475. Why Does the Richest Country in the Worl...

Epic Systems manages the electronic health records for hundreds of millions of people. This makes Faulkner a healthcare heavyweight and one of the most successful female entrepreneurs in history. So why haven’t we ever heard much from her? Stephen Dubner travels to Verona, Wisc., ...  Show more

New York City’s mayor called them “public enemy number one.” History books say they caused the Black Death — although recent scientific evidence disputes that claim. In an updated episode from 2025, we ask: Is the rat a scapegoat? And what does our rat hatred say about us? SOURCE ...  Show more

“Wealth is the paramount indicator of economic prosperity and well-being,” says the economist Darrick Hamilton. He’s right. Policy analysis tends to focus on income, but it is wealth that often determines whether we can send our kids to college, pay for an illness, quit a job, ...

The high poverty rate among children was long seen as an enduring fact of American life. But a recent analysis has shown that the number of young people growing up poor has fallen dramatically in the past few decades.

The reasons for the improvement are complicated, but ...

Consumer sentiment reports reflect a universal truth: Lower income households feel the punch of inflation worse than wealthy households. But affordable housing — and lack thereof — is one issue that brings Americans together, across the wealth divide. Plus, Christopher Bass tells ...  Show more

Guest-hosted by Julia Carpenter: The United States is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. But when it comes to support for parents and families, we lag behind many of our peers. We have relatively high infant- and maternal-mortality rates and no national parental-leave ...  Show more