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Sam Yellowhorse Kesler Sam Yellowhorse Kesler is an Assistant Producer for Planet Money.
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Sam Yellowhorse Kesler

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Courtesy of Sam Yellowhorse Kesler
Sam Yellowhorse Kesler headshot
Courtesy of Sam Yellowhorse Kesler

Sam Yellowhorse Kesler

Assistant Producer, Planet Money

Sam Yellowhorse Kesler is an Assistant Producer for Planet Money. Previously, he's held positions at NPR's Ask Me Another & All Things Considered, and was the inaugural Code Switch Fellow. Before NPR, he interned with World Cafe from WXPN. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, and continues to reside in Philadelphia. If you want to reach him, try looking in your phone contacts to see if he's there! You'd be surprised how many people are in there that you forgot about.

Story Archive

Friday

The company that owns colors
BlueRed/REDA&CO/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Planet Money

The company that owns colors

In 2022, artist Stuart Semple opened up his laptop to find that all his designs had turned black overnight. All the colors, across files on Adobe products like Photoshop and Illustrator, were gone. Who had taken the colors away? The story of what happened begins with one company, Pantone.

The company that owns colors

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Thursday

Lily Gladstone's 'Fancy Dance' is a road trip worth taking

Lilly Gladstone in Fancy Dance. Apple TV+ hide caption

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Apple TV+

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Lily Gladstone's 'Fancy Dance' is a road trip worth taking

The new film Fancy Dance offers something all-too-rare on screen: contemporary Indigenous perspectives, front and center. Lily Gladstone plays a woman trying to keep it together under stressful circumstances. Her sister's gone missing, and she steps in to look after her young niece (Isabel Deroy-Olson). The pair take what turns out to be a rocky road trip and a unique bonding experience.

Lily Gladstone's 'Fancy Dance' is a road trip worth taking

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Friday

What's with all the tiny soda cans? And other grocery store mysteries, solved.
Matt Rourke/Associated Press

Planet Money

What's with all the tiny soda cans? And other grocery store mysteries, solved.

There's a behind the scenes industry that helps big brands decide questions like: How big should a bag of chips be? What's the right size for a bottle of shampoo? And yes, also: When should a company do a little shrinkflation?

What's with all the tiny soda cans? And other grocery store mysteries, solved.

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Wednesday

Lay-offs can leave you with big questions. An HR expert has answers.
Good Tape Studio

Planet Money

Lay-offs can leave you with big questions. An HR expert has answers.

By one estimate, 40 percent of American workers get laid off at least once in their careers. And when that happens, companies will often say, "It's not personal. It has nothing to do with you or your performance. We're just changing priorities, making a strategic shift."

Lay-offs can leave you with big questions. An HR expert has answers.

Listen · 27:42
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Friday

Zombie 2nd mortgages are coming to life, threatening thousands of Americans' homes

Karen McDonough sits inside her home in Quincy, Massachusetts. Vanessa Leroy for NPR hide caption

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Vanessa Leroy for NPR

Planet Money

Zombie 2nd mortgages are coming to life, threatening thousands of Americans' homes

Karen McDonough of Quincy, Mass., was enjoying her tea one morning in the dining room when she saw something odd outside her window: a group of people gathering on her lawn. A man with a clipboard told her that her home no longer belonged to her. It didn't matter that she'd been paying her mortgage for 17 years and was current on it. She was a nurse with a good job and had raised her kids there. But this was a foreclosure sale, and she was going to lose her house.

Zombie 2nd mortgages are coming to life, threatening thousands of Americans' homes

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Friday

FTX and the Serengeti of bankruptcy
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Planet Money

FTX and the Serengeti of bankruptcy

For the last year and a half, the story of FTX has focused largely on the crimes and punishment of Sam Bankman-Fried. But in the background, the actual customers he left behind have been caught in a financial feeding frenzy over the remains of the company.

FTX and the Serengeti of bankruptcy

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Friday

How much of your tax dollars are going to Israel and Ukraine

Israeli soldiers are seen near the Gaza Strip border in southern Israel, Monday, March 4, 2024. Ohad Zwigenberg/AP hide caption

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Ohad Zwigenberg/AP

Planet Money

How much of your tax dollars are going to Israel and Ukraine

There's been a lot of disagreement in Congress and in the country about whether the U.S. should continue to financially support the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

How much of your tax dollars are going to Israel and Ukraine

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Friday

What is Temu?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Planet Money

What is Temu?

It is rare that a new e-commerce company has such a meteoric rise as Temu. The company, which launched in the fall of 2022, has been flooding the American advertising market, buying much of the inventory of Facebook, Snapchat, and beyond. According to the market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, Temu is one of the most downloaded iPhone apps in the country, with around 50 million monthly active users.

What is Temu?

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Wednesday

The secret world behind school fundraisers and turning kids into salespeople

LEFT: Maria Lares is a longtime teacher and PTA Treasurer at Villacorta Elementary in La Puente, CA. RIGHT: Sophia Fabela (left) and Samantha Nicole Tan (right) are two students at Villacorta who consider themselves pretty good sales kids. Sarah Gonzalez/NPR hide caption

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Sarah Gonzalez/NPR

Planet Money

The secret world behind school fundraisers and turning kids into salespeople

Fundraising is a staple of the school experience in the U.S. There's an assembly showing off all the prizes kids can win by selling enough wrapping paper or chocolate to their neighbors. But it's pretty weird, right?

The secret world behind school fundraisers and turning kids into salespeople

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Friday

How the Navy came to protect cargo ships

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

Planet Money

How the Navy came to protect cargo ships

The Genco Picardy is not an American ship. It doesn't pay U.S. taxes, none of its crew are U.S. nationals, and when it sailed through the Red Sea last month, it wasn't carrying cargo to or from an American port.

How the Navy came to protect cargo ships

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Wednesday

Friday

Groundhog Day 2024: Trademark, bankruptcy, and the dollar that failed
Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

Planet Money

Groundhog Day 2024: Trademark, bankruptcy, and the dollar that failed

It's Groundhog Day, and the eyes of the nation have turned to a small town in western Pennsylvania. And, just like last year, all anyone can talk about is Punxsutawney Phil! It is impossible to find a news story that is not about one furry prognosticator.

Groundhog Day 2024: Trademark, bankruptcy, and the dollar that failed

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Thursday

With 'Echo' Marvel returns to street level

Alaqua Cox plays Maya Lopez in the Marvel series Echo. Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios hide caption

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Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

With 'Echo' Marvel returns to street level

The new Marvel series Echo spotlights Maya Lopez (played by Alaqua Cox), whom we first met as the stoic badass enforcer for the criminal Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio). She's now on the run, fleeing to her tiny Oklahoma hometown determined to nurse her wounds and make plans to take over Fisk's criminal empire. But her friends and family – including generations of her Choctaw ancestors – may have other plans. It's streaming on Disney + and Hulu.

With 'Echo' Marvel returns to street level

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Friday

The Maine Potato War of 1976

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

Planet Money

The Maine Potato War of 1976

When you think of a potato, one state probably comes to mind: Idaho. But for much of American history, Maine was home to the nation's largest potato crop.

The Maine Potato War of 1976

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Wednesday

Dollarizing Argentina
Tomas Cuesta/Getty Images

Planet Money

Dollarizing Argentina

Argentina has been on a decades-long search for economic stability, but it always seems to be out of reach. High inflation has been plaguing the country and just surpassed 160% a year.

Dollarizing Argentina

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Tuesday

Coyote vs. Warner Bros. Discovery
Ethan Miller/Ethan Miller

The Indicator from Planet Money

Coyote vs. Warner Bros. Discovery

The movie Coyote vs. Acme was set to release this summer featuring characters from the iconic Looney Tunes cartoons. The studio behind the film, Warner Bros. Pictures, had some other ideas. Instead of releasing the completed film, the studio canceled Coyote vs. Acme, with no intention of ever releasing it.

Coyote vs. Warner Bros. Discovery

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Thursday

In 'The Boy and the Heron,' Hayao Miyazaki looks back

Mahito and The Gray Heron in a scene from The Boy and the Heron. Studio Ghibli hide caption

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Studio Ghibli

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

In 'The Boy and the Heron,' Hayao Miyazaki looks back

The lovely new animated film The Boy and the Heron is the first film in 10 years from visionary Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro). The heron in question is part-heron, part-man who serves as a guide for a boy as they navigate a realm somewhere between life and death. The English dubbed version features the voices of Robert Pattinson, Mark Hamill, and Florence Pugh.

In 'The Boy and the Heron,' Hayao Miyazaki looks back

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Friday

Why do doctors still use pagers?
Ben Hasty/Getty Images

Planet Money

Why do doctors still use pagers?

Remember pagers? They were huge in the 80s — these little devices that could receive short messages. Sir Mix-A-Lot even had a song about them! But then cell phones came along, and pagers more or less became obsolete.

Why do doctors still use pagers?

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Tuesday

How political campaigns raise millions through unwitting donors
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The Indicator from Planet Money

How political campaigns raise millions through unwitting donors

A lot of people have experienced some version of this: You sign up for the free one-week trial of some subscription service, only later to be surprised when you get a bill for the deluxe, forever plan. Or you log into a website once, and now your inbox is a flood of promotional emails. All because of a little pre-checked box tucked away, unnoticed.

How political campaigns raise millions through unwitting donors

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Wednesday

The evidence on school vouchers that'll please nobody
Ross D. Franklin/AP

The Indicator from Planet Money

The evidence on school vouchers that'll please nobody

School vouchers, or school choice as it's known among advocates, is public funding for children to attend private schools. It's a controversial policy — some say it undermines the public school system, others say it gives parents the ability to choose the best school for their children.

The evidence on school vouchers that'll please nobody

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Friday

The alleged theft at the heart of ChatGPT
Franceso Carta Fotographo/Getty

Planet Money

The alleged theft at the heart of ChatGPT

When best-selling thriller writer Douglas Preston began playing around with OpenAI's new chatbot, ChatGPT, he was, at first, impressed. But then he realized how much in-depth knowledge GPT had of the books he had written. When prompted, it supplied detailed plot summaries and descriptions of even minor characters. He was convinced it could only pull that off if it had read his books.

The alleged theft at the heart of ChatGPT

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Wednesday

The rise of the four-day school week
Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images

Planet Money

The rise of the four-day school week

Right now, a lot of school districts across the country are making a pretty giant change to the way public education usually works. Facing teacher shortages and struggling to fill vacant spots, they are finding a new recruitment tool: the four-day school week.

The rise of the four-day school week

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Friday

'Killers of the Flower Moon' depicts an American tragedy, Scorsese-style

Lily Gladstone and Leonardo DiCaprio in Killers of the Flower Moon. Melinda Sue Gordon/Apple hide caption

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Melinda Sue Gordon/Apple

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'Killers of the Flower Moon' depicts an American tragedy, Scorsese-style

The compelling new film Killers of the Flower Moon is a sweeping three-and-half-hour-long crime saga, romance and Western. Directed by Martin Scorsese, it's told through the lens of a marriage in 1920s Oklahoma. It stars Lily Gladstone as an Osage woman and Leonardo DiCaprio as the low-level white thug who professes to love her. But he continues to do the bidding of his uncle (Robert De Niro), who's stealing from and murdering her people.

'Killers of the Flower Moon' depicts an American tragedy, Scorsese-style

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