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These are the best new articles, videos, podcasts, and other resources we have found to teach intro to economics and economic decision-making. They bring economics to life by showing students real-life examples and current events.
 

 News Articles

(Listed from most recent to oldest)

Trump's Pentagon name change could cost up to $2 billion | NBC News (Nov. 12, 2025)
There’s no such thing as a free lunch, or a free name change. New signage, letterhead, placards, and website updates all come at a cost for the department, and ultimately the US taxpayer.

Paris has a lottery going for burial plots near Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde | Quartz (Nov. 5, 2025)
What do you do when you have burial plots falling into disrepair in a graveyard of famous Frenchmen? Auction off the plots for a chance to be buried next to your favorite deceased celebrity. Reallocating resources to their highest valued use, one tombstone at a time.

Denver study shows removing parking requirements results in more affordable housing being built |  The Conversation (Oct. 16, 2025)
A Denver study shows the trade-offs of requiring parking in housing construction. Parking spaces have an opportunity cost–more housing units.

China is sending its world-beating auto industry into a tailspin | Reuters (Sept. 17, 2025)
China's industrial policy incentivized the expansion of auto manufacturing, but now capacity far exceeds market demand. That's led to low prices and a "gray market" for new cards being sold as used. Provincial officials encouraged new factories to curry favor with party officials, offering bonuses and real estate deals. Auto manufacturers keep making cars to maintain cash flow and obtain bonuses from authorities, rather than acting to maximize profit.

Image of Capitalism Slips to 54% in U.S. | Gallup (Sept. 8, 2025)
If you’re covering comparative systems, poll your students to see how their perception of socialism and capitalism compare to the national average.

There's a $1 million prize and big names for 2025 US Open mixed doubles. Why are some people upset? |  AP News (Aug. 18, 2025)
Yes, everyone (including top tennis stars) respond to incentives. And those who miss out are predictably upset.

Denmark zoo asks public to donate unwanted small pets or horses to feed captive predators | CBS News (Aug. 5, 2025)
Like everyone else on the planet, zoos face scarce resources. Looking to maximize utility given their budget constraint, one Denmark zoo posted a request for pet donations, chickens, guinea pigs, even horses–to feed whole prey to its predators.

$83 Billion Wasted: Showing Up At The Airport 3 Hours Before Your Flight Is A System Failure No One’s Trying To Fix | View from the Wing (July 30, 2025)
The collective opportunity cost of arriving to the airport 3 hours early is a whopping $83 billion, the equivalent of 3 years of NASA’s annual budget. Time is a valuable resource.

Sam Altman says Meta tried and failed to poach OpenAI's talent with $100M offers | TechCrunch (June 17, 2025)
People respond to incentives. But not all incentives are monetary. According to Sam Altman, Meta's $100 MILLION signing bonus hasn't been enough to persuade top OpenAI talent to jump ship.

Why Mondo Duplantis only improves his world record 1cm at a time despite proving he can go higher | SPORTbible (June 15, 2025)
It's happened again. Mondo Duplantis broke his world record in pole vaulting by 1 cm, to earn $100,000. So far, he's done this 12 times, setting his vault just 1 cm higher than his previous record, to maximize his opportunities to earn prize money.

How State Income Tax Could Alter The Landscape For NHL Free Agency | Puck Prose (May 28, 2025)
NHL salary caps apply to nominal, not take home income. That gives states without an income tax an edge in negotiations, as the effective salary for players is higher than the same nominal amount elsewhere. Just ask the Canadian teams.

As Buy Nothing groups expand across NYC, so does the drama | Gothamist (April 2, 2025)
Even free groups have costs. Creating a giving economy isn’t without its challenges in deciding (without prices) how to allocate scarce resources.

‘Really like Big Macs’: meet the US man who has eaten a record-extending 35,000 burgers | The Guardian (March 26, 2025)
Look no further for a nutritionally-horrifying example of someone defying the law of diminishing marginal returns–by eating 2 Big Macs every day since May 17, 1972. (Hat tip: Brian Lynch)

Why so Many New York City sidewalks are covered in scaffolding | The Hustle (March 14, 2025)
378 miles of scaffolding line the streets of NYC, protecting New Yorkers from construction and deteriorating facades. The average scaffolding stays in place for about 1.5 yrs, but some “sidewalk sheds” have been around for over a decade. Why? Sheds are cheaper than repairs, especially if you’re planning to sell the building and leave the next owner to swallow the costs.

South Korea's policy push springs to life as world's lowest birthrate rises | Reuters (Feb. 26, 2025)
Has South Korea cracked the code to incentivize births? The country has implemented tax breaks, baby bonuses, and more in an effort to raise the current birth rate up to 1.

Man who lost $800 million bitcoin in landfill wants to buy the garbage dump | CNN (Feb. 14, 2025)
Expected value has never been so trashy. How much would you pay for a dump that’s about to close? What if that dump contained a hard drive with $800 million bitcoin?

Japan’s elderly are lonely and struggling. Some women choose to go to jail instead | CNN (Jan. 18, 2025)
Everyone, even the elderly, respond to incentives. And in this case, that means elderly Japanese women are stealing–all to escape loneliness and receive free healthcare–in prison.

Does Daylight Saving Time Actually Save? Research Shows Costs Outweigh Benefits | UConn Today (Oct. 30, 2024)
Policy differences in the adoption of daylight saving time in Indiana allowed this economic researcher to evaluate the costs and benefits of changing our clocks forwards and back. His conclusion-the economic costs likely outweigh the benefits of the biannual clock changes.

Will a curfew ease overtourism in Seoul's historic Hanok Village? | Reuters (Oct. 29, 2024)
Is a curfew sufficiently costly enough to change a tourists cost-benefit analysis of visiting Hanok Village?

Why do people queue up outside luxury stores? |  Financial Times (Oct. 29, 2024)
There’s a perfectly rational explanation as to why tourists are queueing up outside luxury retailers in Paris. The time cost filters out uncommitted shoppers, emptier stores make shoplifting more difficult, and the long queues signal to passersby that the store is highly desirable. And if you’re a non-EU passport holder, prices could effectively be lower than in your home country. Teachers can get free FT access via the FT Schools program.

Red Lobster's new CEO admits it: 'Endless Shrimp' was a disaster | Quartz (Oct. 7, 2024)
TANSTAAFL gets an update-There’s no such thing as FREE SHRIMP.

Here's how much athletes at the Paris Olympics earn for winning medals | CNBC (July 30, 2024)
You don’t just win bragging rights in the Olympics. Depending on your nationality, you might win an apartment, a cow, a car, lifetime public transportation tickets, or over $700,000 in cash.

Hockey star Matt Dawson amputates finger to play at Olympics | BBC (July 26, 2024)
Weighing the expected marginal costs and benefits led Matt Dawson to a surprising decision-amputating his finger to enable him to play in the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Citadel's Ken Griffin buys a stegosaurus for $45 million in a record auction sale | CNBC (July 18, 2024)
If there’s only 1 of something on earth, is it scarce? How do you know what it's worth? In the case of one unscathed stegosaurus fossil, an auction at Sotheby’s revealed the unique find is worth $45 million dollars.

NYC Marathon Runners Could Be Charged a Controversial Bridge Toll | Runner’s World (April 3, 2024)
The MTA says the opportunity cost of marathon runners using the entire Verazzano-Narrows Bridge is $750,000.

YouTubers said they destroyed over 100 VHS tapes of an obscure 1987 movie to increase the value of their final copy. They sold it on eBay for $80,600. | Business Insider (Jan 11, 2023)
It turns out scarcity does increase the value of an old VHS.

No Choice But To See It Through: This Man Is Way Too Deep Into Trying To Explain The Sunk Cost Fallacy To Give Up Now | ClickHole.com (October 4, 2022)
Econ Joke Alert! Have you tried to achieve something so hard that you do not want to give up even if you know that your efforts will be pointless? Even if you are aware of the sunk cost fallacy…

The cost of breastfeeding | Washington Post (May 31, 2022)
Students might think of breastfeeding as “free,” relative to other alternatives for feeding babies, like formula. This article details the opportunity cost of breastfeeding with great graphics, too!

Reminder: Whenever you say “yes” to something, you’re saying “no” to something else. | Ideas.TED.com (September 28, 2021)
I love this article! Hopping on a Zoom call means not hopping on the bike, staying up late means not having a productive morning… This article is a great illustration of opportunity cost and trade-offs… and some food for thought as well.

The opportunity cost of economics education | NY Times (September 1, 2005)
Old but still relevant article. What is the opportunity cost of attending a concert? Find a problem that professional economists were given in the article, ask your students to vote for the right answer, and guess what percentage of economists answered the question correctly.

Videos

Opportunity Cost and Tradeoffs | MRU
Check out our new video on opportunity cost so that you too can make decisions like an economist.

Marginal Thinking and the Sunk Cost Fallacy | MRU
Check out our new video on marginal thinking and sunk costs to flex your econ muscle memory and to ignore sunk costs in your decision-making.

Freakonomics Asks: Does your real estate agent have your best interest in mind? | Freakonomics Asks (July 6, 2016)
What would you do if you were selling your house for $300,000, got an offer for $290,000, and your real estate agent told you that this is the best offer you would ever get? Would you sell today or wait another week? Here is a hint: think about the incentives that drive your real estate agent’s advice…

Freakonomics – Potty Training | Excerpt from Freakonomics the movie (August 29, 2011)
Steven Levitt explains that it’s actually quite difficult to design incentives that can’t be gamed by telling the tale of potty training gone awry.

Opportunity Cost | MRU
Opportunity cost is actually quite difficult to grasp. In fact, highly trained economists don’t always understand the concept! The video uses trade to explore this tricky concept, but you can transfer it to other scenarios with the resource below.
Resource: Worksheet

Introduction to Economics | MRU
Why should we study economics? Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok discuss what’s so great about econ by showing how much incentives shape our lives – from the mundane to life-or-death situations.
Resource: Worksheet

 Podcasts

The case of the serial sinking Spanish ships  | Planet Money NPR
Why did Spanish galleons sailing from the Philippines sink 3 to 8 times as often as other ships at the time? Incentives.

All you can eat economics | NPR
Look no further than the all-you-can-eat buffet for the perfect illustration of intro econ concepts, especially diminishing marginal returns and the sunk cost fallacy.

Why zoos can't buy or sell animals | Planet Money NPR
This podcast is a rerun from 2014, but it’s an interesting look on what it looks like to NOT use prices

Core Principle 1: The Cost-Benefit Principle | Think like an economist (17:59)
Economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers cover cost-benefit analysis with the example of costs and benefits of buying a car. They have several other episodes on intro topics such as opportunity cost and marginal cost.

 Additional Resources

Intro to Economics Unit Plan | MRU
Start your semester off on the right foot with 5 days of lesson plans covering the big ideas of economics.

Sunk Cost or Not? | MRU
Can your students identify which costs you should factor into your decision-making process?

Dollar Auction Game | MRU
Auction off a dollar for more than a dollar, and learn about incentives and sunk costs. A great game for the first day of class.

Multiple-Choice Questions | MRU
Incentives, scarcity, and opportunity cost.

What is Your Time Really Worth? | MRU
Do students value their time? Use the survey and questions to find out.

Incentives Game | MRU
Don’t just tell your students about the power of incentives, show them!

Positive and Normative Questions | MRU
Please share more with us, especially if you have some zany ones.
 

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