The following excerpt was sent out:
Planet Money has named two new co-hosts: Jeff Guo, who was most recently NPR’s inaugural Ishiyama Transparency in Government Legal Fellow, and Nick Fountain, who started as a producer on Planet Money in 2015. Guo and Fountain join co-hosts Kenny Malone, Sarah Gonzalez, Mary Childs, Amanda Aronczyk, Erika Beras, and Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi in leading Planet Money‘s trademark brand of economic coverage blending insight, delight and deeply reported narratives from around the country.
Planet Money‘s Executive Producer Alex Goldmark said of the new additions: “Nick has been a dedicated Planet Money team member for many years as a producer and a behind-the-scenes force in some of our favorite episodes. Jeff has only just started with us but has already been using his deep knowledge of economics and his sense of humor to make our episodes smarter and more joyful. Rarely do we find someone as thrilled to extract wonder from economics as Jeff is.”
“There’s no higher form of journalism than explanatory reporting,” said Guo. “And Planet Money does the job better than anyone, cramming every episode with so much charm, creativity, and delight. I’m looking forward to a lot of capers and nerdy hijinks with this talented bunch. I got into journalism because I just love to learn, and journalism is a license to be professionally curious. To get to do this work alongside smart, joyful colleagues is simply the greatest privilege.”
“I’ve wanted to be a host of Planet Money ever since I first heard it, in college,” said Fountain. “I’ve loved working as a producer here, and am thrilled to continue on as a host, where I’ll get to follow my curiosities and cover the global economy in this crucial moment. Planet Money is one of the most invigorating teams in this industry, and I’m honored to be a member.”
At Planet Money, Fountain has driven the world’s longest yard sale, bought and sold a truckload of Christmas trees, uncovered a global postal conspiracy, run the stairs of Fenway Park with hot dog vendors, figured out exactly why your printer is the worst, and convinced the inventor of self-checkout machines to admit he hates his invention, among other stories. He started as a producer on the show in 2015. Before that, he worked as a producer and director of NPR’s flagship show Morning Edition.
He cut his teeth at a community radio station in Santa Cruz, California, where he went to college. Then he worked at KQED in San Francisco, and WBUR in Boston. He lives in dreamy Ventura, California, with his wife, daughter, and dog.
Guo is an economics reporter and lawyer. He holds bachelor’s degrees in math and economics from MIT and a J.D. from Yale. In his first job out of college, Guo analyzed data and wrote mathematical proofs as a research assistant for a Nobel Prize-winning economist. After that, he was a reporter-researcher for The New Republic, where he published an investigative feature about a dark-money battle over charter schools in Tennessee. In 2014 he joined The Washington Post as an economics and policy reporter. At the Post, he frequently wrote data-driven stories about economic disparities across race, gender, and geography. In 2016, he was the first to point out the correlation between Trump support in the primaries and death rates among white Americans.
