Nick Fountain Nick Fountain is a reporter and co-host of Planet Money.
Nick Fountain, photographed for NPR, 2 August 2022, in New York, NY. Photo by Mamadi Doumbouya for NPR.
Stories By

Nick Fountain

Mamadi Doumbouya/NPR
Nick Fountain, photographed for NPR, 2 August 2022, in New York, NY. Photo by Mamadi Doumbouya for NPR.
Mamadi Doumbouya/NPR

Nick Fountain

Host and Reporter

Nick Fountain is a reporter and co-host of Planet Money, where he covers the cracks in our economy that explain how the world works.

At Planet Money, he's driven the world's longest yard sale, bought and sold a truckload of Christmas trees, uncovered a global postal conspiracy, run the stairs of Fenway Park with hot dog vendors, figured out exactly why your printer is the worst and convinced the inventor of self-checkout machines to admit he hates his invention, among many other stories.

Fountain started as a producer on the show in 2015. Before that, he worked as a producer and director of NPR's flagship show Morning Edition.

He cut his teeth at KUSP, a community radio station in Santa Cruz, California, where he went to college. Then he worked at KQED in San Francisco, and WBUR in Boston. He lives in dreamy Ventura, California, with his wife, daughter, and dog.

Story Archive

Friday

Tuesday

'Planet Money': How the FBI's fake cell phone company put criminals into jail cells

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Friday

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Friday

The hack that almost broke the internet

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Friday

The photo that helped the amateur art detectives locate the stolen Bhairav masks on display in the museums. Anil Chandra Shrestha hide caption

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Anil Chandra Shrestha

Wednesday

Friday

COVINGTON, KY - APRIL 8: Kathleen Malone works on tax returns at the Cincinnati Internal Revenue Service Center April 8, 2005 in Covington, Kentucky. The tax filing deadline is a week away. Mike Simons/Getty hide caption

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Mike Simons/Getty

TikTok is filled with tax advice. Is any of it worth listening to?

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Thursday

Import tariff loophole helps online shopping site Temu offer low prices

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Friday

Wednesday

The Norwegian supermarket chain REMA 1000 uses dynamic pricing for all the items in its stores, including Kvikk Lunsj chocolate bars and Solo soda. Jessica Robinson/NPR hide caption

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Jessica Robinson/NPR

Friday

The cargo ship Genco Picardy was hit by a low-grade missile in the Gulf of Aden in January. In recent months, the Houthis, a tribal militant group from Yemen, have launched attacks on ships in response, they say, to Israel's war in Gaza. Indian Navy/AP hide caption

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Indian Navy/AP

How the Navy came to protect cargo ships

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Wednesday

Friday

Fraudsters have used Walmart gift cards to defraud consumers out of more than a billion dollars. Richard Drew/AP hide caption

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Richard Drew/AP

Friday

Children gathering potatoes on a large farm, vicinity of Caribou, Aroostook County, Me. Jack Delano/Library of Congress hide caption

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Jack Delano/Library of Congress

The Maine Potato War of 1976

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Friday

Tuesday

Resellers pick through stores' bargain bins in search of items to flip for profit

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Friday

Friday

Why do doctors still use pagers?

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Wednesday

A worker prepares to weld a steel structure at a construction site in Beijing on May 8, 2021. Greg Baker/AFP hide caption

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Greg Baker/AFP

Friday

The UAW strike is not the first time a union weaponized the element of surprise

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Friday

SAN LORENZO, CA - JANUARY 13: A customer holds a handful of Powerball tickets at Kavanagh Liquors. Dozens of people lined up outside of Kavanagh Liquors in hopes of winning the estimated record-breaking $1.5 billion dollar jackpot. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption

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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Wednesday

Several United Airlines flight attendants wearing "CHAOS" T-shirts at a meeting to decide plans for a potential strike in 2001. CHAOS—an acronym for "Create Havoc Around Our System"—is a strike strategy first used in 1993 during a labor dispute between Alaska Airlines and their flight attendants' union. The strategy can keep a company guessing about when, where or even how a strike might happen. Tim Boyle/Newsmakers/Getty Images hide caption

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Tim Boyle/Newsmakers/Getty Images

The flight attendants of CHAOS

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Friday

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