Pack Your Bags:
Planet Money Summer School Is Going Global

Sweeter than ice cream, more useful than sunscreen and better for your brain than a day at the beach: Planet Money Summer School is back.

Whether you’re a longtime Planet Money listener or completely new to the show, Summer School is your entertaining, jargon-free guide to the ideas shaping economies, and everyday life, around the world.

This summer, our reporters are visiting some of the most memorable places, people and stories from more than 15 years of global reporting. Along the way, they talk with leading economists to unpack what each country can teach us about solving big economic challenges.

In the first episode, travel to Australia to explore how a market for scarce water determines who gets access—and who gets to profit. Then, meet the New Zealand economist and jazz musician behind inflation targeting, one of the most influential ideas in modern central banking.

Later, we head to Norway to learn how a country can use its natural resources to become, and remain, prosperous.

And finally, we visit China to examine what happens when an economy is run like an engineering project and builds too much

At every stop, we’ll collect ideas worth borrowing, debate the ones best avoided and leave you with a new way to understand how the world works.

New episodes arrive every Wednesday through Labor Day in the Planet Money podcast feed.