Actuality

Marketplace

Actuality explores the inner workings of the new global economy. Brought to you by Marketplace® and Quartz, it’s a podcast that combines the best of our economic smarts. Hosts Sabri Ben-Achour and Tim Fernholz find the interesting in the important and the important in the interesting—and define the issues shaping our daily experience in the global economy. In Season Two, we explore the impossible, with: they said it couldn’t be done. From creating a perfect algorithm to a perfect workforce, we reveal the surprising answers to puzzles that once seemed impossible to solve. Join us for new episodes every other week when in season. Produced by American Public Media’s Marketplace and Atlantic Media’s Quartz. Twitter: @ActualityPod

Episodes

They said it couldn't be done: The "male pill." Actuality asks why men haven't seen a new reversible contraceptive in centuries—and if we need one. We found out why Big Pharma gave up on a male pill, and meet people who want to make it happen anyway.

Jun 30, 2016

20 min

UnAmerican Football

They said it couldn't be done: Soccer makes it in America. Actuality can't turn on the TV without seeing a soccer game — what gives? We talk with U.S. players Crystal Dunn and Matt Besler to figure out how global football became a media cash cow in America.

Jun 16, 2016

21 min

Cannabiz

They said it couldn't be done: Ending the American war on marijuana. This week, Actuality tells the ugly truth about cannabis prohibition and peeks at the green shoots of the nascent legal weed industry — but can the architects of a new market avoid the mistakes of the past?

Jun 1, 2016

22 min

Museums: Wherefore contemporary art thou?

They said it couldn't be done: New art in old museums. Actuality visits an auction house to see a billion dollars of art sold in just a week and learn how this bubbling private market is changing staid public art museums in surprising ways.

May 19, 2016

16 min

A machine to save the world

They said it couldn't be done: Nuclear fusion. We visit scientists building a clean power plant that's hotter than the sun — but can they ever deliver? Then: the strange world of cold fusion, the people who hate it and the billionaires betting on it.

May 4, 2016

20 min

Batman v Hollywood

They said it couldn't be done: Making superheroes into movie stars. Forty years ago, Hollywood told 27-year-old Michael Uslan a Batman movie would never succeed. More than a dozen big-budget superhero movies will hit the big screen in the next few years. Holy impossibility, Batman!

Apr 20, 2016

24 min

Space Internet

They said it couldn't be done: Internet in space. The dream of a totally connected world is still out of reach. Companies like OneWeb and SpaceX think a global swarm of satellites is the answer. The idea failed before — does it stand a chance today?

Apr 7, 2016

19 min

Robot Tastemakers

"Actuality" visits Spotify to look into the algorithmic DJs that soundtrack our lives.

Mar 23, 2016

24 min

Smuggler’s Morgue

Quartz and Marketplace go into the world of animal trafficking with this episode of Actuality

Jan 14, 2016

18 min

Actuality’s Holiday Extravaganza!

Quartz and Marketplace get into the holidays and looks back at 2015.

Dec 18, 2015

42 min