Nonfiction Writing Lessons from the Planet Money Podcast

Explaining Complicated Stuff in an Interesting Way

If you write about complicated topics, start listening to nonfiction podcasts—popular ones about science, the economy, or current events. The best podcasters know how to keep an audience’s attention while explaining abstract concepts.

Since the pandemic started, months, I’ve become a loyal, consistent listener of NPR’s Planet Money podcast. Why? Because it does an excellent job of explaining complicated topics in a fun and engaging way.

Recent episodes have covered topics such as:

• What the Federal Reserve is doing (and why it’s a huge deal)
• How those small business loans are getting through (and the people working nonstop to make them happen)
• What it means when the price of oil becomes a negative number

Complicated, abstract topics come alive in a short audio format.

On May 15, the Planet Money team shared their methods in their 1,000th episode. If you write nonfiction, you can learn a lot from this episode.