{"podcast":{"title":"Planet Money","slug":"planet-money-551334","podcast_index_feed_id":551334,"rss_url":"https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml","website_url":"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510289/planet-money","image_url":"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/10/24/pm_new_tile_2022_sq-e543deddd0a46a98be481b46e6a72efa6b52236f.jpg?s=1400&c=66&f=jpg","author":"NPR (podcasts@npr.org)","episode_count":355,"summary":"Wanna see a trick? Give us any topic and we can tie it back to the economy. At Planet Money , we explore the forces that shape our lives and bring you along for the ride. Don't just understand the economy – understand the world. Wanna go deeper? Subscribe to Planet Money+ and get sponsor-free episodes of Planet Money, The Indicator, and Planet Money Summer School. Plus access to bonus content. It's a new way to support the show you love. Learn more at plus.npr.org/planetmoney","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/planet-money-551334"},"episode":{"title":"Planet Money vs. the NBA’s tanking problem","slug":"planet-money-vs-the-nba-s-tanking-problem","published_at":"2026-03-06T22:15:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/planet-money-551334/planet-money-vs-the-nba-s-tanking-problem","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/planet-money-551334","url":"https://www.npr.org/2026/03/06/nx-s1-5739178/nba-draft-tanking","audio_url":"https://tracking.swap.fm/track/XvDEoI11TR00olTUO8US/prfx.byspotify.com/e/play.podtrac.com/npr-510289/npr.simplecastaudio.com/43b5acee-463e-4612-95ad-d2596d9dd337/episodes/6566caec-b0e1-4ba7-a82c-0e9fc0eb33a9/audio/128/default.mp3?awCollectionId=43b5acee-463e-4612-95ad-d2596d9dd337&awEpisodeId=6566caec-b0e1-4ba7-a82c-0e9fc0eb33a9&feed=hvWWWzRv&t=podcast&e=nx-s1-5739178&p=510289&d=1820&size=29128499","summary":"What do we want from sports? The very best athletes competing as hard as they know how, putting all their effort and training and natural ability to the test against their opponents. But this time of year, that’s not the product the NBA is putting on the court. Instead, teams at the bottom of the league are competing … to lose, because it could help them get a top pick in next year’s draft. It’s called tanking — it’s bad for fans, and it’s bad for the league. Tanking has gotten especially egregious this year. Even NBA Adam Silver has called out teams for tanking . He recently announced that league bigwigs are considering “every possible remedy” to “align incentives.” Today on the show — Planet Money fixes the NBA’s tanking problem by … fixing the NBA draft. We get solutions from Hockey Hall of Famer Jayna Hefford , World Cup Champion Sam Mewis , and long-time NBA analyst Zach Lowe . Handles for the NBA fans in the episode: thevoiceofevan , fullcourtblitz , ashleynevel , igotnxtpodcast , finesse.wes , basketballsavant , and mikedaddino__ . Live event info and tickets here / Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift . / Subscribe to Planet Money+ Listen free: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or the NPR app Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter This episode was hosted by Keith Romer and Erika Beras. It was produced by James Sneed with an assist from Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Jess Jiang and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy","meta_description":"What do we want from sports? The very best athletes competing as hard as they know how, putting all their effort and training and natural ability to the t…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1820,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/planet-money-551334/episodes/planet-money-vs-the-nba-s-tanking-problem/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/planet-money-551334/planet-money-vs-the-nba-s-tanking-problem.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}