TED Radio Hour

Today on the show: Stories about the secrets of jewelry stores, the problem with World's Fairs and a law signed by Abraham Lincoln that's being used today to go after the largest banks in the world. For more: n.pr/1prjqYP 

Charities raised $1.4 billion to help rebuild Haiti after the earthquake. After the tsunami in Asia in 2004, organizations raised $1.6 billion. But when something like Ebola happens, so far, people look the other way. On today's show: What does it take to get people to notice something half a world away, and what does it take to get people to pull out their wallets and donate money.

Note: Today's show is a rerun. It originally ran in August 2013.   More than half of all Japanese women quit their jobs after giving birth to their first child. That's more than double the rate in the U.S., and it's a problem for Japan's economy.   If more women returned to the workforce, it would go a huge way toward boosting growth in the country and solving a big demographic problem — not enough working people to support the nation's retirees...

On today's show, we read our homeowners insurance policy. The details are amazing. Lava! Vermin! Falling objects! And, hiding in all the fine print, the story of how insurance works — and what makes it break.

Alex Blumberg is starting a business, a podcasting business. And he's recording himself as he starts the company — he's making a podcast about starting his podcasting company. Meta, right?   But starting a business can be lonely. Alex wants a partner to share in the stress and the risk, and potential investors say they'd prefer to bet on a team, too. Today on the show, Alex searches for a business partner. There have been Hewlett and Packard, Procter and Gamble, and Ben and Jerry...

An amazing amount of stuff on the internet is free — Facebook, Twitter and Gmail. Of course, it's not exactly free. We pay, with our data. And right now, we're kind of stuck trading our data, for all this free software. Today on the show: two people who want to give you other options. These two people are trying to create services online that collect next to nothing — virtually no information, no data. A couple years ago, these people might have been dismissed as kooks...

For years now, the economy has been kind of stuck. The unemployment rate is getting better, but slowly. Household incomes have actually been falling. It's easy to feel stuck. Today on the show, stories of two people trying to get unstuck.

Zoo animals are different than most possessions, because zoos follow a fundamental principle: You can't sell or buy the animals. It's unethical and illegal to put a price tag on an elephant's head. Today on the show: What do you do in a world where you can't use money? For more: n.pr/1wbZb5S

A massive Chinese company, Alibaba, is about to have what could be the biggest public offering on planet earth. You can think of Alibaba like Amazon or Ebay, except you can buy way more — you can get a used 747 airplane, or an oil tanker, or 500 million tiny screws. Today on the show, the company that made it possible for anyone anywhere to build almost anything they want. What that company means for China, for the rest of us and for some chickens in California.  For more: http://n.pr/1oEZY9J  

Some people write a squiggle. Others just write an initial. One person draws a dude surfing. Today on the show: the signature. It's supposed to say, "This is me." But where did the idea come from? And why are we still using it? We consult a rabbi, a lawyer and a credit card executive.