Hey, you're listening to the On the Media Midweek podcast. I'm Michael Loinger.

Every now and then in this time slot, we bring you something that was made by another audio team.

This week, we're presenting you with an episode of the NPR show Planet Money.

There are three episodes into a five episode series all about the book industry.

It's very media, and we think you're going to love it.

To explain the premise, here's the host of the series, Alexei Horowitz Garzi.

For a long time, whenever I entered the cozy refuge of an independent bookstore, I couldn't

help but suspect that there was this whole hidden world, this whole economy lurking behind the bookshelves.

And I know in the era of TikTok and polymarket and video podcasting, it can be easy to overlook the humble book.

But it is undeniable. Books are one of the most influential technologies ever.

From the wealth of nations and Das Kapital to the

art of the deal or dreams for my father. Books can make us all lean in one day, or suddenly everyone

you know is finding life-changing magic and tidying up? Even if you haven't picked up a book in years,

the forces that shape the marketplace for books

have the power to shape everything else in your life. They shape the ideas that make it to the

masses. So last year, when my boss informed the team in an editorial meeting that the Planet Money

book, which had been in the works for a while, was now

hurtling toward publication, I found myself leaning in. The question on my boss's mind was this.

Would anyone on the team like to report out how the book got made, to see what it might tell us

about the business of books? Would anyone raise their hand? And when I heard the call to tell

the tale of the Planet Money book, what do you think I did? Reader? I raised it. Hello and welcome

to Planet Money. I'm Alexei Horowitz-Gazi. We live in a world built by books. And yet, the economic

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