TED Radio Hour

Milk is often in the very back corner of the grocery store, as far as humanly possible from the entrance. It's a strange location for milk, because it's one the most popular items. A common explanation for this location is that by forcing customers to walk through the whole store, they will pass more products and end up purchasing more...

We all know what a sandwich is. It's something delicious, slapped between two slices of bread. But when it comes to taxes, nothing is simple. Today on the show, what regulating sandwiches and all other takeout food tells us about taxation. And how something as simple as the sandwich sales tax ends up spawning a complicated list of definitions, interlocking exemptions and rules which somehow transform the burrito into a sandwich in the eyes of the law.

As World War 2 was ending, world leaders realized they had a problem. Countries no longer knew how to trade with each other. Their economies were devastated. So representatives from 44 nations gathered in the small town of Bretton Woods, New Hampshire to come up with the solution. It came down to two different plans put forward by two very different men. One was the most famous economist in the world. A British aristocrat. The other was an American that no one remembers...

The price of tickets for lots of things — baseball games, many Broadway musicals, plane trips — rises and falls based on how much demand there is. But when you go to the movies, a ticket to the empty theater playing a bomb is exactly the same price as a ticket to the sold-out blockbuster. On today's the show, we try to find out why.

Tesla, the electric car company, recently decided to, basically, give up its patents. Anybody who wants to is now free to steal the company's ideas. Elon Musk, the company's CEO said he isn't really into patents — and, he said, he thinks giving them up is best for everybody. On today's show, we talk to two guys who say we should get rid of patents altogether. If someone has an idea, anyone else is free to steal it.

Note: Today's show is a rerun. It originally ran on July 2013. On today's show, we talk to commodities traders to answer one of the most important questions in finance: What actually happens at the end of Trading Places? We know something crazy happens on the trading floor. We know that Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd get rich and the Duke brothers lose everything...

In most workplaces, salaries are secret. But what if they weren't? What if everybody knew what everyone else made? On today's show, we visit a company in New York that practices pay transparency — and we hear how it changes the dynamic between employees and the boss.

The dream of socialist North Korea was that the government would control every part of the economy. No need for private businesses or stores - the state would give you everything. People were not supposed to sell to each other. Ever. On today's show: how markets sprung up anyway.

Note: Today's show is a rerun. It originally ran on May 11th, 2012. You can find more recent data on college costs here. On today's show, we visit beautiful Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. Price of one year at Lafayette: $55,688. Up 63 percent from the price a decade ago. At least, that's the sticker price — the price you get if you add up tuition, room and board, and all the fees listed on the school's website...

Planet Money's Steve Henn wanted to know how much someone could learn about him by just sitting back and watching his internet traffic flow by. So he invited a couple computer guys to bug his internet connection for a week. On today's show: What they discovered, and what that tells us about security, smartphones and free WiFi.