegedly hold wealth through the use of shell companies. We listen back to when we set up our very own Planet Money shell companies.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy




com

The holiday industrial complex (Classic)

Where do holidays like National Potato Chip Day and Argyle Day come from? We trace the roots of one made-up holiday until we find out who is running the global holiday machine. | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy




com

We Buy a Superhero 6: The Comic Book

After many, many delays, the Micro-Face comic book is here! And we answer the burning question: Why did it take so long to make a comic book? | Come see Planet Money Live in NYC on May 10th! One night only. Tickets on sale here. And buy our now-ready Micro-Face comic book.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy




com

Summer School 2: Competition and the cheaper sneaker

For episode 2 of Planet Money Summer School, we are talking strategy. You have your million dollar business idea, and maybe some money in your pocket to get it up and running. But now you enter into a crowded market. You have to deal with competition.

So, what can you do to make sure your product is a success? That was the conundrum facing the Starbury. It was a basketball shoe with a celebrity endorsement, that had to go up against THE basketball shoe with THE celebrity endorsement: the Air Jordan. Our first story is about the ways in which the Starbury succeeded and failed in taking on a juggernaut.

Then, we will hear a story about trying to avoid the dangers of "perfect" competition. Two companies making almost identical handbells learn that the key to their success lies in convincing customers how different they really are.

Find all episodes of Planet Money Summer School here.

The series is hosted by Robert Smith and produced by Max Freedman. Our project manager is Julia Carney. This episode was edited by Keith Romer and engineered by Robert Rodriguez. The show is fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Planet Money's executive producer is Alex Goldmark.

Help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+
in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy




com

A black market, a currency crisis, and a tango competition in Argentina

The Nobel-prize winning economist Simon Kuznets once analyzed the world's economies this way — he said there are four kinds of countries: developed, underdeveloped, Japan... and Argentina.

If you want to understand what happens when inflation really goes off the rails, go to Argentina. Annual inflation there, over the past year, was 124 percent. Argentina's currency, the peso, is collapsing, its poverty rate is above 40 percent, and the country may be on the verge of electing a far right Libertarian president who promises to replace the peso with the dollar. Even in a country that is already deeply familiar with economic chaos, this is dramatic.

In this episode, we travel to Argentina to try to understand: what is it like to live in an economy that's on the edge? With the help of our tango dancer guide, we meet all kinds of people who are living through record inflation and political upheaval. Because even as Argentina's economy tanks, its annual Mundial de Tango – the biggest tango competition in the world – that show is still on.

This episode was hosted by Amanda Aronczyk and Erika Beras. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler with help from James Sneed. It was engineered by Maggie Luthar, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and edited by Molly Messick. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

Help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in
Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy




com

The Universal Basic Income experiment in Kenya

There's this fundamental question in economics that has proven really hard to answer: What's a good way to help people out of poverty? The old-school way was to fund programs that would support very particular things, like buying cows for a village, giving people business training, or building schools.

But over the past few decades, there has been a new idea: Could you help people who don't have money by ... just giving them money? We covered this question in a segment of This American Life that originally ran in 2013. Economists who studied the question found that giving people cash had positive effects on recipients' economic and psychological well-being. Maybe they bought a cow that could earn them money each week. Maybe they could replace their grass roofs with metal roofs that didn't need fixing every so often.

The success of just giving people in poverty cash has spawned a whole set of new questions that economists are now trying to answer. Like, if we do just give money, what's the best way to do that? Do you just give it all at once? Or do you dole it out over time? And it turns out... a huge new study on giving cash was just released and it's got a lot of answers.

Help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+
in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy




com

Is dynamic pricing coming to a supermarket near you?

Dynamic pricing is an increasingly common phenomenon: You can see it when Uber prices surge during rainy weather, or when you're booking a flight at the last minute or buying tickets to your favorite superstar's concert. On an earnings call last week, Wendy's ignited a minor controversy by suggesting it would introduce dynamic pricing in its restaurants, but the company quickly clarified that it wasn't planning on using it for "surge pricing."

One place you hardly ever see dynamic pricing? American supermarkets.

Why is that? Why shouldn't the prices for meat or bread or produce go down as they get older? Why does all the milk in the store cost the same, even when the "sell by" dates are weeks apart? Wouldn't a little more flexibility around prices be better for customers and help reduce waste?

Professors Robert Evan Sanders and Ioannis (Yannis) Stamatopoulus had similar questions. So they set out to discover what was keeping supermarkets from employing a more dynamic approach, and what might convince them it was time for a change ... in pricing.

This episode was hosted by Amanda Aronczyk and Nick Fountain. It was produced by Willa Rubin and edited by Keith Romer. It was engineered by Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy




com

Zombie mortgages are coming back to life

Karen McDonough of Quincy, Mass., was enjoying her tea one morning in the dining room when she saw something odd outside her window: a group of people gathering on her lawn. A man with a clipboard told her that her home no longer belonged to her. It didn't matter that she'd been paying her mortgage for 17 years and was current on it. She was a nurse with a good job and had raised her kids there. But this was a foreclosure sale, and she was going to lose her house.

McDonough had fallen victim to what's called a zombie second mortgage. Homeowners think these loans are long dead. But then the loans come back to life because they get bought up, sometimes for pennies on the dollar, by debt collectors that then move to collect and foreclose on people's homes.

On today's episode: An NPR investigation reveals the practice to be widespread. Also, what are zombie mortgages? Is all this legal? And is there any way for homeowners to fight the zombies?

You can read more about zombie second mortgages online at: npr.org/zombie

Correction: An earlier version of this episode description misspelled Karen McDonough's last name as MacDonough.

Help support
Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy




com

How the FBI's fake cell phone company put criminals into real jail cells

There is a constant arms race between law enforcement and criminals, especially when it comes to technology. For years, law enforcement has been frustrated with encrypted messaging apps, like Signal and Telegram. And law enforcement has been even more frustrated by encrypted phones, specifically designed to thwart authorities from snooping.

But in 2018, in a story that seems like it's straight out of a spy novel, the FBI was approached with an offer: Would they like to get into the encrypted cell phone business? What if they could convince criminals to use their phones to plan and document their crimes — all while the FBI was secretly watching? It could be an unprecedented peek into the criminal underground.

To pull off this massive sting operation, the FBI needed to design a cell phone that criminals wanted to use and adopt. Their mission: to make a tech platform for the criminal underworld. And in many ways, the FBI's journey was filled with all the hallmarks of many Silicon Valley start-ups.

On this show, we talk with journalist Joseph Cox, who wrote a new book about the FBI's cell phone business, called Dark Wire. And we hear from the federal prosecutor who became an unlikely tech company founder.

Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+
in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy




com

The two companies driving the modern economy

At the core of most of the electronics we use today are some very tiny, very powerful chips. Semiconductor chips. And they are mighty: they help power our phones, laptops, and cars. They enable advances in healthcare, military systems, transportation, and clean energy. And they're also critical for artificial intelligence, providing the hardware needed to train complex machine learning.

On today's episode, we're bringing you two stories from our daily show The Indicator, diving into the two most important semiconductor chip companies, which have transformed the industry over the past 40 years.

First, we trace NVIDIA's journey from making niche graphics cards for gaming to making the most advanced chips in the world — and briefly becoming the world's biggest company. Next, we see how the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's decision to manufacture chips for its competition instead of itself flipped the entire industry on its head, and moved the vast majority of the world's advanced chip production to Taiwan.

Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episode about NVIDIA by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy




com

Sense of Place: Meet the composer behind 'Super Mario Kart'

Soyo Oka walks us through her journey from studying classical music to calling up Nintendo looking for a gig.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy




com

The Culture Corner: Digable Planets' 'Blowout Comb' turns 30

The hip-hop group's second and final album took a sharp sonic turn away from their radio-friendly debut.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy





com

The Public Commons

How can we create public places that feel welcoming and safe for everyone? This hour, TED speakers examine our physical and digital spaces—how they run, who they serve, and how to make them better. Guests include community organizer Shari Davis, researcher Eli Pariser, Wikipedia Library founder Jake Orlowitz, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, and artist Matthew Mazzotta.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy




com

Listen Again: The Public Commons

Original broadcast date: July 23, 2021. How can we create public places that feel welcoming and safe for everyone? This hour, TED speakers examine our physical and digital spaces—how they run, who they serve, and how to make them better. Guests include community organizer Shari Davis, researcher Eli Pariser, Wikipedia Library founder Jake Orlowitz, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, and artist Matthew Mazzotta.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy




com

The Public Commons: Building public spaces that actually serve the public

Original broadcast date: July 23, 2021. How can we create public places that feel welcoming and safe for everyone? This hour, TED speakers examine our physical and digital spaces—how they run, who they serve, and how to make them better. Guests include community organizer Shari Davis, researcher Eli Pariser, Wikipedia Library founder Jake Orlowitz, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, and artist Matthew Mazzotta.

TED Radio Hour+ subscribers now get access to bonus episodes, with more ideas from TED speakers and a behind the scenes look with our producers. A Plus subscription also lets you listen to regular episodes (like this one!) without sponsors. Sign-up at plus.npr.org/ted.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy




com

12 feet of hope: ‘Little Amal’ the refugee has a big impact at UCLA Community School

Students welcomed the giant puppet and her message of empathy for refugees fleeing war, famine and persecution around the globe.




com

New semiconductor pilot program at UCLA prepares community college students for jobs in growing industry

The program is co-led by the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA, the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and Pasadena City College.




com

UCLA Labor Center compiles a ‘mixtape’ to share 60 years of worker advocacy

Co-producer Veena Hampapur discusses the project presented by Re:Work, the center’s women-led podcast.




com

UCLA earns top spot among U.S. public universities in Niche.com’s college rankings

Fifteen of the campus’s academic programs and specialties were also ranked in the top 10 nationwide.




com

Julio Frenk gets a red-carpet welcome at Time magazine’s celebration of Latino leaders

The chancellor-designate was one of 17 honorees, including actors, playwrights, corporate executives and others, honored for their influence and leadership.




com

Leaders of UC, CSU and California Community Colleges share statement on the election

Interim Chancellor Darnell Hunt also shared resources available on the UCLA campus for the well-being of students, faculty and staff.




com

Welcome to the Pack

A tradition since the school was first built continues today at Northern Trails 5/6! Originally from the Republic of Kosovo, 6th grade student Reahana Shenhu, pictured in white, proudly placed the flag from her native country in the school’s main hallway where it will always remain. Reahana’s father, Ensar, also shared some of the history […]

The post Welcome to the Pack appeared first on Forest Hills Public Schools.



  • FHPS District News
  • Northern Trails News

com

From Jeopardy to the classroom: IBM brings its Watson platform to the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto

TORONTO, ON — A group of students in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto are getting the opportunity of a lifetime. Using the vast capabilities of IBM’s Watson, the cognitive computing technology widely known for winning the 2011 Jeopardy challenge, the students will be learning to develop innovative artificial intelligence (AI)-based […]



  • Arts
  • University of Toronto

com

Opening Reception for Common Ground: ART x BISSELL 2016 Exhibition

Toronto, ON — Inspired by the plight of Syrian refugees, and by the ongoing displacement of peoples in Toronto and abroad,  ART x BISSELL, in partnership with SKETCH and The Remix Project, is pleased to present Common Ground, the 2nd annual contemporary art exhibition at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information (iSchool). Curated by Master of Museum Studies students […]




com

Higher-income students have an edge when it comes to working memory

Toronto, ON – University of Toronto and MIT researchers have discovered important differences between lower and higher-income children in their ability to use “working memory,” a key brain function responsible for everything from remembering a phone number to doing math in your head. Using functional MRI (fMRI) to measure and map the brain activity of […]




com

Rotman Commerce Graduates Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 List for Marketing and Advertising

Toronto, ON – The co-founders of Toronto-based start-up Exact Media, who are graduates of the Rotman Commerce program at the University of Toronto, have been named to the 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 list of the young innovators redefining marketing and advertising. Daniel Rodic, BCom’12, and Elena Sahakyan, BCom’09, are two of the three co-founders […]




com

World’s Preeminent Student Trading Competition Returns to the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management

Toronto, ON – The world’s preeminent trading competition for university students returns for its 14th year at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. The students, along with their faculty advisors, from 52 different universities which include teams from China, Iceland, India, and South Africa, will participate in the competition which takes place from February […]




com

Baruch College Team Successfully Defends its Title at the Rotman International Trading Competition

Toronto, ON – For the second year in row a team from the Master of Financial Engineering program at Baruch College in New York City has won the Rotman International Trading Competition. The 14th annual edition of one of the world’s preeminent trading competitions was hosted by the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management […]




com

Engineering students tackle eight problems nagging Toronto communities

Toronto, ON –  First-year students in U of T Engineering are stepping up to take on some of the Greater Toronto Area’s most persistent problems, from diagnosing infant epilepsy to finding lost arrows at a local archery range. This Wednesday, April 12, students at the University of Toronto are hosting a day-long event to showcase […]




com

University of Toronto astrophysicists convert moons and rings of Saturn into music - Compositions provide a soundtrack for the Cassini probe’s final plunge into planet

Compositions provide a soundtrack for the Cassini probe’s final plunge into planetToronto, ON –After centuries of looking with awe and wonder at the beauty of Saturn and its rings, we can now listen to them, thanks to the efforts of astrophysicists at the University of Toronto (U of T). “To celebrate the Grand Finale of […]