Robert Smith, co-host of the Business History podcast, is a Professor of Journalism at Columbia University and contributing host of NPR’s Planet Money where he tells stories about how the global economy is affecting our lives. His work on Planet Money has been recognized with most of the major honors in audio journalism including the Peabody, duPont-Columbia, Loeb, and Edward R. Murrow awards. 

Smith helps train the next generation of reporters as Director of the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Economic and Business Journalism. Before joining Planet Money, Smith was the New York Correspondent for NPR. He was responsible for covering all the mayhem and beauty that makes it the greatest city on Earth. Smith reported on the rebuilding of Ground Zero, the stunning landing of US Air flight 1549 in the Hudson River and the dysfunctional world of New York politics.