The continent nobody owns & everyone benefits from (Summer School)

Planet Money's Summer School finale travels to Antarctica, starting with a look back at NPR's scrappy 1979 South Pole reporting by Ira Flatow that put the network on the map. A former McMurdo Station store manager explains why normal retail economics break down when you're on an uninhabited continent. An economist argues we should measure Antarctica's value not as real estate, but by its ecosystem services — the environmental benefits it provides to the entire planet. The episode closes by sharing listeners' best economic ideas for making life better.