Sam Yellowhorse Kesler
Sam Yellowhorse Kesler is an Assistant Producer for Planet Money. Previously, he's held positions at NPR's Ask Me Another & All Things Considered, and was the inaugural Code Switch Fellow. Before NPR, he interned with World Cafe from WXPN. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, and continues to reside in Philadelphia. If you want to reach him, try looking in your phone contacts to see if he's there! You'd be surprised how many people are in there that you forgot about.
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You might have seen ads for online banking services that seem to offer a lot of great stuff — accounts you can open in minutes and without a minimum balance or monthly fees. The ads seem to say: "These aren't your parents' boring old banks." But the truth is: Even though they might resemble banks, they aren't. These "bank-like" companies are a type of "fintech" or financial technology company. And this is a story about the potential risks of putting your money into these apps. Banks go through a whole regulatory gauntlet in order to exist. But, in the past several years, there has been a rise in fintechs that skirt regulations. And many of these pose a real threat to even the most savvy of depositors. When a little known tech company filed for bankruptcy a few months ago, thousands of people couldn't access the millions of dollars they saved. On today's show, we meet some of the people affected and learn what the fintech industry reveals about banking regulation. Today's show was hosted by Erika Beras and Sally Helm. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler and Sofia Shchukina with help from James Sneed. It was edited by Jess Jiang and fact-checked by Kevin Volkl. It was engineered by Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez with help from James Willetts. Alex Goldmark is our 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. -
The Pantone company built a business by standardizing the way designers and companies communicate about color. But one artist is challenging their color monopoly.
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The new film Fancy Dance offers something all-too-rare on screen: contemporary Indigenous perspectives, front and center. Lily Gladstone plays a woman trying to keep it together under stressful circumstances. Her sister's gone missing, and she steps in to look after her young niece (Isabel Deroy-Olson). The pair take what turns out to be a rocky road trip and a unique bonding experience. -
Each week, guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: Bad Bunny's new album, the films Slotherhouse and Birth/Rebirth, and the game show Taskmaster. -
A food distribution company in Philadelphia, Pa., had a few too many avocados on hand. Its solution? Giving them away for free.
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The video game Citizen Sleeper critiques the gig economy in a cyberpunk "post-capitalist" future -
Each week, the guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: Rutherford Falls season two, Magic Mike XXL, and more. -
The number of people who identify as Native American on the U.S. Census has soared in recent years, which raises a lot of concerns in Native communities about people falsely claiming Native identity.
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Louise Erdrich's novel turns the trope of the haunted Indian burial ground on its head with the story of a Native-run bookstore being visited by the ghost of a white woman obsessed with indigeneity. -
Most television shows feel like they're made by an energy drink, Joe Pera says. He wanted his to feel like it was made by apple cider.
