Actuality

They said it couldn't be done: The "male pill." Actuality asks why men haven't seen a new reversible contraceptive in centuries—and if we need one. We found out why Big Pharma gave up on a male pill, and meet people who want to make it happen anyway.Correction: In this episode we refer to "The Pill" by Jonathan Eig. The correct title of Eig’s book is "The Birth of the Pill." 

They said it couldn't be done: Soccer makes it in America. Actuality can't turn on the TV without seeing a soccer game — what gives? We talk with U.S. players Crystal Dunn and Matt Besler to figure out how global football became a media cash cow in America.

They said it couldn't be done: Ending the American war on marijuana. This week, Actuality tells the ugly truth about cannabis prohibition and peeks at the green shoots of the nascent legal weed industry — but can the architects of a new market avoid the mistakes of the past?

They said it couldn't be done: New art in old museums. Actuality visits an auction house to see a billion dollars of art sold in just a week and learn how this bubbling private market is changing staid public art museums in surprising ways.

They said it couldn't be done: Nuclear fusion. We visit scientists building a clean power plant that's hotter than the sun — but can they ever deliver? Then: the strange world of cold fusion, the people who hate it and the billionaires betting on it.

They said it couldn't be done: Making superheroes into movie stars. Forty years ago, Hollywood told 27-year-old Michael Uslan a Batman movie would never succeed. More than a dozen big-budget superhero movies will hit the big screen in the next few years. Holy impossibility, Batman!

They said it couldn't be done: Internet in space. The dream of a totally connected world is still out of reach. Companies like OneWeb and SpaceX think a global swarm of satellites is the answer. The idea failed before — does it stand a chance today?

They said it couldn't be done: Teaching robots good taste. "Actuality" visits Spotify, where algorithms tell 75 million users what to listen to. Then, Tim and Sabri talk with a world-touring musician and a critic to see if this trend will save the arts — or doom them."Actuality" is brought to you by Marketplace and Quartz. It explores the inner workings of the new global economy, combining the best of our economic smarts. Subscribe to the bi-weekly podcast on iTunes or your favorite audio app.

This week, Actuality visits a lab at the front line of the fight against a peculiar crime — animal trafficking. The global black market for snakes, sea cucumbers, ivory and the like is hot, but the world is starting to crack down. Plus, whale euthanasia.Subscribe to the Actuality podcast

This week, Actuality just happens to stop by your house with a helping of holiday cheer, a glass of eggnog and some special guests armed with well-informed cocktail chatter about five of our favorite stories in 2015. Plus, these sweet potatoes are FIRE.

This week, Actuality is mostly AWOL, but we bring news of next week's very special end-of-year episode.

This week, Actuality slips into some fast fashion and learns how it pushes your brain's buttons to make you buy. But the trick means hiding the true cost of the clothes — including some surprisingly bad news for the environment. Plus, bitter cats.

In a holiday bonus episode, Actuality gets grateful after a visit to a refugee camp in France where migrants from the Middle East and Africa await asylum, and a reporter was surprised to learn her own family's refugee story.

This week, Actuality pretends we’re happy! We talk about people paid to put a smile on, and the toll that emotional labor takes. Plus, a rogue banker reappears after 35 years on the lam.

This week, Actuality goes orbital and finds it's quite a mess. Satellites are dodging space trash, and there's business opportunity in cleaning up — but no sexy space garbage trucks yet. Plus, a mysterious piece of space trash is coming back to earth.

This week, Actuality examines a New York idealist's battle to win homeless people the right to shelter in the 1970s—and why modern reformers have more ambitious plans to help those left behind when the rent is too high. Plus, a miracle exercise pill.

This week, Actuality meets two survivors of the deadly avalanche that struck Mt. Everest in April, before making our own ascent of the Everest Industrial Complex. Plus, a flying bag of marijuana destroys a dog house.

This week, Actuality bites into Monsanto's plans for a new, super-healthy breed of broccoli and what it means for our food supply—but the unexpected consequences may have more to do with the DOJ than GMOs. Plus, the Blob invades the Pacific. 

This week, Actuality plugs into the weird world of sonification — making data into sound. Pythagoras tried to do it with cosmic spheres. Today, sonification pioneers are making music from climate change and cheeseburger data. Plus, can you be allergic to Wi-Fi, and is that a disability?

This week, Actuality considers Donald Trump's plans for immigration reform and finds them wanting. And do U.S. farms need more immigrant labor, or do they just need to pay higher wages? Plus, the neuroscience of long-distance Turkish whistling. 

This Week, Actuality gorges itself on caviar to understand why the supply chain behind a luxury good is more important than ever. Also, a semi-aquatic invasive rodent may solve the "fur is murder" problem. Plus, the market in gothic poultry.

This week, Actuality stays up past our bedtime to meet a man who slept just 4.5 hours a night for an entire year — and thrived. Then, we get soaked by the world's most economically important weather phenomenon. Plus, a Kazakh sleeping mystery.

This week, Actuality scratches that itch with a trip to Key West, Florida, where the only prescription for an outbreak of dengue fever may be genetically altered mosquitoes. Plus, battling giant robots from the U.S. and Japan disappoint Marketplace's Sabri Ben-Achour. 

This week, Actuality slips on metallic jeggings to examine the dubious record of former American Apparel CEO Dov Charney, how jerk bosses thwart business success, and why women get tasked to clean up the mess. Plus, the best time to buy German erotica.

This week, Actuality goes to Cuba. We'll hear how the U.S. decision to re-open relations is affecting the island nation — in its music, its growing private sector and its underground internet. Plus, a virtual visit to a coral reef. 

This week, China’s got island fever! Symptoms include building islands in seas claimed by other (irate) countries. Actuality looks at the law, and the US’s own nationalist pursuit of islands covered in bird poop. Plus, parachuting arachnids in Australia.

This week, Actuality watches movies for free. Digital piracy is simpler than ever, thanks to the torrenting app Popcorn Time. We talk to one of the app's developers and an attorney who says it is killing big budget films. Plus, Europe bans selfie sticks.