Consumers, jobs and interest rates — oh my!

We’re gonna get some important insights this week on how the U.S. economy is doing, including consumer confidence, the unemployment rate is and how many jobs are out there. And smack in the middle of it all, the Federal Reserve is going to discuss what to do with interest rates. We’ll chat with Julia Coronado, founder of MacroPolicy Perspectives and a professor at UT Austin, to help us sort through it.

Recording artists have incorporated the sounds of nature into their songs for decades. Think of the chirping wildlife in The Beatles’ “Blackbird” or the outdoor acoustics of Neil Young’s “Natural Beauty.” Now, artists who sample nature will be able to automatically split their profits with environmental causes through a United Nations-backed project. The BBC’s Mark Savage has more.