About thirty years ago, Yagya Kumar Pradhan woke up to the news that the temple he and his clan used had been broken into. The temple had been ransacked. And someone had stolen two holy Bhairav masks. Yagya says they had been in his family for more than five hundred years – since the 16th century.
Yagya is a kind of Hindu priest for his clan. And he says, these Bhairav masks were very holy. People made offerings to them during Dashaun, a festival held in the fall.
Yagya thought the masks were gone for good. He didn't realize... they were hiding in plain sight.
On today's show: The story of a group of amateur art detectives who use modern tools, subterfuge, and the power of the law to return stolen artifacts to their rightful owners. And we dive into the world of high-end auctions and art museums to ask: Can the art world survive the legacy of cultural theft?
Clarification: This episode has been updated to clarify that the reason the Rubin Museum is shuttering its building is not directly linked to repatriation.
This episode was hosted by Erika Beras and Nick Fountain. It was produced by James Sneed, edited by Jess Jiang, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.
Florida passed in 2023 one of the strictest immigration laws in the country, and now businesses struggle to find workers in several sectors of the economy
Billie Eilish, Fall Out Boy, Nile Rodgers, Cyndi Lauper, Lorde, Sia, Diplo and Chappell Roan are among the signatories of an open letter urging a Senate committee to support the Fans First Act.
More than 7,000 Daimler Truck workers, most of them in North Carolina, had threatened to go on strike. The UAW says the workers will get raises of at least 25% plus cost of living allowances.
The Los Angeles-bound flight was forced to make an emergency return to New York's JFK airport after an emergency slide came apart from the Boeing 767, the airline said.
We wrap up our series on the economics of the video game industry with a triple roundup. Today, how the new ban on noncompete contracts could affect the gaming industry, whether young men are slacking off work to play games and the ever-controversial world of loot boxes.
Related episodes: Forever games: the economics of the live service model (Apple / Spotify) Designing for disability: how video games become more accessible (Apple / Spotify) The boom and bust of esports (Apple / Spotify) Work. Crunch. Repeat: Why gaming demands so much of its employees (Apple / Spotify)
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
The U.S. will reinstate Obama-era regulations for internet service providers that promise fast, reliable and fair internet speeds for all consumers. What happened when those rules were taken away?
Employees at video game companies are known for working long hours to meet product launch deadlines. This pressure, known in the industry as crunch, has only gotten more intense as games have grown more complex. Mounting layoffs in the growing industry have only made things worse on the labor front, inspiring some workers to take matters into their own hands.
Today, in the next installment of our series on the business of video games, we speak to several workers in the industry about their experiences with crunch and why they feel unionization is the key to preserving their careers.
Related episodes: Forever games: the economics of the live service model (Apple / Spotify) Designing for disability: how video games become more accessible (Apple / Spotify) The boom and bust of esports (Apple / Spotify)
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
The Micron project comes after the White House has announced massive investments for Intel, TSMC and Samsung in recent weeks using funds from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act.
More than five years after two 737 MAX crashes killed 346 people, families of the victims are still pushing the Justice Department to hold Boeing accountable. They're frustrated by the response.
In a complaint to the airline, Pamela Hill-Veal, a retired judge, says that while on a Chicago-to-Phoenix flight, a flight attendant berated her and accused her of slamming the lavatory door.