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Kai Ryssdal

Host and Senior Editor

SHORT BIO

Kai is the host and senior editor of “Marketplace,” the most widely heard program on business and the economy — radio or television, commercial or public broadcasting — in the country. Kai speaks regularly with CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, startup entrepreneurs, small-business owners and everyday participants in the American and global economies. Before his career in broadcasting, Kai served in the United States Navy and United States Foreign Service. He’s a graduate of Emory University and Georgetown University. Kai lives in Los Angeles with his wife and four children.

Latest Stories (5,837)

"I think our fear of high inflation is well warranted," Minneapolis Fed president says

Feb 21, 2024
Neel Kashkari weighs in on the state of the economy and what's left to bring inflation down to the Fed's 2% target.
"I do the grocery shopping for my family. I started doing that when the pandemic hit, and I still have sticker shock," says Neel Kashkari, Minneapolis Fed president.
John Lamparski/Getty Images

How a bank failure 150 years ago still shapes many Black Americans' relationships to financial institutions

Feb 15, 2024
The Freedman’s Bank was the first opportunity for formerly enslaved people to save and protect their money. But its failure in less than a decade still haunts Black Americans today.
Pictured above, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge at the Freedman’s Bank Forum held at the Treasury Department in 2022.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

China's economy has "downshifted fundamentally over the past couple of years"

Feb 13, 2024
"If we have a China that's growing more slowly, there's less opportunity" globally, says economist Adam Posen.
Consumer prices in China have been falling for too long.
Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images

Hallmark movies may be "a little cookie-cutter," but audiences don't seem to mind

Feb 12, 2024
"They are very cozy and comforting," said Danyel Smith of The New York Times Magazine. "Especially in these times."
Annie Howell, Crown Media communications chief, speaks at a screening of "Christmas on Cherry Lane," one of the 42 Christmas films that Hallmark produced in 2023.
Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Hallmark Media

How the infrastructure law will upgrade a neglected street in glitzy Las Vegas

Feb 8, 2024
"Marketplace’s" Kai Ryssdal visits a low-income district of the tourist mecca, where a federal grant will improve transportation and safety.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images

The "poison pill" that protects artists' work from AI scraping

Feb 5, 2024
"Everything is at stake," says Ben Zhao of the University of Chicago, who leads the development of two tools that support human creativity.
The goal of Nightshade "is to raise the price for unauthorized training on scraped data," says Ben Zhao at the University of Chicago.
Courtesy the Glaze Project

Space industry pollution above could have serious consequences for the environment below

Feb 5, 2024
Damage to the ozone layer could raise the risk of skin cancer, cataracts and immune disorders, says science reporter Shannon Hall.
Decommissioned satellites are designed to burn up in Earth's atmosphere, but they leave behind pollutants in their wake.
Chadan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images

Biking in cities can be complicated, and map apps can only help so much

Jan 31, 2024
For cyclists, navigating town is a complex equation of infrastructure, hills, barriers and more. Apps like Google Maps are still figuring it out.
Navigating a city on a bike is more complicated than simply putting a destination in a map and following the suggested route.
Leon Neal/Getty Images

Teens have "kept the economy going," and their workforce numbers show it

"About 37% of teens worked last year," says Abha Bhattarai of The Washington Post. "These teens are really excited," employers tell her.
Teen employment reached a 14-year high in 2023, according to the Labor Department.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

How are Black communities in the rural South dealing with digital redlining?

Jan 26, 2024
Aallyah Wright of Capital B News traveled to Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia to see how people are coping with limited internet access.
Robyn Beck /AFP via Getty Images