Zoe Chace
Zoe Chace explains the mysteries of the global economy for NPR's Planet Money. As a reporter for the team, Chace knows how to find compelling stories in unlikely places, including a lollipop factory in Ohio struggling to stay open, a pasta plant in Italy where everyone calls in sick, and a recording studio in New York mixing Rihanna's next hit.
In 2008, Chace came to NPR to work as an intern on Weekend Edition Saturday. As a production assistant on NPR's Arts Desk, she developed a beat covering popular music and co-created Pop Off, a regular feature about hit songs for Morning Edition. Chace shocked the music industry when she convinced the famously reclusive Lauryn Hill to sit down for an interview.
Chace got her economic training on the job. She reported for NPR's Business Desk, then began to contribute to Planet Money in 2011. Since then Chace has also pitched in to cover breaking news for the network. She reported live from New York during Hurricane Sandy and from Colorado during the 2012 Presidential election.
There is much speculation on the Internet about where Chace picked up her particular accent. She explains that it's a proprietary blend: a New England family, a Manhattan childhood, college at Oberlin in Ohio, and a first job as a teacher in a Philadelphia high school.
The radio training comes from the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, and collaboration with NPR's best editors, producers and reporters.
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In most industries, competitors getting together and conspiring to control supply of a product is illegal. But in the raisin world, the law actually says competitors have to work together. It's going against your competitors that can get you in trouble.
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U.S. citizens who want to buy stuff from North Korea have to send a letter to the government asking for special permission. We got copies of those letters. -
The Beige Book — a big, official report — is mostly a bunch of stories gathered by talking to businesses around the country. -
The price of a ride in a New York City pedicab is notoriously unpredictable. "The whole business is based on hustling," one driver says. That's about to change. -
"I understand that I'll probably end up paying a lot," one customer says. "But right now, I need the tires."
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The popular comedian Marc Maron, who works out of his garage in California, faces off with a patent holder who claims to have invented podcasting.
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It goes back to a single page in a report written decades ago by U.S. consultants, and funded by the U.S. State Department. -
It might be up to the government to decide whether foreign workers are the most qualified applicants for for jobs at private companies.
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Much of the focus on the immigration overhaul bill has been on what to do about the millions of people working illegally in the U.S. But things might change for a smaller subset of immigrant workers. The bill proposes doubling the number of skilled worker visas available to companies that want to hire foreign workers.
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Candy makers and sugar farmers have been fighting for years in Congress. The sugar farmers are winning.
