Kenny Malone
Kenny Malone is a correspondent for NPR's Planet Money podcast. Before that, he was a reporter for WNYC's Only Human podcast. Before that, he was a reporter for Miami's WLRN. And before that, he was a reporter for his friend T.C.'s homemade newspaper, Neighborhood News.
Kenny's stories have investigated everything from abuse in Florida's assisted living facilities to health hackers building their own pancreas to the origins of seemingly made-up holidays like National Raisin Day. Or National Golf Day. Or National Splurge Day.
His work has won the National Edward R. Murrow Award for Use of Sound, the National Headliner Award, the Scripps Howard Award, and the Bronze Third Coast Festival Award. He studied mathematics at Xavier University in Cincinnati and proudly hails from Meadville, PA, where the zipper was invented.
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Building a community around the arts is a buzzy, modern idea. But 25 years ago it was just a crazy idea. NPR's Planet Money looks at what happened when a teeny, peanut-farming town in Georgia tried to save itself by writing, staging and starring in an original musical.
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The Social Security number was never meant to be a form of national identification. And yet, here were are: Nine digits that rule our lives and ruin our lives if they wind up in the wrong hands.
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D'Wayne Edwards created the Pensole Footwear Design Academy to try and diversify the sneaker business. Edwards was one of the first black designers in the business and created the academy, in part, because of how difficult it was for him to get started.
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Companies like Equifax, Experian and TransUnion know virtually every piece of our financial lives. The Planet Money team set out to understand where this multi-billion dollar industry came from.
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Famous basketball players usually charge more when their names appear on them. But what happened when an NBA All-Star tried to use his name to charge less?
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Two weeks ago, Saudi Arabia announced it had closed its border and cut diplomatic ties with neighboring Qatar. Other Gulf countries joined in, and the tiny gas-rich monarchy became a pariah seemingly overnight. But tensions have been simmering for some time. To understand what's happening to Qatar, Planet Money traces the long, dramatic relationship between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, two brother monarchies.
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Toys R Us has literally scrambled the jets trying to meet the demand of this year's break-out toy, handheld whirligig known as a "fidget spinner." Unlike other toy explosions like the Tickle Me Elmo or the Furby, the fidget spinner seemed to have hit without warning and without a brand. NPR's Planet Money set out to try and figure out where this thing came from and why it seemed to appear out of nowhere.
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How much is a tooth worth to the tooth fairy and has that price changed over time? This is a silly question of course, but the answer is serious. It gives us a way to understand how the costs of parenting have changed over time.