Planet Money explains the business of oil: NPR’s Planet Money is putting together an excellent series explaining the nitty-gritty details of oil business. “How many of us have actually seen crude oil? How does it get from ground to gas tank? And who are the people along the way turning thick black crude into light, clear, gasoline.” In a five-part series, the Planet Money team is looking to explain some of the many operations that make the oil business run, going from buying actual oil barrels, to setting the price, refining the oil and eventually selling it. In episode one (runtime 18:20), they start-off from a rural oil field in Kansas to buy oil in cash. The team heads to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to see how the price of oil is set in episode two (runtime 22:25) and actually talk to real-life oil speculators. Episode 3 of the series talks about how fracking changed the game entirely and talk to the oil engineer who “unlocked the secret to making fracking work like it does today” (runtime 27:00)