Tony Wagner

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Tony Wagner is Marketplace's newsletter editor. He writes the daily email newsletter and edits several others, including Marketplace's Crash Courses.

Previously he was a digital producer who helped launch “Make Me Smart,” “The Uncertain Hour” and “This Is Uncomfortable.” After eight years at Marketplace headquarters in LA, he recently relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Latest Stories (433)

How Wisconsin became the ginseng state — and part of the trade war

by Tony Wagner

Jul 31, 2018

Almost all the ginseng grown in America comes from the state, and the majority of that crop gets exported to China. It's the perfect target for retaliatory tariffs.

Five things to know about the World Trade Organization

by Tony Wagner

Jul 16, 2018

The U.S. and China have both brought new complaints to the WTO.

FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images

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How to be a...

How to be a Lego designer

by Eliza Mills and Tony Wagner

Jun 29, 2018

The company's vice president of design left fashion for his "ultimate childhood dream" of working with the plastic bricks.

Husband and wife Annie and Ed Diment put the final bricks in place on their 400,000-piece "Ice Age" display at a Lego exhibition in London in 2015. The woolly mammoth took nine weeks to build.

Chris Ratcliffe/Getty Images

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Let's do the numbers on the Paralympic Games

by Tony Wagner

Mar 9, 2018

They're hard to find on cable or streaming, but worth watching.

Joe Howard of the United States celebrates a gold-medal win against Norway in sledge hockey during the Salt Lake City Winter Paralympic Games in Utah in 2002.

Adam Pretty/Getty Images

The Uncertain Hour

Why aren't falconers allowed in the movies anymore?

by Tony Wagner

Mar 1, 2018

Technically, they never were.

A still from "The Royal Tenenbaums," which isn't about falconry, but features a falcon as a major plot point.

Buena Vista Pictures

The Uncertain Hour

Counting pages of regulations is a waste of time (and paper)

by Tony Wagner

Jan 19, 2018

Politicians on both sides of the aisle will use page counts to demonstrate regulatory burden. It's not an exact science.

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell points to a stack of papers representing what he said are the regulations associated with former President Barack Obama's health care reform as he speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, in 2013.

NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images

"Star Wars" economics: What it takes to turn a planet into an insane superweapon

by Tony Wagner

Dec 15, 2017

Let's do the numbers on Starkiller Base.

Starkiller Base, in all its sun-extinguishing, planet-destroying glory.

Disney/Lucasfilm

The Uncertain Hour

A drugmaker used “The Wizard of Oz” to sell OxyContin

by Tony Wagner

Dec 15, 2017

In an internal sales document, Purdue told sales reps to “follow the yellow brick road” and get doctors to prescribe the opioid.

Publicity photo from the 1939 adaptation for "The Wizard of Oz," which inspired a pharmaceutical sales document.

CBS via Wikimedia Commons

The Uncertain Hour

You can write the government, but who's listening?

by Tony Wagner

Nov 22, 2017

Bureaucrats are always looking for your comments on new rules. Here's how it works.

Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, Chairman Tom Wheeler, Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Michael O'Rielly watch as protesters are removed from the dais during a hearing at the Federal Communication Commission on Dec. 11, 2014. in Washington, D.C.

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

The average cost of a Thanksgiving dinner is less than you think

by Tony Wagner

Nov 21, 2017

And it's at a five-year low.

How much does that Thanksgiving feast cost?

John Moore/Getty Images