Pitchfork Economics Podcast

29/12/2025

Who decides what counts as “good economics”?
And what happens when the gatekeepers get it wrong?

Find the answers to these questions in our 3rd most popular episode of the year, Breaking Up Big Econ (with David Deming)

🎧 https://buff.ly/qQX5TFo

29/12/2025

Extreme wealth isn’t a sign the system is working—it’s evidence the rules were written to benefit the few, which is likely why “The Rise of the Billionaire Oligarchy," from our Back-to-Basics Series, landed the spot of 4th most popular episode of 2025!

🎧: https://buff.ly/QWOk2uB

27/12/2025

The Gilded Age of White-Collar Crime from our Back-to-Basics Series really resonated with listeners. It was our 5th most popular episode this year!

Markets don’t self-police. Rules matter—or else the powerful loot with impunity.
🎧 https://buff.ly/X1Kr3ht

26/12/2025

Curious about what resonated most with Pitchfork Economics listeners in 2025?

Over the last few days of the year, we’re going to share our most-listened-to episodes—where questions about power, growth, morality, and neoliberalism met real economic reality.

Don’t worry, we’ll still be dropping a spicy new episode on Tuesday!

23/12/2025

America is richer than ever. So why are so many people exhausted, anxious, and stuck?

This week, Nick & Goldy talk to NYT economics reporter Talmon Joseph Smith about the growing gap between economic headlines and lived reality. From rising costs to wage stagnation, we break down why the top 20% experiences a fundamentally different economy—and why pretending everything is fine is a recipe for instability.

🎧 Listen now: https://buff.ly/0svfhQn

18/12/2025

Decades of economic evidence show that when you trust people with cash, they make smart choices—often smarter than top-down aid programs.

That’s why Pitchfork Economics is supporting ’s campaign.

Revisit our conversation with Paul Niehaus to hear why direct cash keeps beating traditional aid, again and again.�

🎧 https://buff.ly/TvoKVrT �

💸 https://buff.ly/BrqGZoe

16/12/2025

What if democracy isn’t something we inherited—but something we’re responsible for rebuilding?

This week, journalist Osita Nwanevu argues that America’s democratic breakdown is rooted in economic inequality, minority rule, and a constitutional system that regularly blocks majority governance. A timely conversation on democracy as an ongoing project—politically and economically.

🎧Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts: https://buff.ly/3XUZJn7

13/12/2025

Tyson Foods' latest decisions show exactly how corporate power works in America.
• $196 million spent boosting its own stock
• 3,200 workers laid off in a town of just 11,000

All while beef prices remain near record highs for families.

Executives and shareholders come out ahead. Workers, ranchers, and consumers pay the price.

This is exactly what our Trillion Dollar Heist Comic was created to expose — a system where corporations extract billions while communities get left holding the bag.

A resourceful janitor named Marta steps in to stop a CEO from stealing billions of dollars away from workers and into the coffers of the wealthy shareholder class. Along the way, Marta explains how the richest people in the world have sucked over $70 trillion from the pockets of the American middle....

10/12/2025

A new study shows Instacart doing exactly what people suspected: charging different shoppers different prices for the same groceries in the same store at the same time.

That isn’t “dynamic pricing.” It’s algorithmic roulette — and it’s designed to squeeze every last dollar from whoever they think won’t notice.

And here’s the part nobody talks about: Instacart uses the same strategy on workers.

Their algorithm quietly tweaks pay for identical jobs, batch by batch, hoping shoppers will settle for whatever number flashes on their screen.

Seattle effectively shut down Instacart’s underpayment model by setting an enforceable minimum pay standard for app-based workers.

The takeaway couldn’t be clearer: If you don’t regulate corporate algorithms, they will regulate you.

The findings are the latest example of how the notion of a single price is breaking down in the digital age, a trend economists say could be pushing up some prices.

09/12/2025

“America doesn’t build anymore.”
“Everything suddenly got worse.”
“Equality is a struggle.”

This year’s most talked-about economics books captured something real: a world shaped by scarcity politics, corporate concentration, and widening inequality.

In this episode, we dig into the ideas behind Abundance, Ensh*ttification, Thomas Piketty’s latest work on inequality, and other books that defined 2025’s economic conversation.

If you’re looking for smart, thought-provoking reads—or trying to understand why the economy feels the way it does—this episode is a great place to start.

🎧 Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts: https://buff.ly/K7vtVqq

09/12/2025

Josh Hawley’s new health care proposal is trickle-down economics dressed up as reform.

Rather than renewing the ACA tax credits that have actually lowered insurance premiums for millions, he wants families to spend up to $25,000 a year on health care—about a third of the median family’s income—and then get a $3,000 deduction the following April.

Economist Sky Marchini summed it up pretty well on BlueSky: This isn’t a plan to reduce costs. It’s a coupon handed out after the damage is already done.

We’ve tried 40 years of trickle-down gimmicks. They don’t work. Families need lower health care prices now, not tax deductions for unaffordable bills.
https://buff.ly/lXgHoeJ

06/12/2025

Politicians and pundits blame “prices” alone for the affordability crisis.
But as Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute points out, that’s only half the story.

The real problem? Wages stopped keeping up with the economy. If pay had grown with productivity, the typical worker would be earning thousands more every year.

We don’t have an inflation crisis—we have a decades-long wage-suppression crisis.
Fix that, and affordability stops being a talking point and starts being a lived reality.

"As lawmakers grapple with the cost of living, they need to remind Americans – again and again – that pay is a policy choice," Heidi Shierholz writes.