Weekend Listening: NPR Planet Money Summer School Investing Edition

In 2020, the NPR Planet Money podcast did a series called Summer School that focused on economics concepts. You can still listen to those, but the 2021 Summer School series is about investing. Hardcore personal finance geeks might come away bored, but I enjoy hearing how they try to simplify and and explain these complex topics in an approachable manner. If I remember, I plan to have my kids as teens listen to these episodes. Here are the podcasts so far, which include excerpts from earlier Planet Money episodes:

• Planet Money Summer School 1: The Stock Market
• Planet Money Summer School 2: Index Funds & The Bet
• Planet Money Summer School 3: Smooth Spending & The 401K
• Planet Money Summer School 4: Bonds & Becky With The Good Yield
• Planet Money Summer School 5: Bubbles, Bikes, & Biases

The bubble episode has a good story about bicycles (not tulips!). When I’m in an efficient mood, I enjoy listening with the Overcast app (iOS only) at 1.25x speed with “Smart Speed” that skips over silences (and somehow speeds up even more during ads) to save time. I believe Pocket Casts also has similar features, is available on both iOS and Android, is free, and is apparently partially-owned by NPR recently sold to Automattic (parent of WordPress).