{"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":"The giant factory town that might be a giant mistake","slug":"the-giant-factory-town-that-might-be-a-giant-mistake","published_at":"2026-05-22T22:25:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/planet-money-551334/the-giant-factory-town-that-might-be-a-giant-mistake","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/planet-money-551334","url":"https://www.npr.org/2026/05/22/nx-s1-5831786/brazil-manaus-middle-income-blueprint","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/3d7dbfe9-0e1c-4db6-a672-d7a3829dfd2e/audio/128/default.mp3?awCollectionId=43b5acee-463e-4612-95ad-d2596d9dd337&awEpisodeId=3d7dbfe9-0e1c-4db6-a672-d7a3829dfd2e&feed=hvWWWzRv&t=podcast&e=nx-s1-5831786&p=510289&d=1618&size=25903944","summary":"How does a poor country become a rich country? There's a simple blueprint — or at least, that's what many economists used to believe. But over the years, a lot of rapidly developing economies have stalled out. These countries aren't poor anymore, but they're not rich either. They're stuck in the middle. The World Bank calls this problem the \"middle income trap.\" And if there's a poster child for the middle income trap, many would point to Brazil. For a time, Brazil had one of the fastest growing economies in the world. On today's show, we head to Brazil to understand why the old blueprint for economic development might not work so well anymore. The story starts in the Amazon rainforest. With an audacious plan to industrialize the country as fast as possible. Support: Planet Money+ Read: Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletter Our weekly Indicator round-up newsletter Follow: Instagram TikTok YouTube Facebook This episode of Planet Money was hosted by Jeff Guo. It was produced by James Sneed and Luis Gallo. It was edited by Marianne McCune, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, translation help from Sarah Robbins. It was engineered by Robert Rodriguez and Jimmy Keeley. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer. A very, very special thanks to Carrie Kahn and Valdemar Geo from NPR’s Rio bureau. Also to Otaviano Canuto and Denis Minev. 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":"How does a poor country become a rich country? There's a simple blueprint — or at least, that's what many economists used to believe. But over the years,…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1618,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/planet-money-551334/episodes/the-giant-factory-town-that-might-be-a-giant-mistake/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/the-giant-factory-town-that-might-be-a-giant-mistake.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}