Stacey Vanek Smith
Stacey Vanek Smith is the co-host of NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money. She's also a correspondent for Planet Money, where she covers business and economics. In this role, Smith has followed economic stories down the muddy back roads of Oklahoma to buy 100 barrels of oil; she's traveled to Pune, India, to track down the man who pitched the country's dramatic currency devaluation to the prime minister; and she's spoken with a North Korean woman who made a small fortune smuggling artificial sweetener in from China.
Prior to coming to NPR, Smith worked for Marketplace, where she was a correspondent and fill-in host. While there, Smith was part of a collaboration with The New York Times, where she explored the relationship between money and marriage. She was also part of Marketplace's live shows, where she produced a series of pieces on getting her data mined.
Smith is a native of Idaho and grew up working on her parents' cattle ranch. She is a graduate of Princeton University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in comparative literature and creative writing. She also holds a master's in broadcast journalism from Columbia University.
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For astronauts living at the International Space Station, money is practically useless. There's nowhere to spend it. Instead astronauts developed a functioning barter economy.
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The latest pandemic relief package includes hundreds of billions of dollars in funding for small businesses. But for many companies, the money hasn't targeted one of their biggest overheads: rent.
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The first doses of COVID-19 vaccines are being administered. Our Planet Money team delves into the dark web to learn more about the counterfeit vaccines that are being sold around the world.
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Discontinued Lego sets can be worth a lot of money. Counterfeit Lego kits, made illegally in China, are scamming collectors.
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The National Hockey League has resumed its season in two "bubbles" in Edmonton and Toronto, Canada. The league says it's administered 7,000 coronavirus tests to players, with zero positive cases. -
Dr. Paul Offit, who serves on the Food and Drug Administration's vaccine advisory board, says he doesn't think an effective vaccine that's undergone adequate testing can be ready this year. -
NPR's daily economics podcast The Indicator from Planet Money investigates how the fees and fines that make up city budgets disproportionately target low-income communities and communities of color.
