Planet Money

In the world of commercial publishing, there are few crowning achievements more coveted than a place on the New York Times Best Seller List. But how does a book actually end up there? There is, of course, a playbook that publishers and authors use to try to gin up enough sales at the beginning of a new book’s life to launch it onto the list. But there is also a world of more shadowy techniques – a whole history of hacking shenanigans going back nearly a century.

Today on the show, the fourth episode in our series: Planet Money sets out to make the Planet Money book a best seller, and along the way, we uncover all the outlandish strategies that people have tried to hack their way onto the New York Times Best Seller List. There will be mass hallucinations, legal exorcisms, shady book launderers, and scarlet daggers. And we learn the hard way how trying to engineer your way onto the list, just might be the thing that keeps you from getting there.

Related:

- “Night People's Hoax On Day People Makes Hit With Book Folks” 
- New York Times: “Jacqueline Susann Dead at 53; Novelist Wrote 'Valley of Dolls'”
- New York Times: “Blatty Sue Times On Best-Seller List”
- New York Times: “Court Bars A Suit Over Books List”
- Bloomberg Businessweek: “Did Dirty Tricks Create A Best Seller?” 
- Episode 1: Inside a BOOK auction
- Episode 2: Our BOOK vs. the global supply chain 
- Episode 3: BOOKstore Economics
- Series: Planet Money makes a book
- Laura McGrath’s new book: Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction

Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life is in stores now. 

Support: Planet Money+

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Our weekly Newsletter.

This episode was produced by Willa Rubin. It was edited by Jess Jiang, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Robert Rodriguez and Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer. 

Music: NPR Source Audio - "Quirky Episodes," “Dramedy Scheme,” "Unforeseen Consequences,” and “Impractical Jokes.” 

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It’s way more than fuel costs that pushed Spirit Airlines to the brink of liquidation and led President Trump to muse about “buying” them. Many low cost airlines are struggling due to a canny and calculated set of strategies from bigger airlines that we can think of as ‘revenge of the legacy carriers.’ 

Today on the show, we go back in time to when Spirit was riding high and pressuring the whole industry to cut costs. We talk with then-CEO Ben Baldanza about his radical vision for cheap air travel and then travel to the present day to hear how legacy airlines beat Spirit and other budget airlines at their own game. Plus, what happens to us passengers if Spirit does go away. 

Newsletters:
Greg’s weekly deep dive
The brand new Indicator link roundup

Related Episodes: 
People Express and how flying got so bad (or did it?)

Book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life is in stores now. 

Support: Planet Money+

Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.

Find us on Socials: 

Facebook / Instagram / TikTok 

This episode of Planet Money was hosted by Greg Rosalsky, Jacob Goldstein, Zoe Chace and Emma Peaslee. It was produced by Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Alex Goldmark. It was fact-checked by Vito Emanuel and engineered by Jimmy Keeley. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer. 

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At one point in history, one U.S. company monopolized the rare earths industry. Then China took over the industry. Can the U.S. bring it back?

Rare earths are critical to making, like, everything. From smart phones to electric vehicles to microwaves. They’ve also become a powerful political weapon for China, which controls the majority of mining and processing of rare earths. 

Today, we have the story of the rise and fall of America’s rare earth industry told through that single company. It’s a corporate saga made for prestige television about the elements that literally, once, made prestige televisions. 

Live event info and tickets here. 

Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift. / Subscribe to Planet Money+

Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.

Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.

This episode was produced by Emma Peaslee and edited by Marianne McCune. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Cena Loffredo and Jimmy Keeley. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.

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We talk with Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark and Chief Economist at Redfin Daryl Fairweather about two of the biggest issues of our time: AI and housing. 

We have been crisscrossing America doing live shows to help promote the new Planet Money book. In each city, we’ve been doing interviews with special guests. And since we won’t be able to make it to every city in America (or most cities) we wanted to bring the tour to you!

Live show tour and book info. / Subscribe to Planet Money+

Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.

Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.

This episode of Planet Money was edited and produced by Eric Mennel and Emma Peaslee. It was fact checked by Sierra Juarez. It was engineered by Robert Rodriguez and Kwesi Lee. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer. 

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Have you noticed a lot of young people getting into antenna-maxxing as alpha? Or, maybe searching for any bit of copium after they fat-fingered and got rinsed? Or maybe they farmed during a yes-fest on Mention Markets resulting in some serious printing? 

If none of that made sense to you, then we have the perfect episode for you. 

Prediction markets have taken off in the past few years, using the same legal loopholes as the crypto market to essentially claim they are a “swap,” or “futures market,” similar to that of the totally legal grain and pork belly markets, and less like the state-regulated sports gambling market. 

And they are great for the bondsharps who print on the regular (or, in English, “well known market makers who often make a lot of money”). 

These prediction market companies exist because they’ve convinced regulators that they’re also great for the rest of us. They're adding new knowledge to the world. Making us more informed about the future. 

On today’s episode, the case Kalshi has been making to regulators, the courts and the public as to why what looks like gambling and seems like gambling … is not. Why that argument’s kinda been working. And – if no one stops them – what prediction markets could do to our future.

For more, listen to former CFTC Commissioner Kristin Johnson on The Indicator from Planet Money.

Live show tour and book info. / Subscribe to Planet Money+

Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.

Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.

This episode of Planet Money was hosted by Bobby Allyn and Mary Childs. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Marianne McCune, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.

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