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.
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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?
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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?
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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.
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Not too long ago, the FBI tried running a smartphone company. Their phones were specifically for criminals, and to snoop on them. It was the largest sting operation ever.
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There's a bipartisan effort to close a loophole that allows cross-border e-commerce companies like Temu to avoid paying import taxes.
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When unwanted gifts are returned, they often don't go back to the original seller. We get a behind-the-scenes look at two women who make a living off of returned merchandise.
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The United Auto Workers union is showing the power of surprise as they threaten future strikes. That tactic was pioneered by a different union. Flight attendants.
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Duke professor and behavioral scientist Dan Ariely has been accused of using falsified data in research into ways to make people more honest. New info makes the case against him look stronger.
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Experts are calculating when the deadline is for Congress to come up with a debt limit solution in order to keep the U.S. solvent and paying its bills.
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Nick Fountain, co-host of NPR's podcast Planet Money, reports on the rise and fall of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.