Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi is a host and reporter for Planet Money, telling stories that creatively explore and explain the workings of the global economy. He's a sucker for a good supply chain mystery — from toilet paper to foster puppies to specialty pastas. He's drawn to tales of unintended consequences, like the time a well-intentioned chemistry professor unwittingly helped unleash a global market for synthetic drugs, or what happened when the U.S. Patent Office started granting patents on human genes. And he's always on the lookout for economic principles at work in unexpected places, like the tactics comedians use to protect their intellectual property (a.k.a. jokes).
The ultimatum by war cabinet member Benny Gantz reflects discontent among Israel's leadership about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the Gaza war and his far-right political partners.
McCloskey's story has both deep roots and burgeoning relevance. He died this month at 96 and had long been out of the limelight, but the issues he had been willing to champion are as salient as ever.
An art installation called The Portal was shut down this week in New York and Dublin because of rude gestures and other bad public behavior, as NPR's Scott Simon explains.
At the height of the racial reckoning, a school district in Virginia voted to rename two schools that had been previously named for Confederate generals. This month, that decision was reversed.