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Tess Vigeland

Former Host, Marketplace Money

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Tess Vigeland was the host of Marketplace Money, a weekly personal finance program that looks at why we do what we do with our money: your life, with dollar signs. Vigeland and her guests took calls from listeners to answer their most vexing money management questions, and the program helped explain what the latest business and financial news means to our wallets and bank accounts.

Vigeland joined Marketplace in September 2001, as a host of Marketplace Morning Report. She rose at o-dark-thirty to deliver the latest in business and economic news for nearly four years before returning briefly to reporting and producing. She began hosting Marketplace Money in 2006 and ended her run as host in November of 2012. . Vigeland was also a back-up host for Marketplace.

Prior to joining the team at Marketplace, Vigeland reported and anchored for Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland, where she received a Corporation for Public Broadcasting Silver Award for her coverage of the political scandal involving Senator Bob Packwood (R-Ore.). She co-hosted the weekly public affairs program Seven Days on OPB television, and also produced an hour-long radio documentary about safety issues at the U.S. Army chemical weapons depot in Eastern Oregon. Vigeland next served as a reporter and backup anchor at WBUR radio in Boston. She also spent two years as a sports reporter for NPR’s Only a Game.

For her outstanding achievements in journalism, Vigeland has earned numerous awards from the Associated Press and Society of Professional Journalists. Vigeland has a bachelor's degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She is a contributor to The New York Times and is a volunteer fundraiser for the Pasadena Animal League and Pasadena Humane Society. In her free time, Vigeland studies at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music, continuing 20-plus years of training as a classical pianist.

Latest Stories (863)

'Trash Vigeland' meets the challenge

Sep 22, 2007
Trash Vigeland ... Mess Vigeland ... Bag Lady. The name calling began last weekend when Tess started two weeks of carrying around her trash 24-7 to get an idea of how much she sends to the landfill. Here's her update -- and her challenge to you.
Tess' trash bag, day 5
David Banks

Bernanke loves me, he loves me not

Sep 22, 2007
The Fed and it's Chairman Ben Bernanke showed Wall Street some love by cutting the key federal funds rate by a half a percentage point. Tess Vigeland talks with Peter Morici about what the rate cut may mean to the average consumer.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testifies during the House Financial Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill.
Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Taking the trash challenge

Sep 14, 2007
Marketplace's Tess Vigeland has volunteered to spend the next two weeks hauling her household trash around with her. She explains to Kai Ryssdal why she's so interested in this garbage.
An Apple Jacks box is among several items at Los Angeles County's Bradley Landfill that could have been recycled by the consumer who threw them in the trash.
Tess Vigeland

Retirees, watch out for the 'free lunch'

Sep 14, 2007
If there's one thing retirees can count on these days, it's offers of a free lunch -- and seniors are falling victim to the scam. To find out more about these free-lunch seminars, Tess talked with Patricia Struck, a securities regulator for the state of Wisconsin.
Brown bag
iStockPhoto

How to become an 'accidental landlord'

Sep 14, 2007
The subprime mortgage mess has made it harder to buy and sell a home. But if you're already a homeowner, here's another option: Become what Kate Ashford of Money magazine calls an accidental landlord. She talks with Tess Vigeland.
House made of $50 bills.
iStockPhoto