You know you need to do it, but there are always a million excuses not to. In this podcast, we give you the science behind getting up and moving, making exercise a habit that sticks and getting the most from your workout.
If you've got 22 minutes, you can get an effective total-body workout. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg's personal trainer, Bryant Johnson, walks us through an interval session and explains why it's so effective.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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 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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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?
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.
Dollar stores thrived during the economic downturn--opening thousands of locations across the country. They were recession-proof...but are they recovery-proof?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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?
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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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
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.
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.
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?
Falling off the exercise wagon more than you'd like? These strategies, based on economics and the science of habit formation, can help. Plus, you get to binge-watch TV.
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.
A lot of us love to hate exercise. In these episodes, we talk to the experts about how to think differently about exercise so that it fits right into your life, for good.
There are so many mattress stores in the America, and they always seem to be empty. So how can they afford the real estate? And how do they stay in business?
The U.S. economy looks in fine shape — for now — but even a lot of Americans with jobs still struggle financially. Here are three Indicators to monitor economic insecurity in the U.S.
In honor of jobs day, we look at the jobs that used to be high-paying, that are now low-paying. What happened to these jobs? And what can it tell us about the U.S. economy?
For years after the Great Recession, the Federal Reserve kept short term interest rates near zero percent. It began raising rates in 2015 — but did it jump the gun.
When the yield curve inverts, people worry that it's a sign we're headed for recession. But its predictive reliability also depends on the way it inverts.
The decline in the oil price since the end of October has been stunning in its depth and speed, and follows more than a year of climbing. What changed?
The 401(k) retirement plan turned 40 this week! Today on the show, we chronicle the rise of the 401(k), the fall of the pension, and talk to the man who started it all.
China is piloting a so-called social credit system, which allots every citizen a certain number of points. If you do the "right thing" you can extra points. If you do the wrong thing, you can lose points and life can get very difficult.
In China, if you don't pay back your loans, you could end up on a blacklist. When you're on it, you can't get a credit card or a plane ticket. Today on the show, we talk with someone on the blacklist.
China has a problem: it's economy grew fast and that led to a trust problem. If someone doesn't pay back a loan, there's no real enforcement. But the solution might cause problems of its own.
Corn prices are falling, but the price of Fritos in the White House press corps break room is up by 20%. What's going on? Team Indicator is on the case!
The U.S. trade war with China escalated this week. The Trump administration might be underestimating how many options the Chinese government has for responding to American tariffs.
The psychological scars wrought by the 2008 financial crisis are taking a long time to heal. We're a lot more cautious, which has serious implications for the economy.
The availability of work — the availability of jobs for people who want a job and even for people who didn't know they want a job — continues expanding.
For more than three decades, it was illegal in Alabama to have your baby delivered by a midwife. But last year the state finally legalized midwifery and now it could lead to serious cost savings.
The next round of trade barriers with China could include a 25 percent levy on Chinese antiquities. One dealer went to Washington to tell Congress why that tariff could hurt our allies and ourselves.
In 1907, America's financial system ran into trouble. Trust in financial institutions evaporated, and contagion swept through the economy. Then John Pierpont Morgan stepped in.
The Venezuelan economy has collapsed. Years of economic mismanagement and a deepening political crisis have led to a recession. Yet there's one indicator that can capture this economic catastrophe.
"The Art of War" by Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu, is one of corporate America's favorite books. But John McWhorter, a linguistics professor at Columbia, isn't convinced about its utility.
In honor of the last stretch of summer, The Indicator has selected some economic beach reads! Books that will teach you something about economics and also pair well with a pina colada.
Tim Harford is the author of 'Fifty Inventions that Shaped the Modern Economy." We play overrated/underrated, and asked him about inventions, as well as messy desks.
The U.S. has been renegotiating trade deals and putting tariffs on different goods. Meanwhile, other countries are re-negotiating their trade agreements and some deals are leaving U.S. producers out.
The pace of wage growth is one of the best indicators of economic health. But it can be measured with different methods. Each method tells a slightly different story about how the economy is doing.
Russia has had a huge presence in the news lately. But its economy... not so huge. It's smaller than the economy of Texas. Today on the show, we look at what's been holding it back.
The GDP got all sorts of attention today. The U.S. economy grew at a stellar rate of 4.1% in the second quarter. But what does that mean? And will it continue?
Warren Buffett, Mark Twain, and John Maynard Keynes all made enormous investment mistakes at some point in their lives. On today's show, those stories — and the lessons we can all take from them.
President Trump broke with tradition by lamenting that rising rates are keeping the dollar strong and the trade deficit wide. But rising rates and a stronger dollar are the results of his own agenda.
The European Commission just slapped Google with a $5 billion fine for abusing its Android monopoly. How did it create the alleged monopoly? By making Android free.
Women invest far less of their paychecks than men do. Sallie Krawcheck spent her career on Wall Street and she says this is a problem we need to solve.
Starbucks, Ikea, Vancouver, Scotland: They've all banned plastic straws. The movement is meant to help reduce plastic waste in the ocean. But will it work, or will it backfire?
Banks and other financial institutions have their own banking accounts at the Federal Reserve. Morgan Ricks argues that regular folks should have access to Fed accounts, too.
President Trump recently announced strict economic sanctions in Iran. Today on the show, we talked to a young Iranian man about what it's like to live in the Iranian economy right now.
Every time the yield curve has inverted since 1970, the economy has fallen into recession. It's getting close to inverting now, but it may no longer be the recession predictor it once was.
A quirk in French labor law makes it especially difficult for a company to lay off its employees. It's a system designed to protect workers, but it also has consequences for the rest of the economy.
Flags: symbol of a country, patriotic rallying cry, and a telling economic indicator. Today on the show, a factory in China that makes American flags, and what it tells us about the modern economy.
The unemployment rate is already below the Federal Reserve's estimate for maximum employment. But former Fed Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin says it may still have further to fall.
Every year, the nation's biggest banks are subjected to stress tests, hypothetical disaster scenarios designed to test their balance sheets. But the stress tests could soon be getting less stressful.
The price of oil continued climbing throughout this year, catching forecasters and consumers by surprise. What happened, and what might make it move in the second half of the year?
June marks the birthday of two of the most famous economists of all time: Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes. Whose ideas are most relevant today? Stacey and Cardiff duke it out.
We play overrated/underrated with Sallie Krawcheck, Wall Street C-suite veteran and founder of Ellevest. She talks investing, women on Wall Street, and where to find the best BBQ.
If you pay MoviePass 10 dollars a month, you can go to the movies every day. Great for customers, but hard on a company's bottom line. Today on the show, what's the plan, MoviePass?
The teen summer job is a vaunted tradition...one that is fading. Today's teenagers just aren't working as much as their forebears. And that could have serious implications for America's labor market.
The Death Master File is a list kept by the government. It keeps track of everyone who has died. But what happens when you end up on the list while you're still alive?
Venezuela's economy has collapsed, and the normal economic indicators have gotten so bad they're almost unfathomable. So one economist created an indicator to capture the awful human cost.
The U.S. and China are on track for a trade war. Economists generally say that's a bad idea... but if the U.S. wants to get tough on China, what are some alternatives?
Despite the proliferation of apps like Lyft, TaskRabbit, and Uber, a new government report found no growth in people primarily doing this kind of work. Here's how the "gig economy" is and isn't changing.
The New York Stock Exchange — that bastion of American capitalism — owes its existence to two dozen men, a buttonwood tree, and a coffee shop. Today on The Indicator: the history of Wall Street.
One way to think of President Trump's trade policy is as a sort of soap opera. Today, we catch you up on the latest dramatic twists and also answer a big, looming question: are we in a trade war?
The Congressional Budget Office has a long history of disputes with the White House, including the current administration. But Alice Rivlin — the first-ever director of the CBO — says this time is different.
Social Security has traditionally paid for itself, with money leftover. Until this year. Social Security has a funding problem and it's getting bad quickly.
The U.S. economy has been humming along in the last few years, but that momentum can mask the financial fragility of millions of people who are just one emergency away from financial disaster.
Vaccines are expensive and time-consuming to develop and there's no guarantee the investment will ever pay off. This means promising vaccines often sit in laboratory freezers during major epidemics.
Last week, Congress and President Trump passed a bill rolling back regulation put in place by the 2010 Dodd Frank banking reform bill. We look at what changed and what it means.
The earnings call is a peculiar Wall Street ritual, one that's almost designed to be boring. So when something interesting does happen it's news. Today, the lessons of those earnings calls gone rogue.
Recent news has cast a spotlight on a little-known regulatory agency quietly working behind the scenes of our economy. What is FinCEN and why is it so important?
The mortgage interest deduction is popular, but it has numerous distorting effects on the economy – and economists also say that it does exactly the opposite of what people think.
Finance is notorious for being a boys club. Marilyn Cohen has worked in the bond market for 30 years. She talks about what it takes to succeed in her field and why there aren't more women.
Congrats, Class of 2018! Rather than listen to another meandering cliche-riddled commencement speech, let Stacey and Cardiff guide you through young-adult life with advice backed up by research.
Congress may soon expand work requirements for people who receive benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. But do these work requirements match the reality of work itself?
Assigning a grade to a bottle of wine might seem counterintuitive, or even a little absurd, but wine scores have can have a big impact the people who sell wine — and the people who drink it.
Colleges are seeing fewer and fewer students apply every year. To try and stay solvent and attract students, they're trying all kinds of things, from lazy rivers to M&A.
It's the 100th Indicator! To celebrate, we look to the future... and to alternate futures. The Indicator takes a break from economics to tackle infinity.
The corporate tax cut passed in December was supposed to compel businesses to boost investment. Is it working, or are companies just passing the savings on to their owners?
The LIBOR interest rate was at the center of a huge international scandal back in 2012. Regulators believed it had to replaced. But is that even possible?
In 1907, America's financial system ran into trouble. Trust in financial institutions evaporated, and contagion swept through the economy. Then John Pierpont Morgan stepped in.
The tariffs China just imposed on 128 American-made items will cost the U.S. about 3 billion dollars a year. That's not much to the nation, but it's a big deal if you make one of the products on the list.
The justification used by the Trump administration for its steel and aluminum tariffs is riskier for the global trading system than the tariffs themselves.
Over the past two decades, prices on average have increased. But certain things have gotten cheaper while others have gotten more expensive, and which is which can tell us a lot.
Imagine being able to work fewer hours during a difficult time in your life, without having to quit your job or interrupt your career. In Germany, for many workers, that's now a reality.
Our guest, Tyler Cowen, has smart insights into a ridiculously wide range of subjects. Our conversation is a lightning round that touches everything from Afrofuturist flicks to the mouth-numbing qualities of the Sichuan peppercorn.