Nick Fountain
Nick Fountain is a reporter and co-host of Planet Money, where he covers the cracks in our economy that explain how the world works.
At Planet Money, he's driven the world's longest yard sale, bought and sold a truckload of Christmas trees, uncovered a global postal conspiracy, run the stairs of Fenway Park with hot dog vendors, figured out exactly why your printer is the worst and convinced the inventor of self-checkout machines to admit he hates his invention, among many other stories.
Fountain started as a producer on the show in 2015. Before that, he worked as a producer and director of NPR's flagship show Morning Edition.
He cut his teeth at KUSP, a community radio station in Santa Cruz, California, where he went to college. Then he worked at KQED in San Francisco, and WBUR in Boston. He lives in dreamy Ventura, California, with his wife, daughter, and dog.
-
Status trackers are ubiquitous on online apps and ordering. We have the story the seminal Domino's Pizza Tracker that led to many copies, and we check on why many of the trackers now aren't accurate.
-
Cybersecurity researchers recently uncovered a cyber weapon that twisted math -- likely to slow down Iran's nuclear program.
-
The Planet Money team traces the life of a tax loophole from creation, discovery, exploitation -- all the way to watching it get closed shut.
-
Book tour event details and ticket info here. An iconic cartoon character liberated from copyright, journalism from the world of competitive spreadsheeting, a controversial piece of US currency. Each year the Planet Money team dedicates an episode to the things we simply love and think you, our audience, will also love. In this year’s Valentine’s Day episode: The Public Domain Day list from Jennifer Jenkins’ of Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain and her colleagues. Jesse Dougherty’s article “Between the sheets at the college Excel Championship” which is behind a paywall. Here is Jesse’s substack. 404 Media’s excellent journalism on the tech that ICE is using An ode to the language of the penny, including songs like Pennies from Heaven. The only self-check out that doesn’t waste your time. And we made public domain Valentine’s cards. Download THE OFFICIAL Planet Money valentine here. Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift. / Subscribe to Planet Money+ Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts. Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter. This episode of Planet Money was hosted by Kenny Malone. It was produced by James Sneed with help from Sam Yellowhorse Kesler, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, engineered by Cena Loffredo & Kwesi Lee, and edited by our executive producer Alex Goldmark. -
President Trump recently signed an executive order targeting large institutional investors that buy up homes. But in some circumstances, those large investors have led to more housing affordability.
-
In 2008, Chicago's mayor decided to lease out the city's metered parking system — to privatize all 36,000 of its parking meters.
-
Even after the shutdown ends, SNAP will be at risk as states start to pay for a portion of the program for the first time. Their share will depend on an obscure stat -- the payment error rate.
-
Before people who lost their homes in the Los Angeles wildfires can rebuild, they need money. But how does an insurance company figure what a house is worth when there's nothing left standing?
-
Table saws are dangerous. An inventor came up with a device that could make them much, much safer, but it sparked a decades long fight over the tradeoff of costs and safety. How to balance the two?
-
The Planet Money team explains economic terms that are likely to come up in the Harris-Trump presidential debate, and they invites listeners to play debate bingo at npr.org/bingo.
