Steve Henn

As our world moves more and more into the digital realm, industries that used to be aligned with art and craft are becoming more scientific. Design in particular is increasingly done by the numbers.

We've come to expect a steady stream of flashy new gadgets from the booming tech sector, but another area of innovation in Silicon Valley is how we work, mainly the structure of our offices and companies. Planet Money tells the story of a company that has no employees, doesn't pay any salaries, but has hundreds of extremely talented workers nonetheless.

Netflix decision to offer unlimited paid leave to new parents grew out of a culture that already offered unlimited vacation. It's part of a plan to attract the most talented employees possible.

Google has begun testing a new self-driving car this summer that is designed to work without a steering wheel. But as the Planet Money team reports, the company's biggest challenge may be convincing Americans to hop inside.

Robots are really bad at many simple human tasks. One possible workaround: Combine the person with the machine.

Machines are surprisingly bad at doing things an average 8-year-old can do with ease.

In a lot of video games, the default character is a man. If you want to play as a woman, you often have to pay.

While many of those messages are tucked away from the prying eyes of the public, it's not clear they are well-protected from hackers.

In the U.S., possessing and selling marijuana is a federal crime, so banks have ignored this emerging market. In Canada, financial institutions are beginning to back corporate cannabis producers.

For legal marijuana businesses, getting a bank account can be a challenge. Many banks are unwilling to do business with them. How do banks decide which marijuana businesses are worth the risk?