Katy Vine reports on yet another promising young person, Tye Thomas, and how he went through the rise and fall of a full political career, in just one year, at the age of 21, in the Texas town of Gun Barrel City. (15 minutes)
More in Personal Finance
Act Two: Taxes
Al Drucker used to work for the IRS doing tax enforcement.
Act One: Money for Nothing and Your Cows for Free
Planet Money reporters David Kestenbaum and Jacob Goldstein went to Kenya to see the work of a charity called GiveDirectly in action.
Act Four: Don't Hate The Player
Shawn Allee tells a story of the oldest kind of million dollar idea, the scam.
Staff Recommendations
The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar
In 1912, a four-year-old boy went missing in Louisiana. Eight months later, he was found. But two grief-stricken mothers both claimed the same boy as their own.
Arms Trader (2009)
The U.S. government spent two years on a sting operation trapping an Indian man suspected of being an illegal arms dealer.