Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi
Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi is a host and reporter for Planet Money, telling stories that creatively explore and explain the workings of the global economy. He's a sucker for a good supply chain mystery — from toilet paper to foster puppies to specialty pastas. He's drawn to tales of unintended consequences, like the time a well-intentioned chemistry professor unwittingly helped unleash a global market for synthetic drugs, or what happened when the U.S. Patent Office started granting patents on human genes. And he's always on the lookout for economic principles at work in unexpected places, like the tactics comedians use to protect their intellectual property (a.k.a. jokes).
He's reported from Iceland on the dramatic crash of the country's budget airline, from Denmark on the global trade for human sperm, and from Germany on the country's (uncannily familiar) obsession with returning the things they buy online. He also produced Planet Money's 2020 Murrow-award-winning collaboration with the NPR Ed Desk, the show's audiobook rendition of the Great Gatsby, as well as collaborative episodes with Pro Publica, and Gimlet Media's How to Save A Planet.
Horowitz-Ghazi hails from Santa Fe, New Mexico, studied history at Reed College, and got his start in radio at Oregon Public Broadcasting. He was selected as a 2014 AIR New Voices Scholar and a 2019 Arthur F. Burns Fellow. He previously worked with Michel Martin's team at All Things Considered, where he produced breaking news and feature stories, led film coverage, and directed the live broadcast.
At All Things Considered, Horowitz-Ghazi reported on how a national clown scare affected professional clowns, who was behind of a wave of succulent poaching on the California coastline, what happens to a musician's legacy after they die, and why his hometown burns a giant human effigy every year. He also pitched and produced "Brave New Workers," a series of profiles on people adapting to the changing economy, and has interviewed coal miners, rock climbers, coyote hunters, porn stars, cowboys, truck drivers, drone pilots, Carrie Brownstein, Werner Herzog, and George R.R. Martin, among many others. In his free time, he enjoys riding bicycles, playing squash (middlingly), and sleeping out of doors.
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Jeff Runions has spent almost four decades in the trucking industry. Now, he's helping drive the industry's shift toward automation, as a test driver for a self-driving trucking company. -
When former helicopter pilot Tony Zimlich retired from a 20-year military career, he worried about his civilian job prospects. Then he discovered the burgeoning world of commercial drone work. -
Frances Glessner Lee is known to many as the "mother of forensic science" for her work training policemen in crime scene investigation in the 1940s and 50s using uncanny dollhouse crime scenes. -
Director Julie Taymor took an unconventional tack in adapting the animated film for the big stage. Even 20 years on, she finds the musical's social themes evolve and resonate with audiences worldwide. -
Colin Warner served 20 years for a murder he didn't commit. A childhood friend fought tirelessly to get him exonerated. The story was featured on This American Lifeand is now the focus of a new film. -
NPR's Michel Martin speaks with actor Liev Schreiber about his new film Chuck, which tells the story of boxer Chuck Wepner, the real-life inspiration for the Rocky film franchise. -
What happens to workers when an industry collapses or a new technology takes off? NPR brings you stories of people adapting to a changing economy. This week: a former cowboy in the wind industry. -
In the early 1970s surrealist icon Salvador Dalí published a lavish cookbook called Les Dîners de Gala. Decades later, the book is being republished for a new and much wider audience.
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In light of a recent rash of "creepy clown" sightings and incidents across the country, some working clowns say the controversy is negatively affecting their business.
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For decades, residents in Santa Fe, N.M., have gathered to burn a massive puppet — but only after stuffing it with symbols of their woes. It's a way to release the past year's sadness and start anew.
