Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi
Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi is a host and reporter for Planet Money, telling stories that creatively explore and explain the workings of the global economy. He's a sucker for a good supply chain mystery — from toilet paper to foster puppies to specialty pastas. He's drawn to tales of unintended consequences, like the time a well-intentioned chemistry professor unwittingly helped unleash a global market for synthetic drugs, or what happened when the U.S. Patent Office started granting patents on human genes. And he's always on the lookout for economic principles at work in unexpected places, like the tactics comedians use to protect their intellectual property (a.k.a. jokes).
He's reported from Iceland on the dramatic crash of the country's budget airline, from Denmark on the global trade for human sperm, and from Germany on the country's (uncannily familiar) obsession with returning the things they buy online. He also produced Planet Money's 2020 Murrow-award-winning collaboration with the NPR Ed Desk, the show's audiobook rendition of the Great Gatsby, as well as collaborative episodes with Pro Publica, and Gimlet Media's How to Save A Planet.
Horowitz-Ghazi hails from Santa Fe, New Mexico, studied history at Reed College, and got his start in radio at Oregon Public Broadcasting. He was selected as a 2014 AIR New Voices Scholar and a 2019 Arthur F. Burns Fellow. He previously worked with Michel Martin's team at All Things Considered, where he produced breaking news and feature stories, led film coverage, and directed the live broadcast.
At All Things Considered, Horowitz-Ghazi reported on how a national clown scare affected professional clowns, who was behind of a wave of succulent poaching on the California coastline, what happens to a musician's legacy after they die, and why his hometown burns a giant human effigy every year. He also pitched and produced "Brave New Workers," a series of profiles on people adapting to the changing economy, and has interviewed coal miners, rock climbers, coyote hunters, porn stars, cowboys, truck drivers, drone pilots, Carrie Brownstein, Werner Herzog, and George R.R. Martin, among many others. In his free time, he enjoys riding bicycles, playing squash (middlingly), and sleeping out of doors.
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The FTC has approved the so-called 'Click to Cancel' rule, making it easier for customers to cancel subscriptions. Planet Money examines why so many services began using the subscription model.
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For some sports, picking the winner is simple: It's the athlete who crosses the finish line first, or the side that scores the most goals. But for the new Olympic sport of breaking (if you want to be cool, don't call it breakdancing), the criteria aren't quite that straightforward. How do you judge an event whose core values are dopeness, freshness, and breaking the rules? That was the challenge for Storm and Renegade, two legendary b-boys who set out to create a fair and objective scoring system for a dance they say is more of an art than a sport. Over the years, their journey to define the soul of breaking led them to meetings with Olympics bigwigs, debates over the science of dopeness, and a battle with a question many sports — from figure skating to gymnastics — have tried to answer: Can art and sport coexist? This episode was hosted by Jeff Guo and Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi. It was produced by Emma Peaslee and edited by Jenny Lawton. It was fact checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez with help from James Willets and Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer. Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney. -
There were a record number of cybercrimes reported to the FBI last. The Planet Money team follows one woman who was scammed out of over $800,000 on her quest to get her money back.
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After cryptocurrency exchange FTX filed for bankruptcy in 2022, specialized distressed asset investors started buying up the company's debt. They stand to make big profits off the remains of FTX.
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When unwanted gifts are returned, they often don't go back to the original seller. We get a behind-the-scenes look at two women who make a living off of returned merchandise.
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The film Dumb Money tells the story of how Game Stop went from the brink of bankruptcy to its emergence as a "meme stock." But the story of how the movie got made is a drama of its own.
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In her filmmaking debut, "Past Lives," Korean-Canadian playwright Celine Song draws from her own experience of reuniting with a childhood friend after decades apart.
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Dozens of original streaming shows have been removed from platforms in an apparent effort to cut costs. The disappearing shows may point to a more fundamental change in the business of streaming.
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These businesses have exploded in popularity during the pandemic, and now Apple is getting on board. But are these interest-free payment installments too good to be true?
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A payment option called buy now, pay later is growing in popularity. While these services offer consumers a convenient form of interest-free installment credit, they've raised regulators' concerns.
