Marketplace All-in-One

Roughly one in every 20 U.S. workers is holding down multiple jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's fallen a fraction of a percent since last fall, when we saw the highest rate since 1999 — around the moment just before the dot-com bubble burst, when there were fears about what increasing automation meant for job-holders. Sound familiar? Then, we'll unpack a recent water-saving plan to address the ongoing water crisis in the Colorado River Basin.

The episode you’ve been waiting for is finally here. This is part 2 of the San Fran Fin Lit Pod Con cliffhanger episode from last season. Bridget and Ryan finally made it to the conference, only to find it’s entirely cashless. It’s the perfect opportunity to answer all your non-paper-money questions: What would happen if we lived in a cashless world and paid for everything with debit and credit cards? How do you send and receive money with mobile payment apps? And how exactly do checks work?

The startup Winnie is a marketplace for childcare. It works like this: Parents type in the age of their kid and their zip code, then different childcare providers in the area will pop up. You can also filter by languages spoken, and whether you want a childcare center or home-based daycare or another option. It's free for parents to use. But the company was founded back in 2016, when AI search wasn’t really a thing. And Winnie’s CEO and co-founder Sara Mauskopf says parents now want to be able to describe what they're looking for in natural language. So, Winnie has had to adapt. It's just released an AI-powered search tool. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Mauskopf to learn more about their new AI search engine and the challenges of keeping up with the fast-paced AI sector.

We’ve said from the get-go that consumers paid the bulk of President Trump’s tariffs. Now that most were ruled illegal, individual businesses will get to decide whether to pass those tariff refunds onto customers. And any litigation of those decisions could take a while. Also in this episode: What’s next for the airline industry sans Spirit, why GameStop wants to buy eBay, and how states could claw back some tax dollars. Every story has an economic angle. Want some in your inbox? Subscribe to our daily or weekly newsletter. Marketplace is more than a radio show. Check out our original reporting and financial literacy content at marketplace.org — and consider making an investment in our future.

Starting July 1, a cap on federal student loan borrowing limits kicks in. Graduate students will soon only be able to take out $20,500 a year, and up to $100,000 in total; the cap is higher for some professional programs, like medicine or law. But all this could mean new barriers to advanced degrees for students with little or no credit. Plus, we look at the ever-shrinking consumer cushion. And, what happened to talks of a proposed Spirit bailout?

A new report from Dayforce and the Living Wage Institute found that just over half of full-time workers earn enough to provide for themselves and their families. Wages have been rising, just not as quickly as costs. Familiar racial and gender gaps persisted, too — and got wider in 2025. But first, GameStop is trying to buy eBay for $56 billion, though it's unclear where all that money would come from. Then, is the robotaxi revolution ever coming?

The GUARD Act is a bipartisan bill that would prohibit companies from letting kids under 18 interact with what the legislation calls "AI companions,” which are chatbots designed to encourage the simulation of an interpersonal relationship. This comes after some harrowing stories of teenagers who developed relationships with chatbots and then harmed themselves or others. The bill just passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes talks about this with Ashley Gold, a senior tech policy reporter at Axios.

Bad news for your next smartphone purchase: An extended memory chip crunch is upon us, warns Apple CEO Tim Cook. New artificial intelligence projects are outspending the consumer electronics sector on memory, and manufacturers have limited output capacity. Retailers will likely pass those higher costs onto consumers. Also in this episode: A retiree focuses on charitable giving, specialty movie ticket prices climb to $50, and America’s biggest energy port benefits from the Middle East oil tie-up. Every story has an economic angle. Want some in your inbox? Subscribe to our daily or weekly newsletter. Marketplace is more than a radio show. Check out our original reporting and financial literacy content at marketplace.org — and consider making an investment in our future.

Hey Smarties! There won’t be a livestream for “Economics on Tap” today. But don’t worry! We’ll be back next week. For now, we’re sharing an episode from our friends over at “This Is Uncomfortable.” Enjoy! What happens to your retirement savings when you leave a job? And if you’ve forgotten about an old 401(k) account, how do you track that money down? That’s the mystery Reema is trying to solve this week, as she confronts her own financial anxiety and goes searching for retirement accounts left behind at previous jobs. Along the way, she talks with retirement expert Geoffrey Sanzenbacher about just how common this is -- only about 15% of people roll their retirement savings over to a new employer's plan! And she asks behavioral economist Katy Milkman why this kind of chore feels so hard. Plus, brain hacks that will help you get through that daunting financial to-do list. Here at Marketplace, we’re celebrating Public Media Giving Days on May 1 and 2. Help us keep the conversations going. Donate now: https://support.marketplace.org/smart-sn

When college-bound high school seniors commit to a school, it's always a complicated calculus, especially for families who need financial aid. But for students starting this fall, there’s a new wrinkle: new caps on how much parents can borrow from the federal government to help their kids pay for college. Today, one high school senior and his mom talk college finances. Plus, we'll recap an especially busy week for the economy.

Last year, more people left the U.S. than moved in — it’s the first time that’s happened in at least half a century. And 2026 is expected to see even more outmigration. Immigrants pay taxes and are a major part of the labor force in construction, agriculture, and healthcare. All of that can have lasting effects on the economy. But first up, we explore federal government retirement matching and dig into underemployment.

This week, Taylor Swift trademarked her voice and image in what appears to be a bid to protect against AI misuse. Plus, a Japanese airline is experimenting with humanoid robots to help with baggage. But first, Google landed a deal with the Pentagon to let its AI models be used for classified work. A Google spokesperson told us in a statement that the company is proud to be providing its services for national security and that it believes AI should not be used for “domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weaponry without appropriate human oversight." We talked with Maria Curi at Axios about how Google’s deal compares to ones the Department of Defense has with other AI companies. Check out our YouTube page to watch more episodes of “Tech Bytes.”

U.S. gross domestic product grew by 2% in the first three months of 2026. (It’s a stark improvement to the final quarter of 2025, which saw GDP growth of just 0.5%.) Experts agree massive investment in artificial intelligence is the main driver of that growth. But what does that mean for the rest of the economy? Also in this episode: Financial market predictions fall short of real-life crude oil costs, airlines face an aircraft technician shortage, and social media is in the midst of a bean craze. Every story has an economic angle. Want some in your inbox? Subscribe to our daily or weekly newsletter. Marketplace is more than a radio show. Check out our original reporting and financial literacy content at marketplace.org — and consider making an investment in our future.

We’re approaching graduation season for this year’s crop of college seniors. But along with all the celebrations, there’s an extra dose of uncertainty hanging in the air around new grads, as they face an extra-tough job market and the rise of AI. On today’s show, Kimberly talks to New York Times labor and workforce reporter Noam Scheiber, whose new book “Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class” digs into the historical context for the environment today’s seniors are graduating into. Here’s everything we talked about today: ”Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class””Young Graduates Face the Grimmest Job Market in Years””The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates””College Graduates Are Struggling to Find Jobs. AI is Partly to Blame.””U.S. Worker Thriving Declines as Job Market Pessimism Grows” We love hearing from you. Leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART or email makemesmart@marketplace.org.

Yesterday, we got quarterly results for some of the biggest companies in the economy, including Google parent company Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta. Investors have been pinning hopes on Big Tech. We'll do the numbers on tech firms' earnings and discuss whether the good times — and big spending on AI — can last. But first, the U.S. economy grew faster in the first three months of this year, and we'll outline challenges awaiting Kevin Warsh as the next chair of the Federal Reserve.

It’s Big Tech week on Wall Street. Quarterly results from Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon all beat expectations. And shocker: They’re all still spending a lot on AI. One of the biggest expenses is chips. That’s made Nvidia the most valuable company in the world. Now, other Big Tech companies want to get in on that action. Then, the Trump administration has wound down funding for mRNA vaccine development. We’ll explore the impacts.

What do you do when your child’s ideas about money start to sharply diverge from your own? Reema is joined by journalist Patrick Radden Keefe to discuss his new book, “London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth.” Along the way they get into the thorny realities of parenting in a time when young people are aspiring to be like the ultra-wealthy. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok! If you liked this episode, share it with a friend. And let us know what you think by emailing uncomfortable@marketplace.org or calling 347-RING-TIU. Support “This Is Uncomfortable” with your donation today: https://bit.ly/mkp_tiu_pod

The war with Iran has upended supply chains including for materials that are critical to building the electronics we use everyday, such as a certain kind of thermoplastic, copper, and helium. We are now dealing with shortages of all of them. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Jeff Janukowicz, an analyst with the research firm IDC, to learn more.

Wednesday marked Jerome Powell’s final FOMC meeting as chair of the Federal Reserve. Central bank leaders held rates steady this week, though with the most dissenting votes in over 30 years. Powell also announced his intent to stay on as a Fed governor — the first chair to do so since 1948. In this episode, we recap Powell’s tenure as head of the Fed and unpack his latest press conference. Plus: Companies issue more corporate debt, Taco Bell outperforms sales expectations, and AI spawns new cybersecurity headaches. Every story has an economic angle. Want some in your inbox? Subscribe to our daily or weekly newsletter. Marketplace is more than a radio show. Check out our original reporting and financial literacy content at marketplace.org — and consider making an investment in our future.

Five of the Magnificent Seven — Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Apple — are reporting earnings this week. These tech titans have kind of been single-handedly holding up the market for a while now. Can the good times last? Then, China is the largest manufacturer of solar energy parts in the world, and it's considering restricting exports of solar panel manufacturing equipment to the United States. We'll delve into the impacts.