NPR's Planet Money grows up

The recession has been bad to NPR, as it has been to most media outlets. But it has been remarkably good to one small piece of the public radio network: Planet Money, the blog and podcast operation started last fall to explain the complexities of the global economy to a suddenly-interested nation.

Planet Money was born as a single episode of This American Life that aired in May 2008. That episode, "The Giant Pool of Money," was about the origins of the mortgage meltdown; it won wide acclaim, including a Peabody Award, and led to several more This American Life shows about the economy. In September of last year, "Giant Pool of Money" co-producers Adam Davidson and Alex Blumberg launched the Planet Money podcast and blog. The former has been particularly successful: It's regularly one of the top podcasts on iTunes and averages one million-plus downloads per month. Now Davidson and Blumberg have a new goal: figuring out the best way to turn their all-but-accidental hit into an enduring media brand of its own.