Darian Woods
Darian Woods is a reporter and producer for The Indicator from Planet Money. He blends economics, journalism, and an ear for audio to tell stories that explain the global economy. He's reported on the time the world got together and solved a climate crisis, vaccine intellectual property explained through cake baking, and how Kit Kat bars reveal hidden economic forces.
Before NPR, Woods worked as an adviser to the Secretary of the New Zealand Treasury. He has an honors degree in economics from the University of Canterbury and a Master of Public Policy from UC Berkeley.
-
In September, 254,000 jobs were added to the US economy and the unemployment rate ticked down very slightly to 4.1%. It's unexpectedly strong, and relieving news for workers after a pretty lackluster summer. But, given how the labor market cooled over summer, is the labor market still on thin ice? And if there were to be a plummet in jobs, could anything be done to speed up the recovery?
-
As a record number of people retire, social security won’t be around for much longer either. We look at the origins of social security and some new ideas to tackle new retirement challenges.
-
Darnell Epps is a Yale trained lawyer who is bent on solving a non-legal problem: a shortage in manufacturing workers. He enrolled at vocational school to get a better idea of the job market.
-
Over the last decade, more companies have adopted endless leave policies that allow employees to take as much vacation time as they want.
-
It costs more than $20 billion a year to feed kids in schools. Some 70% of lunches were served free or reduced but there’s a political divide on whether all school lunches should be free.
-
-
Major banks are paying out more in interest on some deposits. The team at "The Indicator from Planet Money" digs into why big banks aren’t paying you much interest on your plain savings account.
-
Should a President have total control over the Fed? Both candidates vying for the presidency have differing points of view.
-
The Olympic Games almost always comes with a substantial financial burden for a host city. But are cost-benefit analysts too simplistic for how we evaluate their impact?
-
High interest rates are meant to cool the economy and bring inflation down. But when they also keep the cost of houses high, it can have the opposite effect.