Stacey Vanek Smith
Stacey Vanek Smith is the co-host of NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money. She's also a correspondent for Planet Money, where she covers business and economics. In this role, Smith has followed economic stories down the muddy back roads of Oklahoma to buy 100 barrels of oil; she's traveled to Pune, India, to track down the man who pitched the country's dramatic currency devaluation to the prime minister; and she's spoken with a North Korean woman who made a small fortune smuggling artificial sweetener in from China.
Prior to coming to NPR, Smith worked for Marketplace, where she was a correspondent and fill-in host. While there, Smith was part of a collaboration with The New York Times, where she explored the relationship between money and marriage. She was also part of Marketplace's live shows, where she produced a series of pieces on getting her data mined.
Smith is a native of Idaho and grew up working on her parents' cattle ranch. She is a graduate of Princeton University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in comparative literature and creative writing. She also holds a master's in broadcast journalism from Columbia University.
-
Who owns the moon? Space travel is getting easier and cheaper and now companies and NASA are trying to establish a market for things from outer space.
-
The average American adult spends four or five hours a day on their phone. Is there a line where that much phone time crosses into addiction? The Indicator from Planet Money asked an economist.
-
The Senate is set to go on break without raising the debt ceiling, prompting grievances among Washington lawmakers. But the only time in history the debt was paid down, it didn't go quite as planned.
-
BTS has become a global economic force. The seven-member South Korean boy band is creating jobs, billions in revenue — and even moving the needle on South Korea's GDP.
-
During the COVID-19 crisis, almost 7 million Americans have started new businesses. Though an all time record, it's not unusual for such conditions to make people hungry to start their own thing.
-
When companies don't want to directly raise prices, they often shrink the size of the product while keeping the same price. This tendency to downsize products has come to be known as shrinkflation.
-
The latest Consumer Price Index showed prices were up 5.4% compared to a year ago. But how exactly does the government track this number?
-
Demand for homes has increased dramatically this year amidst a labor shortage in the construction industry. So employers are increasing wages and getting creative to entice people into the trades.
-
COVID-19 has brought so much loss and hardship, but there was at least one pleasant surprise for Beijing - less hazy skies and air pollution.
-
Many people will watch movies on a big screen this summer, but the pandemic fundamentally changed the industry. How can movie theaters survive and possibly thrive post-pandemic?
-
Zoom is the most popular video conferencing software and many people's communications lifeline during COVID-19. How did the tiny company beat tech giants like Google, Microsoft and Cisco?
-
Several schools have cut women's sports teams during the pandemic, and some of the teams have lawyered up in response. Ultimately, these lawsuits ask the question: how do we measure equality?