Can a good story change economic reality?
The Indicator from Planet Money
NPR
4.7 • 9.5K Ratings
🗓️ 14 January 2026
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Economic decisions aren’t only driven by hard data. A compelling story can change economic behavior and outcomes. In today’s episode, we explore real-world examples of “narrative economics” like how the Suez Canal ended up getting built. And we ask: why do narratives sometimes matter more than truth or data?
Related episodes:
This indicator hasn’t flashed this red since the dot-com bubble
Tariffs. Consumer sentiment. Cape Ratio. Pick The Indicator of The Year!
The Beigie Awards: Manufacturing takes center stage
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | NPR. This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Whalen Wong. And today I'm joined by co-host of the |
| 0:17.1 | Business and Investing Podcast this time is different. Ricky Mulvey. Hey, Ricky. |
| 0:21.3 | Hey, Waylon. Good to see you. |
| 0:22.4 | Good to see you, too. And you're here because we know that numbers and data move economic |
| 0:27.8 | decisions, but so do stories. |
| 0:31.1 | Economic narratives, contagious stories that spread. And they can be singular. |
| 0:35.8 | Take this one from President Trump. |
| 0:38.1 | Tariffs give our country protection against those that would do us economic harm. |
| 0:42.9 | Or they can come in multiples and narrative constellations. AI comes to mind from Sam Altman |
| 0:48.6 | saying AI will create new kinds of jobs to Mvitya's Jensen Huang saying it's the beginning |
| 0:53.5 | of a new industrial revolution |
| 0:55.6 | to Elon Musk. |
| 0:57.6 | We will have the first time something that is smarter than the smartest human. |
| 1:00.8 | Today on the show, we're diving into narrative economics, how the stories you tell and hear |
| 1:05.9 | affect your economic reality. |
| 1:08.1 | Well, look at how these stories gain power, the narratives that sparked a tech revolution. |
| 1:13.1 | And I promise, it's not all AI. |
| 1:15.5 | We'll talk about how economic narratives lean more into power than truth and explain why they |
| 1:20.7 | really matter in the world of investing. |
| 1:22.9 | Plus, we've got a Nobel Prize-winning economist to help us out. |
| 1:26.3 | That's after the break. |
| 1:30.8 | There's a lot going on right now. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.