Samantha Fields

Senior Reporter

SHORT BIO

Samantha Fields is a senior reporter at Marketplace.

She’s particularly interested in how the economy affects people’s everyday lives, and a lot of her coverage focuses on economic inequality, housing and climate change.

She’s also reported and produced for WCAI and The GroundTruth Project, the “NPR Politics Podcast,” NPR’s midday show, “Here & Now,” Vermont Public Radio and Maine Public Radio. She got her start in journalism as a reporter for a community paper, The Wellesley Townsman, and her start in radio as an intern and freelance producer at “The Takeaway” at WNYC. She is a graduate of Wellesley College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Latest Stories (521)

Private equity's role in health care is under increasing scrutiny

Apr 8, 2024
A Senate committee and two federal agencies are taking closer looks at how private equity’s ownership of hospitals and physician staffing companies is affecting health care.
"About 25% of emergency room departments are staffed by private equity-owned physician companies," said Sabrina Howell of NYU’s Stern School of Business.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Nonprofits to receive billions of dollars for clean energy projects

Apr 5, 2024
$20 billion in grants and loans will be forthcoming from the Biden Administration. It's hoped this will attract private investment too.
At least 70% of recent federal funding for "green banks" is going to clean energy projects in low-income and disadvantaged communities.
Mario Tama/Getty Images

Delays in Boeing deliveries bring voluntary unpaid time off for United's pilots

Apr 4, 2024
United and Southwest have also paused hiring because of the delivery delays. Higher airfares could be on the way.
United Airlines has paused its hiring of pilots and is offering pilots voluntary unpaid time off in May due to Boeing aircraft production issues.
Kevin Carter/Getty Images

Report says remote workers are getting little training on best practices

Apr 3, 2024
A consulting firm's report says more than 70% of workers haven't had training on managing remote workers or the best way to do so.
Four years into the pandemic, more than 70% of workers still haven’t gotten training on remote work best practices, a new report says.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

How would interest rate cuts affect your high-yield savings account?

Apr 2, 2024
With the Federal Reserve signaling it plans to cut rates up to three times this year, interest payments, and interest charges, are likely to drop.
While there are upsides for consumers when interest rates come down, high-yield savings accounts will likely offer lower rates too. Above, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

New FTC rule aims to crack down on impersonation scams

Apr 2, 2024
Posing as a bank or other trusted institution to cheat the public will be outlawed and the agency will get new tools to go after scammers.
Scammers often may already have lots of your personal information thanks to data breaches, allowing them to sound more convincing.
Ton Photograph/Getty Images

Why are computer orders holding up so well?

Mar 26, 2024
Consumers replacing devices bought early in the pandemic and enthusiasm for AI capabilities partly account for the healthy figures.
On average, people buy new computers every three years or so, says Janet Tang at AlixPartners.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

Biden administration invests $6 billion in low-carbon industrial production

Mar 25, 2024
The funding aims to cut the cost of cleaner manufacturing in industries like food, paper and chemicals.
Steel production generates a lot of emissions and is hard to decarbonize. Above, training in steel work at an iron workers union local in Dayton, Ohio.
Megan Jelinger/AFP via Getty Images

Protecting yourself from COVID-19 these days is hard. And it comes at a cost.

Mar 20, 2024
Governments and businesses need to invest in ways to prevent transmission, experts say, instead of leaving people on their own.
"We cannot rely on masking forever. We cannot ask people, even immunocompromised people, to mask for the next 100 years," says Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, a clinical epidemiologist.  Above, people with long COVID symptoms sit in on a Senate hearing about the condition.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The costs of banning books

Mar 20, 2024
This week, we’re watching “The ABCs of Book Banning” and looking into the economic impact of book bans for schools and blacklisted authors.
Book bans have nearly doubled in recent years.
Michael Loccisano/Getty Images