Adrian Ma
Adrian Ma is co-host of NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money, a show that helps listeners make sense of our ever-changing economy.
Ma covers a wide variety of topics through the lens of economics, business, labor, and the law. One week, he might explain the rise of AI-generated merchandise or the market for human cells. The next, he may explore the impact of banning affirmative action or the blurry legal line between creativity and theft.
His goal is to help people understand the economic forces that shape their lives. At times, that's meant riding along with gig workers, spending days at a struggling restaurant, combing through data to pinpoint which banks aren't lending in Black neighborhoods, or writing an audio drama about inflation.
Background
Ma reported for public radio stations in Boston, Cleveland, and New York City before joining NPR in 2021. He's currently based in Washington D.C.
In recent years, his work has been recognized with a few honors. In 2019, he received his first National Edward R. Murrow Award for a story about the Chinese government buying out an American softball team. In 2021, he received a Public Media Journalists Association Award for coverage of racial justice protests in Boston. In 2022, he received a second National Edward R. Murrow Award for a feature about what it takes to close a restaurant. In 2023, he was part of a team that received a regional Murrow Award for investigating racial disparities in Boston's home lending market. In 2026, The Indicator won Best Business Podcast at The Ambie Awards.
Ma has a law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law and a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.
Contact:
The Indicator's general inbox is indicator@npr.org.
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Summer is great for some sizzling reads and NPR staff have recommendations for romance novels from our Books We Love list.
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NPR's Adrian Ma speaks with Richard Samuels, professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, about Japan's effort to form a new centralized intelligence agency.
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The team at Cineplexity debate the current state of Hollywood epics with the release of Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey.'
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NPR's Adrian Ma speaks with Abby Maxman, President of Oxfam America, about her recent visit to meet internally displaced people in Lebanon amid ongoing war in the region.
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NPR's Adrian Ma speaks with Derek Mallia, professor University of Utah's Department of Atmospheric Sciences, about why wildfire smoke in the northeast has a distinctive smell.
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NPR's Adrian Ma speaks with Telemundo's Jozy Altidore about the Spanish language broadcaster's ability to reach wide audiences with their World Cup coverage, even across language barriers.
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Reporting from ProPublica show that some FCC officials in charge of overseeing the multi-billion dollar deal for Paramount Skydance to acquire Warner Brothers Discover may have a conflict of interest.
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NPR's Stephan Bisaha breaks down how he reports on the economy, looking at the real lives behind numbers.
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Democrats want to tax the rich to cut taxes on worker incomes. Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland explains and a tax policy expert shares his reservations with NPR's Planet Money team.
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The global oil market has supported the U.S. dollar for over 50 years. But the system shows signs of cracking under the Iran war.