Planet Money: A case study in taking risk | Adam Davidson | Big Think

Planet Money: A case study in taking risk
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Adam Davidson, staff writer for The New Yorker and co-founder of NPR's Planet Money, was raised in an environment in which everything was grounds for discussion — except money. So, of course, money was what he took an interest in.

The idea for Planet Money came from a place of frustration that Davidson and his friends felt toward the shortcomings of current business coverage. They aimed to breathe new life into the field.

Planet Money's road to success has consistently involved a team that holds each other to a high standard of thoughtfulness, intelligence, humility, and impeccable storytelling.
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ADAM DAVIDSON:

ADAM DAVIDSON is the cofounder of NPR's Planet Money podcast and a staff writer at The New Yorker, where he covers economics and business. Previously he was an economics writer for The New York Times Magazine. He has won many of journalism's most prestigious awards, including a Peabody for his coverage of the financial crisis.

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TRANSCRIPT:

ADAM DAVIDSON: I think when you're a creative person and you're starting something new and you want to do great work it can be a little terrifying. You have yourself, maybe a small team. What are we supposed to do to be great? What are we supposed to do to be fully ourselves? It was looking back at Planet Money that I created with a small group of friends where I saw so many lessons in what you can do early on that sets you up for success.

Creating Planet Money came out like a lot of things out of frustration that I felt, I wasn't born interested in business. I grew up in a home of artists who could care less about business. In fact, I grew up in a world of artists where everything was open for discussion – sex and drugs and art and everything except money. Money was this lame, horrible thing that no one wanted to talk about. So I, of course, became fascinated by the lame, horrible thing no one wanted to talk about. But I didn't particularly care what the stock market was doing on any given day or what the Fed policy was. I had to learn to find that interesting.

And when I did find it interesting and I found that business is directly tied to every aspect of our lives. It determines how much comfort we have and in many ways it determines who we marry, how many kids we have, where we live, how we live. And business itself represents dramas that the characters in business and in economic policy have their personalities and their emotional states and all of the things that make a good drama. The drama is there. It just requires translation.

And as I began to feel, that and then I would think about most business coverage and it was so lifeless. Just the stock market did blah, blah, blah. The Federal Reserve blah, blah, blah announced this policy. And it just made me frustrated. It made me really, really frustrated. And surveying the landscape I felt not in every case but in a lot of, in many cases there was either serious but really boring and hard to understand business coverage or there was fun, lively business coverage that was sort of silly and thin. And so we, I guess it was an experiment but we felt like it would pay off. What if we just started the most of both. We wanna be very substantive, very serious, very grounded in smart, thoughtful stuff, but also fun and exciting and filled with drama and characters and all of that. And what if we just refused to accept that there's a tradeoff and just insist on the most of both.

And it's not that we always succeeded or every episode succeeds but setting that as a bar allowed us, frankly, to just not give up early in the process. And I've often said there's not a Planet Money way of telling a story. There's a lot of little tricks and gimmicks and approaches we came up with but it really is just a group of people who agree we're going to hold ourselves to this really high standard and we're just going to keep trying until we succeed. And that's true for every individual episode and then it's true for the show as a whole. And that's by the way what I've noticed, you know I've worked at This American Life, at The New Yorker. I've worked at places that, the New York Times magazine, that...

[allysunembrey]

I love planet money! I have learned so much from plant money; it has been an important teacher in my daily life to understand money.

[JonMarkSearle]

I've listened to PM from the start and it's up there with the best - freakonomics, radio lab, the indicator, and also more or less (that one's from the BBC). It's a part of life now.

[mtumasz]

I don’t see a point of this video. The gentleman assumes I know what Planet Money is, which I find rather amusing.

[AaandrRL]

I love planet money, never miss an episode

[eyeofthestorm]

The real question is (regarding COVID 19): if healthy people can die of many things, do we restrict freedom? do we quarantine from all risk? (this is actually more of a theological question than political, imo..)

[MsPerestrojka]

interesting video but it looks like his skull is been squezzed by the frame of his glasses

[talyahr]

He said absolutely nothing for 6 minutes

[MrZamyslony]

Is it a USA only Big Think or do you want to have real audience? If so, you need to ensure a bit of set-up, explaining the situation, for the listeners to understand what is it about. Or simply rename it to Big US Think.

[reachsuccessredlyrics]

BIG THINK IS SUCH AN AWESOME CHANNEL, Big Think have both inspired me and helped me in my own personal development. I would really want to thank this channel for everything it has given me. This channel has actually inspired me so much so that I have even started my own channel. I see my channel as my way of making the world a better place and to give back for everyone who have given me things and inspiration in life, I’m grateful for all the support I can get in growing my channel.

[markkravitz]

👋 Napoleon said whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. A dude by the name of @evenkingsfall (his insta) says the key is you have to THINK BIG to WIN BIG! Always keep that mindframe! Great videos always 🙏

[pseudaeles]

I hope u took a broom with you because its a mess