David Kestenbaum
David Kestenbaum is a correspondent for NPR, covering science, energy issues and, most recently, the global economy for NPR's multimedia project Planet Money. David has been a science correspondent for NPR since 1999. He came to journalism the usual way — by getting a Ph.D. in physics first.
In his years at NPR, David has covered science's discoveries and its darker side, including the Northeast blackout, the anthrax attacks and the collapse of the New Orleans levees. He has also reported on energy issues, particularly nuclear and climate change.
David has won awards from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
David worked briefly on the show This American Life, and set up a radio journalism program in Cambodia on a Fulbright fellowship. He also teaches a journalism class at Johns Hopkins University.
David holds a bachelor's of science degree in physics from Yale University and a doctorate in physics from Harvard University.
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Decades back, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker had a radical idea to fight against inflation.
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The Internet Archive and the University of Maryland launch such a library, and it's free to anyone with an Internet connection. Kids helped design the library, and they had final say on the books.
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The government is getting $100 billion this year, essentially from nowhere. It is the profit made by the Federal Reserve. The Fed is in charge of managing how many dollars are in the economy. It turns out to be a very profitable business, especially since the financial crisis, when the Fed threw an extra $3 trillion into the economy.
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Two years ago, in January 2013, oil was about $100 dollars a barrel. At that time, towns near new oil fields expanded rapidly, filling up with workers and overflowing revenue. But how are those towns doing now that oil is worth about half what it was then? The Planet Money team checks in with oil workers and residents in Williston, N.D.
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Inflation is so low that it's nearly nonexistent now. But it most certainly wasn't always that way. The Planet Money team tells the story of former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker's wild fight against inflation, his radical idea, and how the U.S. tamed inflation — maybe for good.
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The Fed created the money after the financial crisis to try to help the economy, but the money could eventually create inflation or cause bubbles. (This piece initially aired on Oct. 23, 2015 on ATC.)
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The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement has been hashed out line-by-line. All 6,000 pages of it. It will set the rules for roughly one-third of world trade. It has precise requirements for tariffs, quotas and subsidies for all manner of goods. But there's one huge secret tariff that isn't included: currency manipulation.
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You can spend millions on lobbyists or ads to influence the presidential election, but it is mostly illegal to bet on who will win the White House. But centuries ago, people bet on the papal election.
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The economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that his grandkids would work just 15 hours a week. He imagined by now, we would basically work Monday and Tuesday, and then have a five-day weekend. His family's grandkids help explain why he was so wrong.
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A group of cancer doctors is trying to create a database on cancer drugs. It would give a score for each drug, reflecting how well the drug works. It would also list how much the drug costs.