Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi
Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi is a host and reporter for Planet Money, telling stories that creatively explore and explain the workings of the global economy. He's a sucker for a good supply chain mystery — from toilet paper to foster puppies to specialty pastas. He's drawn to tales of unintended consequences, like the time a well-intentioned chemistry professor unwittingly helped unleash a global market for synthetic drugs, or what happened when the U.S. Patent Office started granting patents on human genes. And he's always on the lookout for economic principles at work in unexpected places, like the tactics comedians use to protect their intellectual property (a.k.a. jokes).
He's reported from Iceland on the dramatic crash of the country's budget airline, from Denmark on the global trade for human sperm, and from Germany on the country's (uncannily familiar) obsession with returning the things they buy online. He also produced Planet Money's 2020 Murrow-award-winning collaboration with the NPR Ed Desk, the show's audiobook rendition of the Great Gatsby, as well as collaborative episodes with Pro Publica, and Gimlet Media's How to Save A Planet.
Horowitz-Ghazi hails from Santa Fe, New Mexico, studied history at Reed College, and got his start in radio at Oregon Public Broadcasting. He was selected as a 2014 AIR New Voices Scholar and a 2019 Arthur F. Burns Fellow. He previously worked with Michel Martin's team at All Things Considered, where he produced breaking news and feature stories, led film coverage, and directed the live broadcast.
At All Things Considered, Horowitz-Ghazi reported on how a national clown scare affected professional clowns, who was behind of a wave of succulent poaching on the California coastline, what happens to a musician's legacy after they die, and why his hometown burns a giant human effigy every year. He also pitched and produced "Brave New Workers," a series of profiles on people adapting to the changing economy, and has interviewed coal miners, rock climbers, coyote hunters, porn stars, cowboys, truck drivers, drone pilots, Carrie Brownstein, Werner Herzog, and George R.R. Martin, among many others. In his free time, he enjoys riding bicycles, playing squash (middlingly), and sleeping out of doors.
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U.S. consumers are returning more of the stuff they buy than ever before. The returned goods often end up at bargain-bin stores, where resellers look for items they can resell for profit.
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The waters of Nova Scotia, Canada, hold one of the world's most lucrative lobster fisheries. A conflict over how to balance native treaty rights with commercial fishing rules is coming to a head.
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With the pandemic causing many workers and businesses to rethink our collective relationship with work, several companies are experimenting with a four-day work week.
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IATSE, a union which represents film crews, has asked their members to grant them the authority to strike. Conditions have worsened in the pandemic for people who work on sets for film and television.
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Eleven years ago, a now-deceased millionaire hid a treasure and published a riddle that would help hunters find it. The chase spawned partnerships, marriages, but also burglary and even deaths.
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Streaming has revolutionized the music business, including how songwriters get paid. Now the 20 biggest streaming platforms have been ordered to pay $424 million in unmatched royalties to artists.
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For some people, giving up their house or apartment and living on the road is a choice. But for many Americans priced out of the housing and rental markets, living in a vehicle is a necessity.
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In the new film Nomadland, director Chloe Zhao blends fact and fiction. The film follows the life of the modern-day American nomad in the aftermath of the 2008 housing and financial crises.
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Among the latest batch of new emoji is an unassuming blue pickup truck. The story of how that symbol got onto our devices offers a window into the big and sometimes dark money that companies are spending to influence the way we communicate.
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The Writers Guild of America declared victory after grappling for nearly two years with Hollywood's biggest talent agencies over how agents make their money.
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By the mid-2000s, an estimated 20% of the human genome had been turned into intellectual property. NPR shares the story of how the Supreme Court answered the question: Who do genes belong to?
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Why are supermarkets running out of toilet paper? It's partly the same psychology behind a bank run — and partly about bottlenecks in supply chains.