The 20 Best Economics Podcasts (2026)

Stephen Dubner, co-author of the Freakonomics books, has spent 962 episodes exploring the hidden side of everything, and the results are genuinely addictive. The basic idea is to take an economist's lens and point it at things nobody expects: why do marathon cheaters exist, what happens when you flip a coin to make major life decisions, and do pop stars really have blood on their hands for their carbon footprints. Episodes run 45 minutes to an hour and feature interviews with economists, scientists, and regular people caught up in surprising situations. The show sits at 4.5 stars from over 30,000 ratings, which is impressive given how long it has been running. Dubner has a conversational style that makes data feel like storytelling rather than a lecture. For students who think economics is just supply-and-demand charts, this podcast will change that perception fast. Recent episodes have tackled driverless cars, online scammers, and teaching Shakespeare in 2026, all topics that connect directly to what high schoolers are studying or will encounter soon. The documentary-style production uses sound design and music effectively without overdoing it. Dubner also knows when to let his guests talk, which keeps episodes from becoming one-note. If you are preparing for AP Economics, interested in behavioral science, or just curious about why people do strange things with their money, this show has years of material waiting for you.

Planet Money has been around long enough to have shaped how a generation thinks about economics, and it still does the thing that made it work in the first place: finds a small, weird story and uses it to explain something huge. An episode might start with a guy in Ohio who bought a container of mystery goods at auction and end up as a lesson on global shipping economics. Another might follow a single lawsuit through three appellate courts to explain why your credit card fees look the way they do. The hosts rotate, which keeps the tone fresh, and the production is tight without feeling slick. What I like is that they aren't afraid to be wrong out loud. You'll hear them update earlier conclusions when new information comes in, which is rare in podcasting and especially rare in business journalism. Episodes hover around 25 minutes, so you can fit one into a commute without rushing. It isn't a personal finance show and it won't tell you where to park your Roth IRA. It will, however, make you a sharper thinker about money, markets, and the strange incentives that shape both. Start with any episode from the last year. They all stand alone.

The Indicator is Planet Money's daily spinoff, and it's built for people who want their economics fast. Hosted by Wailin Wong, Darian Woods, and Adrian Ma, each episode runs about ten minutes and tackles a single economic idea, trend, or data point from the day's news. The show launched in 2017 and has racked up over 670 episodes since then, airing every weekday without fail. Recent topics have ranged from gold and silver price swings to how grocery shoppers adapt when food costs keep climbing, plus a briefing on what Kevin Warsh might face as the next Federal Reserve chair. The three hosts rotate and bring distinct strengths to the mic. Wong has a background in business journalism and zeroes in on consumer stories. Woods, originally from New Zealand, gravitates toward international trade and labor data. Ma covers tech and policy angles with a reporter's instinct for the telling detail. Their Friday "Indicators of the Week" segment has become a fan favorite, rounding up the most interesting economic numbers from the past five days. What makes the show work is its discipline. Ten minutes means no padding, no meandering, no filler segments. The hosts pick one thread, pull it tight, and let you go. Production quality is top-notch -- you'd expect nothing less from NPR's Planet Money team. It pairs well with the flagship Planet Money show if you want longer storytelling, but The Indicator stands perfectly well on its own as a sharp, reliable daily economics briefing.

Russ Roberts has been hosting EconTalk every Monday since 2006, building an archive of over 1,000 long-form conversations that together form one of the most comprehensive economics education resources available in audio. Roberts, who splits his time between Shalem College in Jerusalem and Stanford's Hoover Institution, interviews authors, economists, psychologists, historians, philosophers, and doctors. The guest list is genuinely eclectic -- recent episodes have featured psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer critiquing Kahneman and Tversky's research on intuition, economist William Easterly debating whether economic progress justifies coercion, and poet Anna Gat exploring technology's effect on conversation. Each episode runs about an hour and follows a conversational rhythm rather than a rigid interview format. Roberts asks probing follow-up questions and is not afraid to push back on his guests or acknowledge when he is uncertain about something. That intellectual honesty is a big part of why the show has such a loyal following. The topics extend well beyond traditional economics into healthcare systems, consciousness, the 2008 financial crisis, data interpretation, and the philosophy of science. Roberts has a libertarian-leaning perspective, but he regularly hosts guests who disagree with him and gives their arguments a fair hearing. EconTalk rewards patient listeners who enjoy watching ideas get tested in real time through genuine dialogue rather than rehearsed talking points.

Bloomberg journalists Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway have been co-hosting Odd Lots since 2015, and their formula is simple: find the most interesting, often overlooked story in finance or economics, then bring on the person who knows it best. New episodes drop every Monday and Thursday, and the topics range widely — semiconductor supply chains, Federal Reserve plumbing, rare earth metal markets, Venezuelan hyperinflation, prediction market regulation, and everything in between.

What makes Odd Lots different from a standard market commentary show is the hosts' genuine curiosity about how systems work. Joe and Tracy are not trying to give you stock picks or trading signals. They want to understand why shipping rates just spiked, how the repo market nearly broke in 2019, or what happens to global trade when one country hoards a critical mineral. The guests are typically researchers, economists, traders, or policymakers who can explain the mechanics in detail — people like Adam Posen from the Peterson Institute or Ricardo Hausmann from Harvard's Kennedy School.

With over 1,150 episodes and a 4.5-star rating from nearly 1,800 reviews, the show has built one of the largest audiences in financial podcasting. Episodes usually run 40 to 55 minutes, which is enough time to thoroughly explore a topic without dragging. The Bloomberg production quality is consistently high, and both hosts have a knack for asking the follow-up question you were thinking. If you want to understand the plumbing behind markets rather than just the price action on top, Odd Lots delivers that week after week.

Kai Ryssdal has anchored Marketplace since 2005, and his direct, plain-spoken delivery has made the show a daily habit for millions of listeners. Produced by American Public Media, the podcast airs every weekday and covers the day's business and economic news in about 30 minutes. Ryssdal and his team of reporters stationed around the world talk to CEOs, policymakers, small business owners, and regular people navigating the economy. The show's strength is context -- it goes beyond stock tickers and GDP numbers to explain what economic shifts actually mean for people's daily lives. No economics degree required. Ryssdal has an Emmy for investigative journalism from a PBS FRONTLINE documentary on money in politics, and that reporting instinct shows in how the show approaches stories. Rather than just reading data points, Marketplace finds the people affected by policy changes, trade disputes, and market swings and lets them explain the impact in their own words. The production has a distinctive rhythm: the opening market numbers, followed by reported segments, brief interviews, and Ryssdal's commentary tying it all together. After two decades, the format still feels fresh because the team consistently finds new angles on recurring economic themes. Marketplace is the kind of show you can listen to every single day without feeling like you are hearing the same thing twice. For a reliable daily briefing on the economy that respects your intelligence without demanding specialized knowledge, it remains one of the best options in public radio.

Shankar Vedantam has a gift for making behavioral science feel like storytelling. Hidden Brain, which grew out of his work at NPR, takes the invisible forces shaping your decisions and lays them bare in episodes that run about an hour. Vedantam interviews researchers and pairs their findings with real-life narratives, so you get both the data and the human moment that makes it stick. One week he might explore why you procrastinate on the things you care about most, and the next he is unpacking the psychology behind how strangers become friends. With 668 episodes, a 4.6-star rating from over 41,000 reviews, and a weekly release schedule that has barely wavered, this is one of the most consistent psychology shows running. The production quality is polished but not sterile. Vedantam has this calm, curious voice that makes complex research feel conversational rather than academic. If you have ever caught yourself doing something irrational and thought "why did I just do that," this show will probably give you the answer, backed by peer-reviewed studies. It is especially good for people who want to understand their own cognitive blind spots without sitting through a textbook.

David Beckworth, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, has been hosting Macro Musings since 2016 and recently passed the 500-episode milestone. The show focuses squarely on macroeconomics -- monetary policy, central banking, fiscal policy, and the forces that shape national and global economies. Beckworth is a vocal advocate for nominal GDP targeting as a monetary policy framework, and that perspective gives the show a clear analytical lens without making it one-note. Each week, he brings on academic economists, policy experts, and financial market practitioners for hour-long conversations that go substantially deeper than what you will find on most economics podcasts. Recent episodes have covered Federal Reserve strategy, cryptocurrency regulation, Treasury market mechanics, and retrospectives on major macro events of the year. Beckworth does his homework -- he reads his guests' papers before the interview and asks specific, informed questions that push conversations past surface-level talking points. The show is produced by the Mercatus Center with assistance from producer Sam Alburger, and the two occasionally team up for year-end retrospective episodes reviewing the biggest macro stories. Macro Musings is not trying to be accessible to everyone; it assumes some baseline familiarity with economic concepts and rewards listeners who want to go deep on how monetary and fiscal systems actually function. If you follow central bank policy or care about how interest rates, inflation, and government spending interact, this is one of the most substantive shows in the space.

Luigi Zingales, a University of Chicago Booth School economist, and Bethany McLean, author and journalist known for her early reporting on the Enron scandal, co-host this podcast from the Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State. The premise is right there in the name: capitalism is not working the way it should, and the show investigates where and why it breaks down. Produced in collaboration with the Chicago Booth Review, episodes examine specific failures and distortions in capitalist systems -- recent topics have included the AI investment bubble, Japan's economic stagnation, private equity's growing influence, the debate over privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and rising wealth inequality. Zingales brings academic rigor and a European outsider's perspective on American markets, while McLean contributes the investigative journalist's instinct for following money and power. Their dynamic works because they approach the same questions from different angles and are not afraid to disagree with each other on air. Episodes typically run 30 to 45 minutes and feature guest experts alongside the hosts' own analysis. The show does not fit neatly into left or right political categories -- it is critical of corporate concentration and regulatory capture regardless of which party enables them. For listeners interested in the structural problems within modern capitalism and the policy debates around fixing them, Capitalisn't offers informed, nuanced discussion rooted in serious economic research.

Mark Zandi, Moody's Analytics chief economist, anchors this podcast alongside colleagues Marisa DiNatale and Cristian deRitis. The three of them discuss key economic indicators, forecasts, and the risks facing the global economy with the kind of specificity you would expect from one of the world's leading economic research firms. Each episode typically centers on fresh data -- a jobs report, inflation numbers, consumer spending figures -- and the team walks through what the numbers mean, how they fit into the broader economic picture, and what they signal about the months ahead. The show's signature feature is the Risk Matrix, a visual framework the team uses to map out major economic threats and assign probabilities to different scenarios. Recent episodes have covered tariff impacts, Federal Reserve leadership transitions, labor market resilience, and the team's annual predictions for the year ahead, complete with base case, upside, and downside probability estimates. Zandi has been a go-to economist for media and policymakers for years, and his ability to translate complex data into clear language carries the show. DeRitis and DiNatale add depth with their own areas of expertise in credit markets and regional economics. Episodes run about 30 to 40 minutes and come out weekly. The tone is professional but not stiff -- there is genuine back-and-forth among the hosts. Listeners can reach the team at insideeconomics@moodys.com with questions. For anyone who wants a regular, data-grounded read on where the economy stands and where it is heading, this is a reliable source.

Nick Hanauer, a venture capitalist and self-described "class traitor," co-hosts this weekly show with David Goldstein. Produced by Civic Ventures, the podcast makes a sustained argument that trickle-down economics has failed and that a middle-out approach -- investing in workers, raising wages, and strengthening the middle class -- is how economies actually grow. Hanauer's background gives the show an unusual vantage point: he is a wealthy entrepreneur who became an early investor in Amazon, yet he has spent years publicly arguing that extreme inequality threatens both democracy and economic stability. Each episode brings on economists, policy researchers, labor organizers, and political figures to examine how economic policy affects working people in concrete terms. The show covers minimum wage debates, corporate consolidation, tax policy, housing affordability, and labor rights with a clear progressive perspective. That point of view is stated upfront rather than disguised as neutrality, which makes the arguments easier to evaluate on their merits. Goldstein, a longtime political strategist and writer, complements Hanauer by grounding policy discussions in political context and historical precedent. Episodes typically run 30 to 45 minutes and release weekly. The production is straightforward -- mostly interview-based with some commentary segments. Pitchfork Economics is not trying to present both sides of every argument; it has a thesis about how the economy should work and builds its case episode by episode. Listeners who share that perspective will find it energizing, and those who disagree will at least encounter well-sourced arguments to push back against.

Chad P. Bown of the Peterson Institute for International Economics hosts Trade Talks, a podcast focused specifically on the economics of international trade and trade policy. The show has become essential listening during an era of tariff wars, supply chain disruptions, and shifting global alliances. Bown brings on top trade economists, legal scholars, and policy experts to break down what is actually happening when governments impose tariffs, negotiate trade agreements, or rewrite the rules of commerce. In 2025, the show produced emergency episodes covering sweeping tariff announcements, featured Nobel laureate Paul Krugman discussing industrial policy under the current administration, and examined the de minimis rule that affects small packages from China. Each episode runs about 30 to 45 minutes and typically centers on a single trade issue or recent policy development. Bown is a meticulous researcher -- he co-created a widely cited tariff tracking database -- and his preparation shows in the precision of his questions. The show manages to make trade policy, which can be dry and technical, genuinely engaging by connecting abstract policy decisions to real-world consequences for businesses, workers, and consumers. The guest roster draws heavily from academic economists and former trade officials, giving listeners access to the people who actually study and shape trade policy. Trade Talks fills a specific niche that no other economics podcast quite covers. If you want to understand tariffs, trade wars, and the rules governing global commerce, this is the most focused and authoritative show available.

The International Monetary Fund produces this podcast series featuring conversations with IMF economists, visiting scholars, and global policy leaders about the most pressing economic and financial issues of the day. Produced by award-winning journalist Bruce Edwards, the show draws on the IMF's unique position as an organization representing 191 member countries to offer a genuinely global perspective on economics. Recent episodes have featured discussions on shifting trade alliances with economist Gordon Hanson, AI's impact on economic growth with Carl Benedikt Frey, rethinking multilateralism with Danny Quah, and a candid career reflection from IMF First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath. The show also covers stablecoins and digital finance, sovereign debt in developing nations, and climate economics. Each episode typically runs 20 to 30 minutes and features a single in-depth interview. The format is straightforward -- an interviewer and an expert, no elaborate production or narrative structure -- which puts the focus squarely on the ideas being discussed. The guest roster is exceptional because the IMF can attract economists and policymakers who rarely appear on other podcasts. The global scope is what really distinguishes this show from domestically focused economics podcasts; episodes regularly address economic conditions in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East alongside coverage of major Western economies. For listeners who want to understand the global economic system from the perspective of the institution that helps manage it, IMF Podcasts offers direct access to the people doing that work.

Pete and Gav, two self-described friendly neighbourhood economists, host this show that profiles the world's most influential economic thinkers through a structured format of ten questions per episode. Each installment takes a single economist -- from Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes to more contemporary figures like Jayati Ghosh and Paul Samuelson -- and explores their life, historical context, and lasting contributions to economic thought. The ten-question structure gives each episode a clear rhythm: the hosts cover the economist's background, the problems they were trying to solve, the ideas they developed, and how those ideas hold up today. What keeps the show from feeling like a textbook recitation is the genuine enthusiasm Pete and Gav bring to the material. They include quizzes, write poems about their subjects, and occasionally veer into tangents that reveal just how much fun they have making the show. The production is supported by Nic on the technical side, and the overall feel is more like sitting in on a lively conversation between two knowledgeable friends than attending a lecture. Episodes also cover broader economic concepts like supply-side economics and international trade theory, using the biographical format as an entry point into larger ideas. The show runs roughly 30 to 40 minutes per episode and is particularly well-suited for students, self-learners, or anyone who wants to understand economics through the stories of the people who shaped the field. Economics In Ten makes the history of economic thought genuinely entertaining without sacrificing substance.

Tyler Cowen is one of those rare economists who reads everything, listens to everything, and somehow remembers all of it. His interview show, produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, brings on guests from wildly different fields -- novelists, scientists, tech founders, historians, chefs -- and finds the economics hiding underneath. Cowen does not lob softballs. He is famous for his rapid-fire questioning style that catches guests off guard, pushing past rehearsed talking points into genuinely interesting territory. One episode you will hear him grilling a Nobel laureate about monetary policy, the next he is asking a food critic about supply chains in regional Mexican cuisine. With over 280 episodes and a 4.8-star rating from nearly 2,500 reviews, the show has built a loyal audience that appreciates intellectual range without pretension. Episodes run about an hour and drop biweekly, each one accompanied by a full transcript on the Mercatus website. Cowen runs Marginal Revolution, one of the most-read economics blogs on the internet for two decades, and the podcast feels like an extension of that same restless curiosity. If you want conversations that treat economics as a lens for understanding everything rather than a narrow technical discipline, this is the show. Fair warning: you will end up with a very long reading list.

Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers get together each week to hash out the biggest stories in business and finance, and the result feels less like a news recap and more like eavesdropping on three very smart people arguing at a dinner party. Each main episode runs about 45 minutes and usually tackles three or four topics -- a major corporate deal, a policy shift, something weird happening in markets, maybe a cultural angle on money. The hosts bring genuinely different perspectives. Salmon has the financial journalist's instinct for spotting what numbers actually mean. Peck focuses on labor and how economic forces hit real people. Spiers adds a sharp media and tech lens. They disagree often enough to keep things interesting but never in a performative, cable-news way. The show publishes twice a week, with the main roundtable episode plus a shorter bonus segment for Slate Plus subscribers. There's also an occasional "Money on Film" series where they analyze how movies depict wealth and finance, which is more fun than it sounds. What sets Slate Money apart from straighter financial podcasts is the willingness to connect money stories to broader culture. An episode about streaming service economics might pivot into a discussion about how Hollywood accounting actually works. A segment on housing costs might touch on remote work migration patterns. The production is clean and conversational -- no sound effects, no dramatic music stings, just three people talking with enough expertise to make complex financial topics genuinely accessible. If you want to understand what's happening in the economy without needing a Bloomberg terminal, this is one of the best weekly listens out there.

VoxTalks Economics comes from CEPR (the Centre for Economic Policy Research), which makes it one of the few podcasts where you are hearing directly from the researchers doing the work, not journalists summarizing it. Host Tim Phillips has a real talent for keeping academic conversations accessible without dumbing them down. Episodes typically run 15 to 30 minutes -- compact enough to fit into a commute but substantial enough to actually learn something. The show has built up a catalog of over 440 episodes covering everything from trade policy and labor markets to financial regulation and development economics. Recent episodes have tackled sanctions policy, the Ukrainian wartime economy, cryptocurrency regulation, and the economic fallout of foreign aid cuts. What sets VoxTalks apart from other economics podcasts is its direct pipeline to working papers and fresh research. Guests are not promoting books or rehashing old ideas -- they are presenting findings that sometimes have not even been published yet. The European perspective is another distinguishing feature. Most popular economics podcasts default to a US-centric view, but VoxTalks regularly covers ECB policy, EU trade dynamics, and emerging market issues with genuine depth. Phillips keeps things moving and knows when to push back on jargon. At 4.6 stars, the show has a small but devoted following that skews toward people who actually work in economics or policy. It is not flashy, but the signal-to-noise ratio is exceptionally high.

The University of Chicago has shaped modern economics more than probably any other institution, and The Pie gives you a direct line into what their faculty are thinking right now. Produced by the Becker Friedman Institute, the show is hosted by Tess Vigeland, who brings a public radio background that keeps episodes grounded and listenable even when the subject matter gets technical. The central metaphor -- the economic pie, how it grows, how it shrinks, who gets the biggest slices -- gives the show a clear through line across its 119 episodes. Recent topics have included the legacy of Adam Smith 250 years on, how China shifted toward centralized economic policymaking, the real costs of tariffs, and banking vulnerabilities that most people are not paying attention to. Episodes run 20 to 50 minutes, with occasional longer Extra Slice conversations that go deeper with prominent economists. The academic rigor is real here -- these are researchers presenting their own findings, not commentators riffing on headlines. But Vigeland does the hard work of translating that rigor into plain language, asking the follow-up questions a non-specialist would want answered. The show launched during the pandemic in 2020 and has been a biweekly fixture since. It is particularly strong on topics where Chicago-school thinking bumps up against real-world policy outcomes. If you appreciate economics grounded in serious research but presented without academic stuffiness, The Pie earns its spot.

New Books in Economics is exactly what it sounds like, and that simplicity is its greatest strength. Each episode pairs an author with an expert interviewer to discuss a recently published economics book in depth. Founded by Marshall Poe as part of the larger New Books Network -- which spans over 150 channels and 28,000 episodes across every academic discipline -- this economics channel has built up a massive back catalog of over 1,500 episodes since 2011. The rotating interviewer format means you get different perspectives and questioning styles rather than a single host with recurring blind spots. One week you might hear about how luck shapes hiring outcomes and pay inequality, the next about World Bank and IMF policy during active military conflicts, then a deep examination of corporate power in global governance. Episodes typically run 30 to 90 minutes, giving authors enough room to lay out their arguments properly rather than compressing everything into a quick hit. The show skews academic -- guests are usually professors or think tank researchers, and the conversation assumes you are genuinely interested in methodology and evidence, not just conclusions. That is not for everyone, and the 4.0-star rating suggests the long-form format can feel slow if you are used to tighter productions. But for listeners who want to stay current with economic scholarship without reading every new release themselves, there is nothing else quite like it. Think of it as an audio seminar series you can take at your own pace.