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Eat Your Way To A Healthier Life

We'll help you cut through all the nutrition noise and figure out how to eat healthy — without having to think about it too much.

There are so many food tribes out there — everything from keto to vegan. We help you understand how to choose a diet approach that's right for you.

Choose The Best Diet For You

Life Kit is excited to bring you more episodes but we're making some changes to how we organize things. Starting in the new year, this three-part guide will disappear, but all of the episodes will still be available — they are just moving to our main Life Kit feed. Search your podcast app for Life Kit from NPR and subscribe so you never miss an episode.

Special Announcement From Life Kit

Carbs get a bad rap. Here's the science behind why eating too much starch isn't good for you — and smart tips to integrate more slow carbs into your diet.

The Truth About Carbs And Calories

So many food labels proclaim their eco-virtues these days — organic. Pasture-raised. Cage-free. Non-GMO. What do they actually mean? Here are six ways to make sense of it all.

Free-Range Food Labels: Can My Groceries Really Help The Planet?

A report from Glassdoor reveals which industries have the starkest gender pay gaps.

Where The Gender Pay Gap Is Widest

Based on your feedback, we've created new ways to listen to Life Kit. If you never want to miss an episode, subscribe to Life Kit: All Guides. We also divided our guides by subject — health, money and parenting - and more to come in the future — so you can subscribe to only the topics you want to learn about.

Superman could easily take over the world. But there are some good economic reasons why he doesn't.

Why Superman Doesn't Take Over The World

On eBay right now: A baby T-Rex. The price? $2.95 million.

Selling A T-Rex On eBay

The first few months of 2019 looked troubling. But now we seem to be on the upswing.

Is Everything Awesome In The Economy?

The share of people ages 25 to 54 in the labor force has fallen in the past couple of decades. What happened? Listen to an excerpt from our live event with the Financial Times Alphachat.

What Happened To U.S. Workers?

New York will soon charge drivers to enter the most crowded parts of the city. Congestion pricing: Does it work? Who's doing it? And is it coming to a city near you?

The Traffic Tariff

Taxes have been around forever. But the income tax? In the U.S., it's relatively recent.

A Brief History of Income Taxes

There's a gap in career earnings between introverts and extroverts.

Why Do Introverts Get Paid Less?

The story behind the first six keyboard letters are driven by economics.

Why Do We Still Use QWERTY Keyboards?

The cost of a measles outbreak - to individuals, families, communities, and the country - is high.

The Cost Of Measles

Free trade may solve problems for businesses transacting across borders, but it can make life painful for their workers.

Solving Problems Caused By International Trade

Trade makes for peaceful relationships between nations, but gains for consumers and workers aren't spread evenly.

How Trade Helps Explain Inequality

Prices for most agricultural products change with supply and demand. Not maple syrup.

The Maple Syrup Cartel

A new round of U.S. tariffs could hit European wine, cheese, aircraft, and escargots.

Trade War With Cheese: Trump's New EU Tariffs

The U.S. is one of the world's largest economies, but it lags when it comes to happiness: the World Happiness Report ranks America number 19.

How To Measure Happiness

Happy Jobs Friday! The economy is still adding jobs, unemployment remains low, and wage growth is fine. It's all good...right?

Jobs Friday: Chillaxing Edition

A recent paper examines the motivations behind Xi Jinping's corruption crackdown and arrives at a surprising answer.

The China Corruption Crackdown: Sincere Or Cynical?

Global demand for hazelnuts is growing, thanks to the popularity of products like Nutella. So it should be a great time to be in the hazelnut business... but there's one big problem.

The 20-Year Quest To Save Nutella

Allison Schrager is an economist and journalist who visited a number of brothels to examine how we understand and deal with risk.

What Sex Work Reveals About Risk

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index is one of the indicators retailers, policy-makers and manufacturers use to gauge the health of the economy. But what is the index, exactly?

A Crisis Of Consumer Confidence?

On the one hand, you could say the economy's looking rocky; on the other hand you could argue it's in good health. We lay out both sides.

An Indicator In The Hand

Today, answers to your questions on dry cleaner pricing, and the comparative investment virtues of the housing and stock markets.

Dry Cleaners, Housing, The Stock Market And Rip It

Gabriela Saade is a 27-year-old economist in Caracas, Venezuela. Yesterday, she walked us through Venezuela's staggering numbers. Today, we walk a mile in her shoes.

An Economist in Caracas: Day In The Life

The crisis in Venezuela continues to deepen, with nationwide blackouts hitting the country again this week. Today, we talk to a Caracas-based economist about what's happening in her country.

Venezuela By The Numbers

Spotify recently launched in India, but that path was long and complicated. We take the experience of Spotify and use it as a lens to look at why breaking into India is so difficult.

Spotify's Long, Winding Road To India

The latest edition of "Overrated, Underrated" with economist Tyler Cowen.

Are Neighbors Overrated? (And Other Questions)

All shares of stock are not created equal. Stock can come in different classes now: Class A, Class B. Some of this stock comes with superpowers... and some of it comes with almost no power at all.

Lyft Going Public: The Dual-Class Share Dilemma

Venezuelans are starving because there isn't enough food. But the country has so much fertile land, water, and sunshine — shouldn't it be a farmer's paradise?

Why Are Venezuelans Starving?

Your average cup of coffee is getting more expensive — but the price for coffee beans is going down. How can that be?

Coffee? Thank U, Next

Should you take out a student loan? Jill Schlesinger, author of "The Dumb Things Smart People Do With Their Money," does the math.

The Cost Of Student Debt

The scandal that dominated the news this week involved parents paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to get their kids into the right college. But what is a college degree really worth?

Buying A College Degree: Did Aunt Becky Overpay?

A lot of money is pouring into the global diamond industry, but demand for diamonds has been less than lustrous of late. But, at the same time, money has been pouring into the industry. Why? We have on our hands – a four carat mystery.

Saying 'I Do' To Lab-Grown Diamonds

Economics looks at how we make decisions in a world of scarce resources. What happens when the scarce resource is our attention?

The Economy Inside Your Head

Dollar stores thrived during the economic downturn--opening thousands of locations across the country. They were recession-proof...but are they recovery-proof?

A Tale Of Two Dollar Stores

Leaving the EU is unprecedented, but leaving a large trading bloc is not.

March Madness: Britain Leaving The EU

The most common jobs for men and the most common jobs for women tend to be different — and this separation has big effects for everyone.

Gender Segregation In The Workplace

Technology is bringing us closer together, but it's also making the world a more unequal place.

Inequality In America

Most states in the U.S. have a sales tax on menstrual products. Some states have repealed this so-called Tampon Tax, on the grounds that it's unfair to women. But the repeals come at a cost.

Tampons: That Bloody Sales Tax

Trade negotiators from China and the U.S. seem to be closing in on a deal. But it's not clear what the terms will be.

Trade War And Peace

Five things that a lot of people get wrong about the world's second largest economy - and what robots and zombies have to do with it.

5 Misconceptions About The Chinese Economy

"Neoliberalism" has become a loaded term.

Who Is The Neoliberal Shill Of The Year?

Take advantage of Life Kit's other useful guides to help you get it together. Also, please take our survey! It's at npr.org/lifekitsurvey. It'll help make the show even better.

How To Listen To More From Life Kit

Tomorrow is the day the U.S. hits its debt limit. What happens if Congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling?

Dancing On The Debt Ceiling

Americans have more consumer debt, and they're also in better financial health. How can that be?

More Debt, Less Problems

Both video games and television have radically improved in the past two decades. Have they also changed the way Americans spend their time?

TV Vs. Video Games: Who's Winning?

Earlier this month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced payday regulations would be delayed. We look at the business of payday loans, and what it's like to get into a debt cycle with payday lenders.

Payday Loans And Debt Traps

Sadie Alexander was the first African-American to earn a PhD in economics. We think her contributions deserve another look.

Unsung Economists #1: Sadie Alexander

Personal finance specialist, author and former trader Jill Schlesinger explains market timing--that is, trying to figure out when to buy and sell stock--and why it's a fool's errand.

Investing: Wait For It...?

Tipping is ingrained in America's retail culture. And there's not much we can do to stop that.

Why Americans Can't Quit Tipping

Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman told us last year that Super Bowl weekend is one of the most accurate indicators of the health of the housing market for the year ahead. Well, the Patriots won - what happened with housing?

The Super Bowl: Key Housing Indicator

President Trump asked Congress for funds to build an extension of the wall on the border with Mexico. Congress refused, so Trump declared a national emergency. But what does that mean?

What Does "National Emergency" Actually Mean?

Today we answer listener questions about age discrimination; how work hours are counted; and whether the economy is running out of people to take jobs.

Your Questions, Answered ❤️

The 1937 union agreement between GM and the United Auto Workers union ushered in a period of strength for organized labor. Today, labor is nowhere near as powerful as it used to be. What happened?

The Strike That Changed U.S. Labor

An Instagram celebrity and a video game company are battling over who gets to own a dance move once it goes viral.

Fortnite Vs. Backpack Kid: Dance Battle Royale

Economist Lisa Cook examined how race riots, lynchings, and segregation at the turn of the 20th century reduced the number of patents filed by African-Americans.

How Violence Limits Economic Activity

Small towns in rural areas across America are seeing a regeneration to advance technology, jobs and economic prospects.

Small Town Boom

The dedicated officers of the epidemic intelligence service are foot soldiers in a relentless battle against infectious disease.

The Disease Detectives

India's government has proposed a plan to pay some of the country's poorest farmers a guaranteed income. What would this mean for the country's economy?

India's Poverty Paradox

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell says inflation isn't a problem right now, and that the short term interest rate, at 2.5 percent, is right where it should be.

The Fed's Sweet Spot For Interest Rates

Parts of America are in the grip of a cold snap. Others are being drenched by rain. How do we measure the cost of extreme weather conditions? We called a scientist to find out. It turns out storms are getting more and more expensive.

Cold-o-nomics

Jobs: Is the economy creating enough of them? Are they paying more than they used to? Do people have the jobs they want? All this and more.

The Jobs Friday 5

How the once fairly-stable business of public utilities is changing.

Lights Out For PG&E?

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the economic impact of the longest shutdown in history.

How To Price A Government Shutdown

How the invention of the government bond saved a bunch of mid-level politicians from certain death and became one of the most important pieces of financial technology the world has ever seen.

A Bond Is Born

The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland is supposedly an unabashed celebration of globalization. Not this year.

Globalization At Davos: What Happened?

The shutdown is over... for now. Today on the Indicator, we talk to one of the 800,000 formerly-furloughed federal employees about his experience of the shutdown.

The End Of The Shutdown?

An economics experiment that streamlines the application and financial aid process for low-income students.

HAIL To College Access

How the trade war with China is playing out on one peanut farm in Georgia.

When Tariffs Hit Home

The number of hunters in the U.S. is falling, which is bad news for wildlife conservation.

Shooting Bambi To Save Mother Nature

Healthy eating can be easy if you follow a few simple rules. We guide you through three types of healthy food you should add to your diet, and three types to cut back on.

6 Food Tips: A No-Fuss Guide To A Healthy Diet

Kids know what healthy food is, but adults seem to lose their way and make eating just so complicated.  We'll help you cut through the nutrition noise and figure out how to eat healthy — without having to think about it too much.

Introduction: Eat Your Way To A Healthier Life

We armed The Indicator's producers with your questions, and they unleashed them on a roomful of economists at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association.

What Keeps Economists Up At Night? And Other Stuff

John Clifton "Jack" Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Group, passed away yesterday at the age of 89. Today we look back at his life and career.

R.I.P. Jack Bogle, Democratizer Of Investing

Interest rates are higher, global growth is slowing, and the government is at an impasse. But there are also reasons for near-term optimism about the U.S. economy.

The Extremely Cautious Case For Extremely Mild Optimism

When it came to the female labor force participation rate, America used to lead the world. But we've fallen behind. Today on the show: what happened?

Working Women: Why The U.S. Is Behind

Which economic indicators do we pay too much attention to? Not enough? It's Overrated/Underrated: Economic Indicator edition

10,000 Economists Walk Into A Bar

The U.S. partial government shutdown is on track to be the longest in history. Whatever its political consequences, the economic costs to the private sector will increase the longer it lasts.

Shutdown Economics

Today on The Indicator: an update on the trade spat between China and the U.S.

U.S.-China Trade: Where Are We Now?

Some signals on the economic dashboard are warning we could be heading for a downturn within a couple of years. Are we ready to fight off a recession?

Are We Ready For A Recession?

2018 was one of the most volatile stock market years on record. And the market continues volatile today. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Don't Fear The Fear Index

The Fed chair and his two predecessors speak at a big conference about Friday's stellar jobs report, and why, despite what the Phillips Curve might predict, they're not too worried about inflation

Jobs, Inflation And The Phillips Curve

The miniseries Stockholm tells the story of a group of friends, one of whom is a frontrunner for the Nobel Prize in economics. But there's a problem: he's dead.

Economists On Screen, Episode 4: Stockholm

Shows developed by Aaron Sorkin included a lot of economics. We look at free trade in The West Wing, and Glass-Steagall in The Newsroom.

Economists On Screen, Episode 3: Aaron Sorkin

In Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, the lead character is an economist in the CIA, tracking down terrorists by following their money.

Economists On Screen, Episode 2: Jack Ryan, CIA Economist

Explaining the game theory in the plot of the movie Crazy Rich Asians.

Economists On Screen, Episode 1: Crazy Rich Asians

The #MeToo movement transformed the experience of women in the workplace. The strong job market helped some women feel secure enough to come forward... but for others, it still doesn't feel safe to speak up.

Indicators Of The Year: #MeToo

The opioid problem has reached into all parts of American life, including the workplace. But the workplace could be key in addressing the problem.

Indicators Of The Year: Opioids

2018 was a rough year for the housing market. We take a look at what happened.

Indicators Of The Year: Housing

Applications for H-1B work visas fell 16 percent in 2018 from 2017. Does that mean the U.S. could lose its edge in attracting global talent?

Indicators Of The Year: Immigration

Our pals Josh Barro of New York Magazine and Jennifer Doleac from Texas A&M tell us what they're keeping an eye on in 2019.

Friends Of The Indicator, Pt 2

What are the best indicators for 2019? Some of our best friends tell us what they'll be watching.

Friends Of The Indicator, Pt 1

Depression severity, Australia's housing market and the minimum wage. You asked: here are some answers.

You've Got Mail!

Cryptocurrency had a rough 2018. The big cryptos lost about 80% of their value. So what happened? Is crypto poised for a comeback or are we talking tulips?

The Crypto Crash

We commemorate some of the darkest and funniest business and economic blackspots of the year.

Lowlights Of The Year

President Donald Trump has made building a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico one of his signature issues. Today, the Indicator looks at the economics of a border wall.