Business & Economy

Apple's newest product is a screen on your wrist, with its own operating system and software. Tech correspondent Alexis Madrigal calls the Apple Watch "a powerful extension of what your phone can do".

Charles and David Koch have spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to bring their libertarian views into the mainstream. In a new book, Daniel Schulman looks at the roots of their ideology.

Levine's work often reflected the hardships and dignity of manual labor. He died Feb. 14 in Fresno, Calif. He was 87. In 1991, Levine spoke with Terry Gross about his collection What Work Is.

The film is based on a true story about the '80s strike Margaret Thatcher vowed to break. It's full of the Britain's best actors, and nearly every line makes you cackle or puts a lump in your throat.

On the 25th anniversary of Tiananmen Square, author Evan Osnos discusses his new book that explores the tensions between China's economic expansion and its commitment to authoritarian rule.

"The stock market is rigged," Michael Lewis says. In his new book Flash Boys, he describes how computerized transactions known as high-frequency trading are creating an uneven playing field.

Fresh Air tech contributor Alexis Madrigal counted 76,897 microgenres on the online streaming and DVD rental service, many of which are bizarrely personalized (Violent Action Thrillers Starring Bruce Willis, Tearjerkers From The 1970s). He says the company "knows you."

Two new shows from Netflix -- House of Cards and Orange is the New Black -- changed the TV landscape, but Bianculli's top pick for 2013 is AMC's Breaking Bad. "It ended as brilliantly as it began," he says. "I'm so grateful for that series."

Leaked internal documents reveal new insights into the goals and finances of the America Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC brings together stat legislators and representatives of corporations to develop model bills that lawmakers try to pass in their state legislatures.

In 2006, Oregon successfully made pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient of meth, a prescription drug. Since then, Mother Jones' Jonah Engle reports, 24 states have tried to follow suit -- and 23 have failed. Engle attributes those failures to pharmaceutical companies' massive lobbying efforts.

The new mobile operating system's design acknowledges that we no longer need physical analogs -- like a camera shutter or old-timey microphone -- to describe an app's function.

Show creator Mitch Hurwitz advises against binge-watching the new season, but TV critic David Bianculli begs to differ. He says hidden identities and perplexing mysteries unfold slowly, and watching everything in one sitting helps make those connections ever clearer.

The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was a sweeping legislative package designed to prevent another financial collapse. Journalist Gary Rivlin says passing the bill was just a first step in a long road to real reform, and the financial system is as vulnerable to disaster it was in 2008.

Seth Mnookin, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, describes live-tweeting the events at MIT.

In a new book, Washington Post economics writer Neil Irwin looks at an elite group of policymakers from around the word who manage the money supply, and explains how money can come from -- and disappear into -- thin air based on the decisions of these influential men and women.

It used to be that TV's biggest annual event was the arrival of the fall season, but these days excellent shows premiere year-round. This spring, the return of AMC's stylish drama is the best reason to celebrate the season: The two-hour premiere delivers on the show's highest ambitions.

The rich and good-looking get a taste of life among the 99 percent in Jonathan Dee's novels. In A Thousand Pardons, his protagonist, Helen Armstead, finds a secret talent for getting powerful men to apologize after her marriage falls apart and she is forced to enter the working world.

From food scientists who study the human palate to maximize consumer bliss, to marketing campaigns that target teens to hook them for life on a brand, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Moss' new books goes inside the world of processed, packaged foods.

Senior analyst for the Violence Policy Center Tom Diaz says one of the weapons found at the site of the Newtown, Conn. shooting was a variant of a type of gun developed for troops in Vietnam.