ZIP Codes!

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 8 January 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The ZIP code is less like a cold, clinical, ordered list of numbers, and more like a weird overgrown number garden. It started as a way to organize mail after WWII, but now it pops up all over our daily lives. You type it into the machine at the gas station to verify your credit card. You might type it into a rental search website if you're looking for a new apartment. Back in 2013, the ZIP Code contributed about 10 billion dollars a year to the US economy.

On today's show, we turn our attention towards the humble ZIP code. Why was it born? How has it changed the mail? How has it changed the broader world? And... has it gone too far?

This episode was hosted by Sally Helm. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler with help from Willa Rubin. It was edited by Meg Cramer, and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. It was engineered by Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from Money for Couples, a new book and podcast that help you and your partner build and share financial vision.
0:07.8	Discover clear, actionable steps for spending and saving that bring you closer together.
0:13.1	Start your financial future today.
0:15.4	Search Money for Couples wherever you listen.
0:19.2	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:25.2	The other day, I went out into New York City with a mission.
0:30.1	I wanted to travel the length of one entire zip code as fast as I could.
0:37.7	Start the timer.
0:39.4	Okay.
0:40.0	Three, two, one.
0:43.4	Start.
0:44.8	I got into an elevator with one of our producers, Willa, to start our journey from the bottom
0:50.3	to the top of the Empire State Building.
0:53.4	All right, we're passing through a hallway.
0:55.6	Go, go, go, go. We had to run through a couple of hallways, take four separate elevators,
1:01.2	and along the way, we passed by every single address, ending in the numbers 10118. Because this
1:10.5	building, like other big buildings around the city and the country, it has its own zip code.
1:17.3	Another elevator bank.
1:19.0	Welcome to the 86 floor observation deck.
1:22.4	Maybe it's just popped.
1:23.9	Finally, we made it to the top. The 1002 floor, gorgeous views of New York City all around us.
1:31.9	Willa, how long did it take?
	...

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