Nick Fountain
Nick Fountain produces and reports for Planet Money. Since he joined the team in 2015, he's reported stories on pears, black pepper, ice cream, chicken, and hot dogs (twice). Come to think of it, he reports on food a whole lot. But he's also driven the world's longest yard sale, uncovered the secretive group that controls international mail, and told the story of a crazy patent scheme that involved an acting Attorney General.
Before this job, he worked at NPR's Morning Edition as a producer and director. The hours were terrible, but the work was fun: He produced interviews with world leaders, witnesses to history, musicians, authors, and directors. He also chose the music that went between stories and directed the live show. He's reported from Haiti, Mexico, and the U.K. Before NPR, he worked at WBUR Boston, KQED San Francisco, KUSP Santa Cruz, a farmers market, a fancy cabinet shop, and a baseball stadium. He's the reigning world champion of Belt Sander Racing. He's glad you asked.
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When casino owners started tracking a Russian gang that was beating slot machines around the world, the owners learned a lot about their own machines and the nature of random numbers.
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As long as there have been casinos, people have tried to cheat them. The latest attempt was by a group of hackers who tried to take down slot machines using math, iPhones, and a whole lot of swiping. -
Attorney Judd Burstein says the securities law probe centers on the masking of settlement payments to victims as salary and compensation to avoid disclosure of the payments and the harassment. -
Those self-checkout machines in the supermarkets and other stores have remained pretty much unchanged since the 1990s. They still don't work very well. Why can't they get better? We take a shopping trip with the inventor who describes the issue as a cognitive problem and a shoplifting problem.
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Ice cream thefts are up way up in New York City. Why would thieves steal something that depreciates so rapidly?
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Ballpark Vendors Need Hustle And A Clear StrategySelling hot dogs at a baseball game isn't just about having legs that can run stairs fast, and a loud yell. There's a lot of strategy involved.
