At HerMoney, we're always trying to make money a little less intimidating; breaking down the big, complicated stuff into things you can actually use in your real life. And when it comes to understanding the economy, nobody does that better than today's guest. Alex Mayyasi is a contributor to Planet Money, the NPR podcast that has spent seventeen years making economics genuinely entertaining, and he and the team have just written a book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life. Alex also stuck around for a Mailbag, answering listener questions about tariffs, tax-loss harvesting, and why everything you buy seems to be getting more expensive but less high quality at the same time. In this episode, you'll learn: Why the economy feels so broken right now, even when GDP is growing, inflation is down, and wages are solid Baumol's Cost Disease: the simple but powerful concept that explains why childcare, healthcare, and college keep getting more expensive What the history of the ATM tells us about AI and whether it's really going to take your job Why it's nearly impossible to beat the market, and what a cute animal experiment reveals about how stocks actually work The one economic principle Alex has found most useful in his own life, and why it applies to way more than just your money Resources mentioned in this episode: Planet Money’s new book, Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life Subscribe to the free twice-weekly HerMoney newsletter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices