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1 week ago | 
wrvo.org | Amanda Aronczyk |Jess Jiang |Sam Kesler
Note: A version of this episode first ran in 2023. Every year, the U.S. government spends more money than it takes in. In order to fund all that spending, the country takes on debt. Congress has the power to limit how much debt the U.S. takes on. Once we reach that limit, Congress has a few options so that the government keeps paying its bills: Raise the debt limit, suspend it, or eliminate it entirely.
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2 weeks ago | 
wrvo.org | Willa Rubin |Jeff Guo |Jess Jiang |Sam Kesler
When President Trump announced his sweeping new tariffs this year, many trade law experts were startled. Typically, presidents don't have the authority to impose broad tariffs with a snap of their fingers. But Trump's advisors have an unusual new legal theory. They say that as long as there's a national emergency of some kind, Trump may be able to create whatever tariffs he wants. This is a creative interpretation of a 1977 law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA.
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3 weeks ago | 
lpm.org | Marielle Segarra |Sam Kesler |Malaka Gharib
What's the weirdest thing you've ever found in your pocket? What topic could you give a 20-minute talk on with no preparation? What's a path you almost took but didn't? If you find yourself immediately wanting to reply to these queries, there's a reason, says Priya Parker, a conflict resolution facilitator. They were designed to spark curiosity and elicit a response.
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3 weeks ago | 
flipboard.com | Marielle Segarra |Sam Kesler |Malaka Gharib
4 hours agoThere's no need for a paid Adobe Acrobat subscription. These built-in and free tools let you merge PDF files quickly. Merging PDF files doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. In fact, I've been doing it for years without spending any money at all. Whether I need to organize project files, …
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4 weeks ago | 
flipboard.com | Keith Romer |Jess Jiang |Sam Kesler |Amanda Aronczyk
The U.S.-China trade war, according to game theory : Planet MoneyOver the last few months U.S.-China trade relations have been pretty hard to make sense of – unless you look at what's happening through the lens of game theory. Game theory is all about how decisions are made, based not just on one side's options and payoffs, but on the choices and incentives of …
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4 weeks ago | 
m.kuow.org | Sam Kesler |Malaka Gharib |Marielle Segarra
What's the weirdest thing you've ever found in your pocket? What topic could you give a 20-minute talk on with no preparation? What's a path you almost took but didn't? If you find yourself immediately wanting to reply to these queries, there's a reason, says Priya Parker, a conflict resolution facilitator. They were designed to spark curiosity and elicit a response.
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1 month ago | 
kpbs.org | Marielle Segarra |Sam Kesler |Malaka Gharib
It can be tough to maintain our relationships with old friends. We move cross-country. We have kids. Or maybe one person is better at staying in touch than the other. Despite the challenges, Nina Badzin, host of the podcastDear Nina: Conversations About Friendship, argues we should fight to keep old friends. "It's important to have friends who have known you through different stages.
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2 months ago | 
kunc.org | Marielle Segarra |Sam Kesler
The art of letter writing is not dead. Rachel Syme, a New Yorker staff writer, learned that during the early days of the pandemic. Longing for human connection, she asked her followers on social media if anyone wanted to be her pen pal. "I got 300 responses," she says. She couldn't possibly write to everyone, so she created a letter-exchanging program called PenPalooza to "connect all these people to one another." It now has more than 10,000 members.
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2 months ago | 
boisestatepublicradio.org | Marielle Segarra |Sam Kesler
The art of letter writing is not dead. Rachel Syme, a New Yorker staff writer, learned that during the early days of the pandemic. Longing for human connection, she asked her followers on social media if anyone wanted to be her pen pal. "I got 300 responses," she says. She couldn't possibly write to everyone, so she created a letter-exchanging program called PenPalooza to "connect all these people to one another." It now has more than 10,000 members.
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Mar 12, 2025 | 
kpbs.org | Marielle Segarra |Sam Kesler
What is happiness? Is it feeling good all the time? Having a sunny disposition? Feeling like you are where you want to be in life? People who want to be happier often think about what it means, says Gretchen Rubin, author of several books on the subject, including The Happiness Project and Happier at Home, and host of the podcast Happier. But the emotion can be hard to describe. Instead, Rubin says to ask yourself: "Will this make me happier?" People usually have a lot more clarity on the answer.
